Lesson: The Journey West with Lewis and Clark

5th Grade Social Studies

Objectives:

After reading the text and participating in the reading strategies, 5th grade students will be able to describe the importance of Lewis and Clark's journey to American history.

After reading the text and participating in the reading strategies, 5th grade students will be able to create a newspaper article documenting a given aspect of the expedition.

BEFORE READING

I. Motivation

Teacher: "Close your eyes.   The year is 1803.   Your name is Captain Meriwether Lewis.   President Thomas Jefferson has just asked you to lead a journey from the Mississippi River to the West Coast.   The land west of the Mississippi is unknown and a land of mystery to the first Americans.   Native Americans, however, have been living in this land for many years.   The journey will be dangerous and full of many challenges.   If you complete the journey, however, you will be known as one of the greatest explorers in American history.   Do you accept this mission?   Are you willing to risk your life for the benefit of America?"

Accept student responses to this role-play.   Encourage them to share their feelings and discuss the challenges that Meriwether Lewis may have faced in making his decision.

II. Prior Knowledge

Teacher: "How many of you have heard of Lewis and Clark?   How many of you know what Lewis and Clark did?   Why was their mission so important to the United States"

Encourage an open discussion.   If students are struggling to provide answers or a few students are dominating the discussion, have children discuss what they know in their table groups.   If students have little to no prior knowledge at this point, have them think of questions they have instead of providing answers to the above questions.   This information will be beneficial as a formative assessment.

III. Purpose

Teacher: "Many people say that you can never know where you are going, unless you know where you came from.   As we begin our study on Lewis and Clark, we must realize that this land was undiscovered to Americans.   It was a land of mystery with new and sometimes dangerous experiences around every corner.   During this lesson, we will have an opportunity to read about Lewis and Clark's journey and hear their joys and challenges along the way.   By learning about the exploration of our country we see our past.   This knowledge of the beginnings provides us with a context to see how far our country has come in a period of only 200 years"

IV. Strategy Instruction

Teacher: "Today we will be using a reading strategy called Story Impressions so that I can find out what you already know about Lewis and Clark's journey.   You will be making predictions and assumptions that we will clarify and possibly change as we read the text."

MODEL

Teacher: "This reading strategy requires you to use important words that I have chosen and put them into a paragraph that makes sense and describes the topic.   For example if the topic we were going to discuss was the state of Colorado, I would give you the following words: Rocky Mountains, Denver, altitude, recreation, and Red Rocks State Park.   My paragraph could read like this:

Colorado is a state located in the heart of the United States.   It is mostly known for its beautiful Rocky Mountains where people can ski, white water raft, and hike.   Denver is Colorado's capital city.   It is known as the mile-high city because of its high altitude.   It is located one mile above sea level.   Many people come to Colorado to take part in the many recreational activities.   Favorite activities include visiting one of the many national or states parts such as Red Rocks State Park located in Morrison, Colorado.   Colorado is an amazing state filled with lots of fun things to do.

Note that words are used in the order provided.   Also note that words can change form as long as it does not change the meaning of the word (recreation to recreational)

GUIDED PRACTICE

Teacher: "Now, you are going to try this reading strategy using Lewis and Clark's journey as your topic.   First, I am going to give you a list of important words from Lewis and Clark's Journey.   You will write a paragraph using these words in the order that I provide them to you.   You may not know what every word means or what it has to do with Lewis and Clark's journey, but remember this is simply your best guess or a prediction.   We will clarify all of these words as we read the text!"

Provide the list of words for students to use on the white board or overhead.

Link to Word List Worksheet

Teacher: "Now that you have finished creating your personal paragraph, turn to your neighbor and share your work.   Be sure to discuss differences between your paragraphs."

Allow plenty of time for students to share their work.   Float through the room providing other ideas and suggestions to those who are struggling with the discussion phase.

Teacher: "Can I have two volunteers who are willing to share their paragraph with the whole class please?"

After students share, encourage students to again comment on differences between the two examples.

Teacher: "Everyone did a wonderful job with their paragraphs and our discussions.   Now we are going to read our text and see how close our ideas come to what actually occurred on Lewis and Clark's journey."

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DURING READING

The following section on readability will help you to determine if the text is appropriate for your students.   There are alternate texts listed in the differentiation section for readers above and below grade level.

Kroll, S. (1994). Lewis and clark: Explorers of the american west. Holiday House: New York.

TEXT WILL BE READ ALOUD BY TEACHER

READABILITY           

1. Graphic: Graphic cues throughout the text will be beneficial to the reader.   Detailed illustrations provide the reader with a mental picture that is true to form for the time period and setting in which the book is intended.

2.Semantic: Semantic cues in this text are structured in such a way that children can easily understand this expository text.   There are many technical words contained in this text concerning the journey.   The author, however, does a great job of providing context clues to allow the reader to maintain understanding and continue on with the text.

3.Syntactic: The sentence structure is complex for this age level with numerous compound sentences and challenging vocabulary words.   With teacher direction, however, this text is comprehendible for students.

4. Schematic: Students will already have prior knowledge from earlier grade levels about discovering America and most likely some basic knowledge about Lewis and Clark.   This book will tap into that previous knowledge and provide deeper meaning and understanding for students.   The illustrations, timeline, and afterward provide the teacher and students with in-depth knowledge that will be very beneficial.

