Urban Constructs

Unit Plan

Urban Constructs

Name: Emilee Truitt Grade: 4

Content Area/Subject: Integrated Unit Plan Duration: 10 days (Entire Day)

RATIONALE:

This is a unit consisting of ten all-encompassing lessons. There are fifty Pennsylvania standards within the unit plan. The students will learn about urban settings and what they entail in connection to the focal novel, The City of Ember.

The information the students will learn in this unit is in real life context and will have direct application to their everyday life. The students will have the opportunity to explore various realms of urban areas through different literary materials, activities, and investigations. Stereotypes and misconceptions will be broken down through cultural comparisons. They will be able to take these real world concepts they have learned and apply them to life.

This unit will fit into the curricula with lessons spanning all content areas including science, mathematics, the arts, social studies, and English language arts. Concepts surrounding power sources, sustainability, urban planning, urban representations of arts, education, and cultural comparisons will be examined.

Upon completion of this unit, our intentions is that the students will be able to develop socially conscious students who can determine ways to analyze and reflect on their immediate surroundings, collaborate to work towards a main goal, and become more aware of social issues or injustices. They will also be able to use real life explorations, interactions and applications.

RATIONALE OF SUPPORTED TEXT:

1. The City of Ember by Jean DuPrau
The City of Ember is our focal novel for the unit plan. Our theme for the unit is Urban Constructs. Chapter by chapter, The City of Ember helps develop and expand on the various constructs within a city. The quality of the writing conventions in this piece benefits the students by encouraging the development of a stronger vocabulary, and by improving upon the various skills of comprehension and language development. The book will be introduced to the students after reading the supportive text Alphabet City and engaging in an exploration of the local city.
2. Alphabet City by Stephen A. Johnson
Alphabet City is the first supportive text we use in this unit plan. It opens up our unit to our theme, Urban Constructs. We will have the students look at this wordless picture book before going on our city exploration. The purpose of reading the book before the exploration is to contribute to the student’s background knowledge of city. It also aids in the creation of the scavenger hunt that the students will complete on their exploration of the city.
3. Our Rights: How Kids Are Changing The World by Janet Wilson
In The City of Ember, the main characters are twelve year old children; the rights that the children have in the city are very limited. A major misconception that students may have is that they cannot be an activist at a young age, which ties right into this supportive text. The children in the book, Our Rights: How Kids are Changing the World, are activists. This book will directly explain some of the rights that young people have in the world, as well as demonstrate examples of how to make changes within a community.
4. Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Time of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd
Before reading the excerpt of the text, the concept of electricity is introduced with a video about Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity. As an extension of the video, the teacher will read an excerpt from Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Time of Benjamin Franklin to highlight the connections to be made to the student’s electricity investigation with circuits.
5. My Light by Molly Bang
The text will be read to introduce the concept of power sources. My Light will explain how the sun is a natural resource for power. The students will be able to make the connection between solar energy and the generation of electricity. When the student has to write the persuasive info-mercial, this is a reliable non-fiction text for the student to use.
6. J.T. by Jane Wagner
The teacher will read an excerpt of the text to the students. The excerpt will support the topic of the day: stereotypes within a city. In the excerpt, the people within the city make the assumption that J.T. is a young boy, who will only cause trouble in the neighborhood and could never be responsible.
7. Hip-Hop Speaks To Children: A Celebration of Poetry With A Beat by Nikki Giovanni
The students will be creating a class Hip-Hop poem after listening to some of the examples in this book. A scavenger hunt will be created through the use of guided notes for the students to analyze the poems within the book. Hip-Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry With a Beat will act as a bridge to the introduction of Spoken Word poems.
8. Welcome To My Neighborhood! A Barrio ABC by Quiara Alegria Hudes
This text will be read to the students before creating an ABC book. The book travels throughout a city, alphabetically, looking through the eyes of a young Latina girl. The students will be creating an ABC Book about the focal novel, The City of Ember. The convention of writing that this book offers helps to provide a variety of styles for the students to learn from.

9. 25 Of The Most Dangerous and Unusual Journeys To School In The World

This website will be used for a writing prompt activity about the value of education. The writing prompt requires the students to look at 25 different pictures of children around the world traveling to school. The travels are dangerous. By looking at these pictures, the students are able to see how committed these children are to their education. It allows the students to self-reflect about the importance of an education and their privileges. This website will correspond to the next book in our text set, Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of An Education. http://www.boredpanda.com/dangerous-journey-to-school/
10. Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of An Education by Elizabeth Suneby
This text is about a young girl from Afghanistan who is not allowed to receive an education. In relation to the focal novel, the main characters of the story are forced to forego their education to choose a job when they are only 12 years old. This text also supports the writing prompt the students will be doing.
11. The City of Ember (Movie)
The purpose of showing a clip of the movie is to have the students critically analyze how movie production may change the storyline from the original written novel. The students will have to fill out a venn diagram of the similarities and differences between the text and the movie.

