Fourth Grade Social Studies
Planning for Unit 6
Expansion of a New Nation
Marlo Mong
February 23, 2009
How do I know what concepts to teach?
• Use your curriculum map!
– Unit One on every map lists the
concepts used for the rest of the
year
– Every piece of content for the rest
of the year is listed under a
relevant concept
• These are suggestions – make them
work for your class!
• Keep up with it all using a
concept wall.
Rock the Vote!
The Abolitionist Movement
•Help students understand the conflict over slavery and why change was needed.
•Why was this wrong? Think about the Enduring Understanding of Beliefs and Ideals.
Women’s Suffrage (…and suffrage in general)
•Again, think Conflict and Change.
•Why should groups of people not have the same rights as others if this is a democracy?
•Discussing the biographies of Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Staton, and Sojourner Truth
•The idea should be how their actions would help or harm those around them.
•Birth & death dates? No
•Think about the significance of the work done by these women to help create these needed
changes.
Moses: When Harriet Tubman
Led Her People to Freedom
By Carole Boston Weatherford
Publisher: Hyperion Books for
Children
Elizabeth Leads the Way:
Elizabeth Cady Staton and the
Right to Vote
By: Tanya Lee Stone
Publisher: Henry Holt &
Company, Incorporated
Only Passing Through: The
Story of Sojourner Truth
By Anne F. Rockwell
Publisher: Random House
Children's Books
Framework Support
Suffrage Cartoon
• Part 1: Students will use the political cartoon
analysis worksheet to analyze the political
cartoon titled, "Election Day" located at the
Library of Congress website. Students will
discuss how and why the cartoonist depicted
the man and woman the way he did as the
woman goes off to cast her ballot.
• Part 2: Students will analyze the persuasive
writing techniques of the New Jersey Woman
Suffrage Association's broadside poster that
encourages working men to let their wives
have the vote.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/D?suffrg:1:./temp/~ammem_
MW5Z::
Go West Young Man!
The United States in 1830
The United States in 1860
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/histus.html#growth.html
The United States in 1800
Create overheads of maps that show the
westward growth of the United States.
Overlay a physical map on the territorial
maps to help students find the physical
gateways or barriers that the pioneers would
face during their travels.
http://www.freeworldmaps.net/printable/us/us1.jpg
The Native Americans
• Many stories about westward expansion and the
American pioneers include depictions of Native
Americans.
– Make sure they are authentic and
accurate.
• http://www.oyate.org/aboutus.html
• http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.co
m/
• The standard has been revised next year to include the
impact westward expansion had on Native Americans.
Framework Support
Lewis and Clark
• President Jefferson wanted to find out as much as he could about the new territory the United States had
just purchased from France. This vast and uncharted land held great promise: Could a transcontinental
waterway still be located? What new and valuable natural resources could be discovered there? What
was the terrain like? Were the Native Americans hostile or friendly?
Who: The students will imagine that they are recruiting a team to set out on an expedition to the Pacific and
back. They will describe the type of people needed to successfully make such a trip. The students will list
the most important traits members of the expedition should have. They will create applications for the
expedition.
What: The students will compile a list of supplies needed for the expedition. Students will compare their lists
with the actual supply list from the Lewis and Clark journal/notes. Students will create a chart that
compare the two lists and addresses the following questions: How were they alike? How were they
different? What surprises were there?
Where: Students will use a map to trace the route of the Lewis and Clark and Clark Expedition. With a partner,
students will select three points along the route and describe what Lewis and Clark may have seen and
done there. Students will determine the longitude and latitude coordinates of each of the three locations.
Students will practice Map/Globe Matrix skills in this part of the activity.
•
Interactive Lewis and Clark Website Including Map and Journal Notes
Integration Idea:
In a follow-up activity in the framework, students write a headline that describes the excitement of the
Lewis & Clark expedition. Teach the difference between active and passive voice in writing. Help
students understand how to use strong active verbs and adjectives to create concise headlines.
Can’t Ya Hear the Whistle Blowin’?
