ALEX Lesson Plan

     

You Don't Have Mail!

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  This lesson provided by:  
Author:Lesa Roberts
Organization:Whitesburg Christian Academy
The event this resource created for:Alabama Department of Archives and History
  General Lesson Information  
Lesson Plan ID: 35102

Title:

You Don't Have Mail!

Overview/Annotation:

This lesson will provide students with two primary documents, a drawing of a postal stagecoach and a newspaper article outlining the difficulties of mail delivery. Students will complete a graphic organizer to provide evidence that details a specific perspective described in the documents.

Students will examine the cultural and economic aspects of the early nineteenth century and will refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences. Students will be able to explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points of view.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

 Associated Standards and Objectives 
Content Standard(s):
Social Studies
SS2010 (2010)
Grade: 4
Alabama Studies
6 ) Describe cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.

Examples: cultural—housing, education, religion, recreation

economic—transportation, means of support

political—inequity of legal codes

•  Describing major areas of agricultural production in Alabama, including the Black Belt and fertile river valleys
Unpacked Content
Strand: Economics, Geography, History, Civics and Government
Course Title: Alabama Studies (Alabama)
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Describe cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.
  • Describe major areas of agricultural production in Alabama, including the Black Belt and fertile river valleys.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • plantation
  • Yeoman
  • townspeople
  • inequity
  • agriculture
  • fertile
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • During this time, most families in Alabama did not own slaves; most slaves were owned by Plantation Owners.
  • Most of Alabama's families made a living through agriculture.
  • The Black Belt and fertile river valleys were major areas of agricultural production.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Compare and contrast cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.
  • Describe major areas of agricultural production in Alabama, including the Black Belt and fertile river valleys.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • There were cultural, political, and economic inequities in Alabama in the early 19th Century between slaves, Yeoman farmers, and Plantation owners.
Alabama Archives Resources:
Click below to access all Alabama Archives resources aligned to this standard.

Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SS.AAS.4.6- Identify information about early nineteenth- century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.


English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 4
20. Use details and examples from a text to indicate what the text explicitly states.

a. Interpret facts from an informational article, using details and examples from the text to explain the interpretation.

b. List the main questions answered by an informational article.

c. Categorize statements in an article or other informational text as fact or opinion and give reasons for each choice.

d. Explain the differences between primary and secondary sources, giving examples from texts.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
20.
  • Details
  • Examples
  • Explicitly
20a.
  • Interpret
  • Facts
  • Details
  • Examples
  • Informational article
20b.
  • List
  • Main questions
  • Informational article
20c.
  • Categorize
  • Fact
  • Opinion
  • Reasons
20d.
  • Primary sources
  • Secondary source
Knowledge:
20. Students know:
  • Explicit means directly stated within the text.
  • Specific details and examples from the text an be used to demonstrate an understanding of the text's explicit meaning.
20a.
  • Facts gathered from an informational article can be explained using details and examples from the text.
20b.
  • Informational text is often written with the purpose of answering questions.
20c.
  • A fact is a statement that can be proven with evidence, while an opinion is a personal belief that cannot be proven true in every case.
  • Informational text can present both facts and opinions.
20d.
  • Primary sources are firsthand accounts of events and provide raw information.
  • Secondary sources explain, analyze, or summarize primary sources.
Skills:
20. Students are able to:
  • Identify details and examples from a text that demonstrates comprehension of the text's explicit meaning.
20a.
  • Explain facts sourced from an informational text, using text evidence to support the explanation.
20b.
  • Identify the main questions answered by an informational text.
20c.
  • Determine if statements in an informational text are facts or opinions.
  • Describe reasons that a particular statement is identified as a fact or an opinion.
20d.
  • Explain the differences between primary and secondary sources.
  • Support their explanation with specific examples from the text.
Understanding:
20. Students understand that:
  • Explicit meanings are directly stated in text, and they can use specific details and examples from the text to show they understood the text's explicit meaning.
20a.
  • To demonstrate comprehension of an informational article, they can explain the facts using specific details and examples from the text.
20b.
  • Informational articles often answer questions and identifying these questions can improve comprehension.
20c.
  • A fact is a thing that is known or proved to be true, and an opinion is a personal view or judgment about something.
  • To fully comprehend a text, they must distinguish between facts and opinions.
  • They can determine if a statement is a fact or an opinion using their current knowledge or by referencing details in a text.
20d.
  • The information a reader gets from a text is impacted by the source of the information.
  • Primary and secondary sources will be told from different perspectives.
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 4
22. Analyze events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in informational texts, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

