EDUC 2220- Educational Technology Lesson Plan Template

Westward Expansion

Beth Post

8th grade American History

Common Core Standards:

SS.8.10 The United States added to its territory through treaties and purchases.
SS.8.15 Modern and historical maps, and other geographic tools, are used to analyze how geography shapes
historic events.
SS.8.16 The availability of natural resources contributed to the geographic and economic expansion of the
United States, sometimes resulting in unintended environmental consequences.
Lesson Summary:

The lesson will cover the U.S.’s western expansion and focus on how the country was changed by this. How
the country managed the new territory and how it changed.

Estimated Duration:

The class periods are 45-50 min. and I plan for this to take about 6-7 periods (270-350 minutes total).

Commentary: For this lesson’s hook I plan on showing them the game Oregon Trail which they will need
for later on. I think the challenge will be understanding how the states formed and what they were at
different periods of time and possibly some of the vocab words. I will help them by showing maps over time
and explaining how these happened.

Instructional Procedures:

Day 1:
First 10-15 min are the pre-assessment a short quiz/worksheet that the students will fill out to the best of
their abilities.
10-15 min- I will introduce the kids to my hook (the Oregon Trail Game) I will walk them through how it
works and what the objective is.
15 min- Then I will show them how major cities changed overtime out west. Then, wrap up by informing
them that we are going to be learning how the western half of the United States was formed.
Day 2:
25-30 min- PowerPoint and worksheet guided notes: I will start the lesson on the Westward expansion. It
will be interactive to keep kids on their toes. The worksheet will be a guided notes of the PowerPoint that
they will be encouraged to fill out. The goal of the worksheet is to walk the students through how to take
notes and hopefully to get them to think about what works best for them.
15-20 min- Small group and class discussion over the topic: I will have a certain number of questions 1-2 per
each group and they will discuss them first amongst themselves and then share their ideas with the class. For
instance- The Goldrush sent a lot of people out west in hopes of striking it rich. What are some positives and
negatives about this?

Day 3:
25 min- PowerPoint: I will again cover information that they need to know and students will continue to
work on note taking.
15- 20 min- Map activity- marking important items on a map of the U.S. and creating logos or sayings to
help them remember what happened and where. The students are welcome to work in pairs or small groups
and I will have an example up on the board for them. The goal is for them to create something that they can
easily retrieve the information.
5-10 min- Pass out instructions for project and rubric: go over the project with them. By doing this today I
hope to give them time to brainstorm some ideas about what they would like to do.

Day 4:
10-15 min- Wrap up PowerPoint: I will finish any needed material that needs to be covered to get them
ready for the project and post assessment
10-15 min- students will do their post assessment quiz/worksheet
20 min- Take any questions they have on the project and get them to fill out the worksheet that helps them
think through what they are going to do for their project.

Day 5:
45-50 min- work on projects: Students are free to work on their projects, I will walk around and help with
questions or make sure they are on task.

Day 6:
45-50 min- work on projects: Students will continue to work on their projects and I will be around to help.
Students can also start helping each other more if they are comfortable with that.

Day 7:
45-50 min- final work on projects and turn them in
Pre-Assessment:
Identify vocab words and list or draw at least three things they know. Also, color in a map of territories for
their best guess or pre-existing knowledge of when they were acquired (I.E., the area Louisiana purchase
should be one color, Texas should be a separate color from that, and so on.)

Scoring Guidelines:
Students will not be formally graded on the assignment. I will do a check list for the definitions, and
map, and for the three things or more that they already know, I will be looking for completion. Could
they tell me three things that were not on the list of definitions, if so they will pass the section. The
overall take away will depend on how much time I have to spend on the lessons themselves. If I have
over 2/3rds of the class with less than half missed then I will still teach the subject but allow the kids
more time to explore on their own. They will get the same quiz just rearranged at the end of my
teaching and after that have a brief project.

Post-Assessment:
It is the same quiz just with questions in a slightly different order. I will use it to see what concepts the
students have a good understanding on and what they might still need help with. They will then do a project.
They can choose to make an updated version of the “Oregon Trail” game, make a comic, they can make a
puzzle of the untied states with a couple different versions (as in territories and current states), make a poster
on something that happened at the time like the gold rush, or anything else they believe they can create so
long as they clear it with me first.

Scoring Guidelines:
The quiz won’t be graded because the final project will. I will look over it the same way as the first
one for understanding.
The Project will be graded by how well they incorporate what they learned. I will be looking for 1.
Did they create a piece that was modeled after something we learned (1-5 scale barely connects to
material to 5 being connects well to material) 2. How well was the knowledge applied a. has a
excellent understanding and incorporated many different elements correctly b. has a good
understanding and incorporated many different elements well with 1-2 errors c. has a basic
understanding but there are multiple errors, but is recoverable d. poor understanding, there are
multiple errors that are detrimental to the work. (if they get c or d circled they should meet with me
to help them understand what they can do and what I can do to make things better.

Differentiated Instructional Support

Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated
students: They can choose to make the Oregon Trail game (which I see being a little challenging for some
students.), they can take on the be the teacher challenge and create their own lesson for how they would
teach a subject or the whole lesson (this has creative liberty, they can create a PowerPoint, a video, or
whatever else they can think of to be the teacher). In addition, they can choose to create their own game/app
that is not organ trail but covers something else in the unit. Also, they can choose to help a struggling student
if they finish early. However, they must not do the work for the other student, they can make suggestions or
offer their understanding of the material.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material: These students can choose to work in pairs on the project, but they will have to fill out a self and
peer review form at the end. They can choose to be peer mentored by a more advanced peer. They can look
at my power points or the extra videos I will have on the google classroom. I will also have worksheets that
kids can fill out that would help them think through their projects. Such as: Medium- poster, topic- Gold
Rush, three things I know that I can use in my project 1. 2. 3., and so on.

Technology Extension
I could create a google earth tour that takes them through the exploration of the west, if there is not one
already. I also plan to have an area on my Google classroom of videos where the students can go to explore
more or have a slightly different explanation of what the unit covers.

Homework Options and Home Connections

I do not intend to do homework, but they can work on their projects outside of class if they can and want to.

Interdisciplinary Connections
While covering the journeys people took, I can explain how geography changed which ties in science. In
addition, we can also read excepts from different people (autobiographies/journal entries) which ties in
Language Arts.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers Oregon Trail game

PowerPoint for lesson on smart board
Worksheets- quizzes, guided notes, blank map, instructions, rubric, and brainstorming
project ideas
Project materials
 For students Laptops/ tablets
Someway of taking notes, could be electronic or paper
Filled out quizzes and worksheets
Items for projects if they can (if not I will try to get them)

Key Vocabulary
 Louisiana purchase
 Expedition
 Territory
 Organ trail
 Mexican-American war
 Trail of tears
 Manifest destiny
 Land grant
 Homestead Act 1862
 Missouri Compromise 1820
 Compromise of 1850
 Gold Rush
 Santa Fe Trail
 Republic of Texas

Additional Notes

The lesson will not just be a PowerPoint, I will have times for questions and short videos or some other way
to involve the kids in the lesson. I also have tried to incorporate different ways for the kids to be active that
is not just me talking. The goal of this lesson it to make the students apply what they learned. I want them to
really think about how this area of the Country changed with the freedom of mediums to show me their
thoughts and ideas. I also gave them extra time to work in class because I know that not every student is
going to have the time or resources to work on it outside of class. This is also to try to discourage parents
from doing the work for their kids and so that if the kids have questions, I am there to help.