Lesson Plan: Westward Expansion

Describe the context:

(Students, grade level,
geographic location, community
and school population, socioeconomic profile, school
culture, availability of
technology, content, learning
styles, ethnic breakdown,
special needs, . . Be detailed.
Do not make casual
references, or surface level
connects to students
backgrounds, interest, and
learning needs. Provide details
on class demographics,
significant subgroups of
students with similar
characteristics and varied
strengths (including personal
cultural and community assests.
Identify their learning needs.
Identify their strengths, learning
styles.) Include the schools
philosophy, vision and mission
statement. Explain how these
affects, or guides instruction in
the classroom.

This lesson will be taught at a private school called

Blessed Sacrament School on 41st and Oklahoma, which is
two blocks north of Alverno College. This is more on
Milwaukees southeast side and has a mixture of
nationalities. However, a good majority (70%) of the
students that attend Blessed Sacrament are Hispanic and
20% are Caucasian with the other 10% being mixed
races, and black, non-Hispanic. There are 160 students
enrolled currently and 94% of them are in a reduced or
free lunch program. Students who attend Blessed
Sacrament are required to wear uniforms.
In the particular class that I will be teaching this lesson to,
there are 9 boys and 3 girls. Of which, there is one
Caucasian female and the rest of the students are
Hispanic. I spoke with several of the students and most of
them said they learned English as a second language and a
lot of them do not feel confident with their spelling ability.
Most of the students interact with each other and they do
not seem to really have a clique they hang out with. I
think since they are the only eighth graders in the school
they are just a close-knit group. The one Caucasian female
prefers to hang out with her friends that are in the sixth
grade and does not feel as though she fits in with the rest
of her class.
Blessed Sacrament Schools slogan is that its the school
with a heart. I have seen this played out by how much the
teachers and faculty care for the students and their needs.
I have seen this with my cooperating teacher and the way
she helps her students when they dont understand
something and goes out of her way to explain things more
in depth to an individual student if it is needed. This is
their mission:
We the faculty and staff at Blessed Sacrament school, in
partnership with the parent community, are dedicated to
educating each child holistically. We embrace the mission
given to us by Jesus Christ to teach and serve. We foster faith,
honor, respect, and responsibility in a Roman Catholic
educational environment.
Students will embark on life experiences that will utilize both
academic and spiritual lessons at our school. Working to

improve one's self will be emphasized as each student

continues on their life-long process of learning. Everyone is
special and everyone matters at our school!!! We look
forward to having your son or daughter become part of our
family.
The community assets of Blessed Sacrament are Alverno
College, that is two blocks away, a public park with outdoor
equipment, another elementary school that is three blocks
north of Blessed Sacrament, and also that the school is
religiously based through being part of the Blessed Sacrament
Church.
Learning Goals/Objectives
Content Standards (CCSS)
Affective Objectives: (related to
student attitudes and values;
think dispositions)
Cognitive: (related to the
mastery of knowledge: think
Bloom)
For help please go to Blooms
Taxonomy of Learning
Domains

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.2.B

Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts,

definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information
and examples.
B.8.7 Identify significant events and people in the major eras
of United States and world history
Affective
Students will:
Listen to instructions and know what needs to be
accomplished with their task.
Actively participate in discussion.
Cognitive
Students will:
Be involved in discussion out Miners, Ranchers, and
Homesteaders.
They will create notes from their textbook about Miners,
Ranchers, and Homesteaders.
Read aloud and underline an article.
They will answer questions related to the article.
Create a Climograph.

Pre-Assessment: (How do you

know what to teach and how to
teach it? What did you do to
discover this information?)
Academic Language

Students have been learning about the Civil War and starting
the Reconstruction period. This is acquired information from
being in the class with the students and discussing with their
teacher what they have and have not covered. As far as how
to teach the students, I will be aligning with how their regular
teacher teaches the class. I do not want to go completely out
of bounds and too different from the way she does things as
the students may not know how to act or respond in a new

Assessment
(Criteria / Look Fors; How will
you assess learning? What will
you do to know if the students
have met the objectives?)

