Westward Expansion Exploded Moment

Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Teacher: Dulce Ricciardelli Class: 345 Multi-age Literacy Group Date: SY 2011/2012 Writing Genre: Short Historical Narrative from the perspective of a child during westward migration (Exploded Moment)

Topic: Westward Expansion/ Subject: Social Studies/ Text: Multiple texts of differing levels (examples: Historical Fiction Little House on the Prairie excerpts; (great list of juvenile hist. fiction) ; nonfiction and literary nonfiction)

Central Ideas

Content: After the War of 1812 America turned to exploration and settlement of territories to the West, which had been greatly enlarged by the Louisiana Purchase. Pioneer families swept westward and founded new communities throughout what is now the Midwest, and between 1816 and 1821, six new states were admitted to the Union. Westward movement from that point on had an irreversible effect on the land, Native Americans and settlers.

Reading: Readers read and analyze multiple texts to understand elements of writer’s craft and to gather evidence for understanding content

Writing: Good writing includes rich details

Focusing Question: How did Westward Expansion affect ordinary people?

Focus (answer to focusing question): Answers will vary (examples: hardships; new experiences/ adventures; new knowledge; émigré experience)

Building Content Knowledge

· On-going read aloud of historical fiction

· Short nonfiction articles detailing life during westward expansion

· Short first-person accounts of period (literary nonfiction: diaries, letters, newspaper articles)

· Documentary films

· Photographs and prints detailing period life

· Create community notes on social studies content pulled from the above sources that are visible throughout the unit of study

Understanding Writer’s Craft

· On-going analysis of read-aloud text using detail icons – “Noticing Elements of Writer’s Craft in XYX Book” chart

· Multiple mini-lessons around writer’s craft using picture books [passage of time: The Garden; 10 Minutes Till Bedtime; Henry Hikes to Fitchburg; Diary of a Worm; flashing back/ foreshadowing: The Summer my Father was 10; So Far from the Sea; The Leaving Morning; A Chair for my Mother], etc…

· Mark up excerpts of classic texts using detail icons (examples: Tuck Everlasting; Sign of the Beaver; My Wish)

· Clock exercise: read excerpt and clock how many minutes the author is describing in the passage

· Mark up student written narratives using detail icons, estimate the amount of time being documented in the passage, draw the scene and action

· Act it out activity: using cards with place names written on them, have students act out, show don’t tell, where they are using rich details in their language (examples: bedroom, kitchen, office), then details of the language choices are recorded and discussed

· Show it activity: using cards with situations or moods written on them, have students act out emotions, other students try to guess, then details of the posture and actions are discussed

· T-chart: Basic words (boring words) becoming $100 words

· T-chart: Basic sentences (boring sentences) becoming $1000 sentences

· Analyze photographs and prints from the period, then write short narratives from the perspective of one of the subjects in the image

· Write a short narrative in the first person, then write in the third person (ELL and IEP students take a pre-written narrative in the first person and using a frame write it in the third person)

Structures

· Analyze teacher models (score point 4 and score point 2 examples) deciding what makes each a good piece or not

· Analyze “strong leads” introduction examples

· Group analysis of story map graphic organizers

· Create a short narrative rubric and use it to score a teacher-written or anonymous student-written model

Writing and Revising

· Write a model as a group, first completing a graphic organizer (story map)that lay out narrative elements, then putting it together in a short narrative

· Students complete graphic organizer (story maps) that lay out narrative elements, and then draft first person narrative

· Write full piece independently (ELL and IEP students utilize a framed narrative and/or write another group model in small group setting

· Revise by way of sharing with a partner

· Revise by way of sharing with full group, projecting student work and marking up narrative elements and details

· Assess using rubric

Lesson Sequence

1. Daily Social Studies lessons to build content knowledge and examples of language from the period, historical fiction read-aloud

2. Introduction to the focus

3. Introduction to the writing task: writing effective and elaborate details

4. Daily lessons that build writer’s craft (see above)

5. Begin analysis of models

6. Group write

7. Create rubric as a group

8. Independent or framed write

9. Self-assess writing using rubric

Combating the Barriers to Writing

Ideas and Content: Social Studies class time and some literacy class time will be devoted to gaining content knowledge of the period. Discussions, short writing assignments and vocabulary-building activities will be well documented and visible in the classroom throughout the unit of study. An emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, such as transferring knowledge, not just recalling knowledge, will be essential to taking the students through the journey of gaining background knowledge of a complex historic period, and then writing from the perspective of that period. Along with gathering content and sharing new ideas, students will learn how to organize their thinking in graphic organizers and community notes, devoting less brain power to memorizing facts and more to applying the knowledge to the problem solving task at hand.

Effective Writing: A systematic series of lessons that engage students in examining and practicing elements of the writer’s craft will increase their own rhetorical effectiveness. The lessons in this unit, listed above, teach the importance of details and elaboration in quality narrative pieces.

Structures of Writing: Models, story maps, icons, and framed essays are used to simplify the process of forming an essay. Students can focus more attention on writing creative and rich details in their short narratives.

Motivation: Students will have ample practice during engaging activities that build confidence in their writing ability. Integration of the social studies content and writing work will ease transitions between lessons since everyone is coming to the writing time with burgeoning content knowledge of the period.

Assessment

· Formative assessment throughout unit of study: short writes; class discussions; graphic organizers; etc

· Assess level of understanding by assessing independent write

· Narrative rubric

Next Steps

· Plan ways to transfer learning in this writing unit to the next piece or unit

· How can I use successful student work from this unit to help individuals feel confident and motivated for the next project?

Resources

Westward Expansion/ Frontier Life Texts (links to Amazon.com):

Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier , Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier , Women of the West , The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West (Women of the West) , Frontier Women: "Civilizing" the West? 1840-1880 , Frontier Children , Children of the West: Family Life on the Frontier (both illustrated with period photographs), Frontier Family Life: A Photographic Chronicle of the Old West (Guild America Books) , Growing Up with the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier (Histories of the American Frontier Series)

Native American removal background information Library of Congress and Smithsonian

Edward S. Crutis’s: The North American Indian

Engravings and Photographs of Westward Expansion/ Frontier Life (links to Library of Congress Digital Images Collection):

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/92504636/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/92505911/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003674117/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/90708413/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005693378/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005693377/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005693380/

First Person Accounts of Westward Movement (links to Library of Congress – American Memory Project): Walker, William Z. Diary, 1849 Everett, Lucia Eugenia Lamb. Diary, 1862

Teacher Test Drive

Thump, thu-thump, thu-thump. The jarring bumps of the rutted trail have woken me again. As my eyes adjust to the dark space I can see that little Sophia is lying awake in her padded crate. She catches my eye and begins to wave her arms and feet all at the same time. As I get up, another thump of the wagon wheel thrusts me forward toward Sophia a bit more quickly than I had planned. I stagger another step closer to her and decide not to pick her up, but to sit by and sing her one of Mama’s songs. As I sing, an image of our cabin back east slides into my mind. Dark shapes fill that old, familiar space – Mama hunched over the open fire, Papa cleaning his pipe in the oak chair. It’s a memory that makes me feel warm and safe. As I look down at Sophia’s smiling mouth and round rose cheeks a dull pain sets upon my chest. My sweet home memories won’t be the kind that Sophia has when she’s grown like me. Why did we pick up and go west? How will Mama and Papa make us safe again? Will Sophia have good warm memories like me, or just ones of hunger and constant rambling?