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Migration West – Lesson Plan

Guiding Question

How did economic factors drive westward expansion and create new opportunities and challenges?

Objectives

Students will explain the various factors that drove immigration west and the challenges and opportunities experienced.

Resources

Student Resources:

  • Reasons for Migration Essay

Teacher Resources:

Engage

  • Display the image of the Donner Party Memorial and ask students the following questions:
    • What do you see?
    • What does body language tell us?
    • What story do you think this memorial is telling?
    • Look at the words on the plaque. Do they match the tone or the message of the statue? Why or why not?

Explore

  • Read the essay, utilizing an option from the Modes of Reading Teacher Support Resource.
  • Assign or let students pick an emigrant to the west (such as a member of the Donner party, cowboy, gold prospector, wife accompanying her husband, single young man looking for work, farmer looking for land, Mormon, Native American)
  • Each student, in their role, creates a “Voice of the West” mini-museum exhibit
      • Each student creates an exhibit panel for their assigned character-this should include a short bio, quote (written in character), and one symbolic item or image.
      • Students may need to complete additional research.

Assess & Reflect

  1. Class Discussion:
  • Prompt students to reflect on their learning with some questions:
    • If you were able to choose between moving west or not, would you have gone? What opportunities might you have gone after? Explain.
    • Imagine, because of your age, what emotions might you have experienced?

AND/OR

  1. Display and Gallery Walk:
  • Post the museum exhibit posters around the room. Other students walk through and complete a gallery walk sheet that asks them to identify common motivations, hardships, or contrasting experiences.

Student Handouts