What Rubrics or other

scoring scales will be used? Be
specific (Identify the criteria
you will use. This should align
with the objectives and CCSS.)
Students SelfAssessment

situation, especially since I am only teaching them a few

times.
Academic Language: Students will be learning about the
terms Rancher, Miner, and Homesteader. They will also learn
vocabulary words such as boom, bust, and refinery, long
drive, and prospector.
Assessments: Students will be answering questions after they
read the article. Students will need to underline in the article
where they found the information for particular answers.
Students will also have critical thinking questions to answer;
for these answers I will be looking for comprehension of the
article overall.
For the Climograph, students will complete their own
Climograph and I will be looking for labels, correctly
numbers, and they plotted the dots correctly on the graph.
Students will answer two questions on loose leaf paper at the
end of class.
1. What was the most interesting part of the west that
you learned about today?
2. In your opinion, what information needs to be
discussed further for you to understand better?

Enduring
Understanding/Essential
Question(s): (What are the big
ideas? What thought provoking
question(s) will guide the
lesson?)

What were some of the major factors in the Westward

expansion of the United States?

Instructional Procedures
Learning Strategies: (Be sure
to include specific strategies to
develop literacy of content)

Introduce the lesson for the day: Westward Expansion

Ask students where people were living during the Civil War,
then ask what states would be considered the West in the
United States. See how many states students can name.

Introduction
Pre (How will you motivate,
activate prior knowledge, what
will be your hook? . . .)

During

Ask students why people would want to move to the West

when they were already settled in the East. After students
respond, have them take out their history books and turn to
page 486, chapter 3.
Have students take out a piece of paper and tri-fold it, and tell
them the 3 main groups of people that moved out west and
have them write them down: Miners, Ranchers, and
Homesteaders. Go over the 3 groups and discuss why they

Demonstration

Participation

Practice

Closure
Post
Extension

would want to move out West instead of staying settled in the

East. Pages 486-489
After discussing the 3 groups, handout article on William
Henry Jackson. Have students participate by taking turns
reading aloud through the article. Then have students answer
the questions on the second page, but they need to go through
the article and mark or underline where they found the
information. This article will expand on some of the reasons
for Westward Expansion.
Ask students what some of the complications could have been
for William Henry Jackson when he was taking pictures of
the West. Or what would people want to know before they
move out West? Talk about climate and have students turn to
page 493. Discuss the Climograph and why it would be
important to know what the weather is like. Ask students the
questions on page 493 about the graph. Handout graph paper
and have students make graph of weather in Wisconsin.
(Provide weather information for students)
Ask students if they have any questions.
Have students write on a piece of paper their answers to the
two exit questions.

Time
(Total and Specific)

Total of 50 minutes for whole class.

Student Accommodations
Differentiation/Planning for
Individual Needs (IEP goals if
known; RtI; learning styles):

There are no known IEP students in this class. I will be using

different methods to teach each item for the differentiated
learning styles that I have in the classroom.

Resources and Materials:

(Include technology where
applicable/available/appropriate
)

Textbook, loose leaf paper, pencil or pen, handouts,

whiteboard
I do not have the exact name of the history book the students
are using, but the information is from their school text book.
The article is from American Art and Music. No technology
will be used for this class.

Reflection on Planning

Using Howard Gardners theory, I wanted to reach as many

(Explain which
theory/theorists you are using
to guide your
practice/planning of this
lesson? Be sure to explain the
connections.)

types of learners as I could in this lesson so I tried to use

different methods to teach each item. The article allows
students to be able to read along as well as having it read
aloud for students who were auditory learners. The pictures
and graphs being discussed in the textbook will help visual
learners. Students who are hands-on will benefit from
completing their own Climograph.