Route 66 in California

Grades 3-5

Lesson Plan Overview: For many, California is seen as the end of Route 66, and much of West Coast migration history involves people heading west in search of the “California Dream.” While many did realize their dreams in the Golden State, the highway also reflects some of the more complicated aspects of American history, including segregation and exclusion. Each city and town along the highway contributes to its unique history and touches on themes that can help students understand the immense changes to American life during the 20th Century. This lesson allows students to explore the inspiring and challenging stories that make Route 66 in California a great starting point for studying American history. 

This lesson is broken down into six 15-30 minute activities that include primary source analysis, reading comprehension, note taking, writing, and discussion activities. There is also a creative writing assignment where students use their research skills to write a fictional newspaper article from a town along Route 66. The activities can be completed in isolation, or they can be combined with the complete lesson plan.

All materials available in Google Drive and PDF formats

Many thanks to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their support of this lesson plan!

MATERIALS

  1. Presentation Slides for all activities

  2. Route 66 Mystery Box (15-20 minutes)

  3. Mapping Route 66 (15-20 minutes)

  4. Voices of Route 66 (25-30 minutes)

  5. Primary Source Activity: Life on Route 66 (15-20 minutes)

  6. American History on Route 66 (15-30 minutes)

  7. Creative Writing: Route 66 in the News!  (30-45 minutes)

    ALIGNMENT WITH STANDARDS

    California Social Studies Standards: 

    • 4.1 - Students demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic

      • features that define places and regions in California.

      • Identify the state capital and describe the various regions of California, including how their characteristics and physical environments (e.g., water, landforms, vegetation, climate) affect human activity

      • Use maps, charts, and pictures to describe how communities in California vary in land use, vegetation, wildlife, climate, population density, architecture, services, and transportation

    • 4.4 - Students explain how California became an agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s.

      • Describe rapid American immigration, internal migration, settlement, and the growth of towns and cities (e.g., Los Angeles).

      • Discuss the effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War II on California.

      • Analyze the impact of twentieth-century Californians on the nation’s artistic and cultural development, including the rise of the entertainment industry (e.g., Louis B. Meyer, Walt Disney, John Steinbeck, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, John Wayne).

    C3 Social Studies Standards: 

    • D2.Eco.4.3-5. Explain why individuals and businesses specialize and trade.

    • D2.Geo.2.3-5. Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.

    • D2.Geo.3.3-5. Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.

    • D2.Geo.6.3-5. Describe how environmental and cultural characteristics influence population distribution in specific places or regions.

    • D2.Geo.7.3-5. Explain how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas.

    • D2.His.2.3-5. Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.

    • D2.His.3.3-5. Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.

    • D2.His.6.3-5. Describe how people’s perspectives shaped the historical sources they created.

    • D2.His.10.3-5. Compare information provided by different historical sources about the past.

    • D2.His.11.3-5. Infer the intended audience and purpose of a historical source from information within the source itself.

    • D2.His.12.3-5. Generate questions about multiple historical sources and their relationships to particular historical events and developments.


    ELA Common Core Standards: 

    • RI.3.1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

    • RI.3.3. Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

    • RI.3.7. Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

    • W.3.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

    • W.3.4. With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)

    • SL.3.1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

    • SL 3.1.c. Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.

    • SL.3.2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

    • SL.3.3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.