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The Lewis and Clark Expedition

The following lesson plans enable you to engage students with primary sources related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

These lessons all follow the Spiral Question Format.  Spiral questions guide students from lower- to higher-level critical thinking skills so that they become comfortable and adept at analyzing primary sources. There are three levels to spiral questions: description, interpretation, and analysis.

Look HERE for instructions to guide you in creating your own Spiral Questions for primary sources.

The teacher-created lessons below include instructions, primary sources, and Spiral Question worksheets, among other materials, you can use in your classroom immediately.

Grade Two

Prairie Animals 

Grade Four

 Holding Council with the Indians

Grade 5/6 Intervention

 Council with the Indians

Grade 6

 Lewis and Clark Etching

Native Americans' Role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Grade 7

Jefferson Peace Medals

Grade 8

Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase

 

 

 

 

 

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Narratives of Slavery: Analyzing Primary Sources

In this 5 minute video teachinghistory.org  (you can also read a transcript), historian Richard Follett analyzes two narratives of slavery: an investigative report written by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1853 for the New York Times and Solomon Northrup's book Twelve Years A Slave. He discusses each document separately and then compares their very different perspectives on slavery in Louisiana's sugar growing parishes. Follett models several historical thinking skills, including: close reading;attention to key source information, including who wrote each account, when, and for what purpose; and exploring how to make sense of multiple perspectives and conflicting accounts. Note that the Primary Source Activity Assignment related to the The Slave Trade seminar is on organized on the theme, Point of View.
 

 

 
 

 

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