Lesson Title Manifest Destiny Teacher Elizabeth Gibson Grade Level 4th Duration of Lesson 2 class period Lesson Topic SC Standards and Indicators Westward Expansion 4-The student will demonstrate an understanding of westward expansion of the United States and its impact on the institution of slavery. 4-5.2 Explain the motivations and methods of migrants and immigrants, who moved West, including economic opportunities, the availability of rich land, and the country s belief in Manifest Destiny. Common Core Strategy(ies) addressed Academic Vocabulary Lesson Materials Content Narrative (What is the background information that needs to be taught to understand the context of the lesson? Be sure to include necessary citations) Key Ideas and Details Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions. Texas Revolution annex Manifest destiny Bear Flag Revolt Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mountain men Wagon train gold rush Forty Niners discrimination advertisement evaluate On April 30 th, 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte of France sold Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, 885,000 square miles of territory in North America for 15 million dollars. Congress then sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the unfamiliar land that the United States had purchased. The Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Pacific Ocean on November 7, 1805, and the way to the west was opened. Fur trappers, traders, and finally pioneer settlers soon followed. In 1841 The first group of 69 pioneers left Missouri and headed west,
bound for Oregon. President James Polk soon declared that it was America s manifest destiny to settle North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and the people of America showed their agreement by pushing the borders of the United States across the Mississippi River and ever westward. From this time until the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, more than 350,000 emigrants traveled by foot, handcart, and wagon to reach Oregon and California. At the peak of this westward migration more than 55,000 pioneers would make the hazardous crossing in a single season. The 2,000-mile journey from Missouri to Oregon was not something to be undertaken lightly. It was a grueling five to eight month ordeal. One in every 17 people who began the trip died along the way. If pioneers graves were evenly spaced along the Oregon Trail s 2,000 mile length, there would be a tombstone every 80 yards to mark the resting place of a traveler who did not survey the journey. Lives were claimed by starvation, outlaws, accidents, hostile Native Americans, whose land was being invaded, and perhaps the most dreaded disease cholera. If the journey was so dangerous, why did so many pioneers risk their own lives and the lives of their families in order to make this migration? One of the most common reasons was the promise that there was something better out West than could be found in the East. In 1843 a trapper who had been to Oregon s Willamette Valley told a group of prospective emigrants that the pigs are running around about under the great acorn trees, round and fat, and already cooked, with knives and forks sticking in them so that you can cut off a slice whenever you are hungry. Popular publications and guidebooks of the time boasted of Oregon s lush farmlands and California s goldfields. One book wrote that as far as its producing qualities are concerned Oregon cannot be outdone whether in wheat, oats, rye, barley, buckwheat, peas, beans, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, onions, parsnips, carrots, beets, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, apples, peaches, pears, or fat and healthy babies. Oregon seemed from all accounts, to be paradise on Earth. All one had to do was get there and claim his little bit of heaven. It was that hope that made it worth the risks of the journey. To top it all off, the discovery of gold at Sutter s Mill in California in 1848 created a huge surge in the number of people choosing to emigrate to the west and try their luck in California. While these reasons pulled people West, a number of factors pushed people out of the East. A series of financial crises that began in 1837 brought about a depression and ruined many farmers. In addition, several disease epidemics, including typhoid, dysentery, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, malaria and yellow fever, were sweeping through many parts of the eastern United States. Perhaps the most devastating disease was cholera, which had arrived from Asia in the 1830 s, and accounted for more than 50,000 deaths in 1850.
Other people chose to emigrate to the West for the same reason that many people came to the Atlantic shores of America two centuries before religious freedom. Mormon pioneers, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, left Illinois in 1846 to find a place to practice their religion without fear of persecution and settled in the Salt Lake valley of Utah. Adventurers, missionaries, land speculators, and many others followed the reasoning of Henry David Thoreau when he said, Eastward, I go only by force, westward I go free the prevailing of my countrymen tendency of my countrymen. Lesson Set Content Objective(s) The students will explain the economic, political, racial, and religious roots of Manifest Destiny and analyze how the concept influenced the nation s westward expansion. The student will identify the motivations and expectations of Americans who settled in the West Literacy Objective(s) Identify the conditions of places, and the connections between places. Illustrate the fact that some choices provide greater benefits than others. Lesson Importance O'Sullivan was expressing the long held belief that white Americans had a God-given right to occupy the entire North American continent. Once the concept had been given the name 'Manifest Destiny'. It became the leading light for westward expansion. Connections to prior and future learning Anticipatory Set/ Hook (Engage) Relates to the concept that was exercised in 1492 by Christopher Columbus and the Spanish monarchs who initially sanctioned the colonization of South America. It was also exercised by the Pilgrim Fathers when they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, by the British when they colonized Australia and India. Indeed, any act of colonization and settlement at the expense of another race can be said to be an expression of Manifest Destiny. Give the students a copy of the picture. San Antonio, Texas where the Texans fall at the Battle of the Alamo. Ask students to read the caption under the picture to predict why the people are fighting. (They are fighting over land in what is now Texas.) Next give each student a picture of Oregon country. Have students note what the picture shows about how people traveled west. Ask students to suggest words that might describe these trips. (difficult, slow, dirty, dangerous) Finally give the students a copy of the 1848 American River, California. Ask students what the people in the picture are doing and to predict how this will affect California. (They are finding gold. Many people will flock to the area)
