Lesson Plan Table of Contents
QUIZ SHOW! What were you thinking? What did you say? Lesson Plan
Content Introduction
This lesson is designed not only to introduce leadership qualities appreciated in our culture, but also to compare those qualities to the ones manifested by a range of well-known and important Plains Indian leaders in the period 1801–1861. Students will thus study the interaction between the U.S. government and different tribal nations, as outlined in United States History Standard Era 4: Standard 1 (Grades 5–12), "Students should understand United States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861, and how it affected relations with external powers and Native Americans."
In order to prepare to teach about these leaders, review the web sites introducing each leader in the "Quiz Show! For Students" section. Many books also discuss these leaders. Some good ones are: Great Speeches by Native Americans, edited by Bob Blaisdell (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2000); American Indian Leaders, edited by R. David Edmunds (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980); and John Ross: Cherokee Chief by Gary E. Moulton (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1978).
Guided Practice
Write "leadership qualities" on the board inside a circle, and then list the ideas that students volunteer as satellites to the center, connected with a line.
You may wish to add the following questions for group discussion:
- What can we learn from leaders of the past?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of Internet research? (there is a wealth of unregulated information which must be used with discretion by cautious readers)
- What kinds of political events characterized the period 1801–1861? Students can draw on what they have already studied, in class or in some other manner.
- How did Native Americans respond to the actions of the Federal Government, the military, and the civilians interested in expanding and developing their nation? Was there a uniform response?
- What problems arise when we try to look at Native Americans as a single group? (This question be an essay topic at the end of the exercise.)
Following the discussion, introduce the students to the leaders represented in this activity on the Quiz Show! For Students page.
Independent Practice
Divide the class into four teams.
Assign one of the leaders to each team. Ask the team to research their assigned leader on the Internet. They will be responsible for coming up with political decisions the leader made or events in which the leader participated, based on the links and short biographies given in the "Quiz Show! For Students" section located on this web site.
- The entire class should research all four figures, while each group should specialize in a different leader.
- After doing some preliminary research, the group should reconvene and make a list of what they found.
- Ask the students to consider what each leader may have been thinking when he made a decision.
- For the three leaders not assigned to their group, each student should think of a few questions around some aspect of the leaders' character, decision, or thought process.
- For their assigned leader, they should come up with answers to potential questions.
The Quiz
Rules:
- An individual from each group is elected leader to go in front of the class to field questions from the audience.
- Over the course of the game, each group member must ask a question to one of the other leaders not in their group.
- When the question is answered, the class decides if the answer is in keeping with what they have learned about the leader by a quick show of hands, the majority ruling the decision.
- If the general opinion is that the answer is correct and appropriate, the team to which the leader belongs scores a point.
- If the leader is stumped, he or she either loses a point or redirects the question to another team member in the audience. If the chosen person answers correctly, the point is awarded to their group.
- If the answer is incorrect, the person who asked the question gets the point for their group, as long as the question is reasonable according to the class.
- If a student can stump a leader (and the team member), the student's group gets the point.
The project can be arranged in different ways: the group could work together and brainstorm, or individuals can emerge for specific jobs. For example, one person could write questions, another write answers, another act as the leader in the game show, another design a name sign for their group depicting things associated with their leader, etc. Alternatively, the group could work together on each task, rotating leadership for each question. This should be decided beforehand by the teacher.
If this lesson is done in conjunction with the "Symbols of Power in Clothing Worn by Plains Indians" Lesson Plan, on the day of the quiz show, students could wear the power shirts they designed showing their own accomplishments and leadership qualities.
Wrap-Up Activity
Assign the students the following essay questions as a homework assignment to allow them to analyze the information they have encountered. They should try to write a paragraph or so on each of the following:
- How did the Native American leader your group chose respond to the actions of the Federal Government, the military, and the civilians interested in expanding and developing their nation?
- Compare the leader your group focused on to the other leaders explored in this activity. Did all the leaders respond in the same way? In what ways were their actions different? Describe three differences in responses between at least two leaders.
- What problems arise when we try to look at Native Americans as a single group?
Extended Activity
Have students write a three-page first person narrative describing the context of a time in their life when they had to show leadership qualities. Maybe something dangerous happened and he or she had to assist others to escape the danger, or maybe he or she felt pressured to do something and decided not to. In any case, the student will in this way be equated with the leaders he or she has spent so much time studying.
Vocabulary
prudent, smallpox, credible, biased, unregulated.
Standards
National Center for History in the Schools—Historical Thinking (5–12):
- Standard 2: Historical Comprehension
A. Students should be able to identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative and assess its credibility.
B. Students should be able to reconstruct the literal meaning of a historical passage by identifying who was involved, what happened, where it happened, what events led to these developments, and what consequences or outcomes followed.
C. Students should be able to identify the central question(s) the historical narrative addresses and the purpose, perspective, or point of view from which it has been constructed.
D. Students should be able to differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations but acknowledge that the two are related; that the facts the historian reports are selected and reflect therefore the historian's judgement of what is most significant about the past.
E. Students should be able to read historical narratives imaginatively, taking into account what the narrative reveals of the humanity of the individuals and groups involved—their probable values, outlook, motives, hopes, fears, strengths, and weaknesses.
- Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
B. Students should be able to consider multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past by demonstrating their differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes, and fears.
C. Students should be able to analyze cause-and-effect relationships bearing in mind multiple causation including (a) the importance of the individual in history; (b) the influence of ideas, human interests, and beliefs; and (c) the role of chance, the accidental and the irrational.
G. Students should be able to challenge arguments of historical inevitability by formulating examples of historical contingency, of how different choices could have led to different consequences.
H. Students should be able to hold interpretations of history as tentative, subject to changes as new information is uncovered, new voices heard, and new interpretations broached.
- Standard 4: Historical Research Capabilities
C. Students should be able to interrogate historical data by uncovering the social, political, and economic context in which it was created; testing the data source for its credibility, authority, authenticity, internal consistency and completeness; and detecting and evaluating bias, distortion, and propaganda by omission, suppression, or invention of facts.
F. Students should be able to support interpretations with historical evidence in order to construct closely reasoned arguments rather than facile opinions.
- Standard 5: Historical Issues—Analysis and Decision-Making
A. Students should be able to identify issues and problems in the past and analyze the interests, values, perspectives, and points of view of those involved in the situation.
B. Students should be able to marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances and current factors contributing to contemporary problems and alternative courses of action.
C. Students should be able to identify relevant historical antecedents and differentiate from those that are inappropriate and irrelevant to contemporary issues.
D. Evaluate alternative courses of action, keeping in mind the information available at the time, in terms of ethical considerations, the interests of those affected by the decision, and the long- and short-term consequences of each.
F. Evaluate the implementation of a decision by analyzing the interests it served; estimating the position, power, and priority of each player involved; assessing the ethical dimensions of the decision; and evaluating its costs and benefits from a variety of perspectives.
United States History Standards:
- Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801–1861)
Standard 1B (5–12): The student is able to analyze the impact of removal and resettlement on the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
Standard 1B (5–12): The student is able to investigate the impact of trans-Mississippi expansion on Native Americans. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
Standard 1B (7–12): The student is able to compare the policies toward Native Americans pursued by presidential administrations through the Jacksonian era. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas]
Standard 1B (7–12): The student is able to explain and evaluate the various strategies of Native Americans such as accommodation, revitalization, and resistance. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas]
National Council of Teachers of English:
- Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
- Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Standard 4: Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
- Standard 5: Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
- Standard 8: Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
- Standard 9: Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.
- Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- Standard 12: Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
|
