Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Start with a pairing students meet every day: a sentence and a picture that go together.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A town news site writes: 'The new skate park has been busy since it opened.' Under the story is a bar graph of visitors each month since opening. What can the graph tell you that the sentence cannot? What can the sentence tell you that the graph cannot? Write one answer for each."

   Take answers, then name the skill. Visual information is information shown in a chart, graph, table, photograph, video or map instead of in sentences. To integrate it with a text is to combine the two: find where they are about the same thing, check whether they agree, and state what you know only from both. A graph gives exact amounts and changes over time; a text gives reasons, feelings and details a graph cannot hold. Today students do this with sources about the Erie Canal, a waterway about 363 miles long that New York State dug across the state and opened in 1825.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: The print source. Albert Perry Brigham, a geology professor, wrote From Trail to Railway Through the Appalachians (1907) for school students. It is a secondary source, written about 80 years after the canal opened. De Witt Clinton was governor of New York during much of the building. Gloss before reading: "produce" (farm goods, such as wheat and flour), "surveyors" (workers who measure land to plan a route), "levels" (tools that show whether ground is flat), "imperishably" (forever).

   1The great water way is often known as “Clinton’s Ditch.” This name was doubtless given in ridicule by those who did not think it could be built. There were many who laughed at the surveyors when they saw them looking about, using their levels, and driving their stakes in the woods and swamps. It was even said that to dig such a canal was impossible, that it would cost too much money, that it would take too much time, and that the canal itself could never be made to hold water.

   2But Clinton and his supporters believed in it, and worked hard to make it a success. They said that the cost of carrying a ton of produce in wagons a distance of one hundred miles was about thirty-two dollars. The experience of others had proved that in canals a ton could be carried one mile for one cent, or a hundred miles for one dollar. There is a great difference between one dollar and thirty-two dollars, especially if the difference is added to the cost of the wheat from which our bread is made, or of the lumber used in building our houses. Clinton himself thought that it might take ten or fifteen years to make the canal, but, as we shall see, it was finished in less time than he supposed.

   3Clinton declared very truly that New York was especially fortunate, for the surface made it an easy task to dig the ditch. There was no high or rough ground to be crossed, there was plenty of water to keep the canal full, and it would run through a fertile and rich country. As Clinton was governor of New York during much of the period in which the canal was made, his name is imperishably connected with the great enterprise. He was once candidate for the office of President of the United States, but perhaps even that office, if he had been elected, would not have given him so much honor as did the building of this great public work.

   Part 2: Reading a map drawn to scale. Show Diagram 1. Read it in this order: the title (what the map shows), the legend (what each line and dot means), the north arrow, and the scale bar. A map is drawn to scale when every distance on it is the same fraction of the real distance; on Diagram 1, 100 miles is always the same length. To measure, mark two towns on the edge of a paper strip, lay the strip along the scale bar and read the miles. The canal is drawn as straight lines between towns, so the map shows straight-line distances, the shortest distance between two points; the real canal bent and was longer.

   Three moves for integrating a visual with a text

   Move	What to do	Question to ask
   1. Locate	Find the place, number or trend in the visual	What exactly does the visual show?
   2. Connect	Match it to a sentence in the text about the same thing	Do they agree, or does one add to or complicate the other?
   3. Conclude	State what you know only from both, and what neither shows	What can I say now that I could not say from one source?

   • Text and map: where the route ran (Source 1, paragraph 3)

     Clinton said "There was no high or rough ground to be crossed." What does Diagram 1 add to this claim?

     Result: Locate: from Schenectady to Rome the canal runs along the Mohawk River valley, and beyond Rome it continues through Syracuse and Rochester to Lake Erie. Connect: the text says the surface made digging easy; the map shows the route following a river valley instead of crossing the hills to the north and south. Conclude: the canal's route used a natural low path across the state. The map cannot show the height of the ground, so it cannot prove there was no high ground; a reader would need an elevation profile or another source for that.

   • Text and map: using the scale bar (Source 1, paragraph 2)

     Clinton's supporters said a wagon carried a ton about 100 miles for about thirty-two dollars, and a canal boat carried it 100 miles for one dollar. About what would each cost for the whole trip from Albany to Buffalo?

