Idaho Social Studies 6-12.US1.26
The Standard
Analyze the religious, political, and economic motives of immigrants who came to North America between 1820-1860.
Idaho Content Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Geographic Expansion and Political and Social Changes 1820-1860
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine why people left their home countries and why North America appealed to them from 1820 to 1860. They use evidence to identify religious, political, and economic reasons for moving. They explain how those reasons could overlap.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students connect an Irish family's crop failure to economic hardship and a German activist's exile after 1848 to political danger. They identify an English Latter-day Saint's wish to join fellow believers in Utah as a religious motive. They point to a clue that supports each choice.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume every Irish immigrant left because of the potato famine or every German immigrant fled a revolution. They may confuse a reason for leaving home with an attraction in North America, or assume each person had only one reason to move.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Sort these moves by motive: an Irish family leaving after crop failure, a German activist fleeing after 1848, and an English convert joining Latter-day Saints in Utah. Explain one choice using a clue.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Have pairs place three printed migrant cards under economic, political, or religious: an Irish famine family, a German 1848 activist, and an English Latter-day Saint.
Ask students to write what a German farmer and a German 1848 activist might each say about leaving home.
Play motive bingo with cards labeled economic, political, and religious; call out clues like 'failed harvest,' 'arrested for protest,' and 'joining fellow believers.'
Show a local job ad beside a teacher-made 1850s railroad job notice, then ask how work opportunities can draw newcomers.
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Related Standards
- 5.SS.1.7
Explain the religious, political, and economic motives of immigrants to the United States.
- 6-12.US1.29
Analyze the political and individual motivations and the social, political, economic, environmental impacts of individuals who moved West.
- 6-12.US1.46
Analyze the religious, political, and economic motives of 19th-century immigrants who came to North America.
- 5.SS.1.9
Analyze or distinguish the geographic, economic, and religious motivations that influenced the movement of people.
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