Who ARE
You????
Westward Expansion
My person is
_________________________________
PBLQ (Project Based Learning Question)
Why Did I Go West and what was it like IRL to live
in the West?
Design your own cover:
L
A R G E
I
R
L
Name _____________________________________ Block __________
1
Westward Expansion Who Packet SCORING RUBRIC
SCORE
DESCRIPTION
CATEGORY
4

CATEGORY
3

CATEGORY
2

CATEGORY
1


CATEGORY
0

BLANK
The student completes all important components of the
task and communicates ideas clearly.

The student demonstrates in-depth understanding of the
relevant concepts and/or process.

Where appropriate, the student offers insightful
interpretations or extensions (generalizations, applications,
analogies).
The student completes most important components of the
task and communicates clearly.

The student demonstrates understanding of major
concepts even though he/she overlooks or misunderstands
some less important ideas or details.
The student completes some important components of
the task and communicates those clearly.

The student demonstrates that there are gaps in his/her
understanding.
The student shows minimal or basic understanding.
The student addresses only a small portion of the required
task(s).

Responses and work completed are incorrect.
No response.
Self Check Score ________________
or
Group check Score______________
Teacher Check Score ________________
2
Unit I.1 – Reshaping of America: 1865 to 1917
Standard:
Students will be able to explain how geography and new technologies
sparked growth and movement westward in the latter half of the 19th century
Learning Progression
Advanced
I can give examples of how new technologies continue to change how people live
Proficient
Proficient
Intermediate
Beginning
I can explain how new technologies changed the way people adapt to the geographic landscape
I can explain how technology helped to overcome geographic barriers to expansion
I can identify the main physical features of the western United States
3
Unit I.2 – Reshaping of America: 1865-1917
Standard:
Students will be able to describe the impact of westward expansion on
American Indians (USII. 4a)
Learning Progression
Advanced
I can give examples of other conflicts that arise due to different perspectives (in the past,
Proficient
present or in their lives)
Proficient
I can explain what happens when two cultures have a different perspective on land ownership and use
Intermediate
I can indicate on a map where Americans Indians groups were located in the western region
of the United States and the locations where pioneers wanted to settle
Beginning
I can describe the first inhabitants of the western region of the United States
4
NAME
WILL GO

WILL STAY

REASON WHY/WHY NOT
Nathan Hammond
John and Martha Lytle
Matthew and Patience Reynolds
John and Sarah Barfield
Benjamin and Selinda Prim
Otto and Anna Shippen
Azariah and Faith Davis
Richard and Jean St. Clair
Jonas Dahl
Activity #1 Who will go?
What do all these people have in common?
5
Activity #2 Pushed or Pulled???
Economic
Opportunity
Health
Freedom
PULL (Positive in West pulls you to the WEST)
PUSH (Negative in East pushes you out of the EAST)
6
Adventure
Activity #3 Act it OUT Project Story STARTER
Westward Expansion IRL

You are moving westward because of the Homestead Act. You are able to buy land
cheaply in the West. 160 acres for $18.00. You have never had a chance to own your
own property before. You move West and start a wheat farm because there is not a lot
of rain on the Great Plains.

You are moving westward because you want to be a farmer. The Great Plains used to
be impossible to farm, but new technology has made it easier to farm such as the steel
plow and barbed wire. You will be able to sell your crops easily because of the new
railroad.

You are moving westward to get rich. You have heard a lot of people talking about
finding gold in California. You become a miner for one of the companies looking for
gold; it is a very dangerous job as you sometimes use dynamite to blast a deeper mine.

You are an African American Exo-duster. You used to be a slave before the Civil War. If
you stay in the South, you will not be able to own land or have a lot of freedom. You
want to move westward for more freedom. You also will be able to own your own land
in the West, which is something you would not be able to do in the South.

You are a newly arrived immigrant to American from Northern Europe. You are Irish.
You hear about a job out West building the transcontinental railroad. You move West
and face lot of discrimination at your new job, building the railroad through the Rocky
Mountains.

You are a newly arrived immigrant to American from China. You come first to California
and have trouble finding a job. You then hear about a job building the transcontinental
railroad. You become a railroad builder and face a lot of danger and discrimination at
your new job, building the railroad.

You are a newly arrived immigrant to America from Northern Europe. You are Italian.
You were a gun maker at home and hear that your skill was needed in the West. You
move west and open a store in a boom town and are very successful.

