Human Characteristics of Communities

Grade 3

Social Studies

Unit: 04 Lesson: 03

Lesson Synopsis:

Students study and compare landforms and the need for modifications of landforms. They learn that people adapt to the environment where they live and make modifications to the physical environment.

TEKS:

3.4 / Geography. The student understands how humans adapt to variations in the physical environment. The student is expected to:
3.4B / Identify and compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment in which they live such as deserts, mountains, wetlands, and plains.
3.4D / Describe the effects of human processes such as building new homes, conservation, and pollution in shaping the landscape.
3.4E / Identify and compare the human characteristics of various regions.

Social Studies Skills TEKS:

3.17 / Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of valid sources including electronic technology. The student is expected to:
3.17E / Interpret and create visuals including graphs, charts, tables, timelines, illustrations, and maps.
3.18 / Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to:
3.18A / Express ideas orally based on knowledge and experiences.
Getting Ready for Instruction
Performance Indicator(s):

· Draw a picture of the physical environment of a real or imagined region. Add human characteristics to the picture, and then write and illustrate a story about an event in the life of a third grader living in the region. In the story, use academic language to tell about how the environment affects people’s lives, including how people adapt to and modify the environment. Tell the story to a classmate. (3.4B; 3.17E; 3.18A) 1E; 3E

Key Understandings and Guiding Questions:

· Las características físicas del terreno afectan cómo viven y trabajan los seres humanos a medida que se adaptan al medio ambiente y lo modifican para satisfacer sus necesidades básicas.

¾ ¿Cómo la gente de distintas comunidades se adapta a su medio ambiente y lo modifica?

¾ ¿Cuáles son los efectos de los procesos humanos al modificar el paisaje?

¾ ¿En qué se parecen y se diferencian las características humanas de distintas regiones?

Vocabulary of Instruction:
· modificación
· características físicas
· desierto
· llanuras
· contaminación / · adaptación
· características humanas
· pantanos
· procesos humanos
· región / · accidente geográfico
· ambiente físico
· montañas
· conservación
Materials:
· Refer to the Notes for Teacher section for materials.
Attachments:

· Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Landforms and Modifications

· Handout: Landforms Chart

· Handout: The Effects of Human Modifications on our Land

· Teacher Resource: The Effects of Human Modifications on our Land KEY

Resources and References:

· None identified

Advance Preparation:

1. Become familiar with content and procedures for the lesson.

2. Become familiar with human modifications within the local community.

3. Refer to the Instructional Focus Document for specific content to include in the lesson.

4. Select appropriate sections of the textbook and other classroom materials that support the learning for this lesson.

5. Preview available resources and websites according to district guidelines.

6. Create posters of landforms for Day 1.

7. Prepare materials and handouts as needed.

Background Information:

Teachers research human modifications within the local community. Landforms are features of the Earth’s surface. They include plains, mountains, deserts, hills, and canyons that exist in the physical environment.

Getting Ready for Instruction Supplemental Planning Document

Instructors are encouraged to supplement and substitute resources, materials, and activities to differentiate instruction to address the needs of learners. The Exemplar Lessons are one approach to teaching and reaching the Performance Indicators and Specificity in the Instructional Focus Document for this unit. Instructors are encouraged to create original lessons using the Content Creator in the Tools Tab located at the top of the page. All originally authored lessons can be saved in the “My CSCOPE” Tab within the “My Content” area.

