Unit Title: the Western Crossroads

Unit 2

Unit Title: The Western Crossroads

Unit Description: After the Civil War the regions of the West – the Great Plains, the Southwest and the Far West – played important roles in U.S. economic growth. People moved to the West, encouraged by the U.S. government’s offers of fee land and the promise of profits from ranching, farming, lumbering and mining. In many years of conflict and treaty negotiations, the U.S. government forced Native Americans to give up much of their lands.

Objectives: Students will:

·  Defend Native American resistance

·  Summarize western farm movement

·  Evaluate the cattle boom and its affect on the U.S. economy

·  Evaluate the mining boom and it affect on the U.S. economy

Summative Assessment: Students will be assessed with a comprehensive unit test.

Essential Questions: What strategies might people use to survive and prosper in arid or semiarid environments? What problems might arise when one group attempts to force another group to give up its way of life? How might a government promote economic development in a new territory?

Lesson Activities
(Formative Assessment) / GLEs / National
Standards / Level of Performance
Required / Teacher Support
(Resources)
Students will:
1.  Defend Native American resistance
·  Analyze why the U.S. government adopted the reservation policy.
·  Explain why so much conflict between native Americans and the federal government erupted in the late 1800s.
·  Determine how Sarah Winnemucca worked to improve conditions for Native Americans
·  Describe how the federal government attempted to “Americanize” Native Americans and how the Navajos responded
-  class discussion and daily assignments
-  Pair students and have them create illustrate lime lines for the period 1850-1890. For each entry on the time line, have students include a brief annotation describing its impact on American Indians.
-  video discussions
2.  Summarize the western farm movement
·  Analyze why many farmers moved to the West in the late 1800s
·  Describe the innovations that helped farmers cope with the western environments
·  Explain why and where bonanza farms developed
-  class discussion and daily assignments
-  Have students provide evidence from the text to support the following statement: Nature was sometimes the farmers friend but more often the farmer’s foe on the Great Plains.
3.  Evaluate the cattle boom and its affect on the U.S. economy
·  List the factors that led to a cattle boom during the 1870s and 1880s
·  Describe what ranch life was like for cowboys
·  Examine the factors that brought about the end of the cattle boom
-  class discussion and daily assignments
-  Students will write epitaphs for the death of the cattle industry. Epitaphs should describe the factors that led to the cattle boom and those that led to its decline
4.  Evaluate the mining boom and its affect on the U.S. economy.
·  Locate where important mining discoveries took place in the late 1800s
·  Compare early mining camps with more developed mining towns
·  Analyze why mining became big business
-  class discussion and daily assignments
-  powerpoint presentation
-  Students will draw scenes about mining life before and after big business came in and before camp and after town. / 2a.C, 2a.D, 5D
2a.C, 2a.D,
2a.C, 2a.D,
2a.C, 2a.D, / III.h, VI.a, VI.d
III.h, VI.a, VI.d
III.h, VI.a, VI.d
III.h, VI.a, VI.d / Text: Boyers, The American Nation: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1998
Computer/Smartboard
Internet:
www.cartermuseum.org/edu-guides/smith/resources/jobs.htm
Video “Fight No More Forever”