Lesson 9: AncestryLibrary, HeritageQuest, and Sanborn Maps

Common Core Connections:

1.  AncestryLibrary could be used to teach standard 5.RL.6: Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.  This is in the 5th grade "Reading for Literature: Craft and Structure" strand.

In this lesson, students would look under "Immigration and Travel" and then the "Boston, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1954."  Choose a date (1910), a month (June), and look at all arrivals.  Choose two passengers and write a paragraph about the voyage from these two different perspectives.  Notice the variety of ages of passengers: 43, 35, 27, 69, 4, 24, 18, 36.  Notice the different occupations:  farmer, clergyman, publisher, merchant, student, weaver, baker, cotton spinner.

Along with this primary source document, students could find information on travel by ship during the past in books such as You Wouldn't Want to Sail With Christopher Columbus! by Fiona MacDonald, They Came on Ships by Colletta, or How I Became an American by Karen Gundisch.

2.  HeritageQuest could be used to teach standard SL.5.1:  Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussion with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.  This is in the 5th grade "Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration" strand.

Search the Census for the the year 1900, choose South Dakota, Minnehaha county, and then a location such as "4-WD Sioux Falls."  With a partner or in a group of 3, choose a family or two individuals.  Write down some information about the family or individuals you have selected, and then practice pretending you are that person.

After time to research and practice, students can share their findings with the class by pretending to be one of these people from the past.  Things to share could include: name, birthday, where they were born, what country their parents were born in, what their current occupation is (stone cutter, pastry cook, merchant, farmer) or their family role (brother, son, wife, servant, daughter) as well as if they can read, write, and/or speak English, and if they own or rent their home.  If it is a family or two friends traveling together, they could put together a short dialogue which includes this information.

3.  Sanborn Maps could be used to teach standard SL.5.5:  Include Multimedia components (e.g. graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.  This is in the 5th grade "Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas" strand.

Students can look up "Sioux Falls [Minnehaha County]" and the year 1916.  What is Sioux Falls like close to a century later?  Compare a map from Sanborn maps to a picture of the same area today in Sioux Falls.  This could be a building that is still standing, or a new building where an old one once stood.  Find a picture on Google Maps of the same spot today.  Try S. Phillips or Minnesota Ave.  Tell us what sheet it is on in Sanborn.  They could even drive to the spot and take a picture with a parent's phone and compare it to what they find in Sanborn Maps and on Google Maps.

All are interesting and a neat way to bring history to life for students.