Social Studies Unit Plan 1st Grade

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Social Studies Unit Plan1st Grade

• American History Cooperation, Toleration, and
  Conflict in Early America

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American History Cooperation, Toleration, and
Conflict in Early America

• Native America
• European Exploration
• European/Native Encounters
• Thanksgiving Day and Columbus Day
• Mapping European Exploration and Native America

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Key Perspectives

• Activist Children should come to see themselves
  as truth tellers and change makers.
• Multicultural, anti-racist, pro-justice The
  children should discover the truth behind the
  roots of the country and the Native Americans who
  were the original inhabitants of this country.
• Grounded in the lives of our students The
  Children should look at how the European
  Explorers their culture to the country and how
  the culture is related to their lives today.

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Background Information

• School 1
• Very supportive of Thanksgiving and discussed
  what it meant.
• 1st graders said it was to give thanks and to be
  thankful for what we have.
• Need to learn it was not always peaceful here.
• Need to learn what ignorance can do without going
  into great detail on the horrific events of many
  explorations.

• School 2
• Thanksgiving as birth of America
• 1st graders said it was about turkey and Pilgrims
• Need to learn truth behind Columbus and other
  explorations
• Explorations were not always peaceful-many fights
  and misunderstandings between natives and the
  Europeans.

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Background Information from Academic Readings

• Columbus Day celebrates a huge misconception in
  the United States.
• In reality, the explorers treated the native
  people as if they were not human.
• They were extremely cruel to the people who were
  living in the country when they arrived.
• Thanksgiving is meant to celebrate the exchange
  of cultural ideas.

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Rationale

• This unit is important to teach students about
  the history in our country.
• Students need not learn all the gory details of
  the events of early settled America, but they
  need to be told both sides of history.
• This unit is important for the children to be
  able to connect their lives to the lives of
  people who have culturally changed our country.

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Instructional Strategies

• Using role play, debate and simulation
• Using oral history
• Integrating drama

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Reasons for Instructional Strategies

• Using role play, debate and simulation
• The students will understand perspective by role
  playing.
• Using oral history
• They will read the letters aloud to the class.
• Integrating drama
• The students will role play to gain perspective
  about life in North America in the sixteenth
  century.

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Instructional Strategies in Schools 1 2

• Our teachers use oral history in the classroom.
• They use artifacts from the time period being
  studied.
• They show videos about historical events.
• They play tribal music.

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Background Information from academic readings

• The European explorers did not discover North
  America.
• Encounters between Natives and Europeans were not
  peaceful.
• Europeans attempted to convert Natives to
  Christianity.
• Many Natives were taken as slaves by the
  Europeans.
• The Pilgrims came to America and encountered
  Native Americans. They only survived because of
  the Native Americans help.
• There are many different Native American tribes
  throughout the United States, with unique
  characteristics and different cultures.

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Literacy Links

• We will use poetry about Native Americans.
• We will read biographies about the explorers.
• We will have the children give oral presentations
  about different explorers and different Native
  American tribes.
• The students will role play and write letters to
  family and friends about life in North America.

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Literacy Link Explanation

• We would like to expose the children to the
  information in as many ways as possible.
• Children can be visual learners, auditory
  learners, and kinesthetic learners. Therefore,
  we will teach the students using various methods
  in order to reach the majority of the students.

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Critical Perspective on Teaching Methods for
Literacy

• It is known that all children have different
  learning styles.
• It is the teachers job to try to expose the
  children to various teaching methods in order to
  reach the most students.

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Unit Essential Questions

• Native America What are the different tribal
  nations, traditions, and ways of life?
• European Exploration What are the reasons for
  exploration, who were some well-known explorers,
  and what were some of the experiences that the
  explorers had?
• European/Native Encounters What were the
  encounters like (both positive and negative)?
• Thanksgiving and Columbus Day Why are these
  days celebrated and what do they mean?
• Mapping European Exploration and Native America
  Where did the Europeans first settle and what
  were some exploration routes?

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Unit Standards Alignment

• 14.F.1 Describe political ideas and traditions
  important to the development of the United States
  including democracy, individual rights and the
  concept of freedom.
• 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past,
  present and future time place themselves in
  time.
• 16.A.1b Ask historical questions and seek out
  answers from historical sources (e.g., myths,
  biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork,
  other visual or electronic sources).
• 16.A.1c Describe how people in different times
  and places viewed the world in different ways.
• 16.C.1b (W) Explain how trade among people
  brought an exchange of ideas, technology and
  language.
• 16.D.1 (W) Identify how customs and traditions
  from around the world influence the local
  community.
• 17.A.1a Identify physical characteristics of
  places, both local and global (e.g., locations,
  roads, regions, bodies of water).
• 17.A.1b Identify the characteristics and
  purposes of geographic representations including
  maps, globes, graphs, photographs, software,
  digital images and be able to locate specific
  places using each.
• 18.C.1 Describe how individuals interacted
  within groups to make choices regarding food,
  clothing and shelter.

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Native America

• Lesson Ideas 1. Picnic with foods that the
  Native Americans would have eaten. 2. The
  students will create a totem pole
• Instructional strategies
• Construct learning centers
• field experiences.

