Teach your students about westward expansion in the U.S. This unit is great for grades 7 through 10. This post is part of the series: Westward Expansion
#JOHN HENRY RAILROAD STORY DOWNLOAD#
Distribute copies of an image of a blank pick axe (a paid download is available here, or you could easily create your own) and ask students to complete the reflection assignment from the power point. Discuss the impact the song may have had on generations of Americans, especially minorities. Once they have done that, visit to listen to a recording of the song so they can hear another interpretation. Give them a week and then ask them to present the stanzas in an imaginative and creative performance. Then distribute the lyrics to the folk song (lyrics available at this website) about John Henry and assign different groups of students different stanzas to memorize. Further discuss how the legend of John Henry has been captured is song by folk singers and explain how his story can be an inspiration to students today to rise up against what is blocking their path to success. Between 18, the C&O railroad was building rail lines in southern WV when it had to tunnel through Big Bend Mountain near Talcott.
Explain to students that this legend is so well-known, even the United States Postal Service paid it homage by creating a postage stamp with Henry’s image imprinted on it. It is told that John Henry, a former slave, worked for the C&O railroad driving steel, a job required when blasting rock.
Start off by using the downloadable power point on the life and legend of John Henry.
#JOHN HENRY RAILROAD STORY MANUAL#
Lesson ProcedureĪsk your students if they have any idea how railroads were built to go Westward? Do they know that bridges and tunnels were dug, by the hands of thousands of workers, using picks and axes? Do they know that working on the railroad was considered a highly dangerous job? Do they know that laying railroad track took years and years of hard labor? Introduce your students to John Henry, an American folklore icon and let them use his story as a jumping off point to learn not only about railroad expansion but about the perils of hard manual labor. Read on to see how you can use the legend of John Henry in your classroom setting. After all, they are not a generation that grew up with Laura Ingalls in her “Little House on the Prairie.” However, by using interesting standout topics, such as the Donner Party, the Mormon Migration, Railroad building and hands on map skills, you may be able to capture students’ attention in this period of history. Wagon trains and cattle marches are not the topics that fascinate today’s youth. When teaching Westward Expansion in the United States to middle school and high school students the information can often become dull and tedious.
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