Grade Level: 8th Grade
Topic: Railroad Expansion
Essential Question:
In what ways did building the Transcontinental Railroad change the United States?
Resources:
A. Library of Congress, Excerpt from Chapter 3 of Evolution of the Conservation Movement by Samuel
Bowles, primary source.
http://loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/ra
ilroad/trans.html
B. Library of Congress, 1938 Interview with Mr. John Grosvenor, worker on the Central Missouri
Pacific Railroad, primary source.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/rail
road/cmp.html
C. Smithsonian Institution, America on the Move. Photograph of completion of transcontinental railroad
at Promontory, Utah.
http://amhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_370.html
Reminders/Things to Consider
Writing Types
Guiding Questions
Prompts
(Student-Friendly Rubric
Descriptors)
What were the
You are a farmer in
 State a clear claim related
benefits of building
Nebraska. The railroad
to the resources and the
the railroad?
plans to run a line straight
prompt.
through your property, and  Use relevant evidence
What were the
you oppose building the
from at least two of the
drawbacks to
railroad. Write a letter to
sources to support your
building the railroad? your Congressional
Argument
claim.
representative explaining
 Clarify relationships
In what ways did the why you do not think
between ideas and connect
construction of the
building the railroad west
evidence to the argument.
railroad affect
is a good idea.
 Apply conventions
farmers and
correctly.
landowners?
Resource A offers a
Compare and contrast the
 State a clear controlling
description of the
description in Resource A
idea that addresses
building of the Union to the first-hand account in
resources and the prompt.
Pacific Railroad,
Resource B.
 Use relevant details from
while Resource B
at least two of the sources
offers a first-hand
to explain the controlling
Informative
account of building
idea.
Explanatory
the Central Missouri
 Clarify relationships
Pacific Railroad.
among ideas and those that
What similarities
explain the controlling
exist between the two
idea.
resources? What are
 Apply conventions
the differences?
correctly.
MDPT Sample – December 2014
Narrative
What was life like for You are one of the people
the workers who built in the photograph who
the railroad?
worked to build the
Transcontinental Railroad.
Write a letter home telling
your family about this
historic moment and how it
compares to the hard work
you have been doing for
the past several months.





MDPT Sample – December 2014
Establish a setting and a
narrator/characters.
Use description and/or
dialogue to develop
situations or characters.
Use appropriate phrases
and words to signal order
of events.
Make sure you write an
introduction and a
conclusion that are
appropriate.
Apply conventions
correctly.