social networking and Community building
Westward Expansion
Standards covered
- 5.SS.1.2.3 Analyze and discuss the motives of the major groups who participated in western expansion.
- 5.SS.1.2.5 Discuss the significant American Indian groups encountered in western expansion
- 5.SS.1.2.5 Discuss the significant individuals who took part in western expansion.
Learning goals
- Students will be able to identify groups involved in Westward Expansion and discuss their motives.
- Students will be able to discuss significant individuals within their research group who took part in Westward Expansion.
- Students will be able to define Manifest Destiny.
Lesson Sequence
Predicting Activity
Explore the concepts of Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. Show students this iconic picture. Have them discuss with an elbow partner what they think the picture represents.
Explore the concepts of Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. Show students this iconic picture. Have them discuss with an elbow partner what they think the picture represents.
After discussing with a partner students post their predictions about what they think the new unit of learning is about on Padlet.
Introduction Activity
Students will view the following video. I would suggest students watch video twice, once just to watch and the second after a discussion, looking for the following things:
Students will view the following video. I would suggest students watch video twice, once just to watch and the second after a discussion, looking for the following things:
- Definition of Manifest Destiny: American's eager to move west. Wanted to see the span of the United States reach from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
- The land represented opportunity and potential wealth.
- Believed that American's moving west would share their unique form of government, "experiment of liberty".
- It was viewed as a "right" something given to them by Providence
Once discussion is complete guide students to log into Schoolgy and to the Social Studies course. They will click on the Westward Expansion folder and on the media album "Manifest Destiny". Students will search the web for images that they think represent the concept of Manifest Destiny. Emphasize that it could be anything related to the big ideas discussed as a class. They may submit more than one photo, but it needs to be at least one. They need to add a caption explaining why they chose that image.
Schoology is my district's Learning Management System.
Research Activity
Students will then be divided into groups to research the different groups of people who took part in Westward Expansion. They will share their resources on Diigo and will work together to develop an informative Voicethread that they will upload to the Westward Expansion Page in Schoology.
Research Groups:
Required information:
You must answer the following questions, but feel free to add additional facts as well
Project Requirements:
Students will then be divided into groups to research the different groups of people who took part in Westward Expansion. They will share their resources on Diigo and will work together to develop an informative Voicethread that they will upload to the Westward Expansion Page in Schoology.
Research Groups:
- Chinese Immigrants
- Mexicanos
- Forty-Niners
- Lewis and Clark
- Mormons
- Pioneers
Required information:
You must answer the following questions, but feel free to add additional facts as well
- What role did this group play in Westward Expansion?
- What was this groups motivation for moving west?
- How did moving west impact this group
- Who were the leaders/famous/notable people in the group?
Project Requirements:
- Each student needs to find and bookmark a minimum of 3 resources in Diigo.
- Voicethread needs to be a minimum of 6 slides and each member of the research group needs to participate in the comments.
- Slides need to include images that relate to or tell the story of your group.
- Your final slide needs to be a Reference slide detailing where you found your information.
Responding Activity
Each research group will watch other groups Voicethreads and as a group provide comments and feedback on each presentation.
Each research group will watch other groups Voicethreads and as a group provide comments and feedback on each presentation.