K-5 Social Studies Unit Outline

UNIT PLAN

Unit Topic: Fighting Fairness and Freedom

Grade Level: 2nd

Essential/Driving Question(s):

These should…

·  Be powerful, exciting questions that will cause students to think critically and inquire.

·  Get beyond the “particulars” of a unit to “big ideas” and lead to “enduring understandings.”

·  Have no one “right” answer, but should be a “doorway” to “uncovering” controversies, puzzles, and differing perspectives.

·  Raise other important questions.

·  Reflect Key Perspectives and Principles of Social Justice.

o  What is freedom?

§  What rights do citizens have that make them free?

o  What does it mean to be American?

o  What purpose does government serve?

Why do we celebrate national government holidays?

§  Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, etc.

What social changes or conflicts bring about revolution?

Enduring Understanding:

These should…

·  Reflect the specific content of the unit.

·  Should be framed as generalizations, specific enough to guide teaching and assessing, but overarching enough to “transfer” beyond this unit.

·  Be knowledge that will endure longer than the particular details of the unit.

·  Clearly connect to students’ lives.

·  Reflect Key Perspectives and Principles of Social Justice.

Students should be able to understand the purpose of taxation.

Students should be able to understand how geography impacts a revolution.

Students should be able to understand the significance of national government holidays and how the country was affected.

Students should be able to understand the role of government.

Students should be able to understand how these components of freedom affect students’ lives today.

§  right to vote, right to free speech, etc…how do these directly affect students?

List of Unit Lessons: (There should be at least seven lessons listed.)

1.  Introduction Lesson: What is Freedom? — Tuning In

2.  What is Government? — Preparing to Find Out

3.  Taxes — Finding Out

4.  Revolutions-What and Why — Sorting Out

5.  Declaration of Independence — Going Further

6.  National Government Holidays — Making Connections

7.  The Geography of Revolution — Taking Action

·  Declaration of Independence, Civil War, etc.

Illinois Learning Standards addressed/assessed: (Please list benchmark and accompanying verbiage—e.g. “14.A.1 Describe the fundamental principles of government including representative government, government of law, individual rights and the common good.”)

·  14A, 14B, 14F

·  16A, 16B, 16C, 16D

·  17C, 17D

·  18B, 18C

Description of Culminating Unit Summative Assessment:

The students will complete a unit project on freedom and the ideas that shape it. Each group of students will be assigned specific aspects of freedom and relate their expertise to the rest of the class for the whole class project.


B. Explanation of how teachers feel about teaching freedom and concept map connecting the unit to students’ lives

After speaking with a second grade teacher, it is clear that teaching about the government and freedom is a challenging topic. This teacher teaches in the Urbana School District and claims that there is so much to cover. She says that there a lot of directions a teacher could take when teaching students about the value of government; therefore, it is quite a challenge to decide what subtopics within freedom and the development of our nation are the most beneficial to address. She says that she tries to base what she teaches off of Illinois state tests as well as the district curriculum.

For second grade, the curriculum typically includes information on the national government (which is very basic introduction), presidents, and the formation of our nation. She said that the concept of freedom is also briefly covered and children use maps or atlases to conceptualize how the United States looked in the 1700s. However, all the information on this topic is very general. She says because there is so much to teach about the government, she does not have very much time to cover a particular area in much depth.

This teacher feels very comfortable teaching about liberty and our nation’s formation because it is something she learned a great deal of as a child. Additionally, it is something that all students have an interest in and it relates to all students’ lives, because everyone lives in the United States. Finally, this teacher finds a lot of value in teaching about freedom because it engrains a sense of pride in students. She believes that it helps children have a basis for seeing how our country became what it is today and helps them develop a sense of nationalism.


C. Background information on unit topic and perspectives from academic readings:

The formative years of our country were an exiting time as well as one of hardships for the American people. During this time, the founding fathers of this country were fighting for our countries independence from Britain. According to early 20th century writer, Henry Elson, the separation between Britain and the colonies was destined to happen (Elson, 2004) He felt that the many people who talked about how the Stamp Act and taxes on tea, sugar and the many more items that the British placed on the colonists were the sole reasons that the revolution happened were wrong (Elson, 1904). He felt that a big part of why the separation was inevitably going to happen was because the colonies reached the point where they needed to govern themselves instead of being governed by the British who were an ocean away (Elson, 1904). The American people revolted against the British which erupted into a great war for freedom from the British people also known as the American Revolution. One of the main results of the revolution was the formation of the fist successful federal government to ever exist (Elson, 1904). Under British rule the government was a Monarchy; which is rule by one. This type of rule did not go along with the colonists’ vision of how they wished to govern, which was for the people to have a say in the government.

