Lesson 5

Road vs. Railroad vs. Canal

“About 180, some people with big ideas decided that we needed a road that would go across the country – well, at least from the East Coast to the Mississippi, which seemed across the country to most Easterners then (A History of US, volume 4).”  (DOK 1) Can you imagine a land without roads (or with only small local roads)?  How would you send and receive goods?  That was the dilemma facing people in the 1800s.  I would share this information with my students, and at that point, ask them to tell discuss with a partner how they might answer this question (DOK 2).  They should listen to what their partner had to say and then share what their partner thought, with the class.  As a large group, we would then construct some ways to transport goods across large areas. (DOK 3) Hopefully they’ll come up with roads, railroads, and canals. On computer paper, the students would need to draw what they think we would need to build in order to transport these goods.  They should be using their ideas, classmates, and the large group’s ideas and these ideas should vary. (DOK 4)

After our ideas were put on paper, I would share with them information about roads (pages 112/113), the story of the Erica Canal from ‘The History of US,’ volume 4, pages 114/5, and the steam engine (railroads) on pages 118/9.

We will also be using our classroom map to locate the Erica Canal, the path of the National Road from Baltimore to St. Louis, and the map on pages 122/3 to show roads, rails/trails, and canals.

R6A251 Summarize the major points, processes, and/or events of a nonfiction text….

166A Listen critically and respond to others…. Respond with grade appropriate questions, ideas, information, or opinions.

Domains – 1 a-e, 2 a-e, 3 a-e, 4 a, f

The Oregon Country and Fort Ross

Imagine traveling across the majority of our country by foot and water.  That’s what Lewis and Clark did after they set out in 1804.  They not only mapped the Louisiana Territory that Jefferson had just purchased, they cross the Oregon Country all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

I was amazed to learn that the Oregon Country was being claimed by the U.S., Spain, England, and Russia.  I had not known that Russia had claim in North America.  Fort Ross, in particular, interested me.  The Russians had established this for as a fur-gathering spot.  They hunted otters for their skins and sold them to Europe and China, almost decimating the population.

During this time period, Spain built forts to stop Russian expansion, and eventually the Russians pulled out of North America because of things happening in their home country.  According to ‘A History of US,’ volume 4, Fort Ross was a wonderful little town with beautiful homes, stores, vineyards, and a chapel.  The Russians resided with the Aleuts and Indians at Fort Ross – a town of about 400 people (A History of US, pages 160/1) (DOK.1)

As my students and I read a book this year that eventually takes place in Alaska (which I always point out on the map), I’d like to digress a little to talk about the Oregon Country and its settlers.  I’d also like to talk with them about Fort Ross.  I’d like them to infer how the inhabitants of the Oregon Country saw each other (the different countries settlements) (DOK 2).  They probably wanted the whole area for themselves and didn’t want to share with other countries!  I want the students to debate as if they are from a particular country and tell the other ‘countries’ why they should have the land (DOK 3).  Using the previous lesson on the Monroe Doctrine, I’d like my students to critique the Monroe Doctrine and analyze how the other countries probably felt about it (DOK 4).

126D Make inferences, draw conclusions, based on various sources….

166A Listen critically and respond to others….

Domains –1 a-e, 2 a-e, 3 a-e, 4 a,

I've noticed quite a few people have checked out my blog, so I wanted to give those viewers a little background....  I'm taking a class that deals with teaching history.  I've taken three versions of it, each lasting almost a year of online work, with one week of on-site work a summer.  This summer, my third, we will complete all the work in just a few months.  We've been studying United States history from the 1700s through the mid 1800s.  SO - this blog is a requirement for this year's class.  It's meant to share my teaching ideas with my fellow students before we see each other later this month.  I've found that lots of people have read over my posts, so I wanted to let you know what you'd find and why.

I teach sixth grade reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  Most middle schools call that Language Arts.  Strangely, my school calls it Communications.  Why take a history course, then, you ask?  I hated history as a kid.  It bored me, put me to sleep, drooling on the desk, okay - you get the picture.  BUT - as an adult I've begun to find history absolutely fascinating.  AND - I love the way I can tie it into novels that we read in class.  I love adding tidbits of historical information into my reading/writing lessons. 

If you like any of my ideas, please leave me a comment! 

The Monroe Doctrine and word study

I find it amazing to think about our country being settled by Russians, French, Spanish, and Europeans.  When I think of the east coast, I think Europeans.  When I think of New Orleans, I think French influence.  When I think of Miami, I think Latino.  I forget, however, that these aren’t new cultural influences; they are old ones. 

