Name: Fields, Jamie

E-mail: jamiefields56@yahoo.com

Topic: A Trail of Tears

Grade: Third Grade

Time: Two or Three Class Periods

Ark. Hist. Framework: 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.1.5, 3.1.6, 3.1.103.1.11,

Objective: Students will actively listen to the retold account of the "Trail of Tears" that took place in Arkansas.  Students will analyze the basic differences between culture.  Students will learn about the route the indians took and the hardships that they faced.

Set: What do you think you would do if someone told you that you had to leave everything you own and walk to another state to live?  You can not take your games or your dolls.  You can not take your cars or your bikes, so how will you get there.  What will you do when the weather gets bad?  You have to be out of the state by a certain time so, what will you do?  This actually took place here in Arkansas.  The Choctaw indians had to pass through Arkansas from Mississippi.

Materials: United States Map, Fact/Opinion Sheets, Journals

Key Terms: Mississippi, Arkansas, Chowtaw, trail, resettle, diseases: diphtheria, typhoid and cholera, Oklahoma, fact and opinion

Key Facts: In November 1831 the Arkansas Trail of Tears took place.

The state of Mississippi decided the Choctaw had to leave its state and resettle in the west.

The Choctaw had to leave behind all their goods.

The Coctaw were required to be at two ferry points on the Mississippi River to begin their journey.

Heavy rains washed away roads and trails.

Choctaw were forced to set up camps on the outskirts of towns.

As the time came for the Indians to move, heavy blizzards hit the land.

Many indians froze to death, those who did not starved or battled "white man" diseases.

In spite of condition the Choctaw faced, more than 4,000 survived the journey and made it to their homeland in Oklahoma.

One chief called the trip "the Trail of Tears and Death."

Activities: Students will first review facts about the Choctaw Indians in whole group instruction.

Students will be given a varied group of statements about this event.

Students will work in small group settings to decide whether these statements are fact or opinion.

Students will sequence the facts in cronological order in whole group setting,  after sharing with the class their statements.

Students will write in the narrative journal five sentences on anything they think happened to the journey from Mississippi through Arkansas to Oklahoma.

Students will share their narrative with the class.

Closure: Teacher will review the main topic and the activities that followed.  The teacher will review each narrative afte the student has shared it with the class.

Assessment: Students will be assessed by checking to see if their facts are in cronological order.  Students will also be assessed on the structure of their sentences in the journal.

Resources: Marsh, Carol:  The Big Arkansas Reproducible Activity Book; p83

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