Final BWD Plan for By the Great Horn Spoon and The Gold Rush of 1849

Dustin Ellis

Azusa Pacific University

EDTC-524 E21 Instructional Design and Development

Dr. Bruce Simmerok

Unit Topic: By the Great Horn Spoon by: Sid Fleischman

Subject: History Social Studies

Grade: 4th

Time Frame to complete: 1 - 2 months

Stage 1 - Desired Results

Established Goals:

All numerical references are for the History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools.

4.4.2  Explain how the Gold Rush transformed the economy of California, including the types of products produced and consumed, changes in towns (e.g., Sacramento, San Francisco), and economic conflicts between diverse groups of people.

4.4.3  Discuss immigration and migration to California between 1850 and 1900, including the diverse composition of those who came; the countries of origin and their relative locations; and conflicts and accords among the diverse groups (e.g., the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act).

TRANSFER

T1  Discuss the impacts the California Gold Rush had on the state of California (the land and the people) and what affects it had on the state in the 1800’s, today, and what will it’s legacy continue to be into the future.

T2 Discuss how ‘Opportunity’ played a role in the attitudes and actions of all the 49ers.

UNDERSTANDINGS

U1  People left their homes and families to make a perilous journey with the overwhelming idea that they could create better lives for them and their families, and then return home to make that better life happen.

U2  The events and people that participated in the California Gold Rush wrote not only their own stories, but changed the stories of both the land and people of California forever.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Q1  Why would people leave their lives behind to seek Gold?

Q2  Was it right for people to go to California and leave their lives behind for a period of time?

Q3  Do you think the Argonauts intended to change California as they did?

KNOWLEDGE

K1  When, from where, and in the most general sense why people went to CA for gold

K2  What mining was like, (ie. mining methods) how successful most miners were or were not.

K3  What the conditions were like for miners.

K4  What the outcomes were like for various cross sections of miners.

K5  What happened to miners after the Gold Rush was finished.

SKILL

S1  Working collaboratively to research the facts of the California Gold Rush

S2  Sharing orally, digitally, and in a written form what they have learned.

Stage 2 - Evidence

Evaluative Criteria:

• Participation in collaboration
• Accuracy
• Quality of products
• Clear explanations
• Historicity

PERFORMANCE TASK(S)

These tasks will show understanding through collaborative and social interactions through:

• engaging in teacher prompted blog posts relating to the impacts the California Gold Rush had on both the people and land of California, and how those legacies are still impacting life today.  Performance will be determined via rubric.

• students writing letters (either physically or via digital means) to other 4th grade students studying By the Great Horn Spoon and the Gold Rush while they are in character as either a character in the novel, or by taking on the persona of a person during the Gold Rush (i.e. a miner, a shopkeeper, a Chinese immigrant miner, a native american, a californio, a former slave, etc.)  Performance will be determined via rubric.
• students engaging in a staged historical debate regarding the essential questions:
• Why would people leave their lives behind to seek Gold?
• Is it right for people to leave their lives to go to California to seek gold?
• Do you think people intend to stay in California after they get their share of the rocks?
• students will throughout the unit create and contribute to a project wiki that will demonstrate the knowledge goals articulated in stage 1. This will serve as a project portfolio and performance will be determined via rubric.

OTHER EVIDENCE

• artwork and or artifacts included for the wiki
• vocabulary quizzes throughout the unit

Stage 3 - Learning Plan

Learning Activities: Coded using W.H.E.R.E.T.O. and A.M.T

1. H Begin with the teacher dressing up as Captain Swain.  Perform a monologue describing the situation that happened after the Lady Wilma docked in Yerba Buena harbor.  Incorporate the Essential Questions from stage 1 into the monologue in authentic ship captain speak.  (Use a visual Google Slides Presentation [video or images only, NO TEXT] and or visual aides). A

2. W In a separate session, perhaps adjacent to #1 present each student with a prepared and attractive high quality copy of the Essential Questions for continued reference, and have a KWL discussion using K-W-L Creator.  Also discuss that a class portfolio that will be constructed and show examples, or tell that they are the first and will be providing excellent examples for students to come!  M

3. E Students will be reading By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman throughout the project to both drive the relevance of the activities, and to create examples to relate the activities to. A/M/T

4. E Students will learn key vocabulary as needed and post artifacts of understanding (definitions, images, video’s) on the project Wiki. A/M

5. E/R Each student will comment on teacher created blog posts (after being taught correct blogging etiquette) related to transfer, understanding and essential element goals in Stage 1. M/T

6. E/R Students will work collaboratively (groups of no more than 3) to create historical fiction narrative stories that use the theme, “you are a 10 year old from Hartford, Connecticut in 1849, and you decide to book passage on a clipper ship bound for California to seek your fortune in the gold-fields.”  They will use Google Drive both synchronously and asynchronously to create the stories. Published stories will be posted to the project wiki. M/T

6a. E-2 Stories will be peer reviewed and commented on by other groups upon completion of first several drafts.  Using comment feature in Google Drive, but not edited! Students will make edits to their own stories as needed.  A lesson on appropriate peer commenting will be included.

7.   E Students will research the differences in the value of money around the world and how gold relates to this value.  They will also learn about the ethical problem of price fixing and price gouging based on cultural events such as the Gold Rush or the 1994 Northridge earthquake. M

8. E/E-2 Students will conduct research (find images and stories) about miners from several different cultural groups (group will be assigned by the teacher, one per group of students) and look for reasons why they left home, and how they were treated in California and why.  They will present their findings in a mostly visual Google Slides Presentation to the class.  These will also be put on the wiki. M

9. T Students will research current day California towns (towns will be assigned by the teacher, one per student) and they will answer two leading questions, “What kind of mining happened in this town during the gold rush, who settled here after the gold rush, and has this legacy affected the town today?”  Students will present their findings as a 1 page poster created using Smore.com to be shared on the wiki. T