     Result: Locate: with the scale bar, Albany to Buffalo is about 260 miles in a straight line; the caption gives the real canal as about 363 miles. Connect: at $32 per 100 miles, a wagon over even the straight-line distance would cost about 2.6 × $32 = $83.20 a ton. At one cent a mile, the longer canal route would cost about 363 × $0.01 = $3.63 a ton. Conclude: even though the canal was about 100 miles longer than a straight line, carrying a ton the whole way by canal would cost less than a twentieth of the wagon cost. These are the rates the canal's supporters claimed, not measured prices.

   • What the map cannot show (Source 1, paragraph 1)

     What does Source 1, paragraph 1 tell you about building the canal that Diagram 1 cannot show?

     Result: The map shows where the canal ran. Paragraph 1 shows what people thought and what the land was like: people "laughed at the surveyors," who drove their stakes "in the woods and swamps," and critics said the canal "could never be made to hold water." A map answers where and how far; a text can answer who, why and how people felt. Integrating the two gives a fuller picture than either one.

   • Text and graph: reading Diagram 2 (Source 1, paragraph 3)

     Clinton said the canal "would run through a fertile and rich country." What does Diagram 2 show about the cities along the canal after it opened?

     Result: Locate: read the title (population of three canal cities), the years along the bottom and the number of people up the side; each line is labeled with its city. All three lines rise from 1830 to 1840, from 1840 to 1850 and from 1850 to 1860. Connect: growing cities fit Clinton's picture of a rich country along the route. Conclude with care: the graph shows that the cities grew, not why they grew. The canal is one likely cause, but a graph alone cannot prove a cause; a text that explains the growth is needed for that.

   Point out that every conclusion above names both sources. Students should be able to say which part came from the visual and which part came from the text.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Source 2 comes from the end of Brigham's chapter. It describes a trip along the canal from east to west and the growth that followed. Gloss: "embankment" (a long, raised bank of earth), "reservoirs" (lakes built to store water), "metropolis" (a very large, important city). Pairs use Source 2 with Diagram 1 and the census table below to answer three questions, then compare with the teacher model.

   1If the journey of those days seems long to us, we must remember that to most of the travelers the scenery was fresh and interesting, for it was a visit to a new land. The rocky highlands, the blue Catskills, the winding Mohawk, and the towns and farms of the interior were perhaps as full of interest as the morning paper is on the trains of to-day. From Utica to Syracuse, more than fifty miles, is one great level; but on nearing Rochester the canal follows an embankment across a valley, and the passengers in those days looked wonderingly down on the tops of trees. At Lockport they heard the clatter as they slowly rose by a long row of locks to the top of the cliffs, and at Buffalo they looked out on a sea of fresh water. At Utica, Rome, Rochester, and other places, after a few years, side canals came in from north and south, from Binghamton and from the upper valley of the Genesee; and up in the hills great reservoirs were built, with shallow canals known as “feeders” leading down to the main trench. These were built to make sure that there should be water enough for dry seasons; for locks will leak, and whenever a boat locks down a lockful of water goes on toward the sea.

   2Now all was stir and growth. Buffalo had started on its way to become a great city. Rochester ground more wheat and Syracuse made more salt. There was no doubt that New York would soon be known as the metropolis of the western world, and “Clinton’s Ditch” became the most famous of American canals.

   U.S. census population of five cities on the Erie Canal route, 1830-1860 (real data; the 1830 counts are for the whole town, including the village)

   City	1830	1840	1850	1860
   Albany	24,209	33,721	50,763	62,367
   Schenectady	4,268	6,784	8,921	9,579
   Utica	8,323	12,782	17,565	22,529
   Rochester	9,207	20,191	36,403	48,204
   Buffalo	8,668	18,213	42,261	81,129

   Pair questions. (a) Source 2 says "From Utica to Syracuse, more than fifty miles, is one great level." Measure Utica to Syracuse on Diagram 1. Do the map and the text agree? (b) Paragraph 2 says "Rochester ground more wheat and Syracuse made more salt." What can the census table test in this sentence, and what can it not test? (c) What does paragraph 1 tell you about Lockport that Diagram 1 does not show?

