Union Pacific Railroad Company, and Benjamin H. Barrows. The resources and attractions of the Texas Panhandle for the home seeker, capitalist, and tourist. St. Louis: Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co., 1893. https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01002575/.
Learners will read the accounts of settlers to gather evidence on whether or not a person can make a living farming/ranching in the Panhandle of Texas. Was it a good idea for a farmer to settle in the Panhandle of Texas? Learners will then explore contemporary sources to decide if Goodnight’s (see note below) opinions are valid (pages 112–113 of the resource).
By the time of this publication, the buffalo were gone. The Indians were contained for the most part. Folks learned about the grassland of the Panhandle Plains and sought to graze sheep and cattle. Large ranches and corporations developed. Goodnight advises the authors about the enterprise. Charles Goodnight is often called the “Father of the Panhandle” because of his influence in settling the west. His wife, Mary Ann, is credited for saving the last of the bison from extinction in the 1880s.
Source: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/panhandle
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ranching
Source: : https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/panhandle
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ranching
- According to Goodnight, what are the pros and cons of farming or ranching in the Panhandle of Texas?
- Which of Goodnight’s statements are facts? Which are opinions?
ELA Standard
8:6 J. Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed. (J) The student is expected to defend or challenge the actors’ claims using relevant text evidence.
Social Studies Standard
8.6B. History: The student understands westward expansion and its effects on the political, economic, and social development of the nation. The student is expected to (B) analyze the westward growth of the nation, including the Louisiana Purchase and Manifest Destiny.
Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- Begin with an open-ended question: Is it a good idea to be a farmer or rancher? Allow learners time to jot down their ideas in two columns with the headers Good Idea, Bad Idea. Under each column, they should list reasons they believe farming/ranching would be a good or bad idea. Give learners time to share ideas and add to their charts.
- Propose the idea that historical accounts help us learn from other people’s experiences. Present the resources. Learners put a plus or minus sign in the margins, indicating whether Goodnight thought farming and ranching were good or bad ideas. Learners underline or highlight relevant text evidence that can be used in their response. Show learners how to skim and scan to find relevant information in the supplementary text on the history of farming and ranching in the Panhandle. Learners collect positive and negative insights as before as well as text evidence that is useful to quote in their responses.
- Give learners the following kernel structure for an essay that answers whether or not it is a good idea to be a farmer or rancher. Some people think __________. And other people think _________. But I think _______. What that tells me is _________. Learners fill in the blanks and add additional text evidence and explanation from the sources provided.
- After students complete their drafts, allow them to meet in pairs to see how other learners answered the questions.
- As a whole-class debrief, pose the following question: By examining historical and modern accounts, what did we learn about decision making?
- Additional Focus Questions:
- How do people make financial decisions about their professions?
- We are told that we can learn from history. What does Goodnight’s account reveal about the viability of farming and ranching in the Panhandle of Texas in modern times?
- What powerful claims and warrants are available in Goodnight’s account that could be used for an argumentative stance on the probability of financial success in farming and ranching in the Panhandle of Texas?
- In other words, how do the accounts from a historical perspective impact modern decision making?
Note: This site has a flip book, searchable for terms: https://archive.org/details/resourcesattract10unio/mode/2up
Historic American Buildings Survey. Charles Goodnight Ranch House, Goodnight, Armstrong County, TX. 1933. Print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/tx1056/.