Primary Document #1
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Primary Document #2
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Primary Document #3
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George W. Bush
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Air Force One
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Ferdinand Magellan
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United States of America
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State of Minnesota
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Toni McDevitt
Whistle Stop Tours
Theme: Students will continue learning and exploring the “human” cargo of the almighty steam engine. This lesson presents the cargo of presidential candidates.
Grade Level: Fourth
Materials:
· Primary documents one, two, and three
· Pictures of George Bush and Air Force One
· Truman fact sheet
· Copy of Truman’s Winona whistle stop speech (20 copies)
· Picture of Ferdinand Magellan
· Web site http://www.trumanlibrary.org/educatio.htm
· Hand out of map of United States (20 copies)
· Computer lab
· Blank picture of state of Minnesota (20 copies)
· Minnesota state road maps
Goal: Students will analyze historical evidence and draw conclusions by using primary documents obtained from the Winona Historical Society. Students will demonstrate specific and increasingly complex geographic knowledge of the United States by traveling a virtual tour of states visited by Truman on his whistle stop tour.
Objectives:
1. Students will gain the knowledge of what a whistle stop tour is and will be able to participate in class discussion on this topic.
2. Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of state identification by navigating their way through a virtual tour of Truman’s whistle stop tour.
3. Students will construct a map showing the path Truman took on his whistles stop tour in Minnesota identifying the cites visited and the miles between each one.
Procedures:
A. Introductory experience: (3 minutes)
· Show a picture of George Bush and ask the class to say together as one group who this person is.
· Show a picture of Air Force One. Now ask the class if they know what this is? If they say plane or jet, tell them yes but ask what is the name of this plane/jet? If they are not able to answer, the teacher can then tell them this is President Bush’s jet called Air Force One.
· Explain to the students this is what George Bush uses to travel in.
· Ask them if they can guess what presidents or presidential candidates used to travel in 100 or so years ago?? The Steam Engine!
B. Developmental experience:
#1 Class discussion on whistle stop tour: (10 minutes)
· Have students come to front carpet for “circle time” discussion.
· Give definition of whistle stop…. A whistle stop or whistle stop tour is a style of political campaigning where the politician makes a series of brief appearances or speeches at a number of small towns over a short period of time. Candidates rarly got off the trains', they gave their speeches from the back car.
· Inform students this was a popular way of campaigning in the late 1800s and the first half of the 1900s.
· Tell students why it is called whistle stop: Because on passenger steam engines when a passenger wanted to stop and get off at the next town, they would tell the conductor. The conductor would then blow the horn letting the enginer know he needed to stop in the next town.
· Show primary documents of photos taken here in Winona of presidents and presidential candidates stopping here in Winona.
· Inform students that document #1 is easy to identify because it says Dewy for Vice President. Ask the students if they think Dewy won.
· Inform students that document #2 and #3 were not labeled and we are not able to tell for sure which presidential candidate this is.
· Have class discussion activity of looking at the document and finding clues for what time era this photo might be from. Examples would be: It’s black and white, the hats/type of dress, the cars in the background, the style of the train, the buildings and signs in the background.
· Allow time for questions after discussion.
#2 Computer tour of Truman’s 1948 whistle stop tour: (20 minutes)
· Have students go to computer lab working with a partner. Each partner group will need to bring a pencil, piece of paper, and their hand out of the state of Minnesota. Teacher can choose partners with Popsicle sticks.
· Give short history of President Truman from Truman lecture notes.
· Explain to students they will be going on a tour of Truman’s 1948 whistle stop tour making stops in several states that he visited. With each stop there will be facts listed. The student and their partner are to write down one fact from each stop and turn that sheet into the teacher when done. After they read the facts they will click on the red steam engine and will then have to click on one of the states listed. If the students do not know where that state is they can look on their hand out to find it.
· Guide students to proper web site address as noted above under materials needed. When at this Truman Library home page click on the link to the right that says 1948 election. Then click on whistle stop tour. This will bring the students to the first page of their tour.
#3 Truman’s Whistle Stop tour in Minnesota: (15 minutes)
· Inform students Truman’s whistle stop tour came to Minnesota on October 14, 1948, and stopped in the towns of Mankato, Waseca, Rochester, and Winona. Write the names of those cities on the board.
· Give hand out of Truman’s Winona speech and choral read this as a class. Ask for questions or comments after they read this.
· Explain to students they are now going to make a map of what cities Truman visited that day. The map will need to include the following: Cities visited placed appropriately on the state, a drawing of a train track between the cities, the mileage between the cities, city of our state capitol.
· The students will be able to use the Minnesota state road maps available in the classroom.
C. Cumulative Experience: (2 minutes)
· Have class meet again on front carpet. Ask students if they have any questions about the whistle stop tours. Ask students how they would feel if a president ever came to town riding on a train. Ask the students if they think the train would look like the train that Truman rode on. Ask them if they think it would be a steam engine.
Assessment: First assessment will be from watching the students in the computer lab identifying the states that Truman traveled to. Second assessment will be the maps of Truman’s Minnesota travels, assessing for proper city placement and proper mileage calculation.
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Truman Notes
· Harry S. Truman was our 33rd president.
· He was in office from 4/12/45 to 1/20/53.
· Before he became President, he was Vice President for President Franklin Roosevelt.
· He took over as President in 1945 when Roosevelt died.
· When his first term was over, his wife and daughter did not want him to run again but he said he had unfinished business.
· His opponent for this presidential race was Thomas Dewey, the Governor of New York. **Show picture again of Thomas Dewey on his whistle stop tour in Winona***
· The campaign of 1948 became one of the most popular because of Truman and his whistle stop tour. He traveled across the U.S. several times campaigning and talking to the citizens of the United States.
· The train he traveled in was called the Ferdinand Magellan. Truman used this car more than any other president.
· The reports from officials and newspapers always showed Dewey as being ahead but Truman ended up winning. Many people think his whistle stop tour may have given him the edge to reach many voters and won the election. Then click on 1948 whistle stop tour and tell students they may begin.
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OCTOBER 14 Rear Platform RemarksWinona, Minnesota (11:45 a.m.)
Thank you — thank you very much. I can't tell you how very much I appreciatethe cordial welcome which has been extended to me by the citizensof Minnesota. It is evident that the citizens of Minnesota are interested inthe welfare of this great nation and that they want to know what the issuesare in this campaign. And believe me, I have been telling them what the issuesare!
I have been traveling through Minnesota since yesterday at noon, when Icrossed the St. Louis River and arrived in Duluth. It has been a thrilling experience.It has not only been fine to see your rich farmland, and the greatgrain elevators, and your cities enjoying greater prosperity than ever beforein history, but it has been especially rewarding to travel through Minnesotaand meet you fellow Minnesotans and your great candidate for the Senate,Mayor Hubert Humphrey, and your fine candidates for Congress, and KarlRolvaag, whom I am sure you are going to send to the Congress. You are alsogoing to send Mayor Humphrey of Minneapolis to the Senate, and then wewill have people in the 81st Congress with whom the president can work.
The crowds that have come down to the stations prove beyond any doubtthat you people are determined to elect a liberal, Democratic president anda liberal, Democratic congressional delegation when you go to the polls onNovember 2.
You know that this prosperity that I have seen all through Minnesota didnot just happen. It was brought about by sixteen years of control of the governmentby Democratic administrations. Back in the Republican depressionyear of 1932, Minnesota farmers made less than a quarter of a billion dollars.Last year, the income of Minnesota's farmers was a billion and half dollars.That is the difference between the right side of a proposition so that everybody gets his fair share of the national income, and that approach which gives only the special privileged few the national income.
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