Names: Claire Snyder & Rosie Gibbons

COOPERATIVE UNIT & LESSON PLAN ASSIGNMENT

Unit Plan: Impact of Indian Removal on the Lives of Native Americans

1. CENTRAL FOCUS:

The forced removal of Native Americans.

2. TARGET CONCEPTS:

● Morality
● Power
● Ownership
● Laws/ Rights
● White Supremacy
● Race
● Assimilation

3. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

● Who were forceful proponents of Native American removal?

● What is the Trail of Tears?
● What effect did the removal have on the Native Americans?
● What is assimilation?
● Is assimilation morally sound?
● What is the Indian Removal Act of 1830?
● What are the reasons for the U.S. government to remove the Native Americans?
● Should humans have authority over other humans?

4. UNIT OBJECTIVES:

● The students will understand the reasons behind why the Native Americans were forced off the
land they had lived on for generations and who is responsible for their removal.
● Be able to argue why the Indian Removal Act was morally wrong.
● The students will be able to write creative journal entries in the perspective of a historical figure
● Students will understand and explain the tragic history of Native American tribes as they were
forced off their homeland.
● Students will understand the motives behind the creation of the Indian Removal Act
 5. TARGET SKILLS:

● Critical thinking
● Creativity
● Making connections
● Writing skills
● Inquiry into the morality of historical events
● Analyze primary sources (artwork & documents)

6. GEORGIA STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE THAT THIS UNIT WILL ADDRESS:

Historical Understandings:
SS4H3: Explain westward expansion in America.
b. Describe the impact of westward expansion on American Indians; include the Trail of Tears, Battle of
Little Bighorn and the forced relocation of American Indians to reservations.
Language Arts:
ELAGSE4SL4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner,
using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes
ELAGSE4W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information
clearly
b. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and
examples related to the topic.
d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.

7. LESSONS:

Day 1: Initial Thoughts on Native Americans & Introduction to Indian Removal Act/ Trail of Tears

Specific Lesson Objectives:

Students will receive a general overview/introduction to the Trail of Tears and Indian Removal Act through the use
of a short video and artwork about the subject. Students will critically analyze pieces of artwork and study them to
gain perspective on the events. Students will be able to then, using their new knowledge of what happened to the
Native Americans, channel their emotiotions towards the subject into their own original piece of artwork about the
Trail of Tears.
Activities:

● Discuss their initial ideas about the Native Americans with these questions:
○ Have you heard of them?
○ What do you know about them?
○ Where do they live?
○ Has anyone ever met a Native American? (We assume most students will say no.)
○ Well, why not?
○ Where are these Native Americans?
○ Why are there none in Georgia?
● Analyze painting called “Trail of Tears” by Max Stanley
○ We will distribute the copies of the painting to groups without giving them any information about
the painting (no title or background information about what the painting represents)
○ Each group will be given a different section of the painting to analyze and determine what they
think the painting is depicting
○ Small groups will discuss what they believe their painting is about and come up with their own
titles for the photos
○ Small groups will share their thoughts with the class
○ We will inform students that these are all small portions of a large painting titled “Trail of Tears”
● Ask what students already know about the Trail of Tears or if they have heard of the Trail of Tears?
● Introduce the Indian Removal Act/ Trail of Tears with short supplemental video
● Class Discussion
○ Based on what we have learned from the video about the Trail of Tears, what are your initial
reactions about what happened to the Native Americans?
○ Think back to the artwork we analyzed…. Knowing what you know now, what do you see in the
painting?
● Create your own artwork! (Assessment)
○ Using the new information they gained today, students will create their own artwork pertaining to
the Indian Removal Act/ Trail of Tears
■ We will ask questions while they are working like…
● what emotions are you feeling when you’re drawing this?
● What emotions are being depicted in your work?
● Are they similar to the photos we looked at?
● Discussion to Introduce Issues of Morality
○ Based on what we have learned about the Trail of Tears, what are your initial reactions about what
happened to the Native Americans? (they will say it was bad, unfair, sad, makes them angry)
Why?
○ Well tomorrow we are going to talk about why this happened.

Resources:
 “Trail of Tears” painting by Max Stanley
- Each group will get a different section of the painting to analyze and
determine what they think the painting is depicting.
- Only after each group has shared their ideas will we tell students the
title of the painting to show what it actually depicts.

