Early Explorers
5.2.1, 5.2.2
D. Stover, Bullard TALENT Elementary School
Early Explorers
5.2.1, 5.2.2
D. Stover, Bullard TALENT Elementary School
Designer: Denise Stover
Publication Date: Nov. 1, 2005
Standard: Social Studies 5.1: Students will describe the major pre-Columbian settlements, including the cliff dwellers and Pueblo People of the desert southwest, the American Indians of Pacific Northwest, nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and woodlands peoples east of the Mississippi River.
-Describe how geography and climate influenced the way various nations lived and adjusted to the natural environment, including locations of villages, the distinct structures that they built, and how they obtained food, clothing, tools, and utensils.
1. Key Concepts/vocabulary:
environment, human-environment interaction, nomadic, permanent settlement, geography, climate
Learning Outcome/ “Big Idea”/ Essential Learning (Objective)
Students will create a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the housing, clothing, and diet of the Native Americans from the 4 major regions in the pre-Columbian United States based on the geography and climate of each area.
EL/Inclusion Strategies:
English Language Learners will be partnered with same language/higher proficiency students. Students with special needs or considerations will be paired with a buddy with whom they can work effectively.
Materials:
Opportunities to Learn/Perform (Procedure):
Preview: Using a blank drawing paper, students will fold it into quadrants. In one quadrant they will draw a picture of themselves in Fresno in summer. In the next, Fresno in winter. Then how they think people on the equator dress, and the same with the north pole. We will discuss the why’s (relating to climate).
Multiple Intelligence Strategy: Skill Builder
Day one: preview, then…
In partners, students will read packets of information, look at photographic images, and individually complete worksheet #1. Students will check in with me to see if worksheet #1 is completed correctly. If corrections are needed, they will make them. If everything is OK, they will read additional material on their group.
During this time, I will call groups back to look at sections of The Native Americans. Since I am not going to cut up this book, and I can not make color copies nor good black and white copies, they will only have a limited time to look at the pictures (primary sources).
Day two and three: Students from each region will gather in groups. In their groups, they decide how to divide the work. The final product: each child draws a picture of one or more aspects of their information. Begin group presentations. Each group will go to the front of the room and present their information. I will have an overhead of the graphic organizer, and each child in the room will have a G.O. as well. We will review information (one region at a time). They give me some information, I fill in the missing information. Everyone copies from the overhead.
Processing Assignment:
Processing 3 from Interactive Student Notebook. To be completed as classwork after completing graphic organizer (day four).
Technology Component: Use of overhead projector.
Primary sources: The Native Americans
TCI Resources: History Alive! Student books p. 24-35
Other Resources: Packets with excerpts from …If You Lived With the Sioux Indians …the Hopi…the Cherokee…the Indians of the Northwest Coast
Assessment (Description of 2 or more assessment tasks with specific directions, question, and prompts):
Reflection:
What did student samples reveal? Students are very good at copying information from the overhead. They are not good at following directions on the processing assignment. Even though I explained three times what to do, and asked them to repeat the instructions to me, several of the students described the region for which they did the research, not what the assignment asked them to do. I also learned this class can not follow a model of a formal letter (they used their Writer’s Express book to look at a model). They literally need to be taken by the hand and I have to show them step by step what to do. They lack the processing skill, which is why TCI is great for them.
What do I need to model, change or adjust regarding criteria, assessment and opportunities to learn? I would need to model the formal letter format. My rubrics will need to be more specific. The criteria for the processing section needs to include including all relative information. My rewritten lesson plan includes the changes I would need to make for next time. They include: work in pairs instead of groups, each person draws one aspect of the information as opposed to each child drawing all of the information, length needed for this lesson (it’s best done over 3 days), and adjusted rubrics.
Worksheet #1 Grading Rubric
Content:
Conventions:
Total _______/8
Graphic Organizer #1 Grading Rubric
Content: Neatness/legibility:
4= complete 4= very neat/easy to read
3= mostly complete 3= neat/some parts difficult to read
2= less than half complete 2= messy/ most difficult to read
1= didn’t do 1= too messy/can’t read
Total:_________/8
Illustration Rubric:
4= Great job. Lots of details illustrating your information. 4= Nice and big so everyone can see it.
3= Good job. Many details. 3= Could have been larger.
2= OK. Some details. 2= Can’t see very well.
1= not done or poor quality 1= Can’t see at all.
Total _______/8
Processing Rubric
Content:
Conventions:
____________/16
Total Score _______________/40