Welcome!

Welcome to our fifth grade social studies project on Westward Expansion!

We are going to learn a lot about this time period during this unit and you will all be very active in participating together as groups. You will be using the Internet to research information on your given topics, (I will give you some Web sites to visit, which are already listed on this blog, and others you can find yourselves and I will approve them). Also, you will be working in PowerPoint to create slides to be put into one large PowerPoint that we will present to the class at the end of the unit.

You will also be working in your group to create a timeline/storyboard of your particular section of the presentation. The project will culminate in group presentations and we will also hang our work in school to show everyone what we have been working on. (More information about the presentation and the art project are found on the blog.)

You will have access to this blog during the time we are working on our project to write messages and comments to me and to classmates on what you have found, such as useful Web sites related to our topic or other articles you would like to share with us all. This will give you good experience too with communicating online by using blogs!

This will be lots of fun and I look forward to seeing all your great work!!!

Mrs. Rouse

Westward Expansion Unit Plan (and rubric) - PDF document

This page is for other teachers/educators only, who may want to use the same unit in their classrooms. Below is a link to the Acrobat PDF copy of the entire unit plan. This file can be saved or printed for your use. Please review and use!

Also, please send me a message if you have any questions or comments related to the unit plan.

(Similar student-friendly step-by-step instructions are on the next page for their use.)

Thanks,

Mrs. Rouse

https://acrobat.com/#d=0JltBF9pPq39el0-bRS7Nw

Project Timeframe

Our time frame for completing this project will cover several class sessions/periods. It may take more or less time, based on how we progress with the research of our material. Below is a breakdown of how we will accomplish this unit.

Session 1:
We will start the unit by having some classroom discussion and an overview of the subject. We will review the websites that we can gather information from. I have also given you links on the next page to start looking at the information we can access. We will also break up the classroom groups during the first week, so that you can start to work with your classroom groups and become "teams".

As a classroom, we will discuss how we will assess our work on the project. I will take our notes and ideas on how it should be graded and I will create a rubric we will use to grade all parts of the project. I will give this rubric to you by the second week so that you know how you will be graded and you can keep track of what you need to do in order to succeed. (See my blog entry on "Rubric Assessment".)

Session 2 & 3:
Based on your groups, each team will be given one of the following topics to focus on for your slides and art projects for the remaining time working on this unit and your presentations. During session 2 and 3 each group will use the Internet and other resources to research their topic and make notes of the information you feel is the most important to include in the presentation. I will give you some tools for noting your information so you can have good notes from which to work, such as KWL charts, Venn diagram worksheets, etc.

• Lewis and Clark Expedition


• Oregon Trail


• California Gold Rush


• Oil Fields of the Southwest


• First Transcontinental Telegraph


• Homestead Act of 1862


• The Grange


• Transcontinental Railroad

Session 4 & 5:
Each team will take their information and create 2-3 slides each in PowerPoint on their topic. At the end of the week after I have reviewed your information for correctness, I will place the slides in order in one final PowerPoint. We will add any additional information, such as slide transitions, images or cover pages and breaks. (I have created a separate blog page for you to see a sample of how you can create your PowerPoint named, Team PowerPoint Presentation Sample. We will also review PowerPoint in classroom together.)

The PowerPoint will also need to have some type of background sound and music in it. I have put a song from era in mine, and you can do the same. Listening to the songs and the lyrics will give you a better understanding of the era, too!

Session 6:
Based on each teams subject, we will also create an art project using images related to your topic. Images, cited correctly, can be found on the Internet. We will then take each groups "image collage" and create a large storyboard (chronology) of the era, which will be used as a visual during our presentation. After our presentation, this will be displayed in our classroom or our classroom hallway for everyone else to see! (I have created a separate blog page for you to see a sample of how you can create your art project, named Art Project Sample.)

Session 7:
Each team member will be responsible for playing a part in the final presentation of their material - this is very important that you participate so I know you have learned the information well! Each team will have five to ten minutes to present their material to the rest of the class and to the other grade classes participating in this project. The rubric will be used at this time to assess your involvement in the project and all other elements of the project.

Please let me know in the comments section below if you have any questions about how the project.

Thanks,

Mrs. Rouse

Internet Resources

You can access any of the resources below to research your topic. Also, please send a comment to me or place a comment on this blog with other useful resources that you find on our subject.

Westward Expansion:
www.modelschools.org/mspelins/west/
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/westward/index.cfm
www.kidinfo.com/american_history/pioneers.html
www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u5/index.html
www.loc.gov
www.lewisclark.net/
www.archives.gov/education/lessons/expansion-reform.html

PowerPoint:
Even though we will review creating presentations together in class, I have given you some basic PowerPoint Web sites to take a look at.
www.actden.com/PP/
www.cyberbee.com/powerpoint/ppkids.pdf

Photos:
We will also research the web to find interesting photos that visually show our stories. These photos can be used as a reference to get a better understanding of what you are reading, in our PowerPoint presentations and also in our art project/storyboard:
www.712educators.about.com/od/lessonsss/a/photos_lesson.htm


Music:
We will also incorporate some music into our presentations that will accompany our slides. Listening to the music and the lyrics of the songs, will also give you some more information on what was important to the people and what they were experiencing at this time.
www.empire.k12.ca.us/capistrano/Mike/capmusic/the_wild_west/gold_rush/gold_rush.htm
www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-channel.asp?ChannelID=153
www.kclibrary.lonestar.edu/music-1.html
www.freekidsmusic.com/

Storyboards/Timelines:
We will create our presentation in order and our art project that we create will be a large storyboard for our unit that can trace the history visually. We can also read a little about how it's important to create a storyboard/timeline for our information.
www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750735
www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson044.shtml

Web Quests:

www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/donner/

Team PowerPoint Presentation (sample)

Below is a sample PowerPoint for you to look at. This is just one small section of how the PowerPoint will look like and what I expect you to create. (I did a sample California Gold Rush section, just for you to see.) I do not want a PowerPoint with just images! It has to have information in it that you and the rest of the class can read to get information on the topic.

You can incorporate some images, as I have, and you can also include music to play in the background while you give your presentation! There is a lot you can do with PowerPoint and it will be really great to see all your work on the SmartBoard at the end of the unit!

Sample CA Gold Rush PowerPoint section

View more presentations from barneveld6.

Art Project (sample)

After researching your topics on the Internet, you will also need to find images to use for your section of the collage we will create. You will look for images in your teams and pick four or five images per team. You will then arrange your images in a file and create a small collage. You can use the draw/color tools in the software you use to jazz up your collages or write captions or color borders, etc. Have some fun with making the art part of project eye-catching!

Once you have created your collage, we will print them out and then create a large wall hanging of your images in a timeline/storyboard format, so for example, Lewis and Clark will be placed first, followed by the Oregon Trail, etc. We can then draw arrows or other indicators to show the order of the information we put together.

See my example below. I created a sample project for the California Gold Rush. Please do not use the same images, use your imaginations and come up with some great ideas! I used borders in a gold color, the draw feature and text boxes on my page - you can use similar tools, too.

Wwe gold rush_artproject

View more presentations from barneveld6.

Rubric Assessment - Grading

As we discussed when we started the unit, we are going to use a rubric for me to grade your participation, collaboration, research and presentation skills for the entire unit. The rubric was given to you and it is also attached in a link below so that you can look at it online as well (Acrobat PDF).

Please let me know if you have any questions!

(The rubric is also attached to the unit plan document found on the second page of the blog.)

Thanks,

Mrs. Rouse

https://acrobat.com/#d=5x-d7J6kJWnVqaTj4SNEvw