Video: https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1Q5Z4UUitdU

Day 2: The reasons why the U.S. government removed the Native Americans

Specific Lesson Objectives:

Students will examine four primary sources from the perspectives of people who supported the Indian Removal Act
and people who resisted the removal. Students will learn the reasons why the American Government wanted the
Natives removed and determine for themselves whether these reasons justify the the inhumane treatment of these
peoples. They will also read about a few of the ways the Natives Americans resisted being pushed out of their
homelands.

Activities:

● Jigsaw → groups with different primary sources (Jackson, treaties signed by chief’s, etc)
● These are primary sources that offer the perspective of:
○ People in power who were in favor of the Indian Removal (American government officials)
○ Native Americans who defended their rights to keep their lands
○ the resistance -- what the Native Americans did to fight to keep their land/get it back
● Each group will study the primary source they have been given, answering these questions orally with their
jigsaw groups:
○ What is this document? (a letter? A treaty? A diary entry? A newspaper article? An artist’s
depiction of an event?)
○ Who wrote it?
○ What do you know about the author?
○ What is the author’s perspective?
○ What is he/she trying to say?
○ For what purpose was the document made/written?
○ What does the primary source contribute to what we already know about the Trail of
Tears/Removal of the Native Americans?

Assessment:

● Informal Assessment: being the expert in mixed groups

○ In their jigsaw groups, students will take turns presenting their primary source and what they
known about the document/artwork.
 ○ Students will discuss how their document compares to others in the group? Do the documents
agree? Why or why not?
● Come back together as a whole class and ask students…
○ What were some of the reasons behind the American Government’s push to remove Native
Americans from their homelands?
○ Were their reasons justifiable? Why or why not?
○ Were the rights of the Native Americans violated?
○ What did some Native Americans do to resist the removal?
○ How do you feel about the American Government now after examining the documents?

Resources:
Source 1: Excerpt from President Jackson's Message "On Indian Removal":

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/jackson-indian-removal

Source 2: Petition Against the New Echota Treaty

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/cherokee-petition-protest-new-echota-treaty

Source 3: Memorial of the Cherokee: written in both English and Cherokee

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/memorial-of-the-cherokees-written-in-both-english-and-cherokee

Source 4: Excerpt from the Indian Removal Act

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/indian-removal-act

Day 3: The experience of being on the Trail of Tears/the dangers encountered on the way to the reservations.

Specific Lesson Objectives:

Students will receive a firsthand account from a child their age about what life was like on the Trail of Tears.
Students will focus on reading for detail while they read “Samuel’s Memory” on their own to gain perspective
about the dangers and struggles faced along the journey. Students will properly fill out and organize information in
the given graphic organizer.

Activities:

● Read “Samuels Memory” individually (we would provide a printed version of the story, or we could have
students pull it up on their Chromebooks).
● Re-read “Samuel’s Memory” with a partner and fill out the graphic organizer
● Discuss facts learned, questions that remain, and opinions formed from the graphic organizers as a class
○ Try to answer students questions
○ If not, research to come back to answer their questions during the next class meeting
● After discussion, disclose to students that Samuel was 9 when he wrote this account, so he is their age…

Assessment:
 ● Complete the graphic organizer about the story (3 facts, 2 questions, 1 opinion) with a partner.
● Discuss the story and what students wrote about the story on their graphic organizers as a whole class.
● After we discuss the organizers, we disclose to them that the boy who wrote the story was their age (9)

Resources:

“Samuel’s Memory” story: https://www.mail-archive.com/native_american@topica.com/msg00316.html

Graphic Organizer:

Day 4: Journal Entry

Specific Lesson Objectives:

Students will complete a journal entry from the perspective of a Native American during the time of the Indian
Removal Act. Students will be able to write creatively and informationally to display their knowledge of this subject
learned during class this week.

Activities:

● Quick recap of what we learned in the previous days: the Indian Removal Act, the reasons why the U.S.
government removed the Natives, what the Trail of Tears was and what it was like to experience that, how
Native Americans resisted the removal, the morality of the Indian Removal.
● “Remember Samuel was your age.” They should be able to connect to the experience of a child who was
their age at the time.
● Students will write a journal entry as if you were there with Samuel drawing from what they have learned
about the experiences on the Trail of Tears.
Summative Assessment: Invite the children to channel their thoughts and feelings into a journal entry answering
some of these prompts as if they were a Native American during this time.