   Teacher model: (a) The straight-line distance on the map is about 47 miles. The text's "more than fifty miles" is the distance along the canal, which bends between towns, so a slightly longer number fits; the map and the text agree. (b) The table counts people, not wheat or salt, so it cannot test either claim directly, and Syracuse is not in the table at all. It can show that Rochester kept growing: 9,207 people in 1830 and 48,204 in 1860. A mill town that ground more wheat would need more workers, so the table fits the sentence without proving it. (c) The map shows only a dot on the canal between Rochester and Buffalo. The text adds that boats there "slowly rose by a long row of locks to the top of the cliffs," so Lockport stood where the canal climbed a steep rise. A lock is a section of canal with gates at each end, where water is let in or out to raise or lower a boat.

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read two passages by Frances Trollope, an English writer who traveled west along the canal in 1831, and then take the quiz, which pairs these passages with Diagram 1, Diagram 2 and the census table. Trollope is a primary source: she saw these places herself. As they read, students mark each place name with a dot in the margin and find it on Diagram 1. Gloss: "packet-boat" (a passenger boat on the canal), "edifices" (buildings), "water privilege" (the right to use a river's falling water to power machines), "porticos" (porches held up by columns). "Jack and Bean-stalk" refers to the fairy tale in which a beanstalk grows to the sky overnight.

   1We returned to Utica to dinner, and found that we must either wait till the next day for the Rochester coach, or again submit to the packet-boat. Our impatience induced us to prefer the latter, not very wisely, I think, for every annoyance seemed to increase upon us. The Oneida and the Genesee country are both extremely beautiful, but had we not returned by another route we should have known little about it. From the canal nothing is seen to advantage, and very little is seen at all. My chief amusement, I think, was derived from names. One town, consisting of a whiskey store and a warehouse, is called Port Byron. At Rome, the first name I saw over a store was Remus, doing infinite honour, I thought, to the classic lore of his godfathers and godmothers; but it would be endless to record all the drolleries of this kind which we met with. We arrived at Rochester, a distance of a hundred and forty miles, on the second morning after leaving Utica, fully determined never to enter a canal boat again, at least, not in America.

   2Rochester is one of the most famous of the cities built on the Jack and Bean-stalk principle. There are many splendid edifices in wood; and certainly more houses, warehouses, factories, and steam-engines than ever were collected together in the same space of time; but I was told by a fellow-traveller that the stumps of the forest are still to be found firmly rooted in the cellars.

   3The fall of the Genesee is close to the town, and in the course of a few months will, perhaps, be in the middle of it. It is a noble sheet of water, of a hundred and sixty feet perpendicular fall; but I looked at it through the window of a factory, and as I did not like that, I was obligingly handed to the door-way of a sawing-mill; in short, “the great water privilege” has been so ingeniously taken advantage of, that no point can be found where its voice and its movement are not mixed and confounded with those of the “admirable machinery of this flourishing city.”

   1Lockport is beyond all comparison, the strangest looking place I ever beheld. As fast as half a dozen trees were cut down, a factory was raised up; stumps still contest the ground with pillars, and porticos are seen to struggle with rocks. It looks as if the demon of machinery, having invaded the peaceful realms of nature, had fixed on Lockport as the battle-ground on which they should strive for mastery. The fiend insists that the streams should go one way, though the gentle mother had ever led their dancing steps another; nay, the very rocks must fall before him, and take what form he wills. The battle is lost and won. Nature is fairly routed and driven from the field, and the rattling, crackling, hissing, spitting demon has taken possession of Lockport for ever.

   2We slept there, dismally enough. I never felt more out of humour at what the Americans call improvement; it is, in truth, as it now stands, a most hideous place, and gladly did I leave it behind me.

   [...]

   3Of all the thousand and one towns I saw in America, I think Buffalo is the queerest looking; it is not quite so wild as Lockport, but all the buildings have the appearance of having been run up in a hurry, though every thing has an air of great pretension; there are porticos, columns, domes, and colonnades, but all in wood. Every body tells you there, as in all their other new-born towns, and every body believes, that their improvement, and their progression, are more rapid, more wonderful, than the earth ever before witnessed; while to me, the only wonder is, how so many thousands, nay millions of persons, can be found, in the nineteenth century, who can be content so to live. Surely this country may be said to spread rather than to rise.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: On an index card, choose one sentence from Source 1 or Source 2 and one visual (Diagram 1, Diagram 2 or the census table). Complete three sentences: "The visual shows ___. The source says ___. Together they show ___."

