Seattle’s Waterfront History: Was the Great Fire great for Seattle?

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Curriculum

In this focused Inquiry students will explore the importance of honoring important Indigenous locations. Students will read primary and secondary sources. Within this lesson students will practice the skills of reading primary and secondary sources for information and analyzing photos to write with the intention of supporting an original claim with evidence and reasoning.

This lesson would fit into the chronology of Statehood or could be a lesson on the role of industrialization in urban areas. Teachers should also keep in mind that these sources could have a reading level that might call for further scaffolding to meet students needs.

Within this lesson there are secondary sources that have been written from the perspective of non-Indigenous writers. There are also many factors that make accessing primary sources withNative perspectives a complex process. When possible, teachers should always look for ways to work in association with their local Tribes to make sure that more voices and perspectives are included.

Compelling Question: How important are place names?

Supporting Question: How are traditional names being incorporated into the new Seattle Waterfront?

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In this focused Inquiry students will explore the impact of the Great Seattle Fire. Students will read primary and secondary sources about the impact of the Seattle fire of 1889. Within this lesson students will practice the skills of reading primary and secondary sources for information, analyzing photos and political cartoons, and supporting an original claim with evidence and reasoning.

This lesson would fit into the chronology of Statehood or could be a lesson on the role of industrialization in urban areas. Teachers should also keep in mind that these sources could have a reading level that might call for further scaffolding to meet students needs.

Compelling Question: Was the Great Seattle Fire great for Seattle?

Supporting Question: How do communities change because of natural disasters?

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This lesson is ideal for block schedules or humanities classes that include English Language Arts (ELA) and Social Studies standards in the class. This lesson could also be done in an ELA class that is looking for a cross content lesson with Washington State History class.

This lesson will have students complete a narrative writing prompt. To complete this prompt students will look into the history of the Seattle Waterfront, the railroad industry, and how people have died because of the railroad in Seattle. Students will then research the history of their own community and add details to their short narrative prompt.

Compelling Question: What is the story behind the history of the Seattle Waterfront?

Supporting Question: How does the history of Seattle’s Waterfront create content for creative writing?

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This lesson will have students complete a virtual tour using HistoryLink.org Walking Tours. While this lesson is intended to be used for the Pioneer Square Music tour, but is also easily adapted to be used for the Pioneer Square LGBTQ+ History or other tours that are available on the site.

This lesson will have students go through a self-guided tour of the history of music in the Pioneer Square/Seattle Waterfront district. In this lesson students will read sources and analyze images to answer the question “What is the unique history of a city?”

Compelling Question: What is the unique history of a city?

Supporting Questions:

Pioneer Square Music – In what ways was music important to Seattle?
Pioneer Square’s LGBTQ+ History – How can a social movement change a city?

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In this focused Inquiry students will explore primary and secondary sources around the events of the Chinese Expulsion from Seattle in 1886. Students will work with small groups to review different sources to see how they work together. Student groups will analyze the sources and come up with questions to continue their study of this time period.

Compelling Question: How can fear and distrust based in racism lead to the forced removal of a group?

Supporting Question: What were the causes and effects of the Chinese Expulsion in Seattle in 1886?

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In this lesson students will look at how to assess primary and secondary sources. Students will explore the larger questions of “How is history written?” by reading and discussing the history of Ballast Island in Seattle. Students will also be looking at the supporting question of “How do we assess the sources we learn from?” Students will do this by looking at what is included and not included in sources.

For this lesson to be the most effective teachers should consider how this might fit into their scope and sequence of their class. This lesson would work well after students are learning about the PugetSound War in Washington 1855-1856. Students should know about Treaty Times and the important parts of treaties between the U.S. Government and Native Tribes of Washington. Students should have read and discussed the Point Elliott Treaty and treaties that have an impact on the local NativePeople where they live.

Within this lesson there are secondary sources that have been written from the perspective of non-Indigenous writers. There are also many factors that make accessing primary sources with Native perspectives a complex process. When possible, teachers should always look for ways to work in association with their local Tribes to make sure that more voices and perspectives are included.

Download Curriculum PDF