**Goal/Overview/Purpose/Summary**
This is a unit for study of community for a third grade class. The format could be a three week whole class inclusion followed by a three week pull-out for the AT population. Teachers in a given district would need to change the study to their own particular town. Session 1,3,4,5,6 are very generic and can easily be changed to the name of their own district. Session 2, is the only one where the teacher would have to write a short summary about the history of their own town for the students to use. |
**Activities**
Session One - Introduction
Whole Class Enrichment: Learning about community life in the Past
| Predict-O-Gram Strategy for Vocabulary and Comprehension development |
Use the Predict-O-Gram strategy before reading the story. Students will predict how certain words will be used in the text prior to their reading and will be alerted to vocabulary they will encounter.
The Predict-O-Gram serves as a post reading strategy because students return to their predictions after they have read or listened and confirm or correct their predictions. In a narrative story, the chart categories are most often: Setting, Character, Goal or Problem, Action, Resolution. |
| Read Aloud (If You Lived a Hundred Years Ago, by Ann Mc Govern) |
Teacher will read aloud to build background knowledge in the area of historical change. While the story is being read, the students will listen for a vocabulary word and decide what the word means and if their original prediction was correct.
After the story is read, the predictions will be looked at again and discussed. This time the students will be using higher order thinking skills by describing why the words on the chart should stay in their original placement or why the placement of the words on the chart should change. |
| Discussion about their town |
Leading from the story, students will discuss of their own community and the areas to be researched in the upcoming weeks. |
| Video of Historic Belleville and Pictures |
A short portion of a video with scenes from Belleville’s past and pictures will be viewed.
The student’s ideas will be listed on a KWL chart. The headings will be What we Know About Our Town, What We Want to Know, and What We Found Out. ( This will lead into the differentiated groups for Session 2). |
Materials Needed
Poster Boards (2)
Post-It Notes
Text
Video/ and Pictures |
Assessment. See Session One standards.
* Teacher observation of student participation during the formulation of the KWL Chart (especially in the “What we Want to Know” section). |
Session Two - Whole Class Enrichment
Learning About Belleville: To introduce the historical and current facts, people and places
| Word Splash Activity (different topics) |
Teacher creates a Word Splash Activity from reading selections on selected topics of interest from discussions in Session One, including places of interest, people of interest, government, schools and public safety.
Seven to ten meaningful words or phrases from the reading selection will be selected. |
| Group Activities |
Small groups of students will decide what the story will be about from the word cards (prediction). They will then read the reading selection (See Old Belleville) and highlight the word or phrases that are on the index cards.
After reading, students will discuss the important facts they learned.
After the discussion, each group will choose one of the prepared differentiated activities: a) create a poem, b) write a song, c) design a T-shirt, or d) write a newspaper article. |
| Rubrics (for differentiated activities) |
Each activity will have an accompanying rubric. Final products will be shared at the end of this session. Rubrics are: T-shirt, song or rap, poem, and newspaper article. |
Materials Needed
Index Cards
Reading Selections
Construction Paper
Poster Board
Newsprint |
Assessment. See Session Two standards.
Rubrics are: T-shirt, song or rap, poem, and newspaper article. |
Session Three - Pull Out Session
Learning to Conduct an Interview and the Use of a Digital Camera
| Interview and record |
In the next few weeks, guest speakers would come to speak about a specific area of the community.
The students will learn how to develop and ask pertinent questions. During this session, students will develop questions to ask the guest speakers. They will also practice asking the questions to each other.
Students will also learn how to record the information. |
| Digital Camera |
The students will learn about the digital camera and practice using the digital camera correctly by taking pictures of each other. |
Materials Needed
Interview Information
Composition paper
Digital Camera |
Assessment. See Session Three standards.
A1. Writing Rubric. See analytic rubrics - modify for elementary holistic rubric.
A2. Quality of the Questions Formulated to ask the Guest Speaker. See Session Three standards.
B. Check-off list on camera use. |
Session Four - Whole Class
Listening to a Guest Speaker/Interviewing/Pictures
Guest Speaker
Questions and Answers
Picture Taking |
Guest speakers will give a presentation on the history of Belleville.
Students will listen to the presentation and then participate in a question and answer period using their interview questions.
Selected students will take pictures of the guest speaker with the digital camera. |
Materials Needed
Interview Information
Composition paper
Digital Camera |
Assessment. See Session Four standards.
A. Listening Skills
B. Speaking Skills |
Sessions Five & Six - Pull-Out
Relating Belleville’s Past to the Present
To relate Belleville’s past history, places, and people to the present and to begin and complete publication of a Belleville Booklet:
Scavenger Hunt
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Teacher creates articles on topics covering public safety, government, people, and places as they were in the past and in the present. Students have a Scavenger Hunt and find ten important facts from the articles. After they pick their ten important facts they write an article to be published for the Belleville Booklet. Upon completion of the article the students will use Microsoft Word to publish their articles. |
| Group Activities |
One group will write an article for the publication by using their interview notes from last week. The other groups will use the information from the Scavenger Hunt readings. |
Materials Needed
Reading Materials
Composition Paper
Computers |
Assessment. See Session Five and Six standards.
Culminating Activity: Contribution to the Booklet. Rubric should include at least writing, presentation, and social studies components. |
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