The West: Opportunity and Freedom for Some

Note:  I created this lesson after my class had already covered this time period, but I have used similar assignments with success. 

1) Have students sketch or write about what comes to mind when they hear the term, “The West” or “The Wild West.”

2)  Have students share writing/drawings with the class.  Ask students to share with the whole class, allow them to put drawings under the doc. cam.

3)  Introduce the topic.  Tell students American westward expansion in the 19th century brought new opportunities for people to re-negotiate older ideas of gender, race, and sexuality.  The "wild west" offered an escape from the socially restrictive culture of the east, both for men and women.  Then I would have students read excerpts from David Bronski’s A Queer History of the United States. 

4) Next, I would break students of mixed ability into groups of 4 or 5.  Each group would be assigned one of the following articles:

               a) Paradise of Bachelors: The Social World of Men in 19^th Century America

               https://www.learner.org/series/amerpass/unit05/context_activ-3.html

               b) Not Just a Housewife: The Changing Roles of Women in the West

               https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/just-housewife-changing-roles-women-west/

               c) A History of Chinese Americans in California in the 1800s

               https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3b.htm

               d) The Other Pioneers: African Americans of the Frontier

               http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4807 and               http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.afam.004

5) Groups will read the articles, discuss, and take notes in a graphic organizer.

6) When groups have finished, they will be rearranged into new groups where each new member has read a different article.  It will be the responsibility of the group members to teach the other students what they have learned and to answer any questions by referring back to the article.

7) After groups have finished teaching each other, have students answer the following wrap up questions:

               a) Draw or describe what “The West” or “The Wild West” looked like (now that you have more information).

               b) What was the most interesting thing that you learned from these articles?  How does knowledge of the diversity of the west change the way you think about the west?

               c) What questions do you still have?  What would you like to learn more about?