Middle School Resource

Rolling on the River by NGA

In this activity, students will explore how westward expansion increased the number of jobs available in the nineteenth century, including being a flatboatman through a painting by George Caleb Bingham. Working in pairs, students will write a letter to their partner from the standpoint of a person moving westward. Then they will construct a poem in the guise of Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” about a modern-day job.

Related NY State Academic Standards: W.5.3, W.5.3.a, W.5.3.b, and more!

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