Read Kansas! Middle School - M-6 The Price of Exploring Kansas
This lesson explores the economic motivation of exploration and its subsequent impact of American Indians. The students work with the economic concepts of wants, needs, and opportunity costs. In addition, students work with primary and secondary expository text. This lesson is designed to last two class periods but may be altered depending on class schedule and reading ability of the students.
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Kansas History Standards:
- Benchmark 1, Indicator 2: The student describes the social and economic impact of Spanish, French, and American explorers and traders on the Indian tribes in Kansas.
Economic Standards:
- Benchmark 1, Indicator 2: The student explains that how people choose to use resources has both present and future consequences.
- Benchmark 3, Indicator 2: The student explains the costs and benefits of trade between people across nations (e.g., job loss vs. cheaper prices, environmental costs vs. wider selection of goods and services.)
Reading Standards:
- Benchmark 4, Indicator 4: The student generates and responds logically to literal, inferential, evaluative, synthesizing, and critical thinking questions before, during, and after reading the text.
- Benchmark 4, Indicator 5: The student uses information from the text to make inferences and draw conclusions.
Common Core Reading:
- RI. 7.1: The student cites pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
