Plan Summaries

Plan Summaries

A Sense of WV- (Showpath)- Students are time travelers on a journey. Their job is to experience all the sights, sounds, and various senses encountered in the time periods of the museum. They will have to report back to their peers about their findings. This lesson will provide historical perspective. Through this lesson, the students will be enabled to relate history to their life today. As teacher leaders of WV, we would expect this lesson to result in historical empathy and an understanding of the time periods. We expect the activity to provide students with a better sense of self (their culture, their history, their environment) in hope that it will provide knowledge and understanding of where they are going. (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

Where Will I Go From Here?- (Showpath)- Students will follow the WV Museum Showpath, considering how West Virginians in the past have been challenged to make a life here. Using the WV Museum as a gateway, student groups will acquire knowledge of their past to critically evaluate and plan for their future. This will give students the opportunity to explore how West Virginians in the past have survived, and give them the opportunity to imagine and analyze where they, as citizens of WV, can find their place and create their own history. (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

In the Footsteps of WV- (Showpath)- Students will complete a project in the persona of a fictional character from an historical era. This lesson provides for differentiation based on differing materials, different activities while at the museum, and different final projects. This is a way to expand the students’ knowledge of specific eras in WV history while personalizing the content. This lesson will enable students to consider history from different viewpoints. Puts the students “in the shoes” of fictional characters from various historical periods to challenge their decision making processes. (5th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

A to Z Observations- (Showpath)- Before visiting the museum, students will be assigned letters. The letters can be the first five letters of their name (can use middle or last if not enough letters in the first name), the teacher can assign letters randomly, or the more adventurous can assign the entire alphabet. As the students tour, they will try to remember impressions (artifacts, pictures, sights, sounds, even abstract impressions of what they experience), that associate with the letters students are assigned. These are examples to guide the students as they go through the showpath, but teachers can adapt these to their individual uses. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Women’s Roles: Then and Now- (Prehistory/Frontier)- Students will study the roles that women played on the Appalachian frontier and compare them to women’s roles today. Students will see how far women have come in gaining opportunities as well as how life has changed in general during the two hundred years since white settlers came to the western Virginia frontier. This lesson is intended to show students how much women’s roles have changed – and how much they haven’t. (4th grade)- Download Lesson

What is Geological Time?- (Prehistory/Frontier)- Only a small percentage of WV history has included humans. By completeing the activities students will develop an understanding of the terms and meaning of geologic time. This lesson is intended to show students what is meant by geologic time and how it relates to WV history. (6th grade)- Download Lesson

Eloquent Words- (Prehistory/Frontier)- In this lesson students will learn about both sides of an issue, then attempt to write persuasively for one. This will give students practice in making logical arguments and using rhetorical techniques. It will also help students learn to look at both sides of an issue. Students will brainstorm the reasons that Europeans had for claiming the land and the reasons Native Americans had using what they have learned and then use that information to choose a side to defend. Lastly, students will write a short speech like Chief Logan’s where they give their side’s reasons for claiming the land. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

John Brown’s Raid- (Prehistory/Frontier)- John Brown's actions at Harpers Ferry polarized both Northerners and Southerners, and brought the nation to the brink of war. Students will develop a K-W-L chart and answer the question of how the raid affected thinking on the slavery issue. This lesson is intended to show students the importance of the slavery issue to the nation prior to the Civil War. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Learning to Ask Questions About the Past- (Prehistory/Frontier)- Historical Inquiry should abound in a museum, and in a classroom. For that matter, it should abound in every community, in every family, and in every mind of every student in West Virginia. Nothing is more relevant than our families, our homes, and us individually. In this lesson built around a visit to the state museum, students will develop their questioning skills in the classroom before they go on their field trip. While in the museum students will practice asking questions, and once they arrive back at school, they will ask questions concerning the artifact that their group has chosen and then address their questions through research. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Time warp: From Frontier to Prehistory- (Prehistory/Frontier)- One of the most interesting ways to view things, in the minds of our youth is through “historical imagination” and “historical inquiry”. Teachers should insist that students use sources of historical inquiry in utilizing artifacts and data to explain “the way things were”. Equally, students are intrigued by Hollywood application of “time warps” such as seen in television and movies such as the “Quantum Leap” series, and the films “The Butterfly Effect”, “Frequency”, and “Back to the Future”. This engagement activity involves putting the student in the role of an early explorer who was literally “ahead of his time”. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

My Brother, My Enemy- (Civil War/Statehood)- Students will explore West Virginia's role in the Civil War, especially how families were frequently divided by their loyalty to both the North and the South. Using several activities and a trip through the WV Museum, students will create a newsletter and publish a newsletter to demonstrate their learning. Students should understand that West Virginia and its families played an important role in changing the nation. Soldiers and battles were fought in our yards where we walk today. Unfortunately, many of those soldiers were fighting neighbors and their own family members in a bloody battle to save our nation from itself. (4th, 5th grades)- Download Lesson

