MS History Year 2 Unit 3: Westward Expansion & Native Americans – Project Based Learning

MS History Year 2 Unit 3 is a Project-Based Learning unit, emphasizing interdisciplinary perspectives through projects and simulations. Scholars will use these creative endeavors to engage with complex and challenging historical themes. This unit demands reading critically, drawing upon evidence to create convincing projects, and expressing arguments creatively both in projects and in writing. In this resource, you will find outlines for Lesson 8, the unit’s main project-based lesson. Please find the full unit on the Success Academy Education Institute.

In Lessons 7-9 of this unit, scholars will examine how federal American Indian policies evolved following the end of the Indian Wars and how these policies continue to affect Native American communities. In Lesson 7, scholars will simulate a  congressional debate over the Dawes Act to understand why Congress passed the act and how it aimed to encourage Native American assimilation into white American society while also gaining control of former tribal lands. In Lesson 8, scholars will create cartoons to illustrate the effects of the assimilation policies adopted by the federal government on Native Americans communities, especially to their land and to their cultural identities. In Lesson 9, scholars will examine how federal American Indian policies have continued to evolve over the course of the 20th century, using maps to illustrate the slow loss of control over tribal lands over time. By the end of these lessons, scholars will be able to articulate how post–Indian War policies affected tribal land and culture and be prepared to examine the lasting legacy of these policies.

In this lesson students will engage in a project-based learning experience to create their own cartoons and answer the central question: “Why did the United States adopt assimilation policies at the end of the 19th century?”

What Does Success Look Like?

Scholars understand the effects of assimilation policies on Native Americans and create cartoons that illustrate these effects.

Preparation

• To complete this project, you must:
  • Create a teacher model of an assimilation cartoon.
  • Ensure each scholar has the Assimilation Cartoon Planning Guide in the Unit 3 Workbook accessible.
  • Print one Assimilation Cartoon Template from the Unit 3 Workbook on cardstock for each scholar.
  • Gather and organize colored pencils, Sharpies, or markers for students

Do Now (5 minutes)

• Review the Big Ideas from the previous lesson by having scholars quickly share their takeaways from the lesson.

Study Mentor Images (20 minutes)

Launch (2 minutes)

• Review the Big Ideas from the previous lesson by having scholars quickly share their takeaways from the lesson.
• Pose today’s Central Question, and invest scholars in continuing their study of the evolution of government Indian policies.

Examine (10 minutes)

• Show Documents A through C on pages 28–30 of the Unit 3 Sourcebook to the class. Highlight features in these authentic examples to provide a model for scholar projects.
• Tell scholars to think about the following question as they examine the images:
  • How do these documents demonstrate the effects of assimilation on Native Americans?
• After examining each source, scholars should write a main idea next to the title of the source.

Discuss (3 minutes)

• Pairs of scholars discuss the following questions. Insist that scholars answer your questions with claims supported by evidence from the documents.
  • What are the main ideas in these images?
  • Why were these images created?
• Give scholars 2 minutes to revise their main idea annotations for the images based on the discussion.

Discuss (3 minutes)

• As a whole class, scholars discuss the question posed before examining the images as well as the following questions. Insist that scholars answer your questions with claims supported by evidence from the documents.
  • Why did many Americans promote assimilation policies?
  • How do these cartoons challenge the supposed “benefits” of assimilation

Planning (10 minutes)

• Explain that scholars will create their own cartoons, based on their knowledge of the impact of assimilation policies on tribal communities.
• Tell scholars that their cartoons must portray a powerful and compelling idea supported by strong visual evidence, similar to the sample documents.
  ○ Remind scholars that visual projects, just like written pieces, make arguments, and all arguments require a strong idea with supporting details.
• Tell scholars their cartoons may have text within them and must feature a title, a date, and a caption. This text must be focused on expressing the idea of the cartoon, which should answer the Central Question.
• Scholars may reference Documents A through C on pages 28–30 of the Unit 3 Sourcebook as they work.
• Scholars use the Assimilation Cartoon Planning Guide in the Unit 3 Workbook to plan their cartoons, writing their ideas and planning the details they will use to support them.

Mid-Workshop Teach (10 minutes)

• Share an exemplar plan. Have scholars discuss how the plan illustrates the scholar’s idea with clear and coherent organization.
• Share a non-exemplar plan. Have scholars discuss why the plan lacks an idea and/or clear and coherent organization.
• Ensure that scholars understand how this feedback is transferable to their own work.
• Scholars articulate to partners how they will revise their plans based on what they have learned.

Revise (10 minutes)

• Scholars use the transferable takeaway from the Mid-Workshop Teach to revise their plans.
• Spend 2 to 3 minutes working with three to five scholars.
  • Ensure all scholars are rereading their plans to ensure they have strong ideas and clear organization.
  • Help scholars to focus on what is most important: ideas and supporting details.
  • Coach scholars on how to implement the feedback you’ve given them.

Project Work (30 minutes)

• Scholars create their own cartoons on the Assimilation Cartoon Template in the Unit 3 Workbook, referring to Documents A through D as they work.
• Actively circulate to reinforce your expectations for strong ideas and persuasive visual evidence in project work and to determine the major trends in scholars’ work.
• Spend 2 to 3 minutes working with three to five scholars.
  • Have each scholar tell you the idea conveyed by his or her cartoon. Can the idea be made stronger? How can the cartoon illustrate the idea more effectively? Is the cartoon interesting and visually compelling?
  • Hold scholars accountable for implementing the feedback you’ve given them.
  • Hold scholars accountable for staying focused on conveying the devastating impact of assimilation.

Wrap-up (5 minutes)

• Show an exemplary project to the class. Look for work that clearly and compellingly illustrates the perspectives of late-19th-century Native Americans on assimilation policies.

Homework

• Scholars read “Indian Policy, U.S.” on Encyclopedia.com and “Obama’s Indian Problem” on the Guardian website in preparation for the next lesson.