a. Cite evidence to explain the author's perspective toward a topic in an informational text.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
22.
  • Analyze
  • Events
  • Procedures
  • Ideas
  • Concepts
  • Informational texts
22a.
  • Cite
  • Evidence
  • Author's perspective
  • Topic
  • Informational text
Knowledge:
22. Students know:
  • Informational text often describes events, procedures, ideas, or concepts.
22a.
  • Authors of informational text have personal perspectives or viewpoints that are reflected in their writing.
Skills:
22. Students are able to:
  • Use specific information in informational text to describe events, procedures, ideas, or concepts.
  • Explain the causes and effects of the events described in text.
22a.
  • Identify and explain an author's perspective toward a topic in informational text.
  • Provide textual evidence to support their explanation of the author's perspective.
Understanding:
22. Students understand that:
  • They can use information from the text to examine and interpret events, procedures, ideas, or concepts from informational texts.
  • Some informational text will explain the causes and effects of certain events.
22a.
  • Authors of informational text have views and opinions about the topics they write about, and their perspectives will be reflected within the text.
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 4
24. Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points and claims in an informational text or argument.

a. Make text-based inferences to determine possible reasons for an author's stance.
Unpacked Content
Teacher Vocabulary:
24.
  • Reasons
  • Evidence
  • Points
  • Claims
  • Informational text
  • Argument
24a.
  • Text-based inference
  • Stance
Knowledge:
24. Students know:
  • Authors of informational texts or argumentative writings often include logical reasons and evidence to support their points or claims.
24a.
  • A text-based inference is a logical conclusion that is drawn from details in the text.
  • Authors often take a particular stance, or attitude, towards the topic of their writing.
Skills:
24. Students are able to:
  • Identify key points and claims in an informational text or argument.
  • Identify reasons and text evidence that supports the points or claims of an author.
  • Explain how the author used reasons and evidence to support their key points and claims.
24a.
  • Make inferences about an author's stance using evidence from the text.
Understanding:
24. Students understand that:
  • Authors use logical reasoning and factual evidence to support their points and claims within informational texts or arguments.
24a.
  • Authors will often have a particular attitude towards the topic of their writing, and readers can determine an author's stance by using text evidence to draw conclusions.

Local/National Standards:

National Standards for History Basic Education

Standard 2A: The student understands the history of his or her local community.

Standard 3E:  The student understands the ideas that were significant in the development of the state and that helped to forge its unique identity.

 

 

Primary Learning Objective(s):

Students will work in pairs to gather information from two primary documents about early nineteenth century culture and economics. They will be able to read and explain how authors use reasons and evidence to support a particular perspective. Students will locate the main idea and details and make inferences from a newspaper article and an illustration of a postal stagecoach. By completing a graphic organizer, the students will describe the evidence that led to the selected perspective.  

Additional Learning Objective(s):

Students will highlight information from the text that will provide information about the difficulty of postal delivery during early Alabama settlement.

Students will work with a partner to infer possible problems that may arise with mail delivery.

