Lewis and Clark: Their Journals, Their Maps, and Their Dog
By Kelli Mills and Paige Waggoner
Summer Fellowship 2010
To download this lesson plan in PDF format, click here.
Lesson 3:
Set Purpose of Trip: mapping, commerce, trade, favorable interactions with
Indian tribes, a catalog of plants and animals.
Purpose:
Using primary-source letters
from President Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, this lesson will outline the
reasons that a westward expedition was necessary. An anchor chart to record studentsÕ thinking about a text,
lesson, or strategy, will be created with headings that highlight the purposes
of the trip as the teacher reads each section. Teacher should stop after each
section to have a class discussion as each purpose is outlined. This anchor chart will then be used
throughout the lesson plan as students learn specifics about each purpose.
Following that will be
LewisÕs invitation for William Clark to be a part of the expedition.
To build background
knowledge, this lesson will be a shared reading, with each student having a
copy of the letters, as the teacher reads highlighted sections (or sections of
his choosing) aloud. This is an opportunity for the teacher to introduce
vocabulary that will be used throughout the unit. A shared reading allows all students to have access to the
text, especially the vocabulary.
Jefferson Letter to Lewis
Highlight paragraphs 2 and
5, which have specific assignments for Lewis – ascertain the geography of
the area and explore the Missouri River for communication and commerce.
Highlight paragraph 2,
instructing Lewis to record his observations with great accuracy, and paragraph
3, instructing the expedition to become familiar with, and establish trade
with, people and tribes inhabiting the territory.
This letter continues the
instructions for observations that should be recorded.
The first paragraph gives
specific instructions for how the expedition should interact with Indians,
including how they can avoid smallpox and that the group is amenable to taking
their children and raising them if this is desired by the native groups.
Paragraph 3 instructs Lewis
to look for ports should he reach the Pacific Ocean, and should he find any to
send his men back with documents and artifacts.
Paragraph 4 provides for the
course to take should he encounter danger to himself or his party.
This page concludes with
whom Lewis should name to continue the expedition in the event of his death.
Assessment:
Students will choose one or two purposes of the trip to write about in their
journal. They will describe why they think this purpose was essential on the
Lewis and Clark expedition.
Lewis Letter to Clark
Teacher will read this page
in its entirety, as it establishes the relationship between Lewis and Clark and
outlines the support that Lewis has for the expedition from the U.S.
Government.
Teacher will read this page
in its entirety, and outlines how others for the expedition will be chosen and
what the assignment is.
Teacher will read this page
in its entirety as Lewis continues telling Clark the purpose of the expedition.
Teacher will read this page
in its entirety. The letter
concludes with Clark being offered a promotion to Captain, should he accept the
invitation to take part in the expedition.
