Early Jamestown: Why did so many settlers die?

During the week of Oct. 20th-24th all the History Classes worked on a packet about the first colony of Jamestown, Virginia. 

In class for 5 days the students learned how to analyze primary and secondary source documents by answering questions.  Each document was analyzed as a class with discussion between the students and the teacher.

The reason for analyzing each document together is to teach the students how to look at historical information and develop a well written five paragraph essay about a historical event.

This assignment was very detailed and took alot of time during class. 

On Monday, October 27th and Tuesday, October 28th, students will be using class time to complete a writing workshop.  The final outcome is the five paragraph essay that is well developed that shows students put thought into the assignment by brainstorming(we did that in class together), shows evidence (from the documents) about why so many people in this early English settlement died, and a clear argument. 

This essay is due for most classes on Wednesday, October 29th.  For students in classes: 1, 2, and 4.  The due date is Friday, October 31st for students in periods: 6 and 7.  The students know when it is due and because of the amount of time in class that the students were allowed to work on this assignment I will NOT BE TAKING ANY LATE PAPERS.

Here are the requirements for the paper: It must be at least 5 paragraphs, typed, the font should be Times New Roman, and the font size is 12. 

The students have already been told that if there is a problem (ex. no computer at home, no internet access to email assignment to teacher if printer is broken, or printer is broken, etc.) the students should tell me immediately. 

Credit: This assignment is worth a test grade of 100 points.  Students are also receiving a 50 point grade for keeping up with their Jamestown packet which includes the background essay, the brainstorming (pre-bucketing) page, the documents A, B, C, D, and E, the Document Analysis Sheets, and the guided essay (which is a very detailed outline as to what the paper should be about).

If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to contact me.