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European Exploration

• Lesson idea The students will role play as a
  European explorer and will write letters to
  relatives that are in Europe about North America.
• Instructional Strategies
• Simulation/Role play
• Using documents and interviews

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European/Native encounters

• Lesson Ideas 1. Discuss communication problems
  between Natives and Europeans. 2. Make a
  compare/contrast chart about the differences and
  similarities between the Native Americans and the
  Europeans
• Instruction strategies
• Oral History
• Integrating writing activities

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Thanksgiving and Columbus Day

• Lesson Ideas 1.Create a Thanksgiving feast
  2.Role play the Pilgrims and the Native Americans
  3.Role play Columbus and the Native Americans
• Instructional Strategies
• Simulation/role play

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Mapping European Exploration and Native America

• Lesson ideas 1.Have the children create a map of
  the location of all of the Native American
  nations. 2.Map the European exploration routes.
• Instructional strategies
• Use primary source materials

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Childrens Literature

• Mesquakie the Sauk and Fox Indians of Illinois
  / Jacquie Salisbury
• The Cheyenne / by Andrew Santella
• The Arapaho / Raymond Bial
• The Algonquin / Richard M. Gaines
• 1492 the year of the New World / Piero Ventura
• The Age of exploration Marco Polo, Christopher
  Columbus, Herman Cortes
• The first Thanksgiving / Susan Whitehurst

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Teacher Literature

• http//www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/indexa.
  shtml

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Unit Assessment Plan

• For formal assessment, we will have a written
  oral test, mostly vocabulary and simple
  sequencing and map identification.
• For informal assessment, we will keep a journal
  of observations on each student throughout the
  unit and keep track of progress and participation
  in the activities.

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European Explorers Coronado

• Topic Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
• Grade 1st
• Purpose To investigate and explore the reasons
  for European exploration of North America.

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Essential Driving Questions

• Who is Coronado?
• Where is he from?
• What did he discover or explore?
• When did he explore North America?
• Who did he encounter upon his arrival?
• Which part of America did he explore?
• What kind of things did he do here?

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Enduring Understandings

• The students will demonstrate knowledge of
  Coronados life and explorations through writing,
  classroom discussion, and dramatic performance.

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Key Concepts

• Reasons for exploration
• Communication with others
• Geography of North America

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Standards Alignment

• 14.F.1 Describe political ideas and traditions
  important to the development of the United States
  including democracy, individual rights and the
  concept of freedom.
• 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past,
  present and future time place themselves in
  time.
• 16.A.1b Ask historical questions and seek out
  answers from historical sources (e.g., myths,
  biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork,
  other visual or electronic sources).
• 16.A.1c Describe how people in different times
  and places viewed the world in different ways.
• 16.C.1b (W) Explain how trade among people
  brought an exchange of ideas, technology and
  language.
• 16.D.1 (W) Identify how customs and traditions
  from around the world influence the local
  community.
• 17.A.1a Identify physical characteristics of
  places, both local and global (e.g., locations,
  roads, regions, bodies of water).
• 17.A.1b Identify the characteristics and
  purposes of geographic representations including
  maps, globes, graphs, photographs, software,
  digital images and be able to locate specific
  places using each.
• 18.C.1 Describe how individuals interacted
  within groups to make choices regarding food,
  clothing and shelter.

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Adaptations for Group/Individual Differences

• We will have a special education teacher who will
  assist in the classroom if we have any specific
  needs that need to be met.

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Materials Teacher Literature

• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado Explorer and
  Conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
  (1510-1554) was a Spanish ruler, explorer and
  conquistador. He was the first European to
  explore North America's Southwest.
• Coronado was a governor of New Galicia, a western
  province of Mexico. He searched fruitlessly for
  treasure that was rumored to exist in northern
  Mexico the fabled seven Golden Cities of Cibola.
  With a group of hundreds of Spaniards and
  enslaved natives, he traveled through what is now
  northern Mexico and the southwestern USA
  (including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma,
  and Kansas). His expedition found only Zuñi,
  Hopi, and Pueblos, native Americans who repelled
  Coronado when he demanded that they convert to
  Christianity. Coronado killed many native
  Americans during this expedition. Since he did
  not find gold, silver, or other treasures, his
  expedition was branded a failure by Spanish
  leaders.

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Materials Childrens Literature

• Coronado Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explores
  the Southwest by Robin S. Doak
• The travels of Francisco de Coronado / by Deborah
  Crisfield illustrated by Patrick O'Brien
• Francisco de Coronado / by R. Conrad Stein
• Coronado dreamer in golden armor / by William
  Jay Jacobs
• Francisco Vásquez de Coronado / Kristin Petrie
• Francisco Vásquez de Coronado famous journeys
  to the American Southwest and colonial New Mexico
  / Lesli J. Favor
• Francisco Coronado / Malcolm C. Jensen Illus.
  with prints, maps, and photos

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All Other Materials
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Procedure

• First, the teacher will introduce Coronado by
  reading aloud Francisco Coronado / Malcolm C.
  Jensen Illus. with prints, maps, and photos .
• Then, the teacher will pass out the rest of the
  childrens books to the students and allow them
  time to browse through the pictures and text.
• The teacher will then read the teachers passage
  aloud, as it is displayed on a transparency.
• The students will view the map of Coronados
  exploration and then will be asked to pretend
  that they are traveling with Coronado to America,
  which is a brand-new world to them.
• Ask the students to brainstorm ideas about new
  things that they will encounter in America by
  constructing a K-W-L chart.
• Then, ask the students to write a letter home to
  Spain telling family and friends back home what
  they are encountering in the New World. They
  will be role-playing a Spaniard traveling with
  Coronado.

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Assessment

• Formal Assessment
• The students will have a test on Coronado and his
  exploration of North America.
• Informal Assessment
• The student will be observed communicating and
  interacting with other students. The student
  will be actively participating in class
  discussions and will complete an accurate letter
  about life in North America.

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Reflections

• Process We learned that it is important to have
  a sequence of lessons and to build on each lesson
  as we go along so that the children can relate
  each lesson to the next.
• Content We had previous knowledge on the
  subject, yet we found many new resources that
  provide a strategy for relating a complex subject
  to young children.
• This experience will improve our future work with
  children, expanding our teaching methods to
  include a variety of strategies and assessments.