Students need to explain how new technology helped encourage movement from the original 13
states.
•Compare/contrast travel by wagons vs. steamboat/locomotives
•Think about the economic impact of being able to distribute goods and services between
the established cities/towns of the east with the new settlements of the west
•Production, Distribution, Consumption-Which seems more practical/profitablecarrying goods in wagons which could take days and days and days and days…or
using the rails and boats?
•The telegraph connect the rails and people•Trains could be dispatched by telegraphs AND communication is quicker over long
distances.
Letter written by Samuel Morse
that includes drawings of
telegraph poles.
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mm
orse/018/018001/0096d.jpg
Schematic and plan for the first steam
locomotive in the United States. It could pull
almost 100 tons at 4 mph on a level grade.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr141.h
tml
Students can take a ride on
a steamboat with Marco Paul
as he down the Erie Canal.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/l
essons/00/canal/winkle.html
Framework Support
19th Century Technological Innovation - Part II
The teacher will prompt a classroom discussion by asking: Which
technological innovation had the most impact on change in the lives of
Americans: the locomotive, the steamboat, or the telegraph?
Students will work with partners to discuss and rank the three
innovations according from most to least impact on change in
Americans' lives.
Students should rank the technologies in each of the following
areas: work and productivity, communication, travel and transportation
The student pairs will write a short justification for their rankings to
share with the class.
Part I of this activity includes background information that will support
student discussions.
Make It Integrated - Think about…
Technological Innovations and Time, Change, and Continuity
Using different size objects, observe how force affects speed and motion;
demonstrate the effect of gravitational force on the motion of an object
Balanced vs. Unbalanced forces
Informational reading and writing strategies; compare/ contrast
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/va
nga/html/vanga_homefram
e_default.html
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Resources
From the America Story Collection:
– Harriet Tubman: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/activists/tubman
– Elizabeth Cady Staton: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/stanton
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov12.html: Learn about the life of Elizabeth Cady Staton and see
original drafts of some of her work. From the American Memory Collection, Library of Congress.
http://www.sojournertruth.org/History/Default.htm: The Sojourner Truth Institute website has biography,
timeline, and photographs to share with students.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html: In her own words, she dictates her life story and
this becomes The Narrative of Sojourner Truth.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/tubman/: A guide to all the resources from the Library of Congress about
the life and work of Harriet Tubman.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/1800/louisianapurchase/index.shtml: Map and information
about the Louisiana Purchase.
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/tomthumb.htm: The story of the first locomotive in the United States.
http://www.steamboats.com/museum/: A virtual museum of the steamboat – then and now.
http://www.steamboats.com/research/classroom.html: From the virtual museum, students can find resources
to help them learn more about the steamboat.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/transport/steamboats.html: Interesting article about the history of
the steamboat.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition/exhibition_1_2.html: America on the Move-This is from
the Smithsonian Institute and discusses how transportation would connect the expanding country.
Resources for Integration
Harriet and the
Promised Land
By: Jacob Lawrence
Publisher: Simon &
Schuster Children's
Publishing
True Heart
By Marisa Moss
Publisher: Silver
Whistle
Sojourner Truth: Preacher
for Freedom and Equality
By: Suzanne Slade
Publisher: Picture Window
Books
Ste-e-e-e-eamboat aComin'!
By Jill Esbaum
Publisher: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux
Quick Annie, Give Me a
Catchy Line!
By: Robert Quackenbush
Publisher: Prentice Hall
The Ballot Box Battle
By: Emily Arnold
McCully
Publisher: Random
House Children's
Books
Seaman’s Journal: On
the Trail with Lewis
and Clark
By Patricia Eubank
Publisher: Ideals
Publications
When Harriet Met
Sojourner
By: Catherine Clinton
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publishers
Voices of the Alamo
By: Sherry Garland
Publisher: Pelican
Publishing Company,
Incorporated
The California Gold
Rush
By: May McNeer
Publisher: Random
House Books for
Young Readers