Montana 1948 Lesson Plan

The Wild West, Part 1

Kind of Activity:

Classwide Discussion

Objective:

Students will be able to apply knowledge of the elements of the Western genre to an analysis of the novel's plot, setting, and themes

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.C

Structure:

At the beginning of Section 1, David reflects on his childhood thusly: “The problem was that I wanted to grow up wild. … Wildness meant, to me, getting out of town and into the country. Even our small town—really, in 1948 still a frontier town in many respects—tasted to me like pabulum.” The mythology of America's Western frontier in the late nineteenth century has long...