Lesson Plan Format for Unit Plan

Name: Shannon White

Unit Topic: The West
Grade Level: 4th Grade
Day# 8
Duration 50 minutes
Lesson Title: The Donner Party, Nevada
Vocabulary:
 covered wagons
 Sierra Nevada
 pioneers
 Jacob Donner
 James Reed
Skills:
 Write to examine and convey complex ideas and information.
 Drawing conclusions
Concepts:
 Westward Expansion
Objective(s)

Students will be able to individually answer the prompted questions in their journals.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to list the events of the Donner Party tragedy,
describe the conditions the Donner Party face, and explain what could have been done to prevent
the tragedy in in their journals.

Standard(s)

NCSS.1.4.a ...assist learners in articulating personal connections to time, place, and

social/cultural systems;

NCSS.1.4.f ...enable learners to analyze the role of perceptions, attitudes, values, and beliefs in
the development of personal identity.

Standard - 8.1.4.A Identify and describe how geography and climate have influenced continuity
and change over time.

Standard - 8.4.4.D Distinguish between conflict and cooperation among groups and organization

that impacted development of the history of the world.
Technology Materials/ Resources
 Teacher technology: (Full resource list on last page)
o Elmo
o Smart Board
o Smith-Llera, D. (2016). Stranded in the Sierra Nevada: The story of the Donner
Party. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, a Capstone imprint.
o Donner Party Journals
o Donner Party Map
 Student Materials:
o Paper Bag
o Yarn
o Hole Punch
o Lined Paper

Anticipatory Set
5 minutes
Good morning friends yesterday we were talking about the culture in Hawaii. Can I have a
friend raise their hand and tell me something they learned? Thank you for sharing! Now we are
going to move onto Nevada. Class imagine that you have been stranded in a sudden blizzard on
the Sierra Nevada mountain range while hiking up the mountain. You are not sure if you will be
rescued or when help is coming. What would you do in this situation? Sometimes life and death
situations bring out the best in people in surprising ways. We will see this in the case of the
Donner Party. The Donner Party is a tragic story of pioneers who were stranded on a mountain.
We will learn about their journey and why this tragedy occurred, and what the group was forced
to do to survive.

Instructional Activities
40 minutes

Exploration/ Model:

Over 150 years ago the Donner Party headed from Springfield Illinois to California to start
their new life. The initial group of 32 travelers consisted of two families, servants, and friends.
The teacher will project her copy of Stranded in the Sierra Nevada: The story of the Donner
Party from their Elmo. The teacher will read to the students the list of members that made up the
Donner Party on page 13-15. The teacher will pull up the Donner Party journals, and the students
will take turns popcorn reading aloud the journal entries. Through the journal entries the students
will get to know the attitudes and perceptions of the Donner Party that led them to make the
decisions they did.

Now that we have a little bit of background knowledge, let’s watch this video about the Donner
Party’s Journey. The teacher will pull up the video: https://www.history.com/topics/westward-
expansion/donner-party
The teacher will ask the students some discussion questions. Why did the Donner Party go off of
the Trail? The teacher will call on a student. Correct, because they were behind schedule on
their journey and they wanted to reach their destination quicker. What factors contributed to the
failure of their journey? The teacher will call on a student.

The teacher will project the Donner Party Route onto the board to show the students a visual of
how the party travelled west. The teacher will point out important places like the Hastings Cutoff
in Nevada.

Now we are going to create our own journal entries as if we were a part of the Donner Party.
We will think about their attitudes and perception of their journey. We will think about how this
resulted in the tragedy that is known as the Donner Party.
The students will reflect on their own attitudes and perceptions and how they would react and
behave if they were in the same situation as the Donner Party. They would ask themselves
questions like would they take a shortcut to get ahead. How would they react under a stressful
situation? Would they panic or stay calm?

