Standards Aligned Literature Grouping: Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Standards Aligned Literature Grouping: Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

The purpose of this unit is to explore the events of the Lewis and Clark expedition through the eyes of their Native American companion, Sacagawea. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition for thousands of miles, helping Lewis and Clark navigate the land, as well as to establish relationships with the various tribes of Native Americans that they encountered along the way. The first book in this unit is the fictional title The Crossing:

The Crossing

Napoli, Donna Jo. The Crossing. Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 2011.

Lexile Level: 690

Activity for Grades 3-4

Alignment

Learning Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.2
Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3
Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.6
Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.

Learning Goals

The goal of this activity is to encourage students to utilize information from multiple text sources of varying degrees of difficulty, and combine what they have learned into a complete understanding of a historical figure's role in an important historical event.

Learning Objectives

The objectives with this activity include the three domains in Bloom's Taxonomy. For the affective domain, students will read multiple items, and organize the information that they have learned from within those items. For the cognitive domain, students will need to analyze the information that they have gained, applying it to a written assignment. Finally, for the psychomotor domain, students will be asked to prepare a written assignment.

Learning Outcome

Students will have read multiple items pertaining to one historical event. Students will then have prepared a written assignment in which they organize and articulate their knowledge regarding an important historical figure's role in an that important historical event.

Activity

The activity for this unit consists of a written assignment in which students will be asked to discuss the role of the Native American Sacagawea during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Over the course of the unit, students will read the books The Crossing, I Am Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President, The Lewis and Clark Expedition, and finally, one to two chapters from What Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition?. Students will then organize the information learned from these materials into a written response wherein they will discuss their impressions of Sacagawea's role in the expedition, paying particular attention to what information was universal across the texts, and what information may have conflicted.

Bibliographic Information of the Nonfiction Books

Meltzer, Brad, and Chris Eliopoulos. I am Sacagawea. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2017.

Lexile Level: 530L

Rationale: This picture book is an excellent biography of Sacagawea, and serves as one of the primary sources of information for the written assignment, as it focuses entirely on her. It is smartly written and, despite the lower Lexile level, speaks directly to the reader with a level of intelligence that is befitting of a more advanced book.

Perritano, John. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Scholastic, Inc, 2010.

Lexile Level: 880L

Rationale: This book is bursting at the seams with facts and images about the expedition. The lexile level on this book seems a bit misleading, as the vast majority of the pages are images with bits of text to accompany them. Though this book does not feature Sacagawea as heavily as the others, it is far and away the most informative of the actual expedition itself.

Redmond, Shirley Raye, and John Manders. Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President. Random House Children's Books, 2003.

Lexile Level: 320L

Rationale: This easy reader is nonetheless both informative and charming in its presentation. It is a nonfiction book with a humorous spin on the expedition that will serve as both a source of useful information, as well as a bit of a break from the seriousness and challenge of some of the other titles.

St. George, Judith, and Tim Foley. What Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Grosset & Dunlap, 2014.

Lexile Level: 860L

Rationale: This should be the finale book used in the unit. It is a longer book, clocking in at 108 pages. It is the most fully realized, both as as an exploration of the expedition, and as a vehicle for information regarding Sacagawea's role in the expedition. I would recommend assigning 2-3 chapters to each student, as each chapter breaks down to be around 6-8 pages of fairly complex text.