EDUC 321 Social Studies in the Classroom (Spring '08)

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EDUC 321 Social Studies in the Classroom (Spring '08)

UNM Digital Portfolio

Sample of work: We were required to make a two week lesson plan that was based around social studies but incorporated every subject. Here is mine. It is based on the New Mexico 4^th grade Standards and Benchmarks.

Week 1

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Social Studies	Grand Conversation on contemporary NM leaders and their impact on the state. “Contemporary” means the last 10 years.	Research and assign each child to their leader of choice. Begin research using the library, internet, and books	Continue research and begin story board for webbie books.	Continue research and webbie books.	Transfer webbie book to the internet or continue working on it, depending on how far along student is.
Language Arts	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss why the author would choose this particular story and way of writing. (kids going back in time) Discuss any unknown vocab.	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss the ways the kids relate to the kids in the story. Discuss any unknown vocab.	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss character of Billy. Discuss any unknown vocab.	Read Billy the Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Think about Billy’s possible motivations for his action using supporting evidence. Discuss any unknown vocab.	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Visualize and recall events in the story to date. Grand Conversation and then journal. Discuss any unknown vocab.
Science	Discuss different plants and rock types found in our area of New Mexico.	Large group work on plants found in our area. Learn about how they take in water. (Photosynthesis)	Continue work on Photosynthesis. Intro cells and atoms that make up plants.	Go outside and pick different plants found around our school.	Use microscopes to look at the plants. Discuss their make up of cells. Discuss how they are able to live in our environment.
Math	Use maps to learn distances between places.	Continue to work on distance. Show relationship to distance on map as compared to real life. This will help contribute to work on diorama.	Visualize and make models of basic 2d and 3d geometric shapes.	Continue working on geometric shapes.	Use geometric shapes to represent geological regions in New Mexico Regions will be separated by counties. Each student gets one county depending where their leader was born or served (Ex: Pyramids=Mountains

Week 2

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Social Studies	Present webbie book to the class using the online version.	Continue Presentations	Take leader and draw his name and significant achievements on a piece of cloth for a quilt	Continue working on leader quilt	Sew quilt together and hang on class wall. Review different leaders through grand conversation.
Language Arts	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss any unknown vocab.	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss any unknown vocab. Discuss any changes in your opinion of Billy the Kid.	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss any unknown vocab. Make “Wanted” poster for Billy	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Discuss any unknown vocab.	Read Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure. Identify the beginning, middle, and end. Make a story cube. Play Billy the Kid Jeopardy.
Science	Review photosynthesis, cells, and atoms.	Use plant that was picked on Thursday to make power point presentation of their plant.	Continue work on power point.	Present power point.	Continue power point presentations
Math	Review of Shapes and distance	Begin working on diorama of region.	Continue working on diorama.	Use Venn Diagram to compare different things that their leaders believed with a partner’s.	Intro to different types of graphs. Work with bar graph. Make bar graph representing years of service given by their leader of choice.

Overview of all Subjects

Social Studies: I want this unit to focus on the contemporary leaders in New Mexico. There will be plenty of time for research, discussion, and application. The main project will be a “webbie book” which is basically a little book made using the computer. Assessment will be based around the child’s understanding of their given leader and the effort given to finding and presenting facts. After the webbie books, they will make a quilt for the class using markers and cloth. We will then sew it together as a class.

Language Arts: Since most of our units are based around New Mexico in 4^th grade, I thought it would be fun to do a short Billy The Kid unit based around a book about two kids that get sent back to the time of Billy the Kid. We will continually discuss vocab throughout the book. We will discuss character, genre, and parts of the story.

Science: In science, we are wanting to stay connected to our region. We will discuss plants that live in our area. We will discuss photosynthesis and the plant make up. We will then pick leaves off of nearby plants and observe them under a microscope. Assessment will be based on the material that they came up with to show the class using a power point presentation.

Math: We will be working with maps, geometric figures, and graphs. We will begin by working on distance, mainly to show how the scales on maps is different from real life. We will then add in different geometric shapes (such as lines, pyramids, and cylinders). We will visualize and draw how these shapes go into making different geographical objects such as mountains, rivers, and roads. They will use all of the above to make a diorama of the region that their particular leader that they researched in the Social Studies assignment was from, or where he served, if he was not from New Mexico. At the end of the week, if they have finished their diorama, they will get with a partner and use a Venn Diagram to represent the common qualities and beliefs of their chosen leader. The entire class will use a bar graph to represent the number of years their chosen leader spent in office.

Literature Used:

* Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: A Luke and Jenny Adventure by Gayle Martin

* Science Textbook

* The Magic School Bus Gets Planted: A Book About Photosynthesis by Lenore Notkin

* Photosynthesis: Changing Sunlight Into Food (Nature's Changes) by Bobbie Kalman

* Math Textbook

* From Seed to Plant (Rookie Read-About Science) by Allan Fowler

Reflection

Wow. Charlotte Bradshaw = my ideal teacher. She is straight to the point and truly cares about her students in every way possible. I had the privilege of working in her classroom as well as take this class. Social Studies tends to be looked at as a lesser subject since there is such a big push towards kids mastering reading and math. I believe this is doing a huge disservice to students. History is alive. What happened in the past is what has made our country and our students what it is and what they are today. Kids need to learn about their place in this country. They need to be able to look objectively at the past in order to make smart choices in their future. I may only think this way because Social Studies is my endorsement, but I cannot stress enough what knowing what “doing your civic duty” means at all levels to every age group. This class was absolutely amazing. I cannot wait to put these different ideas into practice in my own classroom!

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