Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Write two sentences on the board. Both say the same thing about the California Gold Rush.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Sentence A, written for this page: 'Gold was often found in places where scientists said it would not be.' Sentence B, from a letter written in a mining camp in 1852: 'Wherever geology has said that gold must be, there, perversely enough, it lies not [...].' Which sentence is harder to read? Write down two things that make it harder."

   Take answers and name the kinds of difficulty students noticed: word order ("it lies not"), vocabulary ("geology," "perversely"), voice (the writer is being playful, treating geology like a person), and background knowledge (what geology is). Tell students that RH.6-8.10 sets a goal: by the end of grade 8, they should read history texts like Sentence B, from the grades 6-8 text complexity band (the range of difficulty expected in those grades), on their own. Today they learn four moves for hard history texts, watch the teacher use them, use them with a partner, and then use them alone, all on the California Gold Rush that began in 1848.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Part 1: Why history texts get hard. A history text can be hard in four ways: long sentences with many added parts, old or specialized words, knowledge the writer assumes the reader has, and a writer's voice or purpose that is not stated. Show Diagram 1 and hand out the four moves as a bookmark: Source it (who wrote it, when and for whom), Split it (find who did what in a long sentence), Solve it (work out a word from the words around it), and Sum it up (write one sentence for the point of a paragraph, then test it).

   Part 2: The modeled passage. Read the context note aloud: Gold was found at Sutter's sawmill on the American River in January 1848, and by 1849 tens of thousands of people were hurrying to California. Louise Clappe, who signed her letters "Dame Shirley," lived in the mining camps of Rich Bar and Indian Bar on the Feather River in 1851 and 1852, where her husband was a doctor. She wrote long letters to her sister in Massachusetts, and they were printed in a San Francisco magazine in 1854 and 1855. Glossary: "stakes off" (marks the corners with wooden stakes), "evading" (getting around), "per diem" (Latin for "per day"), "arbitrations" (disputes settled by a person both sides accept), "outwitting" (getting around by being clever). Think aloud through the passage, using one move at a time.

   1But, first, let me explain to you the claiming system. As there are no state laws upon the subject, each mining community is permitted to make its own. Here they have decided that no man may claim an area of more than forty feet square. This he stakes off, and puts a notice upon it, to the effect that he holds it for mining purposes. If he does not choose to work it immediately, he is obliged to renew the notice every ten days, for, without this precaution, any other person has a right to "jump" it, that is, to take it from him. There are many ways of evading the above law. For instance, an individual can hold as many claims as he pleases if he keeps a man at work in each, for this workman represents the original owner. I am told, however, that the laborer himself can jump the claim of the very man who employs him, if he pleases so to do. This is seldom, if ever, done. The person who is willing to be hired generally prefers to receive the six dollars per diem, of which he is sure in any case, to running the risk of a claim not proving valuable. After all, the holding of claims by proxy is considered rather as a carrying out of the spirit of the law than as an evasion of it. But there are many ways of really outwitting this rule, though I cannot stop now to relate them, which give rise to innumerable arbitrations, and nearly every Sunday there is a miners' meeting connected with this subject.

   • Source it: before the first sentence

     What does the source line tell a reader before reading the passage closely?

     Result: It is a primary source: a letter written in April 1852 by a woman living in a mining camp, to her sister, who had never seen a mine. So expect a personal voice and explanations for an outsider. Her purpose here is to explain the camp's rules. The edition is from 1922, when an editor printed the letters as a book.

   • Split it: a long sentence about hired miners

     "The person who is willing to be hired generally prefers to receive the six dollars per diem, of which he is sure in any case, to running the risk of a claim not proving valuable." Who does what?

     Result: The main statement is "The person who is willing to be hired generally prefers to receive the six dollars [...] to running the risk." Set aside "of which he is sure in any case"; it explains why he likes the wage. Plain version: a hired miner would rather take a sure six dollars a day than gamble on a claim that might hold no gold.

   • Solve it: two words the passage explains

     What do "jump" and "by proxy" mean in this passage?

     Result: Shirley defines "jump" herself: "that is, to take it from him." For "by proxy," look back two sentences: an owner may hold many claims "if he keeps a man at work in each, for this workman represents the original owner." So holding a claim by proxy means holding it through someone who acts for you. Neither word needs a dictionary.

   • Sum it up: the point of the paragraph

     Write one sentence that states the point of the paragraph, and test it against the last sentence.

