Sample Lesson Plan Using Strategies
Day One: The Opener (Adapted from Teacher's Curriculum Institute, History Alive )
I designed this one to put the students in the shoes of the Indians being removed to the West and draws on the Habit of the Mind, Historical Empathy. Experientials are specific to the historical events being taught. This one goes like this: Divide your room in two. Arrange your chairs, or desks in four groups of five and seat five students at each grouping (20 students). Leave one space in your room for only three students in a grouping but in a larger area, enough to fit 23 students. This is the "West". Seat these three desks first. Now, go around and place enough "resources" for six students at each group. The center table or desk of the grouping would be ideal. The resources could anything to little snacks, to pencils, to crayons -your choice. Seat 23 students. Pass out the white cards in envelopes on which you have labeled, Cholera, Typhoid, and Influenza to the remaining students. Ask those students to wait quietly off to the side. After the other students settle themselves, (about five minutes), go to one group and read this to them:
"My students, you are under my care and protection and therefore know that I have your best interest at heart. In order to keep you safe and the integrity of your group intact, I want you to leave this area and move over to area "West". (Point to the desk grouping of three) I will leave you to gather your things. When I return, you should be ready." Give them one minute-ready or not! MOVE THEM! Allow them to carry their chairs and books and move West. Repeat the same for all of the groups until they are all crowded into the "West" of your classroom. Now give the remaining students some resources to "trade" and send them with the envelope to each group. THEY ARE NOT TO OPEN OR PEEK INSIDE THIS ENVELOPE. When they have completed their transactions, have them to leave their envelope on one of the desks in the group and move further "West" or go to an area that was previously vacated and have a seat (provide chairs for them). The envelopes may now be opened by the seated students. Any time you do an experiential exercise with your class, you must debrief the class when it is completed because students will have feelings that need to be shared within the class. So, ask these types of questions when completed: How did you feel when I made you move? How did you feel in such a tight space? Did you feel that I really had your best interest at heart when I made you give up the space you were in for where you are now? What do you think about the disease cards? How do you think that card placed at your table affected all in your group? Look at the areas you left. Look at where you are. Do you think these were "fair" moves? Why or Why not? This concludes day one.
Days Two - Four: Visual Discovery (three days)
Locate 5 powerful images for each of these time frames: Pre-Columbian American Indians, Indian Wars, Scenes from Andrew Jackson's Life, Indian Removal, Indian Schools, Current Life on Reservations. For examples, see Appendix B. Project each image in time order. As you do this ask students these types of questions: What do you see? What are they (is he/she) doing? What are they wearing? After you have projected and gone through all of the questions with the students you may now assign selected reading that supports the images you have just projected. This allows the students to have a frame of reference when reading the texts. As students read, have them to jot down any sentences or terms that remind them of the images you projected. For suggested texts see Appendix B
Days Five and Six: Analyze Supreme Court case Cherokee Indians v. Georgia
Have students to read a summary and opinions of this court case (or any other which suits you better). As students work in pairs ask them to read the text. For more advanced students you may want to assign the actual text. Have students to analyze the case by answering these guiding questions: Who was the plaintiff? Who was the defendant? Why was the case brought to the Supreme Court? What was the outcome of this case? How did this case affect the Cherokees?
Days Seven and Eight: ESP & C : This stands for Economic, Social, Political and Cultural Impacts. . It causes students to examine a document, person, or event and think deeply about that document's impact. You can ESP & C any document. For instance, Look at a map of routes Indians took when forced to move West. What was the economic, social, political and cultural impact of such a move on the Indian tribes shown? What was the economic, social, political and cultural impact of the opening of those vacated lands on Whites? How did this tie into their ideas freedom and liberty ? Crime Scene Investigation: CSI. This is an excellent way to get students delving into materials outside of the classroom trying to solve a mystery. Locate a person, place or event that you want the students to study and develop its "story" in brief. Excellent for review work. Put quotation marks around the "clues" which should be searchable on the web or in the text so that the students can work in pairs to "solve" this case. Following please find an example of a CSI cold case . To take the students into further research, combine the "solved case" with the ESP plus C strategy listed above.
COLD CASE FILE# 0315-1767: After completely wiping out a family, this rather stern looking gentleman picked up the only survivor, a child, and took him home. Visitors to his "white house" reported seeing this child for the next fifteen years, apparently being treated "like a son". However, this "Old Hickory" of a man continued to "move " anyone else who looked like, or sounded like" the boy as far away from his home as possible. Who is this man and why is his face on the twenty dollar bill? What is his ESP?
Days Nine and Ten: Analyze Primary Sources. "An Indian Father's Plea": This is a letter that Robert "Grizzly Bear" Lake wrote to his five years old son's teacher. As your students silently read this letter to themselves have them to "text render" it. This is a powerful way to get the "thrust" of a document. The students while reading should underline a sentence that "grabs" them, bracket a phrase that "grabs" them and circle one word that "grabs" them. When the class has finished the reading, start at one end of the room and have each student to say aloud their sentences, then their phrases and finally, their one words. When the last word is spoken the class most likely will be silent as they will be processing the information. Source available in Appendix B.
Documents 2 and 3: The Indian Removal Bill and the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The students should use the Document Analysis Worksheet from the National Archives to work in pairs to complete these worksheets. See Appendix B for source site. When completed, students should create a "Point of View" eight-panel graphic cartoon summarizing the information they learned from these two documents. For those who complain that they can't draw, stick figures are acceptable. Be sure to tell them to have their characters speak or think in "bubbles". This can be continued as a home based assignment if you run out of class time.
Days Eleven to Thirteen: Film Days. "Geronimo" or "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." This is your choice. They are both excellent. I particularly like them because they use native peoples and portray them as real people with hearts and minds and internal struggles just like everyone else, instead of caricatures. Use the Film Document Analysis for this. When complete, show a "Cowboy and Indian" type film from the 1950's (available at any video store). Now SOAP that film. See Appendix B. Take this one step further and extend this to a home based assignment and have the students to ESP &C the Cowboy and Indian film.
Days Fourteen and Fifteen: Research. Andrew Jackson: Hero or Anti-Hero? Students should now spend these two days and homework nights researching whether or not Jackson deserves to have his image on U.S. currency (twenty dollar bills). They should come up with five reasons either for or against his heroism and three summary points for their own conclusion. They must locate visuals to support their findings and be ready to vote to remove his image from the twenty dollar bill or keep it. Teachers, you can even have the class put him on trial for ignoring the Supreme Court's ruling. There's much you can do with this piece.
Cross Curricular Day: OUTBREAK! : For those who love math and science: the students can research the microbial epidemics that took place on the Great Plains during the 1800's. The guiding questions should include what factors were present for an outbreak of disease to occur. How were Indians' immunological systems affected by this great convergence of sojourners traveling through on the way West? How was disease passed from person to person and tribe to tribe? Were the sojourners aware that they were carriers of these microbes/illnesses? Did they care? Given our rate of travel today could this be possible for an epidemic such as took place on the plains? Students should write at least one full type written page and include visuals, graphs, charts, images and quotes. This can be started in class and completed at home.
Culminating Activity: Story Quilt. The students should work on this at home. This is an alternative assessment that will allow the students free choice of what they want to depict in their quilts which can be of fabric or heavy paper. The basic elements must include two points of view of the same event either sewn on if fabric or painted on, if heavy paper (available at any arts and crafts store). They may not use any words but must "tell" the story through imagery and symbols. Have them to select one event from the unit studied that resonated with them. Allow two weeks for completion.
Comments: