Inquiry Lesson The Causes of Westward Expansion Claire Johnson Context: During this lessons students will be exploring the reasons for westward expansion. The class is a 7 th grade American history class that begins with Reconstruction and goes up to the present. The class is 57 minutes long. The students will have already had units on modern America, geography, Reconstruction, racial segregation, and will have lessons on westward expansion. They will be familiar with some of the themes addressed in the lesson. The topic of westward expansion is part of their standards and therefore appropriate for their grade level. Some of the resources have been adapted to adjust to the reading level of the students and the time constraints of the class. Instructional model: It is important that our students not only know the important facts of history but how to do history. Students need to know how to analyze documents and research conclusions. Inquiry lessons allow students to think like historians, without going out and doing a ton of research. The purpose of inquiry lessons is to have students read, interpret and develop questions based on historical documents. With an inquiry lesson, you pose a question to students. Then have the students examine historical documents and reach a conclusion to the question you posed earlier. A good inquiry lesson is based on a historical question that has multiple answers. The inquiry question cannot have one answer like “What year was Lexington and Concord?” There were many reasons that people left for the West following the Civil War. Because there are multiple and competing answers to the question “Why did westward expansion occur after the Civil War?” this lessons works well with an inquiry model. There are many primary source documents that students can interpret that will lead them to discover the multiple causes of westward expansion in the 19 th century. Objectives: By analyzing 5 document sets, students will be able to identify all 5 causes for westward expansion after the Civil War by the end of class by writing them on their exit ticket and detailing at least 3 of these causes in “letter home.” I. This lesson will satisfy SOL USII.4a “Why did westward expansion occur after the Civil War.” The SOL lists the reasons as opportunity for land, the Transcontinental Railroad, possibility of gold and silver, desire for adventure, desire for new beginning for former slaves. Each document set contains documents that show those reasons for westward expansion. II. This lesson aligns with the SOL skills object USII. 1a: “analyze and interpret primary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1865 to the present.” III. Additionally, the Do Now activity addresses the SOL skills standard USII 1f “analyze and interpret maps” by having students compare maps before and after the Civil War. IV. The NCSS require that students “evaluate sources and use evidence” to draw conclusions. With this lesson, students are using pre-determined evidence to draw conclusions about westward expansion. The C3 notes that, “by focusing on inquiry, the framework emphasizes the disciplinary concepts and practices that support students as they develop the capacity to know, analyze, explain and argue about interdisciplinary challenges to our social world” (C3, 6). With this lesson students are using inquiry to analyze and explain the causes of westward expansion. The documents that explain westward expansion are themselves interdisciplinary. The Homestead Act and Railway Act were public policies that encouraged expansion. Racism in the South and communities in the West were social reasons for westward movement. The opportunity for wealth in the West and the rising prices in East were economic push and pull factors that contributed to westward expansion. Assessment: Formative assessment: During the lesson, students will be answering questions on the documents with their seatmate. At the end of each document set the students write what cause of westward expansion was explained with that document set. The teacher should walk around during this part of the lesson to ensure that the groups are coming to the correct conclusions. After they have gone through all of the document sets, students will write the 5 causes that people moved west after the Civil War.
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Inquiry Lesson The Causes of Westward Expansion Claire Johnson Context: During this lessons students will be exploring the reasons for westward expansion. The class is a 7th grade American history class that begins with Reconstruction and goes up to the present. The class is 57 minutes long. The students will have already had units on modern America, geography, Reconstruction, racial segregation, and will have lessons on westward expansion. They will be familiar with some of the themes addressed in the lesson. The topic of westward expansion is part of their standards and therefore appropriate for their grade level. Some of the resources have been adapted to adjust to the reading level of the students and the time constraints of the class. Instructional model: It is important that our students not only know the important facts of history but how to do history. Students need to know how to analyze documents and research conclusions. Inquiry lessons allow students to think like historians, without going out and doing a ton of research. The purpose of inquiry lessons is to have students read, interpret and develop questions based on historical documents. With an inquiry lesson, you pose a question to students. Then have the students examine historical documents and reach a conclusion to the question you posed earlier. A good inquiry lesson is based on a historical question that has multiple answers. The inquiry question cannot have one answer like “What year was Lexington and Concord?” There were many reasons that people left for the West following the Civil War. Because there are multiple and competing answers to the question “Why did westward expansion occur after the Civil War?” this lessons works well with an inquiry model. There are many primary source documents that students can interpret that will lead them to discover the multiple causes of westward expansion in the 19th century. Objectives: By analyzing 5 document sets, students will be able to identify all 5 causes for westward expansion after the Civil War by the end of class by writing them on their exit ticket and detailing at least 3 of these causes in “letter home.”
I. This lesson will satisfy SOL USII.4a “Why did westward expansion occur after the Civil War.” The SOL lists the reasons as opportunity for land, the Transcontinental Railroad, possibility of gold and silver, desire for adventure, desire for new beginning for former slaves. Each document set contains documents that show those reasons for westward expansion.