     Result: Gist: each camp wrote its own rules for mining claims, and miners both followed them and found ways around them. Test: the last sentence says there are "many ways of really outwitting this rule" and that nearly every Sunday there is "a miners' meeting connected with this subject," so the gist fits. A gist such as "Claims were forty feet square" is too narrow: it is one detail, not the point.

   • Background knowledge: why there were camp rules

     The passage begins, "As there are no state laws upon the subject, each mining community is permitted to make its own." Why does this matter?

     Result: California became a state in 1850, but no law yet set how much ground a miner could claim, so each camp made its own rules and held meetings to settle disputes. With that background, the passage reads as a small example of people governing themselves, not just a list of rules. Knowledge demands like this are part of what makes a history text complex.

   Teacher tip. Say out loud where you slow down and which move you choose, and let students see you skip a word on purpose when the point does not depend on it. Point out that Shirley's irony ("There are many ways of evading the above law") is part of the difficulty: she expects her sister to smile at the gap between the rules and what miners really do.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Give pairs this context note and the bookmark with prompts, but no glossary: E. Gould Buffum came to California in 1847 as an officer in a regiment of New York volunteers during the war with Mexico. When gold was found, he went to the mines, and in 1850 he published a book based on his journal. In November 1848 he reached Foster's Bar on the Yuba River, where about a hundred men were washing gold in wooden rockers. Pairs work out words from context and ask you only after they have tried. Circulate and hear from each pair at least once.

   1On this visit to Foster’s Bar I made my first essay in gold-digging. I scraped up with my hand my tin cup full of earth, and washed it in the river. How eagerly I strained my eyes as the earth was washing out, and the bottom of the cup was coming in view! and how delighted, when, on reaching the bottom, I discerned about twenty little golden particles sparkling in the sun’s rays, and worth probably about fifty cents. I wrapped them carefully in a piece of paper, and preserved them for a long time,--but, like much more gold in larger quantities, which it has since been my lot to possess, it has escaped my grasp, and where it now is Heaven only knows.

   2The labour on Yuba River appeared very severe, the excavations being sometimes made to a depth of twelve feet before the soil containing the gold, which was a gravelly clay, was reached. We had not brought our tools with us, intending, if our expedition in the mountains had succeeded, that one of our party should return for our remaining stock of provisions and tools. We had no facilities for constructing a machine, and no money to buy one (two hundred dollars being the price for which a mere hollowed pine log was offered us), and besides, all the bars upon which men were then engaged in labour were “claimed,” a claim at that time being considered good when the claimant had cleared off the top soil from any portion of the bar. We returned to our camp, and talked over our prospects, in a quandary what to do. Little did we then dream that, in less than six months, the Yuba River, then only explored some three miles above where we were, would be successfully wrought for forty miles above us, and that thousands would find their fortunes upon it.

   1. Source it. Prompt: the book appeared in 1850, but Buffum was at Foster's Bar in November 1848; find a sentence that shows he is writing after the events. Teacher note: "Little did we then dream that, in less than six months, the Yuba River [...] would be successfully wrought for forty miles above us" looks back from a later time, and so does "it has since been my lot to possess."
   2. Split it. Prompt: the sentence that begins "We had no facilities" gives several reasons; list them. Teacher note: the party had no way to build a rocker, no money to buy one (the words in parentheses give the price, two hundred dollars for a hollowed log), and no open ground, because every bar being worked was already "claimed." The last part of the sentence explains what made a claim good at the time.
   3. Solve it. Prompt: work out "essay" (paragraph 1), "quandary" and "wrought" (paragraph 2). Teacher note: "my first essay in gold-digging" is followed by his first try, so an essay here is an attempt; "in a quandary what to do" means unsure what to do; "wrought" is an old past tense of work, as in "wrought iron."
   4. Sum it up. Prompt: write a gist for each paragraph and test it against the paragraph's last sentence. Teacher note: paragraph 1, Buffum's first cup of earth gave him a few cents of gold that delighted him, though he later lost it; paragraph 2, his party could not start mining, yet within months the river made thousands rich.

   Close with a quick check: which move did your pair need most? Pairs often choose Split it, because Buffum's sentences run on with commas and parentheses. Tell students that for the next passage they will get a two-sentence context note and a bookmark with the move names only.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Each student reads alone, with the move-names bookmark and no prompts or glossary. Context note: Stewart Edward White, an American novelist, wrote The Forty-Niners in 1918 as part of a series of short histories of the United States. This paragraph comes from his chapter on life in the gold diggings. Students mark each place they got stuck and the move they used there, then write a one-sentence gist. Collect the gists; they show who is ready to read without support. The quiz uses this passage.

