Politics and the Acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Matthew Meyer

 Date: June 27, 2016                                                                Grade Level: 8th

 Concept: Louisiana Purchase

 Objective: The student will compare and contrast arguments/ideas by Democratic-Republicans and Federalists about the acquisition of Louisiana Purchase through the use of graphic organizers, debates, written reports and/or videos.

Rewritten (based on article):

Objective: Given a writing prompt, students will write with at least five sentences and at least 3 pieces of evidence explaining why the Federalists opposed the Louisiana Purchase.

 Success Criteria: The student will:

1. Complete a graphic organizers comparing/contrasting the Federalists and the Democratic-

Republicans

2. Verbalize these differences/similarities with a partner

3. Debate for or against the Louisiana Purchase, role-playing as a Federalist or Democratic-Republican

4. Use digital tools to research, design and present social studies concepts

5. Assessment: Use accurate, sufficient and relevant information to support writing a persuasive paragraph (grades will be based on rubric)

Introduction: Show a short YouTube video called The Louisiana Purchase (YouTube channel: USHistorySchool) Pause to discuss and ask students questions: a) What was the Louisiana Purchase?  B) How do you think Americans felt about it? (Most students will assume that Americans were happy about it). Explain: “Not all Americans were happy with Jefferson’s decision purchase it:  The Federalists were quite unhappy about it. Today we will discovery why”.

Vocabulary:

  1. Federalist                              5. Administration                 9. Impressment
  2. Democratic-Republicans  6. Independent Republic        10. Judicial Review
  3. Manifest Destiny                  7. Judicial Review             11. Territory    
  4. Federal                                              8. Doctrine                         

 Body of Lesson:

1. The Central historic question: (have this question projected on Smart Board)

Why did the Federalists oppose the Louisiana Purchase?

2. Project photos of Hamilton and Jefferson:

Talk to students about the differences between Jefferson and Hamilton (3-5 min)

3. Pass out an editorial written by Alexander Hamilton written in 1803 and also Hamilton’s copy of original handwritten document (from Library of Congress website) projected on Smart Board.

Model trying to predict whether he supports the treaty (Example, “I’m going to predict that he opposes the treaty because he and Thomas Jefferson do not get along. Now, while I read, I’m going to try to notice what is going on and what people were thinking…”)

4.Give students time to read silently and then have students read portions out loud, pausing to discuss key concepts. (Express surprise and model your thinking to students out loud: “he likes the idea...; I noticed that Hamilton criticizes Jefferson’s administration and doesn’t want them to take credit…; country is sparsely populated…”).

  1. Give students the Venn Diagram Graphic Organizer to fill out differences between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans and also the Vocabulary worksheet.
  2. Students will be research the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans online and write notes.
  3. Students will look up definitions to Vocabulary words and write them on worksheet.
  4. Students will have a quick 2-min. “Think, Pair, Share” activity to talk about the differences between the two political groups using their notes and graphic organizers. ESL students will be provided with sentence starters on the board (They both were __ ; They didn’t agree about __)
  5. Student volunteers will come up to the front of the class and do a debate for or against the Louisiana Purchase.
  6. Teacher videotapes debates and plays them for the class pausing to ask student their opinions, ideas, comments.
  7. Assessment: Teacher passes out writing paper, writes topic on the board and projects rubric on the Smart Board. Students write paragraph.

Accommodations:

Students with disabilities, (especially language disabilities) and English Language Learners

Many of these students have trouble getting started because they are frozen by fears of making mistakes on their graphic organizers.

Solution: Student write ideas on post its and arrange them on the graphic organizer.

Students may not know how to use the information in the graphic organizer to answer questions.

Solutions:

  1. Teacher may need to model completing a graphic organizer or finding information on a graphic organizer.
  2. Teacher may provide concepts, facts, ideas, and events and ask students to choose information and place it on the organizer.
  3. Photos, pictures, and symbols from computer programs may be used to help increase understanding

Gifted students may finish early and need enrichment activity options.

        Solutions:

1.    Student creates a digital timeline of Louisiana Purchase using a digital timeline creator and presents it to class on the Smart Board

 Assessment:

Students write at least 5 sentences (include introductory and concluding sentence with at least 3 supporting sentences): in response to the question:

Did Federalists oppose the Louisiana Purchase for practical or political reasons? (In other words, did the Federalists have actual concerns or did they just hate Jefferson?

You must support your answer with evidence; try to use new vocabulary (refer to your worksheet)

Assessment accommodations: Students may give the answer to teacher verbally; test items may be read to them; they may dictate their responses to a scribe.

Formative Assessment: I will mainly use the resulting assessment data to help me determine if I should spend more time on the concept or if its time to move on to the next one. It will help me evaluate my lesson, and decide whether to use it again and what modifications, if needed, I can make to it to improve on it, if I decide to use it in the future. The data will also tell me which students did not show mastery so I can offer them more individualized instruction on the concept.

Materials:

1. Copy of handwritten Louisiana Purchase document from Library of Congress website: Alexander Hamilton editorial document - to project on Smart Board

2. Typed copies of Alexander Hamilton’s editorial – for each student (to write notes/highlight)

3. Louisiana Purchase Graphic Organizer – 1 copy for each student

4. Optional: photos, pictures, symbols from computer programs printed out and cut out for special needs students to use when completing Graphic Organizers

5. Vocabulary list worksheet with section to fill in definitions – 1 copy for each student

6.  Rubric – 1 copy to be projected on Smart Board

Standards:

S8.4.4 Identify historical interactions between and among individuals, groups, and/or institutions (e.g., family, neighborhood, political, economic, religious, social, cultural, and workplace).

SS8.4.5 Identify relevant primary and secondary sources for research. Compare and contrast treatment of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.    

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