ALEX Resources

Title: A Natural Attraction: The Natural Resources of Alabama During the Early Nineteenth Century
Description: This lesson looks at the natural resources that drew settlers to Alabama.  Students will explore the 1818 letter from Joseph Noble to his friend, Samuel B. Bidgood, describing the town at Tuscaloosa Falls.  Students will explain ideas within this historical text based on specific information presented in this primary source. Follow up lesson - Alabama: A Boundless Field of Speculation This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (4) 12: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. [RI.4.3]

Title: Alabama: A Boundless Field of Speculation
Description: This lesson looks at the natural resources that drew businesses to Alabama. Students will explore the adapted 1820 letter from Mason and Dexter in Cahaba, Alabama to Richards and Simmons in Cumberland, Rhode Island.  Students will explain ideas within this historical text based on specific information presented in this primary source. This lesson can be used as a stand alone or can follow A Natural Attraction: The Natural Resources of Alabama During the Early Nineteenth Century.  This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] ALA (4) 4: Relate the relationship of the five geographic regions of Alabama to the movement of Alabama settlers during the early nineteenth century.

Title: Alabama Fever!
Description: In this lesson, students will work in small groups to examine a letter describing the environment of Alabama and identify reasons which might have encouraged settlers to move to Alabama in the early nineteenth century.   Students will choose an interesting attraction of Alabama mentioned in the letter and design a postage stamp around that attraction.  This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (4) 12: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. [RI.4.3]

Title: Settlement of Frontier Alabama
Description: This lesson is a language arts/social studies lesson for the purpose of developing student knowledge of westward expansion with an emphasis on the settlement of frontier Alabama. Students will work independently and collaboratively to construct a vocabulary list associated with the westward movement both before and after a PowerPoint presentation. Students will use the vocabulary learned in the lesson to compose a friendly letter. This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009. Author Information:  Darlene Kellison (Cohort 1: 2009-2010) Evans Elementary, Albertville City School System Albertville, AL
Standard(s):
[SS2010] ALA (4) 6: Describe cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.

Title: Oh, what a RELIEF it is!
Description: Students will make a relief map of Alabama out of playdough. After researching and analyzing several types of Alabama maps (physical, resources, populations, waterways etc), students will compile the information they learned by creating a singular relief map with corresponding legend.  Students will write an essay that describes how the characteristics of our state led to migration patterns.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] ALA (4) 4: Relate the relationship of the five geographic regions of Alabama to the movement of Alabama settlers during the early nineteenth century.

Title: Alabama Brochure
Description: In this lesson students will learn about the state in which they live by using child-friendly Web sites to collect facts and pictures about Alabama.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] ALA (4) 4: Relate the relationship of the five geographic regions of Alabama to the movement of Alabama settlers during the early nineteenth century.

Title: Genealogical Atlases
Description: This Xpeditions lesson asks students to interview their parents or other relatives about what it was like where they grew up. Students use outline maps to create genealogical atlases that illustrate the places of their ancestry and the activities in which their relatives and ancestors participated when living there.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] ALA (4) 16: Determine the impact of population growth on cities, major road systems, demographics, natural resources, and the natural environment of Alabama during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Title: Nomads: Where Boundaries Move
Description: In this Xpeditions lesson, students explore nomadic pastoralism. Focusing on Central Asia, students investigate the way humans have adapted to regions that do not sustain communities through agriculture and the influence this has both on how they live and on how they view the boundaries of their homes.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] USS5 (5) 13: Describe social and economic influences on United States' expansion prior to World War I.

Title: Where I Come From
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students take research into their heritage a step beyond the construction of a family tree, traveling through cyberspace to find out what's happening in their ancestral homelands today and explore their sense of connection to these places in their past.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] USS5 (5) 10: Describe political, social, and economic events between 1803 and 1860 that led to the expansion of the territory of the United States, including the War of 1812, the Indian Removal Act, the Texas-Mexican War, the Mexican-American War, and the Gold Rush of 1849.

Title: Picturing Modern America
Description: Site contains interactive exercises designed to: Deepen students' understanding of common topics in the study of modern America 1880-1920; Build students' skills in analyzing primary sources; Generate questions that students can pursue by searching in American Memory and other sources.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] ALA (4) 12: Explain the impact the 1920s and Great Depression had on different socioeconomic groups in Alabama.