The first supporting question, “What were the benefits of building railroads?” helps students use sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. How did the railroads and policies like the Homestead Act encourage settlers to relocate to the northern Great Plains? What kind of benefits resulted from all of this development of infrastructure and related economic activity? Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 1
Create a graphic organizer that depicts positive impacts of the railroad on the northern Great Plains. Set the stage for what was going on both in the region and in the United States. What time frame did this happen in? What else was going on? What were the major newspaper headlines (both locally and nationally)? What was going on that people were concerned about?
Featured Sources 1
The sources featured below are primary sources. They are the raw materials of history—original documents, personal records, photographs, maps, and other materials. Primary sources are the first evidence of what happened, what was thought, and what was said by people living through a moment in time. These sources are the evidence by which historians and other researchers build and defend their historical arguments, or thesis statements. When using primary sources in your lessons, invite students to use all their senses to observe, describe, and analyze the materials. What can they see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste? Draw on students’ knowledge to classify the sources into groups, to make connections between what they observe and what they already know, and to help them make logical claims about the materials that can be supported by evidence. Further research of materials and sources can either prove or disprove the students’ argument.
Study the maps in featured source A. In a group or as a class, answer the following questions: What kind of information do they contain? Who created each of these sources? Who was the intended audience for each source? Why were these sources created? When were the sources created? What do the sources tell us about Dakota Territory during that time? How do we know? What else can you find?
| Source A |
Learn more about North Dakota by visiting the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum, and the numerous state historic sites.