After the revolution against the British, a group of wealthy men, the Continental Congress, set up our current form of government. Before the revolution each of the thirteen colonies had their own form of government. On July 4, 1776, which is now a holiday that we celebrate each year to celebrate the birth of our country, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. This document is one of the most precious in American History as well as now, because it was what was used to declare the colonies independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson, who was known for his eloquent writing style, was elected to draft the document (Gilje, 2005). The document consists of three major parts: a statement of the rights of the people and a justification for the revolution, a list of reasons for why they revolted and finally a formal announcement of independence from Britain (Gilje, 2005).

Over the years, the Declaration of Independence has greatly impacted the history of this country. One line in particular from the document has become one that America prides itself on living by is “all men are created equal.” Even though the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States promise that America is a place where everyone can come to prosper and be accepted no matter their race, gender or religious beliefs, throughout history, many groups have not experienced these promises that our country has promised through these documents. In the book A Different Mirror-A History of Multicultural America, the author Ronald Takaki (1993) questions the promise of freedom that is promised in America. Takaki paints a disturbingly honest picture of the experiences of many immigrant groups who came to America expecting to have a better life than before. For example, in the first chapter in his book discusses how people have such a narrow idea of what it means to be an American (Takaki, 1993). During the time of the American Revolution, the people who were the first Americans were of European decent. However, in the year 2006, this idea of what it means to be an American is changing. No longer are Americans only people of European decent. They are from Africa, Japan, China, Russia, Poland, Mexico and many other places throughout the world. As Takaki (1993) discusses the many hardships that Japanese, Mexian, Irish, and many more people had when they came to America, it makes you question how our country defined freedom during colonial times and if it is different from how we define freedom today. Is it our definition of freedom that has changed, or is it who is included in this definition that is the real issue we face today?

Bibliography

Elson, H. (1904). History of the United States. New York: The MacMillan

Company.

Gilje, P. (2005). Declaration of Independence. Retrieved November 14, 2005,

from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopdia

Takaki, R. (1993). A Different Mirror- A Multicultural America. New York:

Back Bay Books.


D. Background Information on Instructional Strategies

http://glossary.plasmalink.com/glossary.html- A useful link for many different strategies

1.  KWL-

This is a strategy I have seen used in my cooperating classroom as well as in many of my university classes. It asks students what they already know (K), what they want to know (W), and what they learned at the end (L). Most often I have seen this as a chart divided into three separate columns. This could be done as a whole class, in small groups, or individually at any grade level.

2.  Peer Editing

This is a strategy I have used in my university classes. I have not seen this done in my cooperating classroom because the students are still learning the basic principles of reading and writing. I think it would be appropriate for students in grades 2 and up. Students work individually and then meet with a partner. The partners switch their work and edit each other’s. Teachers can modify this by making it very open ended or very structured (have them look for specific things).

3.  Self-Regulation

This is a strategy I heard about in my special education class. Students monitor and are responsible for their own work. This particular strategy gives students a lot of independence. I think it could be done with any age student, but the complexity would increase as the students got older. Young students for example, might have a simple checklist with pictures or words, whereas older students might create a list of goals and monitor their progress.

4.  Jigsaw

This is a strategy I have used in several of my university classes. Individual students read portions of a text and then meet together to teach the other members of a group about what they read. This helps make the amount of information students need to read smaller, but gives them the opportunity to teach others about specific portions of a text that they have read carefully. I think this is useful in grades 2 and up.

5.  Think Aloud

This is a strategy I have seen modeled in my literacy class and then used in my cooperating classroom. As a text is read the teacher talks to the students about what the pictures, words, title, etc. makes them think. Hopefully this will encourage students to think about what they are reading with more details. I had my students write on post-it notes what they were thinking about a particular part of a book after I had modeled the use of this strategy.

6.  Making Connections

I first learned about the teaching strategy of Making Connections in my Language Arts course this semester, C&I 475. Making Connections is a strategy that allows students to understand what they are learning about better because they relate it to something they have already experienced. Students can make three kinds of connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. In the subject of Social Studies, these connections don’t have to be made to a Social Studies text, but to whatever topic the students are learning about.

7.  Visualizing

I also learned about Visualizing in my Language Arts course, in reference to helping students better understand what they are reading. Using Visualization, students create pictures in their mind that remind them of what they are learning. This gives students a concrete image of a concept, instead of relying on an abstract idea to remember the information.

8.  Asking Questions

Asking Questions is another instructional strategy that is often used in Language Arts. When students stop every paragraph or so to ask questions as they read, they are giving themselves the chance to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts they are reading about. Students can also use this strategy when they are watching a video, listening to a book read aloud, or listening to a presentation. The instructor should help students learn how to stop every now and then to ask questions about what the class is learning.

9.  Determining Importance

I learned about Determining Importance when we were learning about nonfiction texts in my Language Arts class. Students need to know how to identify the features in texts like Social Studies books that help them better understand the concepts they are reading about. Identifying key ideas, concepts, and themes will help students categorize what they are learning so that they can organize the information into a logical set of details, to be remembered better.