STANDARDS:

· Social Studies

7.1.4.A.: Describe how common geographic tools are used to organize and interpret information about people, places and environment.

7.3.4.C.: Identify the human characteristics of places and regions using the following criteria;

· population

· culture

· settlement

· economic activities

· political activities

6.1.4.D.: Explain what influences the choices people make.

5.1.4.C: Explain the principles and ideals shaping local and state government.

· Liberty/ Freedom

· Democracy

· Justice

· Equality

5.2.4.A: Identify individual rights and needs and the rights and needs of others in the classroom, school, and community.

5.2.4.C: Describe the roles of leadership and public service in school, community, state and nation.

5.3.4.B: Describe how the elected representative bodies function in making local and state laws.

5.3.4.D.: Identify positions of authority at the local and state, and national level.

· Science

3.2.4.B4.: Apply knowledge of basic electrical circuits to the design and construction of simple direct current circuits.

3.1.4.A5.: Describe common functions living things share to help them function in a specific environment.

Inquiry Standard:

3.1.3.A9: Use data/evidence to construct explanations and understand that scientists develop explanations based on their evidence and compare them with their current scientific knowledge.

Environment and Ecology

4.5.4.A.: Identify how people use natural resources in sustainable and non-sustainable ways.

4.5.4.C.: Describe how human activities affect the environment.

4.3.4.D.: Describe how everyday activities may affect the environment.

4.5.4.E.: Identify different ways human health can be affected by pollution.

· PA Core Mathematics

C.C.2.1.4.B.1: Apply place-value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic

C.C.2.2.3.A.1.: Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division

C.C.2.2.3.A.2.: Understand properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division

C.C.2.3.3.A.1.: Identify, compare and classify shapes and their attributes

C.C.2.3.3.A.2.: Use the understanding of fraction to partition shapes into parts with equal areas and express the area of each part as a unit fraction of the whole.

C.C. 2.4.4.A.4.: Represent and interpret data using tally charts, tables, pictographs, line plots and bar graphs

· PA Core ELA

C.C.1.1.4.E: Foundational Skills: Fluency

· Read with accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

· Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.

· Read on-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

· Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

C.C.1.2.4.B: Reading informational texts

· Refer to details and examples in text to support what the text says explicitly and make inferences.

C.C.1.2.4.K: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases based on grade-level reading content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies and tools.

C.C.1.2.4.L: Read and comprehend literary nonfiction and informational text on grade-level, reading independently and proficiently.

Reading Literature

C.C.1.3.4.A: Determine a theme of a text from details in the text; summarize the text

C.C.1.3.4.C: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.

C.C.1.3.4.D: Compare and contrast an event or topic told from two different points of view.

C.C.1.3.4.G: Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

C.C.1.3.4.K: Read and comprehend literary fiction on grade level, reading independently and proficiently.

Writing: Informative/Explanatory Texts

C.C.1.4.4.A: Write informative/explanatory texts to to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Writing: Opinion/Argumentative

C.C.1.4.4.K: Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.

C.C.1.4.4.I: Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.

Writing: Narratives

C.C.1.4.4.M: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.

C.C.1.4.4.O.: Use dialogue and descriptions to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations; use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

Response to Literature

C.C.1.4.4.S.: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research, applying grade-level reading standards for literature and informational texts.

Process of Writing

C.C.1.4.4.T: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.

Technology and Publication

C.C.1.4.4.U: With some guidance and support, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.

Conducting Research

C.C.1.4.4.V: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

Credibility, Reliability, and Validity of Sources

C.C.1.4.4.W: Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.

Range of Writing

C.C.1.4.4.X: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Speaking and Listening

C.C.1.5.4.A: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade-level topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

C.C.1.5.4.B: Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

C.C.1.5.4.C: Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.

C.C.1.5.4.D: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly with adequate volume, appropriate pacing and clear pronunciation.

C.C.1.5.3.E: Differentiate between contexts that require formal English versus informal situations.

C.C.1.5.4.F: Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

· National Art Standards

Creating

Anchor Standard #1: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work

Performance/ Presenting/Producing

Anchor Standard #5: Develop and refine artistic work for presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtnEnEqjk0E

https://bloomingedu.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/national-poetry-month-host-a-poetry-slam/

Accommodations/Modifications (Throughout each lesson these accommodations/modifications will be provided and made for the students of the classroom):

· The teacher will provide the necessary accommodations and modifications for the students with the IEPs and 504 plans.

· There will be visual que cards provided for the students to keep on track with the assignments.

· The instructional delivery will be clear and explicit. If there are directions, the teacher will hand out a sheet with the