   1Most of the would-be miners at first rather expected to find gold lying on the surface of the earth, and were very much disappointed to learn that they actually had to dig for it. Moreover, digging in the boulders and gravel, under the terrific heat of the California sun in midsummer, was none too easy; and no matter how rich the diggings averaged--short of an actual bonanza--the miner was disappointed in his expectations. One man is reported saying: "They tell me I can easily make there eleven hundred dollars a day. You know I am not easily moved by such reports. I shall be satisfied if I make three hundred dollars per day." Travelers of the time comment on the contrast between the returning stream of discouraged and disgruntled men and the cheerfulness of the lot actually digging. Nobody had any scientific system to go on. Often a divining-rod was employed to determine where to dig. Many stories were current of accidental finds; as when one man, tiring of waiting for his dog to get through digging out a ground squirrel, pulled the animal out by the tail, and with it a large nugget. Another story is told of a sailor who asked some miners resting at noon where he could dig and as a joke was directed to a most improbable side hill. He obeyed the advice, and uncovered a rich pocket. With such things actually happening, naturally it followed that every report of a real or rumored strike set the miners crazy. Even those who had good claims always suspected that they might do better elsewhere. It is significant that the miners of that day, like hunters, always had the notion that they had come out to California just one trip too late for the best pickings.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name the move you used most on Source 3 and copy the words where you used it. (2) Rate your reading of Source 3: "needed help," "used some support" or "read it on my own," and give one reason.

   Teacher note on the sources: The passages are quoted exactly as published in 1850, 1890, 1918 and 1922, with the writers' spellings and punctuation (labour, the doubled hyphens that stand for dashes). None of the printed passages contains a slur. Source 4 mentions Mexican and Chilean miners, who brought their mining methods to California; you may point out that many miners from Mexico and Chile arrived with years of mining experience. Other parts of these books, not printed here, describe groups of people in stereotypes common in their time. "Hangtown" was the miners' name for the town now called Placerville.

   For homework: students read the passage below on their own, with no bookmark and no context note beyond its source line.

   1Before commencing the business of mining, our little company concluded first to build a residence, which we constructed of logs in the regulation style, with chimney in the rear, the front door opposite, and after stowing away pots, pans and kettles in their proper places, putting up bunks with all the necessary arrangements of curtains, out-riggers, etc., a few more blows with the hammer here and there made us master of the situation, or of the castle, at least.

   2After finishing our residence, we started in to the business of mining, for which we had traveled nearly half way around the globe. In a large ravine near at hand, called Oregon Ravine, as it was first found by a man from that State, we determined to make our first effort. There were at work in the same locality about two hundred others. The method of mining was of the most primitive character. The dirt would be dug down to the bed-rock and thrown to one side, as the dirt and gravel in immediate contact with the bed-rock, including the surface of the latter also, was all that was considered of any value. This was put into sacks and packed upon our backs down to the creek, where the gold was separated from it by panning. Many, however, would spread their pay dirt upon the ground, and when it was thoroughly dry would winnow it out by pouring it from the pan to the ground, the wind, when strong enough, answering a very good purpose. This was the style of mining as practiced by the Mexicans and also the Chileans, but it was a very slow process, and would only pay when no water could be found.

   3From the hill above, it was a strange sight to see men of all classes and from every State in the Union thus clustered together upon one spot in common, and all inspired with the one desire, i. e., to dig gold. All hard at work in the mud and water, with pick and shovel, each one determined to do his level best to get all he could in the shortest time possible.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What kind of source is Source 3?

   ASecondary: White wrote in 1918, about seventy years later, from earlier accounts BA primary source: White dug for gold in 1849 and wrote down what he saw that year CA primary source, because the paragraph includes the exact words of a miner of the time DA secondary source, because any text about California in the 1800s is a secondary source

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which words from Source 3 show most clearly that White is relying on earlier accounts rather than his own memory?

   A"Nobody had any scientific system to go on" B"Travelers of the time comment on the contrast" C"Moreover, digging in the boulders and gravel" D"He obeyed the advice, and uncovered a rich pocket"

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Split this sentence: "Moreover, digging in the boulders and gravel, under the terrific heat of the California sun in midsummer, was none too easy." What is its main statement?

