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8th
Grade
Cultures in Contact
Student Directions
Your teacher has divided you into groups. Below you will find the group that you have been assigned. For the next two days you and your group will complete the following research activities.
Step 1: Photo/Art Analysis:
(Resource from the Oakland Museum of California Gold Rush Curriculum)
You will select one image linked under you group and complete the Photo/Art Analysis worksheet.Step 2: Written Analysis:
( From the National Archives )
You will select one written document listed under your group and complete the Written Analysis worksheet.
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After you have completed these two activities you and your group will create and perform a Tableau. Additionally, each member of your group will be required to write a " Letter Home " from the perspective of one of the historical figures that you read about or that were captured in a photo or a painting.
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Because the Tableau and the Letter Home activity require you to have a historical understanding of the Gold Rush from the perspective of your group, it is critical that you take seriously the Analysis activities. These tools will help you to gain a deeper and more complete understanding of what it was like being a gold seeker.
Step 3: Tableau:
You will create a tableau dramatization that will last 5-7 minutes for your classmates.
- Each group member will select a character to portray. If there are not enough characters in your reading selection create a historically accurate character to portray in your tableau.
- Choose a particular event in the day of the life of your characters to reenact. For example, if one of the primary source documents that you analyzed referred to a conflict you may want to reenact that event. Each member of the group will then portray their character in the event. The goal here is to portray the unique perspective of each character.
- Establish the order in which each character will "come to life"
- Practice / Practice
- Present to the class your perfected Tableau
Step 4: Letter Home:
Write a letter home to a member of your family. Be careful to include historical information in your letter.
The point of your letter can be to encourage or discourage this family member to join you, or it can describe a day in your life.
I would suggest that this letter be at LEAST three paragraphs long and include at LEAST THREE historically accurate facts that you uncovered in your research. Additionally, miners often kept journals and in those journals they sketched daily scenes, you might consider sending a sketch home to help illustrate life in the mines.
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Last Modified: By Michele Larkey Thursday, March 21, 2002