Skill Development Initial explain portion of the lesson. Introduce vocabulary, explain/demonstrate/model the skill required for the literacy objective, introduce content components. The content portion is only a brief introduction; the bulk of the student learning will take place during the guided practice activity. Introduce content components I do Skill from objective introduce/explain/model Vocabulary introduction write the words on the board prior to going over the content narrative. Ask the students to determine through context clues what they think the words mean. Discuss their answers and correct those that are not correct Students will either read the content narrative or the teacher will instruct the students of the material, drawing from the textbook or other sources. Guided Practice This is the inquiry portion of the lesson, student-centered & often cooperative learning strategies used, teacher acting as facilitator, also known as Explore. We do Activity Description Include student explore components and opportunities for them to explain their learning. Give the students a copy of the attached map with the paragraph on it. Have students read the paragraph, and ask them why events in the earlier pictures might be important. Have students identify personal qualities and characteristics that may have been important to early settlers who settled the area west of the Mississippi. Checking for Understanding- Informal Assessment Using the painting American Progress ask the students the following questions. What do you see in this painting? 1. The floating white woman in this painting is heading West. What do you think she represents? 2. How many images in the painting can you find? 3. Who do you think was the audience for this painting? 4. What is the significance of the angel? 5. Describe the action in the painting. 6. What groups are represented? 7. Why do you think the artist titled the painting American Progress 8. Art is sometimes said to be a reflection of our culture, do you think this is a reflection of our culture of that time? Why? 9. How does this painting reflect or reinforce ideas regarding westward expansion? 10. Imagine you are an American Indian artist how might you paint this picture depicting an American Indian viewpoint? 11. What would you change/reverse about this painting? What would you title the piece? Closure Teacher will re-visit content and answer students questions developed during the Guided Practice component. Summarize the lesson, clarify content, and revisit content and common core strategies.
Content Solidified At the end of class, students will take out their notebooks and start a journal in the back five pages of the notebook. They will write about their feelings of manifest destiny and will say if they agree with it or disagree with it. Some questions that need to be answered in the journal will be written on the board. They are the following: --Define manifest destiny by stating three main attributes of the concept. Ex. Americans trying to gain more land. Wanted to be light to rest of world. --Explain what the consequences of an absolute belief in manifest destiny might be. Americans would become too proud because they thought they were superior. --Explain how manifest destiny affected Native Americans and Mexicans who inhabited the lands west of the Mississippi River. Americans did not feel they were taking over someone else s land and they did not respect native peoples of the land. --Explain one way the concept of Manifest Destiny has affected you personally. As an American, I feel that we are arrogant to many other nations. Independent Practice You Do Allow the students to select one of the following assignments to complete to demonstrate their understanding of the events moving west. 1. Illustrate an event of the pioneers moving west from Missouri to Oregon. 2. Pretend that you were one of the members of a religious group and you were being persecuted and driven out of your land by people who hated you. Describe what you saw and how you felt. 3. Write a short story describing your journey by wagon train. Summative/ Formal Assessment Assessment Students will take the following assessment: 1. Where does the quote Manifest Destiny come from? 2. How did the Manifest Destiny shape the future of our nation? 3. How did the United States expand? 4. Why did so many pioneers risk their own lives and the lives of their families in order to make this migration west?
5. What two men s expedition open the way to the west for the pioneers? Differentiation During Lesson Assessment Reflection Lesson Reflection (What went well in the lesson? What might you do differently the next time you teach it? Evaluate the success of the lesson) Students will be allowed to select which independent assignment they wish to complete. Questioning during the checking for understanding component will be geared towards specific students; also, the questions that ask them to define manifest destiny by stating three main attributes of the concept allows the students flexibility to address areas that are their strengths This lesson went mostly as I expected, except it took longer than I had planned. Students did well with analyzing the American Progress painting and the independent activities, but some students did need a little more help with analyzing the painting.. When I do this lesson again. I will do more guiding of the slower students. The students did get the content needed from the lesson, but they ability to read and analyze primary sources is weak. Therefore, in future lessons, I need to have more primary sources to read and analyze until the students are able to do this independently. To help with this, we will look at excerpts from other primary sources in whole class activities until they seem to do well. Then we can begin to work in groups with primary sources. Materials Lesson Materials Scott Foresman text, Building a Nation Texas State Library The Fall of the Alamo, a 1903 painting by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk. American River Picture history.com Manifest Destiny picture Wagon train going to Oregon history.com Map of U.S divided into sections Sutter s Mill pictureis listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States. Its reference number is 66000207 Manifest Destiny Powerpoint.pptx