Alabama Social Studies SS24.6.10b
The Standard
- SS24.6.10
- Explain how events and issues of the Critical Period (1783-1789) exposed limitations of the Articles of Confederation and contributed to calls for a stronger national government.
Describe how the Northwest Land Ordinances of 1785 and 1787 established a foundation for future territorial growth of the United States and restricted the growth of slavery.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how the 1785 law divided land into sections for sale and set aside land to support schools. They explain how the 1787 law gave territories a path to statehood and barred slavery in the Northwest Territory.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can label a township grid and identify the section reserved for schools. On a map, they can point to the Northwest Territory and explain that its slavery ban did not cover the whole country.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may credit the 1785 law with banning slavery, but that rule came in 1787. They may think the ban applied across the United States or that surveying land made it a state.
How to Assess It
- Give students a 6-by-6 township grid and a map of the Northwest Territory. Ask: "Which law explains the grid, which gave territories a path to statehood, and where did the slavery ban apply?"
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a 6-by-6 grid; have them number 36 sections, shade section 16, and label what its sale funded.
Ask: "How did surveying land and setting statehood rules help add states?" Have students write one sentence about each law.
Play a card sort: students match "36 sections," "school land," "path to statehood," and "slavery barred in the Northwest Territory" to the correct year.
On a current U.S. map, have students color Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, then locate the territory they grew from.
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