5. Text Structure: The text structure is very sequential.   It is set up to document the travel of Lewis and Clark in a timeline manner, however it is written in prose.   This text also contains a true timeline of important events at the rear of the book and also an explanation of the Louisiana Purchase, which provides the context in which the Lewis and Clark expedition takes place.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION ACCOMODATIONS

Alternative Texts:

Above Average Readers:

Roop, P., & Roop, C. (1993). Off the map: The journals of lewis and clark. Walker and Company: New York.

Below Average Readers:

Adler, D. A. (2003). A picture book of lewis and clark. Holiday House: New York.

There are many options, besides alternative texts, to accommodate for students with special needs.  

Students with Disabilities:

•  Provide students with other extension activities that fit with their interests.   Allow them to brainstorm with the teacher ideas that will meet their needs.   All students have strengths and the teacher must adapt work requirements to meet their strengths and challenge them to grow.

•  Provide extra reading strategies to encourage comprehension.   Some students may need extra work with vocabulary where other students may need work on sequencing the text.

•  Pair struggling students with a strong reader who can help them along with the text.   Make sure that the "helper" student encourages the struggling read to be involved and no simply just do all of the work.

Talented and Gifted Students:

• Create a timeline using a word processor that can be given to the class to aid their understanding of the journey.
• Write a short biography paper about Lewis or Clark that documents their life before and after the journey.
• Create a class presentation (present the bibliography or dress up as Lewis or Clark and do a press conference concerning the journey.

V. Text Structure

Share with students that the text for this lesson is expository.    Students must know what to expect as they encounter the reading.   Be sure to have students recall the differences between narrative and expository texts.

Teacher:   "Today we will be reading an expository text.   Can anyone share with me the differences between narrative and expository texts?   This specific text is written in chronological order as it sequences Lewis and Clark's exploratory journey into the West."   As we read this story, we will be filling out a timeline to enhance our understanding of the events."

The following worksheet can be used as a template for student's timelines.   You may, however, ask students to create their own timeline to emphasize the layout and construction of a timeline. If the provided worksheet is utilized remind students that the date will be written horizontally along the bottom and the information corresponding with that date will be written at a 45 degree angle to the horizontal line. If the provided timeline is not long enough, provide each student with multiple copies which can be attached together. REMEMBER: Students are simply pulling out the main ideas to follow along with the text as it is being read. Lots of detail is not needed at this stage!

Link to Timeline Worksheet

VI. Vocabulary

The following words are critical to the students understanding of the text.   Students should be expected to use and instructed in using context clues to find the meanings of the following words.   Students should be asked to predict what each word means as they read the text using context clues.   After their initial definition is made, students may consult a dictionary to check their work.

1. expedition: "... the president had been discussing an expedition to the Pacific Ocean."

2. Corps of Discovery: "The expedition was called the Corps of Discovery ."

3. keelboat: "The group traveled in a fifty-five-foot keelboat ..."

4. pirogue: "...and in two huge dugout canoes called pirogues ."

5. magpie: "They were to take four magpies and a prairie dog..."

6. chasm: "...the Corps passed through a huge chasm Lewis named the Gates of the Rocky Mountains."

7. bluff: "High on a bluff three days later..."

VII. Content

This lesson meets the National Standards for Social Studies Instruction.   Specifically, this lesson fits in the Time, Continuity, and Change thematic strand of social studies instruction.   For more information on the National Social Studies Standards, follow this link to an online version.           

            http://downloads.ncss.org/NCSSTeacherStandardsVol1-rev2004.pdf

Little previous knowledge is needed to be successful with this lesson.   Any previous knowledge gained in earlier grades will only serve as a springboard for the activities involved with this lesson.   The teacher will be given an idea of previous knowledge as he/she uses the Story Impressions reading strategy in the "before phase" of this lesson.   This knowledge will help in modifying the text to meet all students' needs.

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AFTER READING

VIII. Questioning

Students will be using the QAR questioning strategy.   This reading comprehension strategy focuses on the question-answer relationship.   The relationships are described in the answer section of the following table.

IX. Writing To Learn Activity

Students learn best when they can apply their knowledge to new activities.   For this lesson, I have provided an extending activity that will be fun and challenge students" creativity.   Students will be writing a newspaper article as if they have the first-hand experience of traveling along with Lewis and Clark.

Teacher: "Extra! Extra! Lewis and Clark Explore America!   This is the title of your news article about Lewis and Clark's Journey into the unknown west.   You have been chosen for a special assignment.   As a newspaper reporter, you have been asked to travel along with Lewis and Clark and document their journey.   Be sure to include specific events that you think are important.   You are in charge of informing America of Lewis and Clark's journey!

Be sure to inform students of specific guidelines that you have for this article.   You will need to spend time with the entire writing process with students.   This project will take awhile if it is done correctly.   To shorten the amount of time for this project, you could assign each student with a specific event to cover in his or her article.   As a class then, you would have documentation of the entire trip.   It is a great extension activity when completed with care and precision.

X. Closure

Students will share their newspaper articles with the class.   (If you have the resources to publish students' work in a classroom newspaper, it would be a great way to culminate this activity.

Teacher: "Today we will be sharing our newspaper articles with the class.   I would like you to choose your favorite paragraph about the journey and read it to the class."

Students share their work.

Teacher: "Now that we have a better understanding of Lewis and Clark's journey, we see the importance of their expedition in the expansion of the United States.   Without them, it would have taken many years to move westward, probably with more complications and conflicts with the Indians as well.   Their journey has a very significant impact on American history - an impact which you can now explain and discuss with precision and expertise."

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