Pirates on the Map — All Three Levels (Elementary, Middle and High School)

Sixteen true pirate and privateer stories, from Barbarossa to Jean Lafitte, at all three reading levels: Elementary (128 pages), Middle School (132 pages), High School (149 pages). The same voyages, the same maps, three depths of reading — so a mixed class, or brothers and sisters, can work on the same story together.

Privateer or pirate? It depends who you ask: every unit says who gave permission and who called them a pirate. Most of what people “know” about pirates comes from one 1724 book and from films, so every unit also asks what is fact and what is legend. Slavery and violence are named where they were part of the history, without detail.

Each level has a route map, key words, a reading, multiple choice, a fill-in-the-blank with a mixed word bank, a timeline and think-and-write questions in every unit; middle and high school add a primary source, and high school an essay.

Multiple choice done fairly: the right letters are spread evenly over A, B, C and D, never three of one letter in a row, and the right answer is not usually the longest one, so guessing patterns don’t work. The word banks are mixed: some words don’t fit anywhere.

Every unit matches a free map tour on getridoftheteacher.com — a little ship sails the real route on a satellite map and tells the story — and the same questions are free as online quizzes at getridoftheteacher.com/history-quiz. Watch, then work.

Printable PDF, US Letter, answer key at the back. Instant download. Print and copy as often as you like for one home or one classroom.

Standards: Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework (2018): practice standards 1 and 3–6 (sources, point of view, evidence), 4.T3.1, WHI.T5.1–4; England’s National Curriculum (Britain 1509–1745, sources and interpretations).