   AThe heat of the California sun in midsummer was terrific BBoulders and gravel lay under the sun CDigging in the boulders and gravel was none too easy DMoreover, the diggings were under the sun in California

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 3 says that "no matter how rich the diggings averaged--short of an actual bonanza--the miner was disappointed." What does "short of an actual bonanza" mean here?

   AUnless he struck an extremely rich find BBecause the bonanza lasted only a short time CAfter a short rest from the heavy digging DSince the richest diggings were short and narrow

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Nobody had any scientific system to go on. Often a divining-rod was employed to determine where to dig." Using context, what is a divining-rod?

   AA surveyor's pole for measuring the exact size and shape of a claim BA long iron bar for breaking up rock at the bottom of a hole CA rod that miners used to divide a gravel bar into equal, fair shares DAn unscientific tool some miners trusted to show them where to dig

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 3 contrasts "the returning stream of discouraged and disgruntled men" with "the cheerfulness of the lot actually digging." What does "lot" mean in this phrase?

   AA piece of land where a miner had staked out his claim BA group of people: the men still at work digging CA person's fate or fortune in life, good or bad DA large amount of gold that a miner has collected

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why does White tell the stories of the dog and the sailor?

   ATo prove that dogs and sailors were better at finding gold than miners were BTo show that the miners had worked out a careful, scientific way to find gold CTo explain why the miners stopped work at noon to rest and tell stories DTo show how lucky finds fed rumors that kept miners restless and hopeful

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does White mean when he says the miners believed they "had come out to California just one trip too late for the best pickings"?

   AThey had missed the ship that would have taken them to California in time BThey always thought the richest gold had already been found by others CThey arrived too late in the day to find a good place to start digging DThey reached California too late in the year to pick the ripe fruit

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence is the best gist of Source 3?

   AA dog digging out a ground squirrel once helped a lucky miner find a large nugget of gold BScientific methods helped most miners find rich diggings in the first year of the rush CHard work and luck let most miners down, but lucky-strike stories kept them hoping DMost miners grew rich within a few months and returned home as happy, wealthy men

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How is Source 3 organized?

    AIt tells one miner's long journey to California in the order the events happened BIt compares two methods of washing gold and then explains which one worked better CIt opens with a general point, gives examples and stories, then shows their effect DIt argues that California should pass new state laws to protect miners' claims

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In "the returning stream of discouraged and disgruntled men," what does "disgruntled" mean?

    AAnnoyed and unhappy BRich and well satisfied CSick and badly injured DLost and confused

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which detail from Source 2 best supports White's point in Source 3 that miners "actually had to dig for it"?

    A"I wrapped them carefully in a piece of paper, and preserved them for a long time" B"the excavations being sometimes made to a depth of twelve feet before the soil containing the gold" C"We returned to our camp, and talked over our prospects, in a quandary what to do" D"would be successfully wrought for forty miles above us, and that thousands would find their fortunes"

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 1, which words show that Shirley is reporting something she heard rather than something she saw?

    A"Here they have decided that no man may claim an area" B"This is seldom, if ever, done" C"After all, the holding of claims by proxy" D"I am told, however, that the laborer himself"

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Four grade 8 students near the end of the year read a new history text from the 1800s. Which one shows that a student meets RH.6-8.10?

    AShe reads it quickly, memorizes every date and name, and then retells them all in order BShe reads it slowly with a teacher, who explains each paragraph to her as she goes along CShe reads it alone, untangles hard sentences and words, and states its point with evidence DShe skips over the hard sentences, reads only the easy ones and writes a summary of those parts

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Split this sentence from Source 3: "Many stories were current of accidental finds; as when one man, tiring of waiting for his dog to get through digging out a ground squirrel, pulled the animal out by the tail, and with it a large nugget." Write its main statement and restate the example in plain words.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use context to explain what "pocket" means in "uncovered a rich pocket" and what "strike" means in "every report of a real or rumored strike." Name the clue you used for each.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    White quotes a miner: "They tell me I can easily make there eleven hundred dollars a day. You know I am not easily moved by such reports. I shall be satisfied if I make three hundred dollars per day." Explain what is funny about these words and what White uses them to show.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare Source 2 (Buffum, 1850) and Source 3 (White, 1918). Name one idea the two share, and one difference in how each writer tells about the mines. Quote each source once.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Reading log: which of the four moves did you need most for Source 3? Copy the words where you used it, explain what you did, and say what you understood afterward.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Source 1 was written in 1852 and Source 3 in 1918. Name one way Source 1 is harder to read and one way Source 3 is harder, and explain each with a quotation.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RH.6-8.10: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.