conley t4

							                    Teaching American History Project Lesson

Author: Torri Conley

Unit Title: Westward Movement

Lesson Title: The Homestead Act

Subject: U. S. History

Level: 11th grade

Length of Lesson: Three to four 45-minute class periods


Introduction:
This lesson relates to a larger unit on the U.S. Westward Movement. The larger
unit will give students a background on westward expansion, including;
exploration, the gold rush, establishment of the railroad, the need for legislation
concerning the distribution of public lands, etc. This particular lesson will
introduce the Homestead Act. Though some students may be familiar with the
concept of homesteading, they may not be as familiar with the events leading to
its creation.
By studying the textbook, the actual document, and various Internet sources,
students will become familiar with the Homestead Act and the requirements that
were associated with it. This lesson involves all students by incorporating
lecture, class discussion, and finally a scrapbook project.


Objectives:
Students will be able to read and understand the Homestead Act.
Students will be able to identify all requirements of any person filing for a
homestead.
Students will be able to discuss the topic of the Homestead Act, the people
involved, the hardships, and how it may relate to them (ancestors homesteading)
productively.
Students will be able to use the World Wide Web and the web site designed by
the teacher to create a scrapbook dealing with homesteading.


Nevada State Content Standards:

History Standard 2.0: History Skills: Students will use social studies
vocabulary and concepts to engage in inquiry, in research, in analysis, and in
decision making.
Benchmarks: 2.12.2 Integrate, analyze, and organize historical information from
a variety of sources.

History Standard 6.0: 1700 to 1865: Students understand the people, events,
ideas, and conflicts that led to the creation of new nations and distinctive
cultures.
History Benchmarks: 6.12.17 Explain the issue of Manifest Destiny and the
events related to the expansion of the United States, including: Louisiana
Purchase, Removal of the Eastern tribes, Oregon and California Trails, Mexican
War and Mexican War acquisitions, California Gold Rush, Homestead Act

Standard 7.0: 1860 to 1920: Students understand the importance and impact of
political, economic, and social ideas.
Benchmarks: 7.12.5 Describe the role of farming, railroads, mining in the
settlement of the West.


In Class Student Activities:
--Students will start by reading information provided in textbook about the
Homestead Act. The class will read this as a whole.

--Students will be given a copy of the actual language used in the Homestead
Act: http://usgovinfo.about.com/blhomesteadact.htm. Teacher will read to them
and stop to discuss the important areas, such as; citizenship requirements, land
requirements, and fees.

--Students will be asked to form groups of three and discuss what type of
individuals they think may have jumped at such an opportunity. After a few
minutes of discussion, teacher will ask for response from student groups.

--Teacher will make a list of possible homesteaders on the board. Teacher will
then ask students about what difficulties the homesteaders may have faced
during the trip west and what troubles may be waiting for them on their
homestead. These ideas will be added to the board.

--Teacher will ask students if any of them have family members that had a
homestead in Nevada or elsewhere. If the students don’t have any input here,
the teacher will provide a homestead story.

--After initial discussion is complete, students will be asked to create a scrapbook
about the homesteading experience. They will be given the following website
which will provide instructions and websites for them:
http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/scraphomesteami.html
(copy of information on website found on last page of lesson)
--Students will be asked to answer specific questions given to them on the
website by visiting other provided websites. When desired information or
pictures are found, they should be copied and pasted into another program
(Word, Publisher, Printshop, etc.). The scrapbook can be put together in the
other program.

--Students will be given at least one 45-minute class period for computer work,
but it will probably take closer to two. When the computer work is complete,
students will be given class time to present ideas found to either small groups or
the entire class.


Materials List:
1. Teacher created website:
http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/scraphomesteami.html

2. The following websites are found on the website mentioned above:
       http://www.nps.gov/home/homestead_act.html
       http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may20.html
       http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ngpquery.html
       http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ndfahtml/hult_home.html
       http://www.poncacitynews.com/community/localhistory/genhis/ncoha/hom
       stdact.htm
       http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/civil/homested_1
       http://usgovinfo.about.com/blhomesteadact.htm



Evaluation/Assessment:
Students will be evaluated on their contribution to initial discussion.
The main project, the scrapbook, will be evaluated in several ways. Students will
be evaluated on the amount of time that they stay on task while researching
websites and creating scrapbook. Students will also be evaluated on the quality
of the scrapbook itself and the manner in which they present to the group.