 Preparation Information 

Total Duration:

31 to 60 Minutes

Materials and Resources:

  • A copy of American Stage Coach for each partner group
  • A copy of the description of the American Mail stagecoach (see attachment)
  • A copy of Post Department article for each partner group (article is on the 4th page)
  • Be the Thing graphic organizer for each student (see attachment)
  • Highlighters
  • Pencils

Technology Resources Needed:

  • Document camera to display primary documents, if available
  • Laptops to research early postal services (Benjamin Franklin's creation of the colonial postal service; the pony express; stagecoaches; railroads, etc.), if available
  • Laptops to view primary documents and complete graphic organizer, if available

Background/Preparation:

Students will need to be familiar with the beginnings of the U.S. postal service (Benjamin Franklin and the colonial mail service). They should also be aware of the typical modes of transportation for the early nineteenth century (e.g.: horseback, wagon, stagecoaches, etc). Finally, students should be aware of the possible problems that could have occurred on the Federal Road, such as tension with the Creek Indians, bad road conditions, lack of communication, and mishaps with stages.

Be prepared to display the Federal Road map that is attached.

Teacher may read from The Encyclopedia of Alabama Federal Road in Alabama for further information about the Alabama road system and postal service in the early nineteenth century.

  Procedures/Activities: 

Before:

  • If time and equipment are available, allow students to research early US postal services (Franklin's establishment of colonial service, the Pony Express, stagecoaches, railroads, etc).
  • Allow time for students to discuss successes and failures of early postal delivery. 
  • The teacher should display the Federal Road map and photograph of the remains of the road today.
  • Discuss the path of the road (Creek territory) and the possible problems that may occur.
  • Discuss how populated the area was and how the lack of communication may have been a problem.

During:

  • Put students in pairs for this activity.
  • Distribute the illustration and description of the American Stagecoach to each set of partners.
  • Allow the students to read the description and discuss the illustration with their partner.
  • Highlight any information that may be used as evidence of the difficulty of postal service through lower Alabama.
  • Discuss the stagecoach illustration and description as a class, and allow the students to ask clarifying questions and make comments about what they found interesting in the article.
  • Distribute the newspaper article about the difficulties of the postal service in lower Alabama.
  • Display the article under the document camera, if available. The teacher should read the article and encourage the students to ask questions and discuss the information.
  • Allow partners time to re-read and discuss the article.
  • Highlight any information that may be used as evidence of the difficulty of postal service through lower Alabama.
  • Discuss the textual evidence the students highlighted.
  • Distribute the Be the Thing graphic organizer to each student.
  • Instruct the students that they will complete the graphic organizer from the perspective of someone who has mailed a letter to a family member in New Orleans. (Description)
  • The perspective should include the concerns about the letter arriving safely to their family member.
  • The students should utilize highlighted information from the texts as evidence for the concerns.

After:

  • Allow students to work with their partners to complete the graphic organizer.
  • Discuss some examples of evidence from the texts to clarify any questions, if necessary.
  • Encourage students to complete the face on the graphic organizer to be that of the letter writer.

  Assessment  

Assessment Strategies

Formative:

  • Students should be able to discuss the evidence that reflects the difficulty of the postal service in the early nineteenth century.
  • Students should highlight applicable evidence that reflects the difficulties of having mail delivered safely and timely.

Summative:

  • Students should complete the graphic organizer with evidence that reflects the difficulties of the early nineteenth century postal service in lower Alabama.

Acceleration:

Students may read the Mobile Centinel and select an article they can use to complete the Be the Thing graphic organizer. The teacher should remind the students that they should select an article where evidence is given to support a specific perspective.

Additional reading on the Federal Road:

Bridges, Edwin C. ALABAMA: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN STATE. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2016, pp. 45-48.

Intervention:

The teacher should pair students with lower reading abilities with students comfortable with reading primary documents.

Highlight and/or discuss words found in the text that may be difficult for students.

Allow students to turn in one graphic organizer as a team.


View the Special Education resources for instructional guidance in providing modifications and adaptations for students with significant cognitive disabilities who qualify for the Alabama Alternate Assessment.
Alabama State Department of Education