I’m going to ask students to think about the Monroe Doctrine.  Using a white board, they will write down anything they already know about it (DOK 1).  Students will compare their ideas (DOK 2).  After that, we’ll talk about the doctrine, what it meant, and why President Monroe included this idea in his speech.  I’d like to use page 92 in ‘A History of US’ edition 4 as a reference.

Using the following website, we will look at a primary source of President Monroe’s printed speech.  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=041/llac041.db&recNum=4  We will then do a word study of the passages that pertain to the closing of the American continents.  Projecting this on the smart board, we will substitute modern language by using the students as our first resource and dictionaries as our second source. 

We’ll discuss why this policy is important in our history and we’ll assess what might have happened in our country without the Monroe Doctrine (DOK 3).  We’ll analyze each other’s ideas and constructively critique them (DOK 4).

116B – word analysis skills….

R6A12 – Identify and apply word recognition skills.

116D – Demonstrates comprehension before, during, after reading….

Domain 1 a-e, 2 a-e, 3a-e, 4a, f

The Louisiana Purchase - writing and map skills

Maybe because I’m a Communications teacher, many events that Social Studies teachers know (and take for granted), amaze me.  I knew that the Louisiana Purchase bought ‘us’ more than just Louisiana, but I didn’t realize the vast size of the territory that was purchased in 1803 by President Jefferson. Page 160 of A History of US, volume 4 has a great, colored map that shows the territory.  Back then, they didn’t know how big it was, though!  That’s where Lewis and Clark came in to the picture.

In my Communications class, we read a book called ‘Touching Spirit Bear’.  I use a map heavily during the reading of this book as the character starts out somewhere in Minnesota and eventually ends up on a small Alaskan island.  During these frequent map lessons, I talk about things that I’ve learned, and found interesting, from my last two years in Keystones.  I’ll ask students to make some observations about the territory itself (DOK 2).

This year while reading the book, I plan on talking about the Louisiana Purchase.  I was fascinated to learn that it doubled the size of our small country, was named after King Louis of France, and that (of course) it was a peaceful addition to our country.  I think my students will also be fascinated by the selling price of $15 million dollars.  While that sounds like a ton of money to us, at 4 cents an acre, it was a steal! (Content) I’d like the students to be able to discuss this information with a partner. DOK 1

I’d like to have the kids do a short writing assignment about how our lives may be different if the Louisiana territory had not been purchased from France (formulating, DOK 3).  I like to keep them stretching their imaginations at this age, because this is the time when their creativity begins to diminish if we don’t keep it going. We’ll take some time to share or writing within the classroom and critique each other’s ideas constructively (DOK 4). (Creativity) R6A13 – Draw inferences, make inferences….156A,B,C – Write with focus, content, organization.  166A,B –Be aware of audience, listen critically and respond appropriately to others….

Domain – 1 a-e, 2 a-e, 3 a,b,c,d 4 a, f

Transportation in the early 1800s

The first cars have always been interesting to me.  Quite a few years ago, my grandmother told me about the first car to come to her town.  It would have been around 1915.  She told me about how her friends and she would play in the streets, and when the car came by, her mother would yell to get out of neighborhood would be yelling.  Imagine being there for that!

As I read A History of US, volume 4, I got to the part about transportation via canals and rivers.  I was fascinated to learn about goods being taken down the Ohio River, to the Mississippi, down to the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, and up the Atlantic to end up in New York.  Imagine it being cheaper to transport goods to New York in that way than across just a fraction of that amount of land!

After hearing my grandmother’s story about the first cars and thinking how incredible that would be to witness, I guess it’s no wonder that this small bit of history, having to do with transportation, would fascinate me.

As a class, this year, I’d like to discuss transportation (even the roots of the word are awesome!) and what it was like in the early 1800s.  (Standard 116B Word Analysis Skills, R6A12, RA13)  Using a map, I’d like to do a lesson on the word roots and on the route goods would take from Ohio to New York.   The students will be able to make inferences (DOK 2) and generalizations about why it was cheaper to ship via the rivers and oceans vs. land.  We can identify the route and measure distances (DOK1) taken.   They will be able to compare the distances (DOK 3) of the various routes that could be used – land vs. water.  Using the maps, they may even be able to create alternate routes (DOK 4).  I’m also hoping for some good discussion on what land routes might have been like in the early 1800s.  If I can find a primary source about transportation during this time period, that would be the icing on the cake!

Domain 1a,d,e,f, 2a,b,c,d, 3a,b,c,d,e, 4a,f