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Here are the teacher pack items for Moving Westward:
Overview In this experience, students brainstorm the meaning of the “American dream.” Then they examine transportation improvements, including the National Road, steamboats, and the Erie Canal, and they analyze the role these played in westward migration. Next they explore changes in communication and write their own telegram. Note that railroads will be discussed in a later lesson. Estimated duration: 35-45 minutes Vocabulary words: Objectives
From the founding of the new nation in 1776, the United States had its vision turned westward. Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. Once the conflict over the western border was settled following the War of 1812, Americans began to move farther west, beyond the original British colonies. They faced several large obstacles: transportation to move families and goods farther west, American Indians living on the land, and Spanish colonies and claims on much of the Southwest to the Pacific Ocean. In this experience, you will focus on how improvements in transportation and communication affected westward migration.
Objectives
Consider the phrase “the American Dream.” What does it mean to you? Write a sentence explaining how you view the American Dream.
Look for common themes in student responses, for example: Author James Truslow Adams popularized the term “American Dream” in his 1931 book The Epic of America. For him, the American Dream was more about idealism and opportunity than it was about wealth and prosperity. He wrote that the American Dream is the “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.… It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” You can read students some of the following quotations: “The American dream reminds us that every man is heir to the legacy of worthiness.” —Martin Luther King Jr., Civil rights leader “The American dream of rags to riches is a dream for a reason — it is hard to achieve. Were everyone to do it, it wouldn’t be a dream but would rather be reality.” —Robert Fulton, Designer of the steamboat “The American Dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American Dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.” —President Ronald Reagan
