Social Studies Content Area Introduction

When teaching social studies it is absolutely vital to contextualize concepts to students and at all costs avoid "text book teaching". This means that students sitting and silently reading a text book and then answering summative questions, or reading aloud as a class out of a text book are not adequate or appropriate manners of teaching social studies. The most important thing is to make history truly come alive for students and to provide them with the backround knowledge and understanding necessary for them to truly grasp and be able to relate to history.

Wampanoag Harvest 1600 Unit Introdution Lesson Plan

Social Studies: Introduction to Wampanoag Harvest 1600 Unit

Grade Level and Unit: 1^st and 2^nd grade, Introduction to Wampanoag Harvest 1600

Session and Description of Lesson Tasks: The students will be hearing about this unit for the first time. We will read a story, have a discussion, complete a worksheet, and look at pictures of Wampanoag people.

Materials needed: Indian artifacts, worksheet, pictures, “Wampanoag Clambake” story book, crayons, colored pencils, markers.

Grouping Decisions:  This activity will be completed as a whole group.

Learning goals/Objective(s) What are your core ideas for this lesson? What do you intend all students to know and understand? I want students to understand the different resources that were available 400 years ago and how life was different for the Wampanoag Indians.	Language Objectives? What language will you model during the lesson? What language do you expect to hear during student discourse? Wampanoag Plymouth Indians House Food Transportation Clothing
Standards: How do the learning goals relate to the standards? Massachusetts History and Social Studies Framework: 1.8 After reading or listening to stories about famous Americans of different ethnic groups, faiths, and historical periods (e.g., Neil Armstrong, Cesar Chavez, Roberto Clemente, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Daniel Inouye, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Colin Powell, Sacagawea, Jonas Salk, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Clarence Thomas, Booker T. Washington, and the Wright Brothers) describe their qualities or distinctive traits. (H, C)
Connect and Anticipate: In what ways does this lesson build on students’ previous knowledge? What student strategies and responses do you anticipate? What misconceptions and struggles might students have? This unit will build on the student’s previous unit, Neighborhood Nature. We will be discussing how the Wampanoag Indians lived near this area 400 years ago and how the environment affected them. Students will be reflecting on their own lives and how things may have been similar or different 400 years ago. Students may struggle relating to the Wampanoag Indians but we will be reading many different books about them, looking at artifacts, and other resources will be available for student research.
Focus Questions: Consider what questions you will use to focus on students’ thinking to encourage sense-making and discourse. Launch: To introduce the activity/motivate students. Have you ever heard of the Wampanoag Indians? What do you think it was like 400 years ago? Explore: To assess students’ understanding and to advance their thinking as they work independently, in partners or small group What kind of clothing, house, food, and transportation did the Wampanoag use 400 years ago? Summary: To facilitate the analysis and synthesis of ideas shared at the end of the lesson What do the Wampanoag people look like now? How are they similar and different to 400 years ago? How are they similar and different from you?

Evidence: How will you know what students understand? What evidence will you collect? (If there is an exit task, what will be its focus to inform you instructional next steps?) I will know if students understand based on their responses on the worksheet. They will be given a blank worksheet with four boxes labeled house, food, clothing, and transportation. I will also be able to judge their understanding based on their comments and questions in whole group discussion.

Pitfalls and Solutions:

ELL: These students may have a difficult time understanding vocabulary. I will help them overcome this by spending extra time with them with the story books we read and the pictures and artifacts.

Special Ed.: These students will need extra support and may have a difficult time grasping the concept.

Wampanoag Harvest 1600 Student Work Example

Mapping Lesson Plan

Mapping Activity

Grade Level and Unit: First and Second Grade, Immigration…Coming to America

Session and Description of Lesson Tasks: Students will be given a large world map and asked to find a list of countries. The countries will be countries that students’ families in the class have immigrated from. They will work in pairs of three. I will also introduce the concept of continents. Students will attempt to identify what countries are in which continents.

