Virginia SOL USII.1.b
The Standard
identifying the motivations for westward expansion
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify why settlers, miners, businesses, and the federal government pushed west. They distinguish motives such as land, wealth, jobs, adventure, religion, and belief in Manifest Destiny.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can read a short source or scenario, name the motivation, and point to evidence that supports their answer. They can explain that people often had more than one motive.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume everyone moved west for gold or free land. They may treat Manifest Destiny as a law, or confuse motivations with results such as railroad growth and Indigenous displacement.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: “A family hears that 160 acres are available if they settle and farm the land. What motivated them, and which words prove it?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs settler profile cards and motive labels, then have them sort each profile and defend one match using a clue from the card.
Ask students to write: Which motive most strongly drove westward migration, and how did that movement affect Indigenous nations?
Play Motive Match, where teams identify the motive shown in a source clue and earn a point by explaining their choice.
Compare a modern job relocation advertisement with a railroad land poster, then list the motives each one uses to attract people.
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Related Standards
- USI.8.g
explaining how the expansion of U.S. territory led to increased momentum for the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements
- USII.3.d
explaining the events, factors, and motivations that caused individuals and groups to migrate to the United States towards the end of the 19th century
- USI.8.c
identifying geographic, economic, and religious motivations that influenced the movement of settlers
- USII.1
The student will apply history and social science skills to examine westward expansion after the mid-19th century by
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