My Web Page is at http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/scraphomesteami.html
                The Homesteading Experience Scrapbook
  Web resources for creating a Multimedia Scrapbook on Homestead Act
                          created by Miss Conley
                            Eureka High school

    Introduction | Instructions | Background Information | Personal Stories &
               Memories | Women on the Frontier | Images | Tools




Introduction

      Back in the old days before 1994(when I was in high school),
      students had to use textbooks, magazines, television and the
      library to collect information. These are still good things, but now
      you can also use the World Wide Web. Explore the Internet links on
      this page and look for good facts, quotations, examples, images,
      sound clips and video files. Imagine that you're an explorer in
      cyberspace and your job is to come back from a virtual journey to
      the American West with lots of artifacts and souvenirs to teach
      people in this class what you learned about the Homestead Act!
      What's collected will be presented to the rest of the class in
      scrapbook form and posted on an in-class bulletin board about the
      Homestead Act. Make sure that your scrapbook answers all the
      questions that I listed below! Get creative and get to work!

      Keep this question in mind as you work:

      What was the Homestead Act? How did it benefit those that
      took advantage of it? Who did take advantage of it? What were
      settlers' citizenship requirements? What were their age
      requirements? How long did a homesteader have to reside on
      the property? What was a homesteader required to do to
      improve the land? What were the difficulties and hardships
      that settlers had to deal with? How were women involved in
      homesteading? What kinds of pictures can we find of
      homesteaders and their houses? What were the pros and cons
      of homesteading?




Instructions
  1. Explore the Internet sites linked below. You're looking for facts, quotes,
     examples, images, sound clips, videos, and animations that you think are
     important aspects of the topic.
  2. When you find something you like, check its Web page for a copyright
     notice. Often, students are encouraged to copy things that will only be
     used in the classroom. Sometimes people don't want their work copied at
     all. A good practice is looking for an e-mail link on the page and then using
     it to ask permission.
  3. Copy any text you want by dragging across the words, then using the Edit
     - Copy command on the menu bar. Paste what you highlighted into a
     basic text editor, word processor, desktop publishing program or
     multimedia program.
  4. Save images you like by downloading them. Paste the images you've
     downloaded into a multimedia, paint or desktop publishing program (like
     HyperStudio, Clarisworks, or PageMaker) or use one of the graphics
     viewers listed as Tools on this page to display your collection of images.
  5. Be prepared to cut anything that copyright owners tell you they don't want
     you to have.
  6. Once you have collected your information, go over it carefully so that you
     can give clear and thoughtful reasons why you found the things you
     collected especially important.




The Internet Resources



Background Information

     Homestead National Monument of America - Basic facts about
      Homesteading and the filing process
     America's Story from America's Library - Basic information about the
      Homestead Act and a few pictures
     U.S. Gov Info - Actual wording for the Homestead Act



Personal Stories & Memories

     Today in History - Memories about homesteading
     Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893 - Information on one land run for
      homesteads in Oklahoma
Women on the Frontier

       Fred Hultstrand Settling the land - Homestead related pictures and
        information on women's involvement in homesteading



Images

       American Memory Library of Congress - Search for Homestead related
        pictures




Tools

        References

               Hypertext Webster Dictionary
        Get definitions to many words quickly.
               Roget's Internet Thesaurus
        Find words that have similar meanings to words you run
        across.
               Grabbing Web Images
        Follow a friendly step-by-step tutorial on how to grab images
        from the Web.

        Software

              download JPEGView (Macintosh)
        Software for showing images
              download Lview Pro (Windows)
        Software for showing images
              HyperStudio
        Multimedia authorware used at many schools. Check out the
        Website for support, ideas, and the Netscape Plug-In
              Shareware.com
        Thousands of software programs you may want to download
        and use.
              HTML Tutorial
        Create your own Web page to show what you've learned.