You are a newly arrived immigrant to America from Eastern Europe. You are Russian.
You were a shopkeeper at home and hear that your skill was needed in the West. You
move west and open a store in a mining boom town. You sell shovels, clothing, food
and mining supplies. You are very successful.
-7-

You are the second son of a farmer in the South. There is not much opportunity for you
as your older brother will get the farm from your parents. You are looking for adventure
and are thinking that riding a horse and rounding up cattle will be a better life for you.
You move west and become a cowboy and protector of cattle.

You are a man from New York, but did not achieve the success you were hoping for
working in a bank. You travel West to work in a bank in a small town. It is robbed and
the bank robbers take you to carry the bag of money. You think that this is it for you,
but instead they ask you to join their gang. You are now an outlaw.

You are a former confederate soldier and your family farm has been destroyed. You see
no point in becoming a farmer again. You instead decide to join the army in the West.
There you encounter Native Americans. You are responsible for moving them off their
land and onto reservations. The event that hits you the hardest physically and
emotionally is the Battle of Wounded Knee.

You are a former Union soldier and you miss the excitement of war. You have read
many dime store novels about the great American West. You think it will be exciting
and challenging and you are up for the adventure. You decide to become a buffalo
hunter. Hunting buffalo and selling their hides can make you lots of money. Every once
in a while you think, I wonder how this impacts Native Americans?

You are a Native American who has been taken away from your family and sent further
West to attend a boarding school. There you find out the white man wants you to be
exactly like them. The fancy name for this is assimilation. You learn their language,
wear their clothes and cut your hair. You look and talk like them, but never feel as if you
are one of them. You miss your family.

You are a young Native American brave and you hear your chief say this: “I am tired of
fighting. Our chiefs are killed… The little children are freezing to death. My people,
some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food… I want to have
time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find… My heart is sick and
sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”
-Chief Joseph, 1877

