Two history passages, one on the Transcontinental Railroad and one on the Dust Bowl, ask 4th grade students to explain both what happened and why. They put four railroad events in order, answer questions on May 10, 1869, and give two causes of the black blizzards on the Great Plains. A true or false item about prairie grass checks careful reading. A final question links one event to changes in family life. It practices RI.4.3 across five pages, with an answer key.
RI.4.3
“Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.”
Questions 1 to 3 cover what happened in the railroad passage, questions 4 to 6 explain the causes of the Dust Bowl, and question 7 asks for both the change and its cause.
Students read about the Union Pacific building west from Nebraska and the Central Pacific building east from California until the tracks met at Promontory Summit, Utah. They number four events in order, say what happened on May 10, 1869, and copy a sentence about why the railroad mattered.
Students read how plowed-up prairie grass and a severe drought let the soil blow away in the 1930s. They give two causes, define drought, and correct the false claim that farmers planted too much prairie grass.
Question 7 asks students to pick the railroad or the Dust Bowl and explain how it changed people's lives and why.
Social studies link
Save the railroad passage for a unit on westward expansion, and the Dust Bowl passage when you reach the Great Depression or farming.
True or false trap
Question 6 catches students who skim. Have them find the word "up" in "plowed up the deep-rooted prairie grasses" before they answer.
Split the work
Five pages is a lot for one sitting. Do Passage 1 on the first day and Passage 2 and question 7 on the second.
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