Florida SS.5.A.6.6

Social Studies5th GradeGrowth and Westward Expansion

The Standard

Explain how westward expansion affected Native Americans.

Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students connect settler movement, government policies, railroads, and military action to changes faced by Native nations. They describe effects such as land loss, forced removal, conflict, resource loss, and cultural disruption.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can name a specific cause and explain at least two effects using evidence from a map, account, or treaty. They recognize that Native nations resisted, adapted, and experienced expansion in different ways.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think western land was empty or that Native people moved willingly. They may also treat all Native nations as one group or assume Native communities disappeared completely.
How to Assess It: Give students a map showing a settler route crossing Native homelands. Ask, "Name one cause and explain two likely effects on the Native nation living there."

Lesson moves

Layer transparent maps of Native homelands, settler routes, and reservations, then label where land loss and forced movement occurred.
Read two short Native accounts, then write which effects they describe and how the experiences differ.
Sort cause and effect cards linking treaties, settlement, railroads, and military action to displacement, conflict, resource loss, or cultural change.
Compare a historical removal map with a current tribal lands map, then note one lasting effect visible today.

Keep exploring

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