Connections Between History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools

and

Myth & Reality: The California Gold Rush and Its Legacy

Westward Expansion: Gold, Greed and Government

8th Grade Part I, Manifest Destiny and California

Lesson Title

History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools

Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills Grades 6-8

1. Gold Rush Motivation Game

8.8.2 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced. Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Historical Interpretation #2. Students understand and distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events, including the long- and short-term causal relations

2. Tapping into Myths of California Today and What Students Already Know About the Gold Rush

Historical Interpretation #3. Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.

3. What Have Been the Myths and Perceptions of California in the Past?

Historical Interpretation #3. Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.

4. Values and Belief of Manifest Destiny

Research, Evidence, and Point of View #4. Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them.

Connections Between History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools

and

Myth & Reality: The California Gold Rush and Its Legacy

Westward Expansion: Gold, Greed and Government

8th Grade Part I, Manifest Destiny and California

5. Using Primary Sources to Discover Some of the Realities of the Gold Rush

8.8.2 and 3 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced. Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades. Describe the role of pioneer women and the new status that western women achieved (e.g., Linda Ingalls Wilder, Annie Bidwell; slave women gaining freedom in the West; Wyoming granting suffrage to women in 1869).

Research, Evidence, and Point of View #3. Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories.

Culminating Activity/Assessment

8.8.2 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced. Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Historical Interpretation #1. Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place.