Eighth Grade Curriculum on Allen Light
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Drafted by: Marivi S. Blanco
Topic: Allen Light
Working Title of Unit: An African American Free Man in Mexican California
Duration of Unit: 5 classes Grade: 8th
I. Unit Goals:
Students will:
- Use a variety of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of California and to explain the historical migration of Americans, Spaniards and Russians (chronological and spatial thinking).
- Distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories (chronological and spatial thinking).
- Construct various timelines of key events, people and periods from 1800 up until the Mexican-American War (chronological and spatial thinking)
- Explain how the challenges and problems faced by African-American free men differed depending on where they lived (historical interpretation).
- Understand the differences in the way Northern and Southern states interpreted the Compromise of 1850 and how these differences applied to African-American freedmen.
II. Unit Standards:
(Based on the California State History-Social Studies Standards)
Students will:
- Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationship the country had with Mexico and how that relationship influenced the westward expansion and the Mexican-American War (8.5.2).
- Study the life of an African-American who gained freedom in the North and migrated west to advance his rights and seek opportunities as a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico (8.6.4)
- Compare the lives and opportunities for free blacks in the United States with those of a free African-American in the West (8.7.4)
- Discuss Mexican settlements in California, their economies, political structure and attitudes toward slavery (8.8.5)
- Describe the lives of free blacks and the laws that that limited their freedom and economic opportunities (8.9.6).
- Discuss a proposed amendment to the Compromise of 1850 and the differing views Northern and Southern States had with regard to African-American freedmen. (8.9.5)
- Be able to organize and express ideas clearly and in writing (basic study skills)
- Draw biographical information about an individual by examining historical documents (basic study skills)
- Demonstrate knowledge of the experience of an African-American in Mexico (cultural literacy)
- Describe the social, political and economic life and interactions among different people in the Mexican Territory of Alta California (economic history).
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