Gateways to Westward Expansion: Using Literature and Primary Sources to Enhance Reading Instruction and Historical Understanding

by Ann Claunch, Linda L. Tripp

Overview

Gateways to Westward Expansion is a teacher resource for history teachers and will complement the standard history curriculum, providing choice and flexibility for teachers by offering strategies which deepen understanding of historical content while developing reading skills. Covering ten topics pertinent to the development of the western United States from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, the authors focus on presenting lesser known voices and viewpoints of groups impacted by the steady westward march of Euro-American settlement. Each topic is introduced through a gateway literature selection counterbalanced with a primary source document. Fiction is the emotional hook, which engages students in a time period while the primary source document develops content. Providing teachers with organizational structures, bibliographies and reproducibles to facilitate ease of implementation, this title is useful to teachers as they introduce historical eras and aide students in finding project ideas for the National History Day competition—all the while integrating the teaching of reading—a NCLB response and introducing students to primary source documents, another tested concept. Each chapter offers sparks for inquiry. Grades 4-12.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591587484
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	9 - 18 Years

About the Author

Ann Claunch, PhD is the director of curriculum, National History Day, University of Maryland. Her research interests are teacher education, historical understanding and children and literacy.

Linda L. Tripp has been a classroom teacher, an adjunct professor in the teacher education program at the University of New Mexico, and an instructional coach for the Albuquerque Public Schools. She has published articles and edited an online newsletter for teachers connecting primary sources with fiction for children and young adults.

Editorial Reviews

This book provides lesson plans and resources for history teachers of grades 4-12, designed to deepen understanding of standard history content while simultaneously developing reading skills. Covering ten topics pertinent to the development of the Western US from the early 19th to the early 20th century, the activities focus on lesser-known voices and viewpoints of groups impacted by the westward march of Euro-American settlement. Some topics covered include the Alamo, Indian boarding schools, the orphan trains, and the women of the westward movement. Each topic is introduced through a literature selection, counterbalanced with a primary source document. Each lesson plan provides historical background for teachers, instructions and ideas for use, and reproducibles. The book will be useful in introducing the historical era and aiding students in finding project ideas for the National History Day competition.” —Reference & Research Book News

“Gateways to Westward Expansion is an excellent title for American history teachers who want numerous ideas to enrich their teaching of the westward expansion and utilize lessons that increase reading skills and comprehension. . . .This title has much to recommend it to American history teachers in middle and upper grades.” —Catholic Library World

From the Publisher