Learning Like Lincoln: Investigating Pioneer Schools
by Kathy Miller
Download a copy of this Learning Experience
Students examine and analyze primary source Illinois maps, oral histories, and images of pioneer children and schools to build background knowledge. Research findings are used to conduct a mock pioneer school day, and the class will construct a virtual scrapbook to be archived in the school media center. The virtual scrapbook will contain researched questions about pioneer education and the oral histories of the authors.
Overview
- Subject:
- Language Arts / Social Sciences / U.S. History
- Time Required:
- Nine 50 minute class periods, Two 50 minute computer lab sessions.
- Grade Range:
- K - 5
- Understanding Goal:
- Primary sources provide both personal and factual historical information about pioneer education and the lives of pioneer children. Pioneer education was a reflection of westward expansion.
- Investigative or Essential Question:
- How can primary sources help us to understand the education of pioneer children during Lincoln’s era?
Materials
- Purpose of Library of Congress Items:
- Primary sources help students understand that history is about real people who lived in the past, and it influences the way people live today.
- Library of Congress Items:
- Bibliographical Information can be found in the PDF of this Learning Experience.
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- Additional Materials:
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- Abraham Lincoln Life Timeline
- Abraham Lincoln Speeches
- Lincoln and the Bible
- Historic Forks of the Wabash
- LaRue County Kentucky Area Attractions
- New Book of Knowledge, 2006 Scholastic Library Publishing Inc
- Schooling: Education on the Frontier
- The Blackwell History of Education Museum
- Fact Monster/Illinois Facts
- Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
- Thinkquest Jr. 2000 Pioneer Schools
- Pioneer Life
- Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic in the One-Room Schoolhouse
- Pioneer Sholes School
- Purdy School
- Forest Preserve District of Cook County Illinois
- Required Vocabulary:
- Essential question, primary source, oral history, quotation, log building, schoolhouse, homesteader, pioneer, sod house, slate, copy book, hornbook, McGuffey Reader, schoolmaster, quill pen, blab school
- Prior Content Knowledge:
- As the United States grew geographically, people moved westward seeking new lands and economic opportunities. Abraham Lincoln, from a pioneer family background, became the 16th president of the United States, wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, and led the nation through the Civil War.
- Technology Skills:
- Using KidPix or PowerPoint, students will create a virtual class scrapbook on pioneer education and the oral histories of the authors. Each student’s page will show evidence of a text box and an inserted image or illustration related to the researched school topic. Each oral history will contain a text box and image of the student interviewed. Images of each student will be taken with a digital camera. Researched sources will be listed at the end of the scrapbook.
Standards
- Illinois Learning Standards:
- 1, 1B, 1B1a, 1B1c, 1C, 1C1a, 1C1d, 3, 3C, 3C1a, 3C1b, 4, 4A1b, 4B, 4B1b, 5, 5A, 5A1a, 5A1b, 5B, 5B1a, 5B1b, 5C, 5C1a, 5C1b, 16, 16A, 16A1a, 16A1b, 16A1c, 16B, 16B1(W), 16E, 16E1, 17, 17A, 17A1b, 17C, 17C1b, 17D, 17D1, 18, 18B, 18B1b, 18C, 18C2
- For information on specific Illinois Learning Standards go to www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/
Actions
- Description of Teacher Actions:
Activity One
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Begin with questions about why children attend school, and were pioneer children required to go to school. Revisit previously taught information on Abraham Lincoln’s life by examination of Interactive Timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s Life. Ask questions about the length of time Lincoln attended school and what he said about his own education. Examine quotations from Abraham Lincoln on Education/Abraham Lincoln Online. Write students’ responses on a large posted class chart.
Ask the Essential Question: How can primary sources help us to understand the education of pioneer children during and after Lincoln’s era? Write this question on the class chart.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Ask students the meaning of primary source and an essential question. Use Abraham Lincoln’s Student Sum Book and the "Artifact Analysis Worksheet" (LOC) to model the examining and analyzing of a primary source.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Use student responses to define primary source and an essential question on the class chart. Share Meet Amazing Americans: Abraham Lincoln.
Activity Two
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Ask students questions about the geography of the nation and the population during Lincoln’s era.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Student partners will select, examine, and analyze several early Illinois and United States maps and compare these to present day maps displayed in the classroom.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Student responses about the changes in geography and population will be recorded on the “Map Analysis Worksheet” (LOC). Record conclusions on the class chart.
