The  environment shaped the first people of Washington’s way of life and as a result the early people had different leaders for different purposes who were elders in their community.This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 1. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Contact between Native and non-native people forever changed the landscape of North America. European exploration drove many changes to the Northwest, including trade, exploration.This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 2. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

While the arrival of explorers and the beginning of the fur trade were going on in the American Northwest, a new nation was being born in the east. This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 3. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Washington’s long journey to become a state was a complex story culturally, economically, politically, environmentally, and ecologically.This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 4. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Washington has changed a great deal in many different ways in the 20th Century – culturally, economically, politically, environmentally, and ecologically. This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 5. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Local governments are the smallest and closest governments to us. They are usually the first place we turn when we need help. This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 6. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Since Washington became a state in 1889, the job of governing has become much bigger. Even so, the basic structure—a legislative branch, an executive branch and a judicial branch—is the same as 100 years ago.This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 7. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Tribal governments are quite different from state or local governments, because tribes are “nations within a nation.” This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 8. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

Decisions our local, state, tribal, and federal governments make affect every forest, every mountain, and every lake and river. This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 9. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

This unit is focused on the examination of a single topic, in this case, the Native Americans of the inland Northwest and conflict that arose when other non-native people started to settle in the northwest, and to specifically address the native populations that lived in the inland northwest. The materials were created to be one coherent arc of instruction focused on one topic. The module was designed to include teaching notes that signal the kind of planning and thinking such instruction requires: close reading with complex text, and specific instructional strategies or protocols are described that support students’ reading and writing with evidence are described in enough detail to make it very clear what is required of students and how to support students in doing this rigorous work. Materials include summative assessment of content and process, central texts, key resources, and protocols that support and facilitate student learning.

The unit has two parts. In each, students dive into inquiry to answer the compelling questions:

1. Who are some of our closest tribal neighbors, and what have they been their lifeways since time immemorial?
2. Why do people explore, and how does this lead to expansion?

Part 1 is focused on the examination of the northwest and some of the original inhabitants. Through these questions students will learn about the culture of some of their closest tribal neighbors, the Spokane Indians. The final project for Part 1 is a cultural investigation display, in which students will show what they know about the culture of the Spokane Tribe.

In Part 2, Students will also learn about forces that brought change to the northwest: fur trade era and exploration. Students will ultimately learn about the Corps of Discovery and the Oregon Trail and know the impact each had on the west. Students will finish Part 2 with a timeline activity that will reflect choice and build upon student strengths according to their skill set.

Finally, a lesson on a Tribe of the Columbia Plateau is offered as an extension, but it is strongly recommended that students get to experience this lesson.

Note that the emphasis here is on the Spokane Tribe as one of our closest tribal neighbors. In no way is this an exhaustive study nor should the tribal cultures be generalized to other tribes of the region. We understand that each tribe in our region and North America was and continues to be unique in its culture, practices, lifeways, and traditions.

In this focused inquiry, students investigate the question: Are rights “granted” or “won?”. They will also consider: How did women rally support for the vote when they couldn’t vote themselves? What methods were used to gain the right to vote in Washington?
Students will engage in deep reading, develop summaries of information, conduct independent research, and engage in small and large group discussions and write an argument with a well-formed claim, clear evidence, and reasoning.

Photo of Washington Equal Suffrage Association posting signs to promote woman suffrage, Seattle by Curtis Asahel | Washington State Digital Archives. This image is made available for use in research, teaching, and private study.