II. This lesson aligns with the SOL skills object USII. 1a: “analyze and interpret primary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1865 to the present.”
III. Additionally, the Do Now activity addresses the SOL skills standard USII 1f “analyze and interpret maps” by having students compare maps before and after the Civil War.
IV. The NCSS require that students “evaluate sources and use evidence” to draw conclusions. With this lesson, students are using pre-determined evidence to draw conclusions about westward expansion. The C3 notes that, “by focusing on inquiry, the framework emphasizes the disciplinary concepts and practices that support students as they develop the capacity to know, analyze, explain and argue about interdisciplinary challenges to our social world” (C3, 6). With this lesson students are using inquiry to analyze and explain the causes of westward expansion. The documents that explain westward expansion are themselves interdisciplinary. The Homestead Act and Railway Act were public policies that encouraged expansion. Racism in the South and communities in the West were social reasons for westward movement. The opportunity for wealth in the West and the rising prices in East were economic push and pull factors that contributed to westward expansion.
Assessment: Formative assessment: During the lesson, students will be answering questions on the documents with their seatmate. At the end of each document set the students write what cause of westward expansion was explained with that document set. The teacher should walk around during this part of the lesson to ensure that the groups are coming to the correct conclusions. After they have gone through all of the document sets, students will write the 5 causes that people moved west after the Civil War.
Summative assessments: For the final piece of the lesson students will have two options. Students can either write a letter home pretending they are a 19th century American who moved west after the Civil War. They will explain to their family in the letter why they went west. Or students can create a poster to encourage Americans to move west. Whether they choose the letter or the post students must include at least two causes for going west. These will be turned into the teacher for a grade and completion of this task will be a participation grade. What is not finished in class will be completed as homework. If many students still fail to understand the causes, then I will have a mini-lesson on the causes the following day. If only a few could not identify the causes in their letter, then I will meet with them during advisory to clarify the misunderstandings. Students are allowed to use their graphic organizers while writing their letter. They will not be graded on spelling, content only. Content and Instructional Strategies:
1. Hook: When students enter the room, have the two maps projected on the board (via power point) • Have the following prompt written on the board: “Compare these two maps. Why do you think
so many people migrated west after the Civil War” • Students will write these responses in their weekly Do No Chart. (They already have these in
their binder and will know exactly what you are talking about). • After giving them a few minutes, have students raise their hand and give their suggestions. Write
these potential suggestions on the board and tell them we will revisit this at the end. 2. Explain to students that they will be answering the question (why people migrated west after the Civil
War) by looking at historical documents. With their seatmates, students will look at a set of documents and answering questions for each document. There are 5 stations of documents. Each document is labeled with its station number and its document letter. The letter on each document will guide students to the appropriate questions for that document.
3. Before letting the students begin, the teacher will model how the process works as a whole class. Give students the graphic organizer and direct them the questions for Station 3. Using a project, project Station 3, Document A. Look at the image and answer the corresponding questions. Repeat this process for Document B and Document C of Station 3. As a class identify which reasons for westward is explained through Station 3. (Answer: Adventure) This will take about 15 minutes
4. Give students about 5-7 minutes with each document set. Then rotate the document sets so that all seat pairs are looking at a new set of documents. Do this until all the groups have looked at all the document sets. This should take about 30 minutes. As students are filling this out, the teacher and the paraprofessional should monitor that students are getting the correct information from the primary source documents.
5. Once they have gone through all the document sets, point them to the section on their graphic organizer “Bringing it all together.” Students will list the 5 causes of westward expansion after the Civil War. 5 minutes
6. After reviewing the graphic organizer as a class, students will be given a piece of aged paper. Students will either write a letter home explaining why they moved to the west or create a poster to encourage people to move west. If time allows this will be an in class activity but if not than students can complete the letter as homework and return it to class tomorrow. After all the letters/posters have been submitted they will be hung in the classroom.
Resources:
1. Each station has their own set of primary resources a. All of the primary source documents have their title and date written on them by the teacher b. All of the set of documents are labeled by group number and have a document letter. c. There are two sets of the documents to accommodate all of the students.
2. Do Now’s are completed on their weekly do now sheet a. The maps that the students will compare are attached below.
3. Hand out the graphic organizers
4. Groups are determined by their seat partners (Students know their assigned seats) 5. “Old fashion” paper is regular printer paper stained with tea.