Materials needed: World maps, colored pencils, student survey’s with countries immigrated from, and lists of countries to find.

Grouping Decisions:  Students will work in heterogeneous groups of 3.

Learning goals/Objective(s) What are your core ideas for this lesson? What do you intend all students to know and understand? I would like students to have a better understanding of where the countries their families have immigrated from are located. I also want them to be able to work in their groups well.	Language Objectives? What language will you model during the lesson? What language do you expect to hear during student discourse? North America South America Asia Europe Antarctica Australia Africa Continenties Various country names
Standards: How do the learning goals relate to the standards?
Connect and Anticipate: In what ways does this lesson build on students’ previous knowledge? What student strategies and responses do you anticipate? What misconceptions and struggles might students have? Students will have previous knowledge of where the countries are their own families are from. They may have difficulty finding other students countries. I am also anticipating students having difficulty finding countries in Europe because they are so small and close together. I am hoping they are able to work well in a group and help each other.
Focus Questions Consider what questions you will use to focus on students’ thinking to encourage sense-making and discourse. Launch: To introduce the activity/motivate students. Where are countries located? What are the seven continents? Where are they located? Explore: To assess students’ understanding and to advance their thinking as they work independently, in partners or small group What are the countries you have found? What strategies are you using to find countries? What continents are the countries located on? Summary: To facilitate the analysis and synthesis of ideas shared at the end of the lesson What countries were you able to find? What countries were hard or you were unable to find? Did you work well within your group? Where are the countries you found located? How would someone immigrate from that country to America today? In 1600?

Evidence: How will you know what students understand? What evidence will you collect? (If there is an exit task, what will be its focus to inform you instructional next steps?) The evidence I will collect are their maps and list of countries where they should have indicated the continent it was located on if possible. I will be able to tell if students understood the task if they were able to find some countries and color them in.

Pitfalls and Solutions:

                ELL: I do not anticipate ELL students to have difficulty with this task.

Special Ed.: These students will be paired in groups with children who are more capable of completing this task. This way they are able to accomplish the task and not feel discouraged by not being able to find the countries. I will also have them specifically look for the country their family is from so they may be able to find this easier.

Reflection: I learned a lot from implementing this lesson. I think that students really enjoyed doing this and liked finding the countries they were from as well as where other students were from. However, I realized that I should have given an even number of countries for each group to look for. The lists I gave each group of three students have seven countries so they had difficulty dividing the numbers equally. Also, students had a lot of difficulty finding countries in Europe because the map I used had abbreviations for the countries. Next time I will fill out a map first and be able to tell students what the abbreviations are they should be looking for. I also did not consider that England would be labeled United Kingdom on the map and Holland, Netherlands.

Social Studies Content Area Reflection

During this semester I have learned a lot about how to improve my lesson plans when teaching Social Studies. I learned that it is really important to take time and introduce students to subjects so that they have enough background information to fully appreciate it. Also, I think it is really important to allow students to ask questions and be knowledgeable about the subjects. Children have lots of questions and theories about what has happened in the past and by allowing them to share provides meaningful learning experiences.

The two lesson plans I wrote for Social Studies were about the Wampanoag Indians and an introduction to an immigration unit. Both of this subjects have a really rich history and provide valuable insight to 1st and 2nd graders about the world. When planning I learned how important it is to provide books on all different levels for students to explore. This way they will have the oppertunity to delve further into subjects we cover in class, as well as learn about some things we may not cover. I also think it is important to present the information to students in a way that they can find their own meaning and connect history with their own lives. For example, teaching children the Pilgrims and Indians were best friends isn't factual and doesn't prepare the students for learning in the future.

When I implemented both these lessons I learned to provide lots of pictures and stories because that's what interests the kids the most. For my Wamapnoag lesson I passed around some fur pelts for the students to touch when I explained that is what Indians used as clothing. Teaching social studies is so much more than reading from a textbook. Providing hands on activities and really experiencing the history is the best way to teach it to students.