Instructional Procedures
Instructional Procedures / Notes for Teacher /
ENGAGE – Our Community Modifications for Night / NOTE: 1 Day = 50 minutes
Suggested Day 1 - 10 minutes
1. Facilitate a discussion where students think about the differences in their community during the day and during the night. Questions could include:
· Do people modify the community in any way to cope with the dark of night?
· Is there a difference in the community in the day and in the night?
· At night, who runs the community? The hospitals? Who are the first responders at night?
· What kinds of things do communities do to make the community safer when it is dark?
2. Continue the discussion to help students understand that people who live in a community make modifications so that the community is safer in the dark of night. Guide students to provide summarizing statements such as:
· Ways people change the environment, such as putting up streetlights, are called modifications. The landscape is no longer the same because people have changed it; they have modified it.
3. Facilitate a discussion to help students understand the term adaptation. Ask questions such as:
· What do we do when it is very cold outside? (Put on coats, turn up the heater, build a house with a heater, etc.)
· What do we do when it rains? (Use umbrellas people have invented to protect us, etc.)
4. Help students understand that the ways people change to fit the environment are adaptations.
· People adapt to the environment when they change themselves or what they do to match the environment. People modify the environment when they change the environment to fit their needs.
5. Students brainstorm a list of changes – either adaptations or modifications - they can identify. / Materials
· Paper for T-Chart
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.17E
Instructional Note:
Partial list:
· Street lights
· Glow in the dark stripes painted on road ways
· Night shift personnel in hospitals, police departments, and fire departments.
· Information campaigns to get people to voluntarily be inside their homes by a certain time (curfew.)
EXPLORE – Modifying Landforms / Suggested Day 1 (continued) - 25 minutes
1. Continue thinking about modifications. Review the term landform from previous learning and turn the discussion to ways people modify the physical environment of the community as a result of landforms.. For example,
· People build tunnels through mountains, modifying, or changing, the landform. They build dams to harness the power of water to provide electricity and to control flooding. The dam is a human characteristic that modifies the environment.
2. Display pictures of four types of environments: Deserts, Mountains, Wetlands, Plains. (See the Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Landforms and Modifications.)
3. Post pictures of types of physical environments on chart paper around the room (1 type of environment per chart.)
4. Provide information for students to research the landforms and environments (textbook, websites, other classroom and library materials).
5. Group students into four.
6. Student groups research one of the four environments and write the important descriptive information on the chart under that picture. They include a definition and describe ways people in a community modify the landform.
7. The teacher monitors each group, ensuring understanding and checking for accuracy of the students’ information.
8. Groups report their findings to the rest of the class and teach them about the physical environment and associated landforms.
9. Distribute the Handout: Landforms Chart.
10. Groups report on the environment/landform they studied, including descriptions and ways people have modified the landform/environment.
11. While groups are reporting, the rest of the class takes notes in the appropriate section. / Materials:
· photo illustrations of: deserts, mountains, wetlands, plains
· information on landforms (from textbook, websites, other classroom and library materials)
· chart/butcher paper (4 pieces)
· paper for students to create graphic organizer
Attachments:
· Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Landforms and Modifications
· Handout: Landforms Chart (1 per student)
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.17E
Instructional Note:
· Conduct and internet search for visual examples of land modifications such as terracing and irrigation, bridges and roads.
· Depending on class size, multiple groups may be needed to research each environment/landform
EXPLAIN – Modifying Landforms / Suggested Day 1 (continued) - 15 minutes
1. On the back of the student Handout: Landforms Chart, students draw a picture one of the environments/landforms being modified. Students include themselves in the picture (they can be observing from a “safe” distance.)
2. Students include a caption for the picture that explains the human process being employed in shaping the landscape.
3. Student partners tell each other a story about the change taking place in the picture. Tell the story from the point of view of a third-grader (in the picture) who lives in the community being changed. / Materials
· Students’ Landforms Chart from Explore section
TEKS: 3.4B, 3.17E
EXPLORE – Effects of Modification / Suggested Day 2 - 35 minutes
1. Facilitate a discussion where students extend their thinking to consider the effects of the modifications. Choose several modifications to discuss. (If desired, use the Handout: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land and the Teacher Resource: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land KEY.)
2. Model thinking, then lead students in their thinking and guide note-taking on the handout listed above or a graphic organizer of the teacher’s choice. Include questions such as:
· What problem were people trying to solve, or what need were they trying to meet, when they made the modification to the environment?
· Was the problem solved or need met?
· What were the consequences of the modification?
· What were the positive consequences?
· What were the negative consequences?
· Do the changes continue to affect the community? How?
3. Student pairs continue to discuss the effects of modifications, adding information to their graphic organizer (Handout: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land.)
4. Teacher circulates, probing with questions, clarifying and correcting information, and providing additional information as needed. (See Teacher Resource: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land KEY.)
5. Student pairs share their information with the rest of the class.
6. Teacher clarifies and corrects information. / Attachments:
· Handout: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land
· Teacher Resource: Effects of Human Modifications on our Land KEY
TEKS: 3.4D
Instructional Note:
Make sure students understand the terms below as ways of understanding social studies.
· Political
· Economic
· Geographic
· Social
EXPLAIN – Effects of Modification / Suggested Day 2 (continued) - 15 minutes
Suggested Day 3 – 20 minutes
1. Students write and tell the story of one of the modifications. In the imaginary story, the student encounters a problem, goes through the decision-making process to consider whether to modify the environment or not, and then explains the effects of the modification.
2. Students tell their story to a partner. / TEKS: 3.4D, 3.18A
ELABORATE – Responding to Elected Officials / Suggested Day 3 - 30 minutes
1. Summarize the learning from this unit (Human Characteristics of Communities) by considering the Key Understandings and guiding questions.
· Physical features of the earth impact how humans live and work as they adapt to and modify the environment to meet basic needs.
¾ How do people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment?
¾ What are the effects of human processes in shaping the landscape? (building new homes, conservation, and pollution)
¾ How are human characteristics of various regions the same and different? (address the physical environments studied: deserts, mountains, wetlands, and plains)
· Communities have human characteristics of place that help people meet their needs.
— How do people in communities meet their needs for government, education, communication, transportation, and recreation?
- How have individuals, events and ideas changed communities?
- Who/what are the individuals, events, and ideas that have helped to shape communities?
- How have individuals, events, and ideas contributed to the expansion of existing communities or to the creation of new communities?
2. As a class, students summarize the discussion by writing a letter to a community leader expressing an idea or suggestion of modifications that would improve the community and solve a problem. / Instructional Note:
Concerning the written letters, students use their best handwriting, complete sentences and correct grammar.
EVALUATE / Suggested Day 4 - 50 minutes
1. Draw a picture of the physical environment of a real or imagined region. Add human characteristics to the picture, and then write and illustrate a story about an event in the life of a third grader living in the region. In the story, use academic language to tell about how the environment affects people’s lives, including how people adapt to and modify the environment. Tell the story to a classmate. (3.4B; 3.17E; 3.18A) 1E; 3E / TEKS: 3.4B, 3.4C, 3.4D; 3.17E; 3.18A