Guided Practice:

So, to review we will be making our own pioneer journals today. First, everyone put their paper
bag flat on their desk. Then, cut the bottom out of the bag. The teacher should be modeling to the
students how to do this. When you are done you should have one large section. Now we get to
soften up the paper. The students should crinkle up their paper and smooth it out. Smooth out
your paper as much as you can. The paper bag should wrap around the front and back of the
lined paper to make a cover. The teacher will then go around and hole punch the paper. Ok
friends, now we will use the yarn to bind our journals. The students will then title their journals.
The students will then begin to write in their journals. The teacher will project some guiding
questions: The students will reflect on their own attitudes and perceptions and how they would
react and behave if they were in the same situation as the Donner Party. They would ask
themselves questions like would they take a shortcut to get ahead. How would they react under a
stressful situation? Would they panic or stay calm? Which route would you have taken and why?
Does anyone have any questions?

Independent Practice:

Students will be given 25 minutes to create their journals. The teacher will walk around the room
as students work on their journals and provide help or guidance when needed.

Closure
5 minutes
Everyone’s pioneer journals look great! Can I have a volunteer to read what they wrote about in
their journal? The teacher will call on three students to share what they wrote in their journal.
Great Job, thank you for sharing! Everyone can turn in their journals to the turn in bin. Thank
you, class! Friend, get ready to learn about the Native Americans in Oregon tomorrow!
Differentiation
 Students who are ELLs can be paired with another student who speaks the same language to crate their journals.
 Students will have the Donner Party journals read aloud to them.
Accommodations
 IEP- For students who have a reading disability they will have the option to work with a partner when
creating their journals.
 504 Plan- For students that are hard of hearing they will have preferential seating near the teacher and
the smartboard. The teacher will also wear a microphone transmitter around her neck. When playing
video, the teacher will use subtitles.
Assessment (Formal or Informal)

 Informal
o The teacher will listen to the students who share their journals.
o The teacher will walk around the classroom and asses the student’s journals and
their progress of the task.

Reflection on Planning
How easy or difficult was it to plan this lesson? How will students find the lesson? What was the most challenging part? What
concerns do you have for implementation of this lesson?

This lesson was difficult for me to plan. Our unit plan group decided to assign different
states in the west and different NCSS standards to each group member. I felt like my NCSS
standard, Individual development, was difficult to begin with, but pairing it with the state
Nevada only made it harder. It was difficult for me to come up with a lesson plan that solely
focused on Nevada and matched up with the 4th grade curriculum. Not a lot of Nevada’s history
matched up with individual development.
I did find it interesting to learn about the donner party and their experience. This is not a
piece of history I remember learning in school. I think it is an important piece of history for
students to learn. I think that there are a lot of lessons they can take away from this lesson.
Concerns I have for implementing this lesson would be…..
Appendix A: Donner Party Route
Appendix B: Donner Party Journals
Outline of Notes:

Journey West
 In 1846 several families from Springfield, Illinois joined the westward migration.
o Their destination was California.
o George and Jacob Donner and James Reed (local businessmen) left Illinois with
teamsters and employees.
 When they reached Independence, Missouri they became part of a wagon train that was
headed west.
 They made it to Wyoming in about six weeks.
o They were making good progress.
 On July 20, 1846 the group divided into two.
o Most of the wagon train went north towards Fort Hall.
o The Reeds and Donners headed southwest toward Fort Bridger.
 They elected to take a shortcut that had been recommended to them by a
guide.
 Although they had been warned against taking this route by
friends.
 It later turned out that the guide had lied about the trail and no one
had ever traveled the Hastings cut off.
o Not even the guide himself.
 On July 31 the Donner Party entered the Hastings cutoff.
st

o The journey across the Great Salt Lake Desert took five days.
o They were forces to blaze the trail themselves and cut down many trees.
 They lost dozens of cattle and many of their wagons had to be abandoned.
 They spent days in search of their missing oxen before traveling to
the Ruby Mountains in Nevada.
o This shortcut ended up adding nearly a month to their
journey.
 It was late September when they were trying to clear the Sierra Nevada.
 On October 31st they continue their Journey across the Sierra Nevada mountains and their
progress is being blocked by the snow.
o They had to wait out the winter in tents and cabins.
 Many perished from starvation because of this.
 On November 20th Patrick Breen, began a diary that continued until March 1st.
 The group continue their journey across the mountain, many dying in the process.
o 42 of the travelers had dies and 47 survives.
 Their journey was used as a cautionary tale to future travelers.
o Do not take the cutoffs.