You are a women who moves west with her husband. You discover that you have a very
difficult job as wife and mother in the west. You have many jobs and not enough time.
Your jobs include making clothing, quilts, soap, candles, and other goods by hand. You
also have to cook and preserve food for the winter, educate the children, take care of
the sick and injured, help with planting and harvesting, and help to build the sod houses.
-8-
Research Time: Use the following web sites and in class
resources to gather your information to complete “Who” Activities #4-10.
Each group member should take at least two.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
https://familysearch.org/blog/en/pioneers-westward-expansion
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/
http://www.kidinfo.com/american_history/pioneers.html
http://www.ducksters.com/history/westward_expansion/daily_life_on_the_fro
ntier.php
http://www.kidinfo.com/american_history/pioneers.html
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-nativeamericans.html
http://www.ushistory.org/us/21a.asp
http://www.historynet.com/westward-expansion#articles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HikMKdl6Rnc
Little House Family
Are you a family? If you are not a family, you are part of the same group or neighbors.
What is your family name? What are the names of the members of your family?
If you are a group or neighbors, what are your names?
My “Who” Name is ____________________________________________
I am Male or Female ____________________________________
I am ____________________ years old.
Here is how I describe my “Who” self in 7-10 sentences.
-9-
West Project: Activities #4-11 Bonus #12
Activity #4 Causes of Westward Expansion (USII.4a)
In the late 1800s, people moved West for 5 reasons.
Write 5 detailed and complete sentences to explain
how each of these reasons conncects/applies to your
“Who” person.
L
A
R
G
If it does not conncect/apply to you, explain why it
does not.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
E
E
- 10 -
Activity #5 Look at me living on the Great Plains
experiencing FLED GEOGRAPHY! (USII.2a)
Create a picture story about life on the Great Plains as your “Who” Person
Include 6 FLED GEOGRAPHY factual details of how Geography affected you
IRL.. Each picture must have a sentence caption
F
1
Caption Sentence:
2
Caption Sentence:
L
E
D
3
Caption Sentence:
5
Caption Sentence:
4
Caption Sentence:
6
Caption Sentence:
- 11 -
Activity #6 Look at me living on the Great Plains
with my INVENTIONS! (USII.2a)
Create a picture story about life on the Great Plains as your “Who” person.
Include 6 INVENTION factual details of how the people lived and worked IRL.
Each picture must have a sentence caption to describe each of the invention fact
included.
I
N
7
V
Caption Sentence:
8
Caption Sentence:
E
N
T
I
9
Caption Sentence:
10.
Caption Sentence:
O
N
S
11.
Caption Sentence:
12.
Caption Sentence:
- 12 -
Activity #7 Life on the Great Plains (USII.2a)
LP3: I can explain how new technologies changed the way people could use the
geographic landscape to live.
New technologies helped settlers adapt to the geography of the WEST.
Explain how each invention helped “Who” you or was used by you IRL
Inventions /
Agricultural practices
Describe it
Or
Draw it
IRL How did the invention
help your or How did you
use it?
Barbed wire (1870s)
Steel plows (1840s)
Dry farming (1880s)
Sod houses (1860s)
Beef cattle raising
(1860s)
Wheat farming (1830s,
1880s)
Windmills (1880s)
Railroads (1860s)
- 13 -
Activity #8 Pros and Cons
(USII.4a)
Draw your “Who” person and put two tools that you used in your hands.
Complete the PRO/CON chart below. Write three detailed and complete sentences
for PRO and three detailed and complete sentences for CON.
W
PROs about being__________ (positive)
1.
CONs about being ___________(negative)
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
- 14 -
Activity #9 Jigsaw Who are They? (USII.4a)
Summarize what you learned about each group. Write TWO detailed sentences for each.
____________________________
1.
2.
2.
___________________________
1.
2.
2.
___________________________
1.
2.
2.
2.
___________________________
1.
2.
3.
2.
2.
___________________________
1.
2.
3.
2.
2.
15
Activity #10 Conflict over LAND in the West (USII.1i)
LP3: I can explain what happens when two cultures have different perspectives on land ownership and use.
“Who”___________________
vs.
Native Americans
Write a detailed paragraph, draw detailed pictures or locate, print and paste pictures that explain how
your “Who” person may have or did impact American Indians negatively.
16
Activity #11 What you Know Questionnaire and Game Activity
#
QUESTIONS
1. What is your favorite color?
WHO?
WHY?
2. What is your favorite dessert?
3. What is your favorite meal?
4. What is your favorite candy?
5. What is your biggest fear?
6. What bad habit would you like
to break the most?
7. What is your favorite childhood
memory?
17
8. What is the most dangerous
situation you have faced?
9. What IS the best part about
WHERE YOU LIVE?
10. Who is your role model?
11. What is your least favorite
chore?
12. How do you like to celebrate
your birthday?
{Surprise/quietly/with friends}
13. If you could go anywhere in the
world on vacation, where would
it be and why?
14. If a relative left you one million
dollars in a will, how would you
spend it?
15. What do you consider your
biggest strengths?
18
16. What is your favorite
GEOGRAPHICAL feature?
17. What is your favorite
ANIMAL?
18. What do you consider your
biggest achievement to date?
19. What is the most adventurous
thing you have ever done?
20. What is your favorite FOOD?
21. When was the last time you felt
really proud of yourself?
22. What is your favorite SAYING?
23. What is the best compliment you
have ever received?
24. What is your idea of a perfect
date/DAY?
19
25. What are the things that you
admire the most about
OTHER PEOPLE?
26. What is your favorite hobby?
27. What do you consider your
biggest weaknesses?
28. When you spend time with friends
& family, what do you enjoy
doing?
29. Life is marked by a handful of
experiences that change the
direction we take. What would
you say is one experience that
changed the course of your life
general?
30. What was your most
embarrassing experience?
31. What is your favorite word?
20
32. WHAT IS YOUR ALL
TIME FAVORITE SONG?
33.
What is a talent you wish you
had?
34. When you were little, what did you
want to be when you grew up?
35.
What is a talent you wish you
had?
36. Who would you cast to play you
in a movie? Why?
37.
Name 3 things you couldn’t live
without.
38. When you are stressed out, what
do you do to handle it?
39. What is your favorite number
AND WHY?
40.
21
#12
Bonus
Who Westward Expansion Essay:
First: 2 Choices: Pick One
Why Did I Go West and what was it like IRL?
Thesis: The West offered (Who/What) ________________ , living there was
_____________ and _________________.
Or
When painting the Manifest Destiny picture, the painter was attempting to
communicate many ideas about Westward Expansion. Write an essay that
explains three (3) of those ideas.
Thesis: The picture contains three main ideas ___________, ______________ and
the impact on Native Americans.
Second:
Then-Read/Record your “Who” Essay and upload to
Google classroom “History Showcase”.
Class Code: iylb41m
22