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