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Camp Internet Outpost Briefing
January 3-7, 2000
Camp Internet California Backcountry Teachers Briefing
The Gold Rush
Welcome to the New Year and the next section in Camp Internet. In December we looked at the history and literature of Alta California and will be doing a recap on that period this week. As we prepare to study the Gold Rush, it is important to understand the situation in California right before statehood and before gold was discovered. The materials we are making available for your students to read and interact with are exciting, challenging - and - encourage them to become critical thinkers.
We will be adding the URLs for specific study units in the briefings this year to help you navigate straight to the intended documents and activities.
The Gold Rush - History
This week is our introduction to the historical setting in Alta California that preceded the actual discovery of gold. This was the landscape in which the first year of the gold rush was to take place.
The section is called Before the World Rushed In.
URL is
http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/goldrush/before-world.html
The Gold Rush - Reading
In the Art and Literature section, this week will be devoted to learning about Bret Harte. Harte was the first California writer to develop a regional voice, and his work influenced others - including Mark Twain. Harte's work and life has been somewhat lost as history has rolled on, and deserves to be brought back to our attention. His work is available online for you to print out and read aloud, or distribute as copies to your students. The selection is large enough to provide small groups with different reading assignments, which they can then do an oral or written book report on to their class at the end of the week. We are assigning grade levels to his stories to suggest appropriate content by age level.
The introduction to Bret Harte is in Reading and in History at http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/goldrush/harte-introduction.html
Suggested grade levels for listening to these stories, or reading are :
Brown at Calaveras grades 3-12 (romance/mystery)
Outcasts at Poker Flat grades 7-12 (adventure/tragedy)
The Luck of Roaring Camp, excerpt grades 3-6 (humor)
The Luck of Roaring Camp grades 7-12 (humor/tragedy )
The Right Eye of the Commander grades 3-12 (1790s, suspense)
California Ho !
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