Journeys West

Lessons

Lesson One

Step One: Familiarize students with primary sources by first completing the student lesson What are Primary Sources? from the American Memory collections. After guiding students through this lesson, have them complete the Mindwalk Activity in class.

Step Two: As homework, personalize the theme of journeys and primary sources by having students chronicle a journey, collecting their own primary sources over an extended weekend.

Step Three: Background reading is recommended and can be given as homework. The background reading is suggested and/or linked from each of the individual student role pages: Fur Trader, Pioneer Family, Native American, Explorer, and Gold Miner.

Background reading serves many purposes. If students do not know anything about a topic it is almost impossible for them to generate useful search terms. Background reading gives the students a context in which to place the new information they uncover. Additionally background reading allows students to generate meaningful questions and create suppositions to either be proven or disproven as they delve deeper into the topic.

Lesson Two

Using five pre-selected photographs (gold miner, pioneer family, Native American, explorer and fur trader) from the American Memory collections and five corresponding personal narratives (see student page), students individually analyze the photographs, read the narratives, record their observations on the Analysis of Images worksheet and then match the represented viewpoint with the photograph.

Lesson Three

Based on the study of the five photographs, students choose one role (gold miner, pioneer family, Native American, explorer and fur trader) for conducting an in-depth study using the American Memory collections. Students work in small groups and then jigsaw with the entire class in the final project.

Student inquiry is guided by the following essential questions:

• What were the motivations of the people who traveled west?
• What conditions did they encounter as they journeyed west?
• How did the conditions encountered influence their decisions?
• What were the conflicts between the settlers and the native people they encountered?
• How did policies of the U.S. government influence westward migration?

Lesson Four

Students meet in role groups with either their teacher, the Library Media Specialist or the Instructional Technology Specialist to engage in careful reading and exploration with maps from the Map Collections: 1500-2003. The Map analysis form focuses students on how the topography of the land impacted migratory decisions as well as created obstacles for travelers. Other students are working in their specific role groups conducting online and offline research.

Lesson Five

Students meet in role groups with either classroom teacher, Library Media Specialist or Instructional Technology Specialist to engage in careful analysis and deeper inquiry of photographs in order to gain a sense of the people. Broadsides from an American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera help students develop a sense of place and the motivations for travel. These artifacts bring the journey to life. Students analyze the information in the broadsides to interpret historical information using a Reading a Broadside as a guide.

Lesson Six

Students meet in their role groups with either classroom teacher, Library Media Specialist or Instructional Technology Specialist to engage in careful reading and interpretation of first person narratives from the American Memory collections. Use Reading a Narrative form for this activity. Students gain a point of view, develop empathy for the people and search for evidence to support their conclusions drawn from the artifacts. You may want students to review the How does It Read? guide.