Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit VII: "What, Then, Is This American?" ca. 1865-1900

Lesson 2

Contents

Major Concepts

Objectives

Suggested lesson/activities


Major Concepts:

The rising tide of westward expansion shattered Indian civilizations in the American West, and gave rise to a thriving frontier civilization composed of such people as miners, cattlemen, and homesteaders.

Objectives: The student will be able to:

  1. Describe the relationship among miners, cattlemen, homesteaders, and the American Indians in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century.

  2. Summarize the effect the above relationships had on each of the groups.

Suggested lesson/ activities:

This is not to be considered a lesson in the usual sense of using a single class period or set of periods. It is a long-term activity, which may very well extend throughout this unit and into the next. Having studied American history in middle school, students should have a fairly good grasp of western expansion, at least from a descriptive point of view. The intent of this lesson is to integrate the study of American history with that of literature, using the American novel as the vehicle. This activity would work best if the social studies and English teachers could collaborate during this unit.

  1. Read aloud the opening pages of Book I of Willa Cather's My çntonia. (If there is a student who is an excellent oral reader/storyteller in the class, this is a good opportunity for him or her to assist the teacher in introducing a lesson.)

  2. Inform the students that My çntonia is one of several books written by Willa Cather describing the life of the western pioneers. In discussion with students, recall the information from the novel about the West in the late 1800s:

    Train travel from Virginia to western Nebraska; a Virginia boy and his family's hired hand are moving due to the death of the boy's parents and the hired hand's employer; ranch-wagon trip from the train station to the farm house of relatives; a Czech family, immigrants from Europe, speaking no English; signs of ethnic prejudice; vastness and difference in Western topography; "hawkers" on train travel.

  3. Explain to the students in a mini-lecture that changes were taking place in the American West just as they were in the cities between 1865 and 1900. Note the break-up of Indian civilizations and the role of the federal government in that process as well as the influx of homesteaders, cattlemen, and miners, all moving to the West for different (sometimes clashing) reasons.

  4. Distribute the assignment sheet "Reading Historical Novels" and explain that this is a long-term assignment with the finished product becoming a resource for their media center. [Teacher note: This assignment is one which, like many others in this curriculum, is an authentic assessment built into the lesson itself.]

  5. If time permits in this introductory lesson, read the last two pages of My Antonia.

A Crossroads Resource: Reading Historical Novels

Back to Unit VII: "What, Then, Is This American?" ca. 1865-1900