The Columbian Exchange: A Positive or Negative Legacy?

I’m Spencer Charrington, and this is my lesson on the Columbian Exchange, the movement of plants, animals, crops, people, cultures and diseases between the Americas and the rest of the world after 1492. Students read five primary sources and take a position on one question: did the Columbian Exchange leave a positive or a negative legacy? Then they plan an argumentative essay to back it up.

What students learn

• How to identify the author, date, purpose and possible bias of a primary source
• The historical context of the Columbian Exchange
• How to write a thesis they can defend with evidence
• How to organize evidence from documents into two or three arguments

How the lesson runs

1. Background. We define the Columbian Exchange and set the scene before 1492.
2. Five primary sources. Students work through each document in a chart: Christopher Columbus’s journal from October 1492, William Bradford of Plymouth Colony on smallpox around 1634, the English botanist William Hughes on potatoes, watermelon and maize in 1672, Bernal Díaz del Castillo on the great market at Tlatelolco, and the Brooks slave ship diagram from 1788.
3. Thinking about bias. For each source students ask who made it, why, and whether it points to a positive or negative reading.
4. Taking a side. Students pick a position based on the evidence they gathered.
5. Planning the essay. Students plan an introduction with context and a thesis, then body paragraphs built on a sentence starter: “Document ___ proves that (cause) had an (effect) because…”. They add outside knowledge and finish with why their argument matters.