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This Transforming the West: Did the Reality Match the Expectations for Kansas Homesteaders? lesson plan also includes:
- Transforming the West: Did the Reality Match the Expectations for Kansas Homesteaders? (.html)
- Resource Sheet #1: Kansas Farmers: Evidence - Group 1 (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #2: Kansas Farmers: Evidence - Group 2 (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #3: Kansas Farmers: Evidence - Group 3 (.pdf)
- Resources Sheet #4: Kansas Farmers: Evidence - Group 4 (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #5: Kansas Farmers: Evidence - Group 5 (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #6: Kansas Farmers: Evidence - Group 5(.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #7: Advertisement Analysis Worksheet (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #8: Railroad Poster for Lands in Southwest (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #9: Document Analysis Worksheet (.pdf)
- Resource Sheet #10: Kansas Farmers: Assessment (.pdf)
- Activity
- Vocabulary
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They expected good soil and hearty crops ... but they found buffalo chips and grasshopper plagues. Using an advertisement encouraging famers to go west, budding historians examine primary sources including letters, photographs, and newspaper accounts. They evaluate whether there was truth in advertising on the part of railroad companies wanting to lure white settlers to Kansas. An extension activity includes a scaffolded approach to writing a short essay evaluating the documents.
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CCSS:
Adaptable
Concepts
Instructional Ideas
- Use as capstone history lab or assessment on westward settlement in the late 1800s
- Further discussion by bringing in the stories of native peoples affected by white settlement
Classroom Considerations
- Learners must have some background on Manifest Destiny and westward movement
Pros
- Scaffolding makes assessment easy to adapt to a variety of learners
- Sources are a rich mix of mediums
Cons
- Resource only focuses on white settlers and not the story of Exodusters