Navigating Piracy: The World of the Whydah

Complete curriculum guide — a five-week, project-based, primary-source unit on maps, the Atlantic world, and the people who chose piracy in 1717. LEAP summer enrichment · Collins Middle School, Salem MA · July 6 – August 6, 2026.

How to use this guide

This is the whole unit in one printable document: the driving question and key questions, the five-week calendar, every session in detail (deliverable, activities, timed flow, vocabulary, discussion questions, misconceptions, and an exit check), the final-project menu, and the standards alignment. It mirrors the live dashboard; printable student worksheets live in the handouts packet.

Program facts: 13 instructional sessions + 3 confirmed field trips + 1 in-class Synthesis Studio + 2 build days + public Showcase · 2 sections × ~20 students · 90 min/section · No grades · Voyage Journal binders + Final project (12 formats)

The big picture

Driving question. Why would a person choose piracy in 1717 — and how would they want you to tell their story?

Four key supporting questions (one per week). 1. Maps & power · 2. Atlantic trade · 3. Geography & choice · 4. Whose stories

Navigation & GIS skills (Week 1 spine). read a map as an argument · use 1717 tools (compass, backstaff, dead reckoning) · find latitude and explain why longitude was unsolved · read & write coordinates · georeference an old map and use a grid (the 1717→1984 wreck story = GIS) · projections and their trade-offs.

How students are assessed

This is a no-grades summer enrichment program, so assessment is built on evidence of thinking, not points:

The Voyage Journal — a binder (physical or digital) with one deliverable per session: maps, analysis cards, charts, T-charts, reflections. It is the running record of the unit and the evidence bank for the final project.
The final project — each student picks one person from the story and one format (see the menu below) to tell that person's story the way they would want it told. It must cite 3–4 Voyage Journal entries as source material. One-page rubric (works across all formats) is in the handouts packet.
The public Showcase (Thu Aug 6) — projects presented to families, staff, and the public; Journals displayed gallery-walk style.

Five-week calendar

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Week 1 Jul 6–9	Mon · S1 Launching the Voyage	Tue · S2 What Is a Map?	Wed · S3 Reading the 1719 World Map	Thu · S4 My Maps + Adopt a Ship
Week 2 Jul 13–16	Mon · S5 A Slave Ship Is Built (Atlantic World 1715)	Tue · S6 The Middle Passage	Wed · FT1 Real Pirates + Salem Maritime (rotation)	Thu · FT2 Kayaking (life-at-sea day)
Week 3 Jul 20–23	Mon · S9 The Vote — Who Chose Piracy?	Tue · S10 Sign the Articles	Wed · S11 The Wreck (+ survivors coda)	Thu · FT3 Georges Island / Boston Harbor Islands
Week 4 Jul 27–30	Mon · S13 Lost and Found (1717→1984)	Tue · S14 Where Ships Squeeze Through (chokepoints)	Wed · S15 Salem Then and Now	Thu · S16 My Final Project (the pitch)
Week 5 Aug 3–6	Mon · S17 Synthesis Studio (in-class)	Tue · BUILD Project Work Day 1	Wed · BUILD Project Work Day 2 (peer review)	Thu · SHOW PUBLIC SHOWCASE

Three confirmed field trips anchor the unit: FT1 — Real Pirates Salem + Salem Maritime NHS rotation (Wed Jul 15, sections swap over lunch); FT2 — Kayaking (Thu Jul 16, with a ~10-min "life at sea" pre-paddle brief); FT3 — Georges Island / Boston Harbor Islands (Thu Jul 23, the Week-3 capstone trip). There is no 2nd museum trip — Mon Aug 3 is the in-class Synthesis Studio. Numbering: S7–S8 belong to the Week-2 trip days, and S12 is retired (FT3 takes its Thursday slot; the mock-trial role-play was cut) — hence 13 instructional sessions.

The unit, session by session

Each session runs the same chunked 90-minute structure (Do-Now · mini-lesson · build · Journal · share). “Watch for” flags the misconception students arrive with, plus the correction.

Week 1 — Maps & Power · KSQ1: How do people use maps and navigation to exercise power, in 1717 and today?

Launching the Voyage

What Is a Map?

Reading the 1719 World Map

My Maps + Navigation Tools + Adopt a Ship

Week 2 — The Triangle Trade · KSQ2: What do Atlantic trade routes tell us about who benefits and who suffers, then and now?

A Slave Ship Is Built — The Atlantic World in 1715

The Middle Passage

FT1 — Real Pirates Salem + Salem Maritime NHS (rotation, Wed Jul 15)

FT2 — Kayaking, the life-at-sea day (Thu Jul 16; ship-types pre-paddle brief)

Week 3 — Life as a Pirate · KSQ3: How does geography shape choices — from 1717 piracy to modern chokepoints like Suez, Malacca, and Panama?

The Vote — Who Chose Piracy?