Activity Three
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Review definitions on the class chart from the previous lesson. Revisit the essential question.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Model how to use the “Photo Analysis Worksheet” (LOC). Student partners will select, examine, and analyze an image of a pioneer school and then complete the activity worksheet. Images are from the Library of Congress.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Students share findings based on the evidence found in the images. Record class inferences about pioneer school life on a large chart of “The More You Look, The More You See Photo Analysis Guide” (LOC).
Activity Four
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Review “The More You Look, The More You See Photo Analysis Guide” responses from the previous lessons.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Students partners will select, examine, and analyze images of pioneer children in a school or home setting using “The Photo Analysis Guide”.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Students share findings based on evidence found in images. Record new class inferences about pioneer life on the class chart “The More You Look, The More You See Photo Analysis Guide”.
Activity Five
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Review responses on the class chart. Students will read and learn about pioneer times from oral histories.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Read an oral history to the class and model how to use the “Oral History” activity page (LOC). Student partners or groups select, examine, and analyze an oral history of a pioneer.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Students share a brief summary of the oral history with the class. Define oral history. Record new inferences class on the class chart.
Activity Six
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Review the essential question and information listed on the class chart. Students will generate a list of unanswered questions about pioneer education.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Individual students and/or partners will choose a specific question and view web sites to gather information. Question topics could include types of school lessons, lunch foods, recess games, discipline, manners, and school supplies.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Students will complete one page of a class virtual scrapbook using KidPix or PowerPoint. Each page must include the question, the researched response, an illustration or image, and author’s name. Sources of information and images will be listed on the last page of the virtual scrapbook. This activity can be completed in a computer lab session or at a classroom computer station.
Activity Seven
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Students will participate in a mock pioneer school day based on their research. Sack lunches for the noon hour will be brought to school, and “pioneer type” clothing can be worn for the day.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Activities for the day will be “blab” lessons, recess games, building a 3D model of a pioneer school, creating a copy book, constructing a slate board, eating a pioneer style lunch, and completing schoolroom chores.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Children will write reflections about the simulated pioneer school day in their copybooks. The summary should include the date and a detailed summary of the pioneer school day activities.
Activity Eight
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Review the essential question. Pose questions about what schools in the future might be like and what people might want to know about our education.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Students will create an oral history of a classmate. The class will determine what specific questions should be asked. Partners will interview each other by recording or writing responses.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Each student will create a typed page of the interview to be added to the virtual scrapbook. It will include the name of the student interviewed, his or her imported image, and the name of the author. This can be done at the computer lab or at a computer station in the classroom.
Activity Nine
Activate Prior Knowledge/Anticipatory Set:
Review the essential question and general findings.
Model Learning & Student Investigative Activity:
Review the virtual scrapbook with the class.
Student Assessment/Evaluation:
Share reflections orally. Present the virtual scrapbook to the school media center.
- Best Instructional Practices:
Teaching for Understanding
Students define essential question and primary source after examination and analysis of Lincoln’s Student Sum Book. Comparing and contrasting early maps with present day, students explain evidence of change in population and geography over time.
After examining and analyzing images of pioneer children and schools, students will describe photographic evidence and share inferences about pioneer school life. Student responses are listed on a class chart.
Summarizing and sharing oral history information with the class as well creating oral histories of classmates reveals understanding of this primary source.
A researched pioneer question for the virtual scrapbook indicates knowledge of the topic.
Written journal reflections explain details of mock pioneer school day confirming knowledge and understanding of essential question.
Completed student oral histories demonstrate an understanding of this type of primary source.
Differentiated Instruction
Students select photos based on interest of the subject matter, and oral history selection is based on reading readiness.
Pioneer school life research questions chosen based on interest.
Selection of a classmate to interview and creation of the oral history allows for differentiation of both interest and readiness.
Technology Integration
Researching questions about pioneer schools provides students with an opportunity to use web sites, another informational resource.
The creation of a Virtual Scrapbook allows students to use text boxes, create and import images, and practice keyboarding skills.
Literacy Instruction
Examining photos, maps, and oral histories provides exposure to a variety of primary sources and promotes information literacy.
Reading oral histories and researching web sites for pioneer school topics develops reading comprehension.
Journaling, research writing, and primary source writing activities contribute to reading comprehension.