   Teacher note on the sources: The passages are quoted exactly, with Trollope's British spellings (honour, fellow-traveller). Brigham wrote in 1907 and states some judgments as facts, for example "De Witt Clinton was right and the croakers were wrong" (Source 4); discuss these as his view. Trollope's book is known for its sharp, often unfriendly opinions of American life; treat her descriptions as one visitor's impressions. The census counts in the table and Diagram 2 are real; they come from U.S. Census Bureau Working Paper 27 (Campbell Gibson, 1998), which notes that the 1830 counts for Buffalo, Rochester and Utica cover the whole town, not only the village. Diagram 1 places each town by its latitude and longitude and joins the towns with straight lines, so it simplifies the canal's real curves. None of the passages contains a slur.

   Homework passage. Source 4 is another part of Brigham's chapter, on finishing the canal and what it changed.

   1Swiftly one piece after another of the canal was finished and the water let in. The trench was found to hold water, and boats were soon busy hauling produce from town to town. In 1825 it was finished from Black Rock, or Buffalo, to Waterford, above Troy. The work had taken eight years and had cost a little less than eight million dollars. De Witt Clinton was right and the croakers were wrong. Perhaps it was hard at that time to find any one who did not think that he had always wanted a canal.

   2There were, it is true, a few disappointed ones at Schenectady. There the wagons from Albany had always stopped, and there the boating up the Mohawk had begun. As all the loads had to be shifted between the river and the land journeys, there had been work for many men. Thus the place had grown up, and now that boats were to run through without change, some people naturally thought that the town would die out, or would at least lose much of its business. These few discontented folk, however, were hardly to be counted, among the thousands who exulted over the completed canal.

   [...]

   3After the canal was finished the carrying business was quite made over. Little was heard then about sending western New York fruit and grain to Philadelphia or Montreal or Alexandria. Freighting was so cheap that a man who had been selling his wheat for thirty cents a bushel now received a dollar for it. In the war with England, only a few years before, it had cost more to carry a cannon from Albany to Oswego than it had cost to make it. The journey had now become an easy and simple matter. Two farmers built a boat of their own, loaded it with the produce of their farms, and took it down Seneca lake and all the way to New York. They were let out of the woods into the wide world.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 3, Trollope travels by canal boat from Utica to Rochester. Using Diagram 1, in which direction did she travel?

   ANorth BEast CWest DSouth

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Trollope mentions a store sign she saw "At Rome" (Source 3, paragraph 1). What does Diagram 1 show about Rome that fits her account of this trip?

   ARome is just west of Utica, so her boat passed it early in the trip BRome lies east of Utica, so she must have seen it before she reached Utica CRome lies on the Hudson River, south of Albany DRome lies on the shore of Lake Ontario, north of the canal

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Trollope says Rochester was "a distance of a hundred and forty miles" from Utica (Source 3, paragraph 1). Using the scale bar, Diagram 1 shows the two towns about 120 miles apart in a straight line. What is the best explanation for the difference?

   ATrollope's number is wrong, because a map is always right BThe canal bent between towns, so the trip was longer than a straight line CDiagram 1 is not drawn to scale, so its distances cannot be used DTrollope measured the distance from Albany, not from Utica

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Trollope visited Rochester in 1831. Which census figure in the table was counted closest in time to her visit?

   ARochester, 20,191 (1840) BUtica, 8,323 (1830) CBuffalo, 8,668 (1830) DRochester, 9,207 (1830)

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which part of Trollope's description of Rochester (Source 3, paragraph 2) could the census table help test?

   AThat there are "many splendid edifices in wood" BThat "the stumps of the forest are still to be found firmly rooted in the cellars" CThat the town had grown very quickly DThat its factories held more steam-engines than any other town

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Diagram 1 shows the Genesee River crossing the canal at Rochester and flowing north toward Lake Ontario. Read with Source 3, paragraph 3, what does this suggest about Rochester?