Sign the Articles

The Wreck (with the what-happened-to-the-survivors coda)

FT3 — Georges Island / Boston Harbor Islands (Thu Jul 23)

Week 4 — Modern Oceans · KSQ3 → KSQ4: Whose stories get mapped and whose get buried — across time?

Lost and Found (1717 → 1984)

Where Ships Squeeze Through — Then and Now

Salem Then and Now

My Final Project — Choosing Your Perspective

Week 5 — Synthesis, Build & Showcase

Synthesis Studio (in-class — replaces the earlier planned 2nd museum trip)

Project Work Day 1

Project Work Day 2 (Peer Review + Polish)

Public Showcase (Collins MS)

Final project — twelve ways to tell it

Students choose one person and one format; the Journal is the evidence, the project is the argument. Pick one — or pitch your own.

Format	What it looks like
Google My Maps story map	8–10 annotated locations along the Whydah's journey, told in your chosen voice
Google Slides presentation	10–12 chapter-structured slides with images, quotes, evidence
Live performance	3–5 minute monologue or two-person scene at the Showcase
Illustrated narrative poster	Visual timeline or map with embedded written reflection
Character flip book	Handmade 8-page folded flip book written in your character's voice (starter pages in the binder)
Letter sequence	Correspondence in character — 4–6 letters tracking a perspective
Museum exhibit board	Artifacts and labels curating a single perspective's story
Graphic novel spread	4–6 illustrated panels telling a scene from a perspective
Newspaper front page	1717 broadside-style reporting on the Whydah or a capture
Google Earth narrated tour	Screen-recorded flythrough with voiceover in character
Ballad or sea shanty	Original song lyrics in period style, optionally performed live
Your own pitch	Anything else — bring the idea to Max for the green light

Standards alignment & access for every learner

Massachusetts Curriculum Framework alignment

This is a project-based, primary-source inquiry for a mixed middle-grade summer cohort, so its strongest alignment is to the grade-spanning Standards for History and Social Science Practice (2018 HSS Framework) and the Literacy in History/Social Science and grade‑8 ELA standards (2017 ELA & Literacy Framework). Standard text below is quoted from those frameworks; the content lives mainly in the Grade 5 U.S. History course and high-school U.S. History I (see content connections). Confirm exact wording against the official PDFs before publishing.

History & Social Science Practice Standards (2018 Framework, grades Pre-K–12)

Practice standard	Where it lives in this unit
1. Demonstrate civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.	The driving question itself — weighing why a person would choose piracy in 1717, and how they would want their story told.
2. Develop focused questions or problem statements and conduct inquiries.	The weekly supporting questions; the final-project perspective pitch (S16) where students frame their own line of inquiry.
3. Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources.	The Voyage Journal — 16+ entries cross-referencing depositions, Mather’s sermon, Southack’s 1717 chart, and the artifact record.
4. Analyze the purpose and point of view of each source.	S3 map analysis (whose perspective Moll’s 1719 map argues); the S11 real-vs-made-up source work; the perspective-driven final project.
5. Evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of each source.	The confidence-tier method (🟢 Solid / 🟡 Contested / 🔴 Mythologized) and the “verify before teaching” discipline applied across the unit.
6. Argue or explain conclusions, using valid reasoning and evidence.	The push/pull causal map; the final project, which must cite 3–4 Journal entries as evidence.
7. Determine next steps and take informed action, as appropriate.	The S11 land acknowledgment for Punonakanit Wampanoag territory; the public Showcase; the closing “whose story still needs telling?”

Literacy in History/Social Science (2017 Framework, grades 6–8 — filed as RCA-H / WCA)

Code	Standard (abridged)	Unit evidence
RH.6‑8.1	Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.	Deposition source-analysis activity; artifact-analysis cards (FT1 museum trip + S17 Synthesis Studio).
RH.6‑8.2	Determine the central ideas of a source; provide an accurate summary distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.	Summaries of Mather’s execution sermon and the pre-screened Equiano excerpt (S6).
RH.6‑8.6	Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose.	S3 close read of Moll’s 1719 map; Roberts’ Ship’s Articles read as the crew’s own framing (S10).
RH.6‑8.7	Integrate visual information (charts, maps, photographs) with other information in print and digital texts.	1717-vs-2026 map and MarineTraffic overlays (S5, S14); the 1724 engravings used as visual primary sources.
RH.6‑8.8	Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.	The confidence-tier sorting of every claim; the S11 “which story is real?” sorting of eyewitness fact from invention.
WHST.6‑8.1	Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.	The push/pull argument; the final project’s evidence-backed thesis.
WHST.6‑8.2	Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events.	The story-map and narrative final-project options built from the Journal.
WHST.6‑8.7	Conduct short research projects, drawing on several sources and generating further focused questions.	The weekly Journal inquiries; the S16 perspective-and-format pitch.
WHST.6‑8.8	Gather information from multiple sources; assess credibility; quote or paraphrase and cite without plagiarism.	The Sources & Bibliography work; the requirement to cite Journal entries in the final project.
WHST.6‑8.9	Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.	Every Journal entry is tied back to the source it came from.