○ Write about being forced on the Trail of Tears and what it was like.
○ Explain why what happened to you and other Native Americans was wrong. Were your rights
violated?
○ Write about your feelings toward the American government/the people who forced you to leave.
○ Describe the dangers you encountered along the way to the new reservation you would be living
on.
○ Write about where you were sent and what it is like to be in an unfamiliar place (the reservations).
○ What do you miss about home?

Resources:

● Students resources to use while writing journal entry (culmination of resources from the weeks past
lessons)
○ “Trail of Tears” painting
○ “Samuel’s Memory”
○ Primary Source Documents
○ Graphic Organizer

8. HOW LONG WILL THE UNIT TAKE:

4 Class Periods

2. 5E Lesson Plan

Lesson Topic/Title: Journal Entry: Write from the perspective of a Native American on the Trail of Tears

Grade Level: 4th Grade

Relevant Standard(s):

Historical Understandings:
SS4H3: Explain westward expansion in America.
b. Describe the impact of westward expansion on American Indians; include the Trail of Tears, Battle of
Little Bighorn and the forced relocation of American Indians to reservations.
Language Arts:
ELAGSE4SL4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner,
using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes
ELAGSE4W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information
clearly
b. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and
examples related to the topic.
d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.

Your Critique of the Relevant Standards:

We would alter the wording SS4H3.b because our Unit is focused on the removal of Native Americans rather than
western expansion. We will not be teaching students about how white people moved west and expanded the United
States. Their expansion is the reason for the Indian Removal and the horrors that Native Americans were forced to
endure. The wording of standard SS4H3.b sets the wrong tone for our unit plan. Also, we are not going to address
the part of the standard that includes the Battle of Little Bighorn because, although this is a significant event that
played into the Great Sioux War, the focus of our unit is specifically on the forced removal of Native Americans.

The English/Language Arts standards that we chose pertain to our assessment activity for this lesson. Students will
be writing a journal entry about their “experience” on the Trail of Tears from the perspective of a Native American.
They will have to convey their “experiences” using relevant facts, details, and terms from the primary sources,
videos, art, and story we will have exposed them to prior to this lesson.

Specific Lesson Objectives (content, process, and/or interpersonal goals):

● Students will activate prior knowledge learned throughout this weeks lessons to produce a journal
entry from the perspective of a Native American on the Trail of Tears.
● Students will understand that what happened to the Native Americans on the Trail of Tears was
morally wrong.
● Students will be able to argue the morality of the situation encompassing the treatment of Native
Americans.
● Students will understand and explain the tragic history of Native American tribes as they were
forced off their homeland.
● Students will produce a piece of creative and informative writing in the form of a journal entry.

Big Idea/Enduring Understanding for the Lesson/Unit:

● We want our students to realize that history is not as picture perfect and clear cut as it appears in a lot of
textbooks. We want to encourage our students to always be critical of sources and learn to question the
morality of events in our history. We believe that teaching the “ugly” part of our history will create
passionate, engaged, and active citizens who are anxious to prevent immoral events such as this from
happening in the future. By exposing our students to these questions of morality and causing them to
realize that sometimes power can be abused and the government doesn't always do the right thing, we can
create active citizens who are passionate about civil rights and empathetic of people who have endured
such traumas.
Texts/Resources used:

“Trail of Tears” painting by Max Stanley

- Each group will get a different section of the painting to analyze and
determine what they think the painting is depicting.

Video: https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1Q5Z4UUitdU
Informational video about the Trail of Tears. This lecture-style video will serve to provide students with the base
knowledge about the Indian Removal. We recognize that a video like this can be boring for students, which is why
we are having students also look at photo of the Trail of Tears so they can connect the information they learn from
the video to a historical, artistic depiction of the event.

Primary Sources:
Source 1: Excerpt from President Jackson's Message "On Indian Removal":

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/jackson-indian-removal

Source 2: Petition Against the New Echota Treaty

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/cherokee-petition-protest-new-echota-treaty

Source 3: Memorial of the Cherokee: written in both English and Cherokee

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/memorial-of-the-cherokees-written-in-both-english-and-cherokee

Source 4: Excerpt from the Indian Removal Act

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/indian-removal-act

“Samuel’s Memory” story: https://www.mail-archive.com/native_american@topica.com/msg00316.html

