Lifestyles of Colorado Miners

Grade: This lesson is designed for 8th grade remedial students

Focus of Lesson: The purpose of this lesson is for students to become familiar with the art of analyzing and the process of researching for a purpose through the use of primary and secondary sources.

Standards that will be addressed and assessed are:

Colorado Information Literacy Standard 3
The literate student uses information accurately and creatively.

Reading and Writing Standard 2
Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audience.

Reading and Writing Standard 5
Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.

Assessment:

This will be the research portion for a finished paper. Final assessment: Students will be required to write an historical fiction piece, five-six pages in length. Paper will be completed on a word processor, double-spaced. Student will meet with peer editor and teacher as editor during two separate sessions before turning rough draft into final copy. Rough draft and all revision notes must also be turned in with the final paper. Also, all historical research will also be turned in as part of the assessment.
Prompt: You are to create a story using all the historical information you have gathered about miners in Colorado. You may either put yourself or a modern student in the story by sending them back in time. Or you may bring a character from this time period forward in our time, with them dressed correctly and behaving appropriately for the lifestyle they have left behind.

Standards Assessed Through Final Project:
-Literacy Standard Three: Assessment will evaluate through the writing piece is student has accurately and creatively presented researched information.
-Reading and Writing Standard 2, Benchmark 1. Final product, rough draft, and revision notes will assess drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading for final copy. Final product will show student's ability to write a story with greater detail and supporting material.
-Reading and Writing Standard 5, Benchmark 2 and 5. Evaluating historical research turned in by the student will assess this standard. Research will be evaluated for use of various media, reference sources; locating and selecting relevant information; and using information to produce a quality product.

Time:

These lessons are designed for 8th grade remedial students. Each class period is 40 minutes. This will take 6-8 class periods to comfortably reach the "Begin Writing Project" which will lead into the final assessment.

Materials:

'Introductory Analysis of Pictures' sheets, 4-5 per student and one on a transparency for an overhead
Butcher paper - one sheet per group of children.
Overhead projector
Computer Lab with Internet Access.
Primary source document(s) from hewit.unco.edu/dohist and www.bcr.org/cdp/index.html.
Two main pictures (one modern, such as a picture of a skateboarder, and one historic, such as Amos in the Colorado Mines from the Denver Public Library Western History Collection) laminated. Need a set of 5-6 each of each chosen picture, one per group of 3-4 students.
Index cards
Textbook and library resource materials.

Possible Procedures:

Day One:
Setting: Classroom
1. Place kids in groups of 3-4.
2. Hand out laminated modern picture, such as the cover of a skateboard magazine.
3. Ask each group of students to exam picture, noting people, fashion, clues as to time period, etc. Let students work for about fifteen minutes.
4. Place butcher paper on walls around the room, within easy walking distance. Each butcher paper should have one category of observation at the top (fashion, time period, food, weather, etc).
5. Ask students for observations from picture. Write observations on butcher paper
6. Put analysis transparency on the overhead. Give each student an Analysis sheet.
7. Have them decide where the different observations on the butcher paper should be placed on the sheet. Put those observations on overhead, asking students to fill out their sheets at the same time, moving with you.

Day Two:
Setting: Class
1. Place kids in groups of 3-4. Your choice as to whether the groups are the same or different than the day before. Repeat exact lesson from the day before, substituting historical picture, such as this photo of Amos in the Colorado Mines from the Denver Public Library Western History and Genealogy Photo Collection.

Day Three:
First day in the computer lab.
1. Through a search engine, walk students through the steps to the Doing History Site of the Hewit Institute - University of Northern Colorado. (url listed above; through the search process, have students type in "Hewit Institute" and then highlight the first listing. Make sure each student is on the Home Page before continuing)
2.Have students bookmark site.
3. Have kids open the section they think pertains to miners. (They will need to move their mouse over the picture of a miner working and then click). Neighbors can help neighbors to make sure they are in the right section.
4. Students are to find Colorado Miners and open this section. (Move mouse over word "Colorado Miners".)
5. Students are to find Family/Children/Schools and open this section. (Move mouse over word).
6. Students are to find Classroom in Aspen and open this section. (Move mouse over word).
7. Give each student an Analysis sheet. ON THEIR OWN, have them fill out any observations they make.
8. Using a transparency of the Analysis sheet, have students state items they have on their sheets and then write one item each on the class transparency.
9. Direct students to the "Their Own Words" section and have them read what was written about the classroom. Discuss any differences, any additional information this feedback gives them.

Day Four:
Second day in the computer lab.
1.Have students go to site from day before. Build time into lesson to make sure each student successfully pulls up Home Page.
2.Have students open up the Colorado Miners section as per yesterday. In this section labeled Colorado Mining Themes, the students will find several areas of interest.
3. Give each student an Analysis sheet. Have them pull up a section of their choice, find a picture, and complete the Analysis sheet.
4. They are to then complete a sheet on a second picture. One of their two pictures must have a "Their Own Words" section attached. If their first picture didn't, they must choose a second picture that does.
5. When done, they are to write down additional information from "Their Own Words" for one of their pictures.
6. Place students together who have worked on one common picture. If a large group have chosen the same picture, place students in groups of 3-4. Have students compare notes, sharing what they have found.
7. Instruct students to write down, as a group, questions not answered by the Analysis sheet. Also, have them write down any observations they have come up with as a group that may be incorrect. Give them index cards and have them write these questions down, each student to have their own index cards. These cards now contain beginning research questions for this time period.

Day Five:
Setting: Class
1. Take about the first fifteen minutes of class to brainstorm what resources students could use to find answers to questions on their index cards. (Have hard copies of resource books).
2. Brainstorm additional questions students feel are important to answer to understand the time period. They already know that the end-result is that they will be expected to write about this time period or the people in this time period. Therefore they should be able to verbalize what else they, as writers, will need to know. 3. Write the class questions on butcher paper. Lead them, if necessary, to cover several areas: food, fashion, religious beliefs, etc. (These sheets of butcher paper are to stay up during the research and writing phases as prompts for students who don't know how to proceed or become "stuck").

Day Six:
Setting: Computer Lab
1. Take students to the Colorado Digitization Program website (url address above). From the Home Page, direct student to the Collection Spotlight in the upper right corner. Have students highlight More Spotlights and find the Durango Area History. They are to open that page.
2. On the left side of the Durango page have them open Mining and Smelting and write down five facts on a notecard.
3. Have them open People and write down five facts on a notecard.
4. Have them open a category of their choice and write down five facts on a notecard.
5. Have them explore the site to ascertain if they can answer any of the questions on their question notecard from the day before.

Day Seven:
Setting: Library or Classroom if Library resources have been brought to classroom.
1. Have students begin using resources to find answers to their questions, plus any other information they want to put into their stories. (They will use conventional methods of notetaking, whatever teacher has taught. Also, they will need to be aware of bibliography and how to correct pull that information from texts and the web).

Day Eight - ?:
Setting: Classroom
1. Begin and move through writing process until final product is completed. This includes whatever conventions the classroom teacher utilizes, i.e., editing, peer-editing, revision, etc. As part of assessing the final product, ALL notecards and rough drafts are to be turned in.

Support Materials:

Introduction to Analyzing Pictures Worksheet

Laurie Roybal, Longs Peak Middle School