Grade 8 ELA anchor standards (2017 Framework — for the rising-8 cohort)

Code	Standard (abridged)	Unit evidence
RI.8.1	Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis, including inferences.	The deposition source-analysis (the survivors’ own words).
RI.8.6	Determine an author’s point of view or purpose; analyze how the author responds to conflicting evidence.	S11 eyewitness accounts vs. mythologized retellings (the real-vs-made-up Bellamy stories).
RI.8.9	Analyze two or more texts with conflicting information; identify where they disagree on fact or interpretation.	The 367→312 captives figure vs. Wikipedia’s ~500; Williams’ uncertain fate; the “buried treasure” reality.
W.8.3	Write narratives to develop experiences or events with effective technique and well-structured sequences.	The narrative and performance final-project formats.
W.8.7	Conduct short research projects to answer a question, generating further focused questions.	The final-project research drawn from the Journal.
SL.8.4	Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points with relevant evidence and sound reasoning.	The public Showcase presentations.

History & Social Science content connections

In the Massachusetts sequence the Atlantic-World content this unit teaches — European exploration, colonial settlement, the transatlantic slave trade, and the colonial New England maritime economy — is formally housed in the Grade 5 course, “United States History to the Civil War and the Modern Civil Rights Movement,” and revisited in depth in high-school United States History I. Grade 8 in the framework is the Civics course (U.S. & Massachusetts government), so for a middle-grade audience we align content by topic and carry the rigor through the Practice and Literacy standards above.

The unit also supports the grade-8 Civics emphasis on taking informed action — through the land acknowledgment, the public Showcase, and the repeated question of whose story still needs telling.

Verify against the official frameworks

MA DESE — current curriculum frameworks
2017 ELA & Literacy Framework (PDF) — RH/WHST 6–8 literacy standards; grade-8 RI, W, SL.
2018 History & Social Science Framework (PDF) — the seven Practice Standards; Grade 5 and U.S. History I content.

Standard wording here is quoted/abridged from the frameworks above; confirm exact phrasing and codes against the source PDFs before printing for an evaluation.

Teaching frameworks for sensitive content

Facing History & Ourselves — Middle Passage teaching guide (search facinghistory.org)
Learning for Justice — Teaching Hard History: American Slavery (learningforjustice.org)
Smithsonian NMAAHC — teacher resources on the Middle Passage (nmaahc.si.edu)

Access for every learner — UDL & differentiation

This is a summer enrichment program, not a graded course — so the design leans hard on choice, multiple ways in, and multiple ways to show understanding. Below is how the unit already meets the three Universal Design for Learning principles, plus targeted supports for English learners and students with disabilities. (The 2018 HSS and 2017 ELA frameworks each carry an appendix, Application of the Standards for English Learners and Students with Disabilities.)

Universal Design for Learning — built into the unit

UDL principle	How this unit delivers it
Multiple means of engagement (the “why”)	The driving question is a real moral dilemma, not a worksheet. Students choose their own historical perspective and adopt a live ship to follow. No grades lowers the stakes for risk-taking; the 3D Navigator game offers a hands-on way in.
Multiple means of representation (the “what”)	Every concept appears in more than one mode — maps, period engravings, artifacts, live data windows, and pre-screened text excerpts. The 🟢/🟡/🔴 confidence tiers make source reliability visible. Key vocabulary is surfaced in every session.
Multiple means of action & expression (the “how”)	The 12-format final-project menu is the centerpiece — students demonstrate understanding through a map, a performance, art, a song, or writing. The Voyage Journal is kept physical or digital, student’s choice.

Supports for English learners

Visual-first entry. Maps, artifacts, and images carry the content before the text does, so meaning isn’t gated on English fluency.
Pre-screened, excerpted sources. Primary texts (Equiano, Mather, the depositions) are trimmed and paired with context rather than handed over raw.
Vocabulary made explicit. Each session names its key terms; a running glossary lives in the dashboard.
Sentence frames & structured talk. The Do-Now, structured peer review, and closing circles give predictable language scaffolds and partner support.
Expression without an English-essay bottleneck. The format menu lets an EL show deep understanding through a map, performance, art, or audio.

Supports for students with disabilities

Predictable structure. Every session runs the same chunked 90-minute flow (Do-Now · mini-lesson · build · share), which supports executive-function and attention needs.
Choice of modality. The format menu and the physical-or-digital Journal remove single-channel barriers for reading-, writing-, or motor-related challenges.
Hands-on, tactile work. The paper quadrant, grid-archaeology dig, and model-building serve kinesthetic learners and give a concrete anchor for abstract ideas.
Built-in support time. Build days include drop-in help stations (tech, writing, performance) and 5-minute teacher conferences.
Flexible grouping. Pair and small-group structures let students lean on peers and on staff as needed.

Generated from the live unit plan in the project dashboard. Confirm standard wording against the official Massachusetts framework PDFs before printing for a formal evaluation.