Trail of Tears Worksheets

About this resource

Teaching the Trail of Tears and need something students can actually write on? This is a complete kit for one short unit, written at a middle school reading level, in a respectful tone, with no graphic detail, and laid out with real room to work. It starts with two plain-words charts that cover ten topics: the Indian Removal Act, Andrew Jackson, the five Southeastern nations, the Cherokee, Worcester v. Georgia, the Treaty of New Echota, the forced removal of 1838 and 1839, the journey west, the other nations, and why it matters. Students then match the vocabulary, sort statements into four themes (government, resistance, journey, loss), tell which topic fits a short scenario and how they know, decide true or false and fix the false ones, fill in sentences, build a timeline from clues, read two short passages, think through an invented case study about a nation, a state and settlers in one valley, and write in ruled boxes. Three cut-and-paste sort mats finish it. It comes with answer keys, a tracker, a class grid, a team note and a family page, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (33 pages)

• 17 student pages in 13 page types: Plain-Words Chart (2 pages), Match It, Name the Theme, Which Topic? (2 pages), True or False?, Fill In the Sentence, Build the Timeline, Read the Passage, Case Study, Explain It, Build a Paragraph, Topic Snapshot, and Cut and Paste (3 pages)
• 69 scored items on 10 pages, every answer read from the same lists that print the page, never typed by hand
• 16 scenarios and statements (8 to name the theme, 8 to match to a topic of the chart) plus 1 invented case study with no outcome given
• 8 vocabulary words matched to 10 meanings (two meanings are not used)
• 1 timeline with 5 steps to fill in from clues
• 2 short reading passages, written for this file
• 26 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sort mats (8 pieces into 2 boxes, 8 pieces into 4 boxes, 10 names into 10 numbered slots)
• 3 answer keys, including what to look for on the 5 open-response pages
• 1 tracker (page, page type, items right, date, notes) and 1 whole-class progress grid
• 1 team note (a hand-off page), 1 family page and 1 filled example (an invented student)
• 1 phrase bank (17 starters, including student sentence starters for explaining and claim-evidence-reasoning), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

The Page Types

1. Plain-Words Chart, 2 pages: Topics 1-5 and 6-10, each with a short name, what it says in plain words, and a way to picture it. Students keep it beside them for the other pages.

2. Match It: 8 words (treaty, removal, homeland, Congress, Supreme Court, constitution, territory, nation) matched to lettered meanings.

3. Name the Theme: 8 short statements; pick government, resistance, journey or loss from a box.

4. Which Topic?, 2 pages: 8 short scenarios; write the topic number from the chart, then explain how you know in a 3-line ruled box.

5. True or False?: 6 statements, then fix two false ones in 4-line ruled boxes.

6. Fill In the Sentence: 8 sentences and a box of 10 words (two are not used).

7. Build the Timeline: five steps, a clue for each, and a box of five events (1830 to 1839). Write each event on its step, earliest first, then explain why it is important to remember this history.

8. Read the Passage: two short passages, one about the Cherokee Nation and the removal and one about the Indian Removal Act, Worcester v. Georgia and the Treaty of New Echota, with four questions.

9. Case Study: an invented story about a made-up place (Pine Creek) where a nation, a state and settlers see the same land differently. Match the story to topics of the chart, say how each might see the land, give what a member of the nation and a state official might say, and name what you would want to know first. No outcome is given.

10. Explain It: four prompts with ruled boxes and sentence starters.

11. Build a Paragraph: a claim, evidence, reasoning organizer on why people remember the Trail of Tears today, plus a place for a member of a Native nation to add a view.

12. Topic Snapshot: pick one topic of the chart, say it in your own words, give an example or a fact and draw it.

13. Cut and Paste, 3 pages: two boxes (what the Cherokee Nation had, what removal cost), four boxes, then ten numbered slots. The pieces touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines, and every piece is over an inch each way.

Built For The Student Holding The Page

A "My name" line, one short instruction, large type, and no cartoons, mascots or clip art. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Ruled boxes are about a third of an inch a line: a short answer gets 3 lines and an explanation gets 5 or more. Body text is 11 point or larger. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a student picks among printed spots (the lettered meanings, the box of words, the order of the cut pieces), the position of the right answer is checked so it never sits in the same spot three times in a row.

Textbook-Level Facts, Respectfully Told

The topic summaries are the standard, textbook-level kind, kept short. The dates are 1830 (Indian Removal Act), 1832 (Worcester v. Georgia), 1835 (Treaty of New Echota; Congress approved it in 1836) and 1838 to 1839 (the forced removal of the Cherokee to Indian Territory). The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole nations are named as five nations with their own land, leaders and way of life, and the file says plainly that thousands of people died. It has no graphic detail and no quotations. Textbooks describe some details differently, so the answer key says to accept a timeline order your own text supports. Every scenario, passage and the case study are made up for practice. There is a blank line on the tracker for your own standard or wording.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every answer box and every ruled box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the family page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Middle school social studies, U.S. history and Trail of Tears unit classes, special education and resource rooms working on the same unit, co-taught classes, and substitutes who need a unit that is ready to hand out. The reading is written at about a grades 6-8 level.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A Trail of Tears worksheet set with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.