The Great Northwest…
The Journals of Lewis and Clark

by Timothy McDonnell
Victor Junior High School
Victor, New York

CONNECTIONS TO THE NATIONAL GEGRAPHY STANDARDS:
The geographically aware person knows…
Std. 6 - How culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of places and regions.
Std. 10 - The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth’s cultural mosaics.
Std. 17 - How to apply gegraphy to interpret the past.

CONNECTIONS TO THE NYS STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS:
Std. 2.1 - Listening and reading for literacy response involves comprehending, interpreting, and critiquing imaginative texts in every medium, drawing upon personal experiences and knowledge to understand the text, and recognizing the social, historical and cultural features of the text.
Std. 4.2 - Written communication for social interaction requires using written messages to establish, maintain, and enhance personal relationships with others.

OBJECTIVES (to know, to do, and to be like):
1. The students will read selections from the journals of Lewis and Clark and interpret them, using standard modern English.
2. The students will describe the situations that the Corps of discovery faced when the journal entries were written.
3. They will write a journal entry of their own, including a map or a drawing of a plant or animal.

MATERIALS: Activity Worksheet, journal entries from Lewis and Clark, a page from William Clark's journala timeline of the expedition, maps of the expedition (modified from the PBS website), writing and drawing materials.

PROCEDURES:
1. Review with the students the goals and accomplishments of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
2. Discuss the major events of the expedition, so the students will be able to give the journals some historical context.
3. Assign groups of students journal entries to read and discuss from different locations of the expedition in the Northwest region.
4. Students will have two tasks to complete:
 • Analyzing a journal entry (setting, mood, opinion of the author, etc.)
 • Rewriting the journal entry in modern vernacular English.
5. Weather permitting, take students outside and have them write a journal entry of their own. It should include illustrations of plant or animal life, or a map of the area.

SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSESSMENTS:
1. Student groups share with the class what they wrote about their entry from the journals of Lewis and Clark.
2. Their translation into modern English can be assessed for proper grammar and sentence structure.
2. Assess their journal entry from their outdoor “experience.”

ADAPTATIONS AND EXTENSIONS:
1. Have students find their own journal entries. One suggested source is the PBS website on the Ken Burn’s Lewis and Clark mini-series.
2. The students can do their journal writing exercise at home as an assignment, or it can be a task for a field trip.
3. Other journals are available from other Northwest expeditions: Captain James Cook, Captain Vancouver, and Alexander Mackenzie. They can be used in place of Lewis and Clark, or as a supplement.


Return to the Northwest Title Page.