   AIts mills used the river's falls for power, right beside the canal BThe Genesee River carried its boats south to New York City CIt was built on the shore of Lake Ontario, north of the canal DThe falls kept the canal from reaching the town

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Diagram 2, in which census year did Buffalo first have more people than Rochester?

   A1830 B1850 C1840 D1860

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 5 begins at Lockport, a town Trollope calls "the strangest looking place I ever beheld." Using the scale bar on Diagram 1, about how far is Lockport from Buffalo in a straight line?

   AAbout 70 miles BAbout 120 miles CAbout 260 miles DAbout 20 miles

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does Source 5 tell a reader about Lockport that Diagram 1 cannot show?

   AThat Lockport lies on the canal between Rochester and Buffalo BThat Lockport is west of Syracuse CThat the new town looked raw and that Trollope found it ugly DThat Lockport had more people than Buffalo in 1831

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Trollope reports that in Buffalo "every body believes" the town's growth is "more rapid, more wonderful, than the earth ever before witnessed" (Source 5, paragraph 3). What does Diagram 2 show about the years after her visit?

    ABuffalo shrank after 1840, so the belief was wrong BBuffalo grew, but more slowly than Utica did CBuffalo grew by the same amount every ten years DBuffalo grew faster than the other two cities

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Trollope writes that in Buffalo "the only wonder is, how so many thousands, nay millions of persons, can be found [...] who can be content so to live" (Source 5, paragraph 3). Can Diagram 2 prove her wrong?

    AYes, because the graph shows that the people of Buffalo were happy BNo, because the graph counts people but cannot show whether they were content CYes, because the graph shows that Buffalo's buildings were not wooden DNo, because the graph shows that Buffalo lost people after her visit

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    By 1860, how many of the other four cities in the census table had more people than Albany?

    AOne BNone CTwo DFour

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Trollope writes, "One town, consisting of a whiskey store and a warehouse, is called Port Byron" (Source 3, paragraph 1). Port Byron is not on Diagram 1. Using her account, where on the map should it be?

    AOn the canal, somewhere between Utica and Rochester BOn the Hudson River, between Albany and New York City COn Lake Erie, west of Buffalo DOn the Genesee River, south of Rochester

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which question can be answered only by using both a text and a visual from this lesson?

    AHow many people lived in Rochester in 1850? BWhy did Trollope decide never to enter a canal boat again? CDid the "Jack and Bean-stalk" city keep growing after Trollope saw it? DWhich town on Diagram 1 is farthest west?

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Sources 3 and 5 follow Trollope west from Utica. Using Diagram 1, list in order the towns on the map that she passed or visited from Utica to Buffalo. Then name one town on the map between Utica and Rochester that she does not mention in Source 3.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Using Diagram 1, the census table and Source 5, paragraph 3, give one fact about Buffalo in about 1830 that the visuals tell you and Trollope does not, and one thing Trollope tells you that the visuals cannot. Explain why a reader needs both.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Trollope describes Rochester as built on the "Jack and Bean-stalk principle" (Source 3, paragraph 2), that is, as a town that grew up almost overnight. Diagram 2 starts in 1830. Explain what the graph can and cannot show about her description, and name one kind of visual or data that would test it better.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Trollope writes, "From the canal nothing is seen to advantage, and very little is seen at all" (Source 3, paragraph 1). Brigham says that "on nearing Rochester" passengers "looked wonderingly down on the tops of trees" (Source 2, paragraph 1). Using Diagram 1, explain where on the canal each description applies and how both can be true.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Trollope writes that "this country may be said to spread rather than to rise" (Source 5, paragraph 3). Using Diagram 1 and the census table, explain one way the visuals fit the idea of spreading. Then explain what she means by "rise," using her description of Buffalo.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Diagram 2 shows Utica's dotted line rising more slowly than the other two. Use the census table to compare Utica's growth from 1830 to 1860 with Albany's. Then explain why the graph and the table alone cannot tell you why some canal towns grew faster than others, and what kind of source could.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RH.6-8.7: 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.