Grades 6-8 Lesson Plan - Describing a Landscape

Map 5 Main Page

Core Map: Charles Preuss, "Section VI" of Topographical map of the road from Missouri to Oregon...From the field notes and journal of Capt. J.C. Frémont and from sketches and notes made on the ground by his assistant Charles Preuss (Baltimore 1846). Newberry Library call number: Graff 3360, sheet 6. (Printable PDF version of the Core Map)

Resources related to Map 5.
Curator's Notes for Map 5

Overview
In this unit students will explore the interactions of humans and nature by comparing what the students learn about the wild lands, animals, and plants as seen in the core map with what is there today.

Objectives
By the end of this lesson students are expected to:

1. identify the geographical features mentioned on the core map and find them on a modern map.
2. explain the map symbols used on the core map.
3. combine various data into a coherent picture of an early nineteenth-century landscape.
4. describe the continuities and changes in a landscape between 1846 and the present.

Key Terms
landscape, guidebook, latitude, longitude, meteorology, additional key terms are underlined on the HTML version of the transcriptions of Frémont's notes

Materials
Computer image or overhead of the core map, Horn map, modern map of the United States and Idaho, topographical map of Idaho (see Resources), Descriptions of Traveling the Oregon Trail (see Resources), paper, pencils, coloring pencils, modern tourist information about southern Idaho, HTML version of Frémonts's notes or overhead of date-by-date notes if a computer image of the core map is not used

Time
Three hours plus research time

Getting Started

1. Display the core map and discuss with students its origin and maker (see curator's notes).

2. On a reference map of Idaho or the United States, have students locate latitude 43° longitude 113°, which is the area depicted on the core map.

3. Have students identify the symbols Preuss used for the following geographic features: the trail, mountains, rivers, canyons, bluffs, butte, and camping places.

4. Eliciting as much information as possible from the students, identify the four points of the compass.

5. Read aloud one of the notes written by Frémont that are printed on the map and have students identify the locations at which these notes were made by referring to the dates marked on the map.

6. Confirm the students' answers by selecting "Frémont's Notes" from the menu and clicking on the highlighted dates to reveal the notes.

7. Discuss the purposes of and information given by the non-geographic features and aids on the map, including the lines of latitude and longitude and the meteorlogical table.

8. Introduce and briefly discuss the Horn map (see curator's notes).Have students compare the area covered by the core map briefly (for purposes of orientation) with the same areas on the Horn map and on a modern United States or Idaho road map (see Resources).

Developing the Lesson

1. In class, make an inventory of all plants and animals mentioned in Frémont's notes on the core map. Assign groups or individual students to research the appearance and uses of the items on the list. Students should report their findings to the class. Have students, working in small groups, make lists of the descriptors Frémont uses to describe the landscape and its inhabitants. For example, note his impression of the qualities of the soil, his description of the country as melancholy and savage. Discuss the lists with the entire class.

2. Using the core map, the information the class has compiled in Developing the Lesson steps 1 and 2, and the supplemental images and texts, have each student write a two-page description of the landscape in this part of the Oregon Trail in the middle of the nineteenth century. Students should write this description as if it were to be included in a modern guidebook for tourists traveling through the area by car. You may want to help students get started by showing them and discussing some examples of tourist literature for your area or a nearby place. The finished product should include illustrations (the supplemental images or images from student research) and, if the technology is available, should be laid out in a brochure format using a desktop publishing program.

Evaluation
Use a scale from one to four (4=Excellent, 3=Well Done, 2=Satisfactory, 1=Unsatisfactory) for evaluating the description of the landscape.

For 4 points, the student has gone beyond the assignment; that is, he or she has synthesized more information than expected, or has shown particularly incisive analysis. The work is well organized, includes two or more illustrations, and exhibits only a few, if any, spelling or grammatical errors.

For 3 points, the student has done all that was asked for in the assignment in a thorough manner. The analysis is sound, and supported by specific historical and contemporary examples. The work is well organized, includes one or more illustrations, and exhibits only a few, if any, spelling or grammatical errors.

For 2 points, the student has done most of what was asked for in the assignment in an acceptable manner. The analysis should be sound with only minor flaws, if any; it is supported at least in part by specific examples; includes at least one illustration and is organized well enough so that one is able to follow the presentation. The work is, for the most part, correct and neat, and may exhibit some spelling or grammatical errors.

For 1 point, the student presents work that does not do what the assignment asked, or that exhibits major flaws in analysis, or that includes little or no specific examples/data, or that is so disorganized as to make it difficult to follow, or that is full of errors.

Extension
Students could expand the "history section" of the above mentioned "tourist guide" as an individual or a small group presentation in either a written, oral or computer format. Using the Horn map of the Overland Trail, Core Map 11 (a map of major railroads in the USA in 1880), and additional research students could construct a presentation on the routes and means used by Americans as they moved west to take possession of the land they had acquired by treaty and conquest.