Concern in Eastern Virginia- (Civil War/Statehood)- Students are told an heir to a prominent 1800's legislature comes across a very interesting keepsake. Along with his great-great uncle’s obituary, he finds attached a piece of paper headed, “Items to take to western Virginia.” Along with a listing of several items, at the bottom of the page in different handwriting he reads, “John’s last words.” Students will use this information during their visit to the WV State Museum to decide why the uncle was moving to West Virginia, whey he was taking these items, and what this information has to do with WV Statehood. Inevitably, when asked why WV separated from Virginia, most people will target slavery as the cause of the rift. This lesson questions this assertion and allows students to uncover facts that factually substantiate reasons for WV separating from Virginia. (5th, 7th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

Morse Code: The Telegraph and WV- (Civil War/Statehood)- Two inventions that revolutionized WV and the world were Morse Code and the telegraph. With Why this lessoWIth WIthteacher guidance and through discovery, students will realize how these communication tools help shape popular opinions and beliefs. As students view artifacts in the WV State Museum, they will gain a greater appreciation for these inventions, the time period of their greatest use, and how they were used in helping WV become a state. (5th, 7th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

Immigration and Helvetia: Lesson One- (Civil War/Statehood)- It has often been said that a person’s life is a mirror reflection of their family's past. From rituals to traditions, celebrations to reunions, all of our families have histories that bring the past to the present. This lesson plan will allow students to analyze and evaluate those individuals who came to settle in a rural mountainous setting known as Helvetia and understand why they chose West Virginia as their final living site. Students will analyze the following information: reasons to emigrate, why to WV, connections to the old country, special skills and special people, and evidence of ethnic communities today. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Immigration and Helvetia: Lesson Two-(Civil War/Statehood)- Students will use what they learned at the WV State Museum and what they discussed in lesson one to explore the question, why did Swiss immigrants choose WV? Using this information students will create an original website detailing their information and research. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

War, What is it Good For? – (Civil War/Statehood)- Students will use online resources and their museum experience to answer critical questions about WV's role in the Civil War. As a final project they will create an electronic portfolio of their research, using a format of their choice. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Wheeling and the Big City: Lesson One- (Civil War/Statehood)- Wheeling has a rich history dating back centuries with the Adena Indian tribe asserting its power and authority in the area by scalping would be land speculators and leaving their skulls out in plain sight to serve as a warning to other visitors to the area. Even the name Wheeling, “place of the skull”, serves as a reminder to the past. Wheeling would grow with the influx of European immigrants and the creation of the National Road. In this unit, students will be given an opportunity to explore the history of Wheeling. Possible topics of discussion will include: “Gateway to the West”, rivers, roads, and railways, Wheeling streetscape, workforce and immigrants and the beginning of the labor movement. Students will be working to answer what does West Virginia mean to me and how did the influx of immigrants affect Wheeling in the 19th Century? (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Wheeling and the Big City: Lesson Two- (Civil War/Statehood)- Students will continue discussing the information and questions in lesson one and build on their knowledge gained by drawing on what they learned at the WV State Museum to create a time capsule showing what West Virginia is like currently and then comparing that to the past and the artifacts they viewed in the museum. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

WV Music- (Civil War/Statehood)- Popular music is as American as baseball and apple pie. Parents often chide, “If you knew your lessons as well as words to all of the songs on the radio, you would be a genius.” Popular music permeates our culture. Students walk into class singing the latest hit. When they do this, most of the time they are met with “knock it off-last get started with class.” This lesson gives students a chance to incorporate what they love and sharpen their knowledge and appreciation for WV in the process. (7th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

WV Cartoons- (Civil War/Statehood)- It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Even though students might not understand the meaning of many cartoons, the humor presented engages students. Once engaged, students are open to analyzing cartoons until they realize the intended meanings. This lesson uses cartoons to enhance student’s understanding of how WV became a state. (8th grade)- Download Lesson

Coal Mine Industrial Picture Analysis- (Industrialization)- Students will look at photographs to see that history is not just in the words, but also in the pictures Students are asked to pick three pictures, from the coal mine administration collection, and analyze them using the national archives photograph analysis worksheet. The students must then write a newspaper report about life in a coal town using the pictures as their source of information. (4th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

Is Charleston Your Lucky Charm?- (Industrialization)- Students will learn the history of the location of West Virginia’s state capitol. Students take the role of young citizens living in the city of Charleston in the new state of West Virginia. The decision to choose the capitol city is up for vote, students will research and choose which city they will vote for – Charleston or Wheeling? (4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, grades)- Download Lesson

Off to Work We Go!- (Industrialization)- Students will discover how FDR’s New Deal impacted West Virginia. Through putting themselves in the role of a young, recently married man, who has been unemployed for 8 months with 2 children and one more on the way, who is desperate to find work to support his family, they will discover how the New Deal impacted everyday people in West Virginia. (4th, 6th, 8th grades)- Download Lesson

The “Coal Lifecycle” Scrapbook- (Industrialization)- After studying the coal industry and/ or carbon cycle and a visit to the WV State Museum students are told a lump of coal has come to the classroom with amnesia. He doesn’t know who he is, where he came from, or what he is supposed to do. It is their job to help him! To assist him, students will create a scrapbook of “Coal’s Lifecycle” to jog his memory. (5th, 6th grades)- Download Lesson