American Experience

Suggestions for Classroom Activities

Comprehension

A free set of American Experience maps showing Westward expansion, American Frontiers, may be of use in your classroom before or after using this activity.

After students have answered the questions, you may want to construct a timeline as a class using the events they describe.

Activities

Activity 1: Students may want to consult this PBS collection of primary sources on the West, as well as these links from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE to other relevant materials on the Web.

Activity 2: Have students compose the “Test Your Knowledge” questions individually so the questions are unfamiliar to most students when they play the game.

Activity 3: The columns should not assume that readers know the author’s life story. Instead, they should describe the author’s experiences and how they affect his or her view of life in America today.

• To help students begin thinking about topics for a column, you might ask what Annie Oakley might think of a woman being a leading candidate for president, or what Buffalo Bill might think of a Hollywood western, or what Francis Parkman might think of the frequent use of western images in advertisements for consumer goods.

Activity 4: The Library of Congress’s “American Memory” Web site has a list of tribes, along with links to photos.

Activity 5: The federal government maintains a Campaign 2008 Web site with links to the sites of the individual candidates.