WHY LOUISIANA AIN'T MISSISSIPPI... OR ANY PLACE ELSE!

OBJECTIVES

1. Students will understand how punctuation changes the way a sentence is read and/or its context.
2. Students will also practice changing the order of words to create different sentences that have the same meaning.
3. Students, by using the historical information in this activity, will reinforce their familiarity with the information and commit it to memory.

EDUCATION STANDARDS: SOCIAL STUDIES and ELA

• Louisiana ELA Standards: Writing: 8.1(a-e), 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9(a-b)
• Language: 8.1(a-d), 8.2c, 8.3a, 8.4(a-d), 8.5(a-c), 8.6
• Louisiana Social Studies Standards: 8.1, 8.2, 8.3a, 8.4(a-d), 8.6

MEDIA RESOURCES

• Why Louisiana Ain't Mississippi... Or Anyplace Else Video Clip
  • English Turn
  • Louisiana Purchase

• Reading Material
  • Sentence Cut Outs

MATERIALS NEEDED

Words that have been cut out by the teacher.

One sheet of paper for each group or pair.

Sentence Cut Outs

SUGGESTED TIME

Students should be engaged for an entire class period.

VERIFICATION
Checks for Understanding- teacher observation

ACTIVITY/LESSON

Students will work in groups or pairs to complete the assignment. Teacher will print each table of words and cut along the lines to separate the words or groups of words. Preferably, the words can be enlarged before printing as for each word to be about the size of a two-dimensional brick. If planned ahead, they may also be glued to construction paper or printed on card stock and even laminated to be reused multiple times. Sentence Cut Outs Students (group or pair) are given all the words of one color. The student groups or pairs will sort the set of words in front of them to create a sentence, writing the sentence on their paper. Then, the same group or pair will rearrange the words in front of them to make a new sentence with the same meaning as the first sentence. Students will then write the second sentence on their paper.

Students will then add punctuation to their sentences to cause the sentences to be grammatically correct.

*This activity may be extended to enrich by having groups swap word sets and repeat the activity with a different set of words.

*Math Feature*

Additionally, this assignment may be added to math class as enrichment by asking the students the following questions. May be given to fast finishers or just as trivia.

An acre of land is 43,560 square feet. There are 640 acres in 1 square mile. If the Louisiana Purchase consisted of 828,000 square miles and the United States paid $15,000,000 for all the land, how much was paid per acre?

KEY: Performed two ways for better explanation

a.) 828,000 x 640 = 529,920,000

15,000,000/529,920,000 = 0.0283

Approximately three cents per square acre

b.) 15,000,000/828,000 = $18.12 per square mile

18.12/640 = 0.0283

Approximately three cents per square acre

VOCABULARY