Graphic Organizer:
Time: One class period (45 minutes)
Background Information about Lesson Content:
Resource Summary
Age of Jackson This video refreshed our memory of the
Crash Course US removal of Native Americans. We
History #14 (trail learned that President Jackson supported
of tears part) the southern states’ efforts to take the
Native Americans’ land for their own
use. He supported the Indian Removal
https://www.youtu Act of 1830 which provided the funding
be.com/watch?tim for the forced relocation of groups such
e_continue=4&v= as the Cherokees and the Creek Indians,
VqC1BJ8GtjQ which is why there are so few Native
Americans in Georgia today.
At the start of our unit (Day 1) we plan
to ask students if they have ever met a
Native American, and we assume most
students will say they have not, and this
is because the Native American tribes
Critique
The part about the Trail of Tears was
only 1 minute out of a 15-minute-long
crash course on the Age of Jackson.
There is so much more information about
the Trail of Tears and the forced removal
of the Native Americans that the video
fails to include. After watching the video,
we still needed to know the reasons why
the U.S. government removed the Native
Americans. We also still wanted to know
more about the lived experiences of
Native Americans on the Trail of Tears
(the hardships, the dangers, the sadness,
etc.).
 who used own land in our state were
kicked out, as the video taught us.

We also learned that at least ¼ of the

Native Americans who traveled the Trail
of Tears died before they reached the
reservations.

VanSledright This document gave us a lot of ideas on
Chapter 5 how to teach Indian Removal. It brought
up the importance of studying events
from the perspective of Native
Americans, the people who actually
experienced the wrongdoings of the
American government. It also laid out
ways for students to properly analyze
documents and first-hand accounts of
what happened in pairs, such as the
primary source documents and the
artwork we will provide our students
with.
This resource addressed a lot of the
questions we had after watching the crash
course video. It emphasized the
importance of asking more critical
questions about the issue than standard
textbooks often do. Some of the questions
we really liked were, “What were
Jackson’s Indian-removal policies and
what insight do they provide us into the
mind of the man? How did the Cherokee,
Choctaw, and Seminole tribes, for
example, respond to efforts at removing
them from their homelands? What were
their positions? How did they
communicate them?” This resource was
far more useful than the crash course
video, which only addressed the tip of the
iceberg.

Why are the methods and materials you have chosen best suited to help facilitate learning of your identified
objectives?

We chose this writing activity as a way to produce an empathetic response with our students. While they will never
experience the same feelings the Native Americans felt on the Trail of Tears, forcing students to write from the
perspective of someone who lived through that experience, is the closest we can get to replicating that feeling.
Asking students to “put themselves in someone else's shoes” forces them to relate as much as possible to those who
struggled through this forced relocation. Having the students read a memoir from a young boy their age who
recounts his time on the Trail of Tears makes this experience feel more “real” to students instead of just something
they read in a boring old textbooks. Having students look at real documents, reading recounts of what occured, and
studying art surround the subject, make history come alive. Looking at these primary sources also cause students to
call into question to morality of the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears. It is hard to relate to historical events
when it is just a paragraph in a textbook, so this is why we wanted our students to use their knowledge used this
week to create this culminating journal entry. It not only displays the information they learned throughout the unit,
but also allows them to express emotions and question the morality of the situation in the creative portion of the
journal.

How does this lesson relate in meaningful ways to students’ lived experiences in/out of school?

This lesson is meaningful to students’ lived experiences because it encourages them to always consider other
perspectives when analyzing day-to-day situations. Putting themselves in other people’s shoes and creating
empathetic students will help them in every situation they face in life inside and outside of the classroom. This
activity will also create students who are critical thinkers and who always search to determine the morality in
historical and current events. This will translate into students looking at current events and movements with a
critical eye and teach them to always question the morality of situations they face.

Differentiation: In what ways does your lesson plan accommodate all learners?

We used multimodal teaching strategies, meaning we utilized a variety of sensory learning materials. We have
created a lesson with a summative assessment that draws from the knowledge our students will have gained from a
plethora of multimodal activities prior to this final lesson. Every child learns differently, and our activities include
visual, auditory, and tactile methods of learning that can appeal to more than one learning style (e.g., lecture). For
example, the activity we have planned for the very first lesson of the unit involves students exploring and analyzing
pieces of an artwork that depicts the Trail of Tears. This is a hands-on activity (visual and tactile) activity that will
break the monotony of the lecture-style video they will watch that same day.

We have several discussion-based activities planned, which could pose problems for different groups of students,
such as students with special needs, EL students, and students of different races/ethnicities or students who come
from different SES backgrounds. These students may not be used to using the English language or the “proper”
academic language we use in American public schools; therefore, discussions with their Native-English-speaking
high SES peers could be more difficult for these students, if not impossible. We could support these students and
increase their motivation to participate by pairing them with students who are more skilled readers and possibly
students who speak some of the language that the struggling students uses at home.

