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Teach PA History
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The Birth of the American Cowboy and the Western Genre


Equipment & Supplies
  • Supplies and Equipment:
  • Photo copier
  • Overhead machine/computer
  • Transparencies (3)
  • Several dictionaries
Procedures

Steps:

 Day One

Pre-class homework: Students should bring to class examples of western cowboy heroes (in a comic strip, advertisement, photograph, book, etc.).

1. Discuss what these cowboys have in common. As a class, list traits of a cowboy on the board. Have students write down this list of cowboy traits and save it for use on their final activity on Day Two. (Possible traits to include: strong; handsome; rugged; a strong moral code; loner; wanderer; respected/demands respect; thinks for himself/individualism; honest; chivalrous; good at skill sets he uses such as roping steer, bringing in cattle, shooting, riding a horse, etc.).

2. Ask students why they think the cowboy has such universal characteristics. The cowboy has become an American icon. He represents an American spirit. Cowboys that have been created over the years have followed an "archetype" or model first created by Owen Wister, a writer born in 1860 in Germantown Philadelphia. He was trying to capture a way of life that was quickly disappearing. Have students read Student Handout 1-Capturing the Last Frontier. After they have completed the reading, have a conversation about the main points of the handout:

    What were some factors that sped the settlement of the West? (Gold Rush, transcontinental railroad)

    What events led to the end of the western cowboy's way of life? (invention and use of barbed wire, agricultural inventions, automobiles lessen dependency on horses)

    How did Wister describe the disappearing cowboy to the reader? (romantic, did things whole-heartedly, worked hard/played hard, honorable, a gentleman). Ask students if these cowboy qualities were similar to those they had listed in the beginning of class. (Yes.)

     What is the narrator's first impression of the Virginian? (young; strong; skilled with a rope-- "that man knows his business"; although covered by the dirt of the land, not beaten by it)

    How does the Virginian help the schoolteacher as she is arriving by stage coach? (He comes along in the nick of time and rescues her from a stage coach that was falling into a creek.)


3. Explain to your students they are going to explore the land in which The Virginian was set by reading a letter Owen Wister wrote to his mother when he first travelled to Medicine Bow, Wyoming in 1885. Pass out Student Worksheet 1-Discovering the Setting. Students should complete the six interpretation questions in Student Worksheet 1-Discovering the Setting for class tomorrow. Tomorrow the class will be discovering how Wister's real life experience in the West influenced the book, as well as how the book influenced real life.
 
4. Optional: You can also hand out Student Handout 6-Biography of Owen Wister for students to learn more about the author on their own time.

Day Two

Preparation: Before class begins set up two stations. The first station will be called "The Historical Event". Provide copies for half the class. At this station half of your class will be studying an event which Owen Wister experienced in his travels West. Provide the following materials:

    Student Handout 2-Journal Account of the Horse Abuser
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      Student Worksheet 2-Journal Account of the Horse Abuser  


  • The second station, "The Fictional Version."
     Student Handout 3-The Virginian, Excerpt of the Horse Abuser
    Student Worksheet 3-The Virginian excerpt of the Horse Abuser

    The entire class will receive:
    Student Worksheet 4-Group Discussion Questions of Horse Abuser



Also create an overhead transparency from Student Handout 4-How The Virginian Influenced Real Life.


1. Collect the homework for assessment. Tell students that today they will also briefly be looking at how The Virginian influenced real life and also studying some examples of how real life influenced the writing of The Virginian. Show the overhead transparency of Student Handout 4-How The Virginian Influenced Real Life. Point out the various geographical landmarks that show Owen Wister's presence or the book's influence in the Wyoming area. Read the final paragraph. It describes how the book and its characters influenced westerns that followed. They became the blueprint for other westerns.

2. The class is going to divide and explore an example of how a real life event affected Wister's writing. Divide your class into two, and bring each to a station you have set up before class, "The Historical Event" and "The Fictional Version."  There is one handout and one worksheet at each station. The group is going to read the handout and complete the corresponding worksheet together. Note: These readings are written in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. The language, therefore, might prove challenging for students. If students are having difficulty with the reading, here are some options:

    1. Have students read over the handout questions first. This will give them an idea of what answers they are looking for in the reading.

    2.Refer students to the vocabulary list of the handout. This list defines words that are more difficult or have a specific western context. If there are additional words students do not understand, have a dictionary on hand.

    3. Ask students to use any previous knowledge or the context of the word to help decipher its meaning.
    4. If students are still finding the reading a challenge, you can pair a student who is struggling with a more adept reader. Then ask the student to employ the "Think Out Loud" strategy. In this strategy, the student reads a part of the passage and then thinks out loud. The more adept reader notes his/her partner's comments and then later helps in interpreting the passage.
     
    Example:

    Here is one of the longer and most challenging sentences in the fictional reading. This is in the middle of a horse chase scene:

    ..."The Virginian helped, but used his horse with more judgment, keeping as much on the level as possible, and endeavoring to anticipate the next turn of the runaways before they made it, while Balaam attempted to follow them close, wheeling short when they doubled, heavily beating up the face of the slope, veering again to come down to the point he had left, and whenever he felt Pedro begin to flag, driving his spurs into the horse and forcing him to keep up the pace."

    Student Think Out Loud: The Virginian helped, but used his horse with more judgment, keeping as much on the level as possible, and endeavoring [What is endeavoring? Trying hard to do something. O.K. What was the Virginian trying hard to do?] to anticipate the next turn of the runaways before they made it, while Balaam [Who was he again? The other rider.] attempted to follow them ["Them" refers to... the runaway horses.] close, wheeling short when they doubled, heavily beating up the face of the slope, veering [What is veering? Maybe I can get it from the context. I'll keep reading] again to come down to the point he had left [O.K. so veering is something the rider did to change direction. Maybe it means turning around. So the rider would go up a slope and then back down.] and whenever he felt Pedro begin to flag [I know "flag" as the United States flag, but that doesn't make sense here. Let's see what it means. Oh, it means "to get tired." That makes more sense.] driving his spurs into the horse and forcing him to keep up pace.

    [O.K. So what is the main point of this sentence? The two riders are chasing down the runaway horses. The Virginian is keeping his horse level. In contrast, Balaam is riding his horse, Pedro, up and down slopes and pushing him hard.]

    Other good "Think Out Loud" prompts include:
    * So far, I've learned...
    * This made me think of...
    * That didn't make sense.
    * I think ___ will happen next.
    * I reread that part because...
    * I was confused by...
    * I think the most important part was...
    * That is interesting because...
    * I wonder why...
    * I just thought of...

    (Read more on TeacherVision: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/problem-solving/48546.html#ixzz1Mv0smHrk)



3. After each station has completed their handout and worksheet, pair one student from "The Historical Event" with one student from "The Fictional Version." In their pairs, have each student discuss their version of the event and answer the group questions in Student Worksheet 4-Group Discussion Questions of Horse Abuser.

4.  When the pairs of students are finished with Student Worksheet 4, ask a couple of volunteers to share what their group had read and how Owen Wister used the historical event in The Virginian.

5.  As a final homework activity, pass out Student Handout 5-The Wham Payroll Robbery. Owen Wister wrote about this event in a story called "A Pilgrim on the Gila," published by Harper's Magazine. Now it is your students turn to take reality and turn it into fiction. Direct students to read the Arizona newspaper article about the event and then to create their own western story about it. Students will be graded for the following components:

    Use of historical event in their fiction
    Description of western setting
    Characterization of the hero
    Proper writing conventions
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