Differentiation: Each station has primary sources in a variety of mediums. There are pictures, paintings, legal documents, and newspaper articles. Each station represents one of the causes for westward expansion and each station has a variety of source types so that students of all learning styles and abilities can access the information. The paraprofessional, teacher and student teacher will assists all students at each station. For the assessments students will have an option to write a letter or design a poster. This allows the students to pick the task that best highlights their strengths. For the documents with dense reading, I have highlighted the important information. This is to help slow or struggling readers find the key information. Those who want to explore the whole document will be able to read as much as they would like. Accommodations: Many of our students are allowed extra time on assignments and assessments. The paraprofessional will work closely with the students who have IEP concerns. Students who are allowed extended time will be given an extra day to complete their letter or poster. Pre-reflection: Overall I am very excited to deliver this lesson in a few weeks. I do have some areas of concern regarding time. The class is only 57 minutes long and while I think the two ‘regular’ classes will complete the assignment within the block, I am a little worried about the two inclusive classes. I am, however, excited to take advantage of having a paraprofessional in the class and incorporating her more with this activity. Reflecting on finding resources: It was very hard to find the right documents for this activity. I wanted a balance of written and visual resources that would be appropriate for 7th graders. I found plenty of news articles that would have been great at a high school level but the reading level would have been too difficult for 7th graders. Post-reflection: I taught this lesson in all four sections of my 7th grade US History class. Two of the classes were inclusion and two of them were regular. All four classes did a great job. Having modeled one set of documents, the students were able to get right to work. The groups worked well together. The graphic organized asked specific questions about each document and that enabled the students to zoom right into the important information. At the end of each class there were a few extra minutes, allowing us to summarize the document sets as a whole class. Talking with the students later, they seemed to really enjoy the lesson. Next time I might intentionally add a class wide summary at the end. Some of the classes had time to summarize as a class and some did not. Because there were so many documents and so much information, the class wide summary was helpful in pulling it all together. PASS Standards:
1. Standard 1: Higher Order Thinking. The inquiry lesson required students to analyze documents to draw conclusions about the causes of westward expansion. Most of the class was engaged in this higher order thinking for the duration of the course. This lesson would earn a 4 for Standard 1. Because the lesson only contains this one activity, the lesson would not receive a 5.
2. Standard 2: Deep Knowledge. Because there were many causes of westward expansion and many types of documents presented, students had to process complex information to draw conclusions. This lesson would earn a 4 for Standard 2.
3. Standard 3: Substantive Conversation. Students worked in groups to analyze and synthesize the documents. Throughout the lesson, I could hear students engaging in substantive conversations about the documents. The conversations were about the topic and were about sharing ideas. The conversations did not necessarily build on each other. Because two of the three features of substantive conversation were present this lesson would earn a 3 for Standard 3.
4. Standard 4: Connections to the World Beyond the Classroom. This lesson focused primarily on the causes of westward expansion after the Civil War and was rarely connected to the present. Occasionally
the teacher made connections and comparisons between the past and the present but overall this lesson would earn a 2 for Standard 4.
5. Standard 5: Ethical Valuing. There was a document that referenced the selling of Indian land. With this document students were asked to think about the ethics of this. Because this was the only example of ethical valuing in this lesson, it earns a 2 for Standard 5.
6. Standard 6: Integration This lesson has elements of integration. Students used analytical skills to examine the historical relevance of a series of documents. Throughout the lesson the students looked at legal documents, maps, images, and newspapers. With this lesson students had to consider the events that led up to westward expansion (e.g. the Civil War and racial segregation) to fully understand the causes of it. Because the students demonstrated knowledge and skill, had to use interdisciplinary knowledge, and had to consider the impacts of other events in the curriculum, this lesson would earn a 4 for Standard 6.
Do Now Maps:
The following documents will already be printed, labeled, and annotated for students on the day of the lesson.
Distribution of Population in 1850, 1850Albert Perry Bidgham & Charles T. McFarlane, Essentials of Geography (New York, NY: American Book Company, 1916)
Downloaded from Maps ETC, on the web at http://etc.usf.edu/maps [map #04398]
Population in United States, 1900Ralph S. Tarr, B.S., F.G.S.A. and Frank M. McMurry, Ph.D., New Geographies 2nd ed
(New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1910) Downloaded from Maps ETC, on the web at http://etc.usf.edu/maps [map #02064]
Station #1– Opportunities for Former Slaves Document A
Document B
Document C
Station #2 Opportunity for Wealth (Minerals, new opportunities) Document A
Documents B/C
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
GOLD FOUND IN THE WEST.New York Times (1857-1922); Oct 26, 1887; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Timespg. 3
Document D
Station #3 Documents – Adventure in the west Document A
Document B
Document C
Station #4– Land opportunity
Document A
Document B
Document C
Station #5 Railroad
The Homestead Act of 1862 37th Congress Session II 1862 Chapter LXXV. - An Act to secure Homesteads to actual Settlers on the Public Domain. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed a preemption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to preemption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed: Provided, That any person owning and residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, or shall have performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and that he has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use of benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon filing the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on payment of ten dollars, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified: Provided, however, That no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefore until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry; and if, at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry; or, if he be dead, his widow; or in case of her death, his heirs or devisee; or in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in case of her death; shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affidavit that no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has borne true allegiance to the Government of the United States; then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in other cases provided for by law: And provided, further, That in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an infant child, or children, under twenty-one years of age, the right and fee shall ensure to the benefit of said infant child or children; and the executor, administrator, or guardian may, at any time within two years after the death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the laws of the State in which such children for the time being have their domicile, sell
Document A
Document B
Graphic Organizer for Students: (Screenshots of the documents)
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