The final culminating project is done in class. This supports SES students who might not have the time or resources
to complete the journal entry outside of class.

What will serve as evidence of students’ understanding and ability at the close of the lesson?

The students journal entry will serve as our assessment of their understanding of this units lessons. We are allowing
the students to complete this journal entry in class, which will take up a majority of the class time that day. This
journal entry will incorporate informational writing as they will include knowledge they learned throughout the
week as well as creative writing as they are creating a historical fiction piece from the perspective of a NAtive
American who experienced the Trail of Tears. After the students have written their journals, we will save the last
few minutes of class for students to share their journals with the class if they are so inclined.

INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN: WHAT WILL YOU DO?

ENGAGE:

● Begin class with a discussion “What does Home mean to you?”

● Have students share with their responses with the class
● Can home be more than a house? People? Familiar things? Memories?

EXPLORE:
● Let students read this quote and Discuss:
○ "We, the great mass of the people think only of the love we have to our land for...we do
love the land where we were brought up. We will never let our hold to this land go...to let
 it go it will be like throwing away...[our] mother that gave...[us] birth." - Cherokee
Legislative Council, New Echota July 1830
■ Quote from the “Cherpokees of California” non-profit organization
(http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/history/quotes.htm)
○ What is this quote saying?
○ Now, how would you feel if your home and all the things you loved were taken from
you? How do your feelings compare to the quote? Do you have a better idea of how
Native Americans, like Samuel, possibly felt about being forced to leave their homes?
● Recap Samuel’s story and connect it to the above quote → samuel literally lost his mother to the
Trail of Tears
○ Remember to reinforce the fact that samuel was 9, so he was the same age as the students
in class.

EXPLAIN:

● Now, explain the journal activity and have students channel their emotions from the earlier discussion and
knowledge from this past week into creating a journal from the perspective of a native american on the trail
of tears.
● Invite the children to channel their thoughts and feelings into a journal entry answering some of these
prompts as if they were a Native American during this time.
○ Write about being forced on the Trail of Tears and what it was like.
○ Explain why what happened to you and other Native Americans was wrong. Were your rights
violated?
○ Write about your feelings toward the American government/the people who forced you to leave.
○ Describe the dangers you encountered along the way to the new reservation you would be living
on.
○ Write about where you were sent and what it is like to be in an unfamiliar place (the reservations).
○ What do you miss about home?
○ Remember to tell students they can use their resources they have accumulated throughout our
different lessons (Painting, primary sources, graphic organizer, “Samuel's Memory”)

ELABORATE:

● After students have finished their journal entries, come back together as a class.
● Ask students if they can think of anything going on in the world today that relates to this situation? Any
injustices or immoral events taking place? Anything you have seen on the news or heard from parents/
friends?
● Introduce the North Dakota pipeline issue, how Native American land is under attack again.
○ This shows students that this isn't just an isolated instance of the past, but things like this our still
happening today!
○ In 2016, activists including Native American peoples spent months protesting government plans to
route an oil pipeline underneath a lake near Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.
○ These acts of resistance by protesters were threatened by the governor of North Dakota, who had
ordered the forced removal of Native Americans and activists who had camped on the land where
the oil pipeline was planned to be placed.
 ○ This unjust evacuation was halted by a federal judge who ordered the oil company to remove the
pipeline structure altogether.
○ This an example of a present-day attempted injustice resulting in a victory for Native American
peoples.
○ Resources for additional information: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/north-dakota-
evict-native-american-protest-camp-161129035035449.html

https://www.theindigenousamericans.com/2017/12/28/judge-orders-removal-gas-pipeline-native-
american-property/

EVALUATE:

● Since the journal entry is a formal summative assessment, we will read the entries outside of the classroom,
however, we will walk around and monitor the students as they are writing in case students have questions
about the information presented during the week or the assignment.
● Good work includes, but is not limited to, students who answer a majority of these prompts given below:
○ Write about being forced on the Trail of Tears and what it was like.
○ Explain why what happened to you and other Native Americans was wrong. Were your rights
violated?
○ Write about your feelings toward the American government/the people who forced you to leave.
○ Describe the dangers you encountered along the way to the new reservation you would be living
on.
○ Write about where you were sent and what it is like to be in an unfamiliar place (the reservations).
○ What do you miss about home?