Unit Plan: Traveling West: Then and Now

Lesson Plan for Monday Grade: 5th Social Studies Strand: History

Submitted By: Nicole Sheehan

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science Nevada State College Spring 2014 Instructor: Karen Powell

Lesson Plan for Monday

Strand: History

submitted by: Nicole Sheehan

B. Summary of the Lesson Plan: In this lesson students will be learning about the California Gold Rush appeal. We will watch a short video and do a writing activity that puts students in the place of a Gold miner(s) family at the time of the California Gold Rush. C. Basic Information: Grade Level: 5th grade Time to Complete this Lesson: 50 minutes Groupings: whole group and individual.

D. Materials: Gold Rush Video(watch on overhead)

link: http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=20874&CategoryID=5423 Writing Journals

Pencil

E. Objectives: o NV State Social Studies Standards G5.5.6 Derive geographic information from photographs, maps, graphs, books, and technological resources.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

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Lesson Plan for Monday

o

Strand: History

submitted by: Nicole Sheehan

Student-Friendly Standards

I can get geographic information from photographs, maps, and technological resources.

F. Vocabulary Gold rush- a time when people traveled quickly to where gold has been found because they
hope to find more gold

Donner party group of American pioneers who were on a journey to California beginning 1846. Travel- make a journey, typically of some length or abroad

G. Procedure: 1. First I will give students a brief verbal overview of what it was like to travel west and what many people were moving west for (gold). 2. I will then put on a video for the students explaining many different ways and circumstances people had to face on their travels west on the overhead. 3. After we will have a brief discussion on what some of the pros and cons were of each way to travel to California. 4. Then, I will ask students to open up their journals and write which one of the options they would chose and why? What made it better than the other options? Once students are finished they may draw a picture of what they think they may encounter on their trip. H. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding? I will use the students journal entries to measure understanding. Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson. I will use the explanation in the students journal entries to know if they understood that there was immense struggle in traveling west. I. Closure: I will have students wrap up journal entries and drawings asking each of them to make a list at their table for which traveling route they would pick (everyone can have different answers but just written on one piece of paper with their names next to it).

J. Reflection: 1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3

Lesson Plan for Monday

Strand: History

submitted by: Nicole Sheehan

I feel getting students to understand why the people the 49ers wanted to move west would be the easiest because they will understand gold has great value. 2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach? I think being able to get students to understand the struggle would be the hardest because its easy to travel to California now, but back then it was not the case. 3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson? I will extend this lesson having students actually pack for their trip as if they were children being taken with their families on this trip (following days lesson). 4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts? I will be walking around for those students possibly providing more examples and stories that could depict the concept better. 5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change? I might mix up the video a little more because it seemed to be more for just geography but I think the geography standard ties perfectly with history. (I just wasnt sure if it was okay to have a geography standard for my history unit). 6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part? It was difficult for me to find a quality video that wasnt inappropriate.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 4