Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• People and events are organized chronologically to increase understanding historical relationships.
• Processes and resources of historical inquiry allow for interpreting the past and analyzing present day issues.

• Societies are diverse and change over time.

• Religious beliefs and philosophical ideas change societies.

• Maps, globes, and other geographic tools are used to acquire process and report information about the past and present.
• Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.
• Migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity.
• Foreign policy influences the interaction of nations.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• How do maps of Native American settlements and migration increase understanding of history?
• How did the regions change as Native American tribes migrated further west?
• Which migration patterns/routes of US and other populations across North America were most used? Why?
• What information about this migration is provided in different primary and secondary sources?
• Which events in the chronological progression of territorial acquisition for the US were the most important? Why?
• What can information on a map of territorial acquisition reveal that information on a chart or time line cannot?
• How did the US interact with other nations to acquire territories?
• How did migrating people and indigenous peoples view western expansion- as a blessing or a threat?
• How did religious and philosophical ideas affect the interaction of migrants/immigrants and indigenous populations?
• Which type of source provides the best information about territorial expansion and why?

Standards and Benchmarks

• History 1: Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
• Benchmark B: Students use chronology to organize historical events and people.
• History 2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
  Benchmark A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past and how to obtain and analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.
  Benchmark B: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information (e.g., letters, diaries, literature, text, newspaper, art, music, technology, oral history, interviews).
  History 3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
  Benchmark
• Benchmark B: Students understand the history of social organization in various societies.
  History  5: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
  Benchmark A: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
  History  6: Students know that religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces throughout history.
  Benchmark A: Students know the historical development of religions and philosophies.
• Geography 1: Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.
  Benchmark A: Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
  Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
  Benchmark C: Students know how culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.
• Civics  3: Students know the political relationship of the United States and its citizens to other nations and to world affairs.
• Benchmark C: Students understand the domestic and foreign policy influence the United States has on other nations and how the actions of other nations influence the politics and the society of the United States.
• Civics 4: Students understand how citizens exercise the roles, rights, and responsibilities of participation in civic life at all levels.
• Benchmark B: Students know how citizens can fulfill their responsibilities for preserving the constitutional republic.
• Economics 3: Students understand the results of trade, exchange, and interdependence among individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies.
• Benchmark A: Describe the relationship among trade, specialization, and interdependence.
• Benchmark B: Describe how economic interdependence between countries around the world affects the standard of living.

District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:

• Westward Movement: Go West! (@ 14 days)
• From Sea to Shining Sea - U.S. Acquires Territory (@21 days)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/index.html - In pairs, students share a computer and each receive a "leg" of the journey to research and record (found under journal log).  After documenting what they learn from journal entries, historical photos, drawings, etc., each writes 5-6 sentences describing the trip in his/herown " journals."  Then they exchange papers with their classmates and, using what their classmates "observe and experience,"  describe a different leg of the journey. They do this "write around" for different legs of the journey four times.  They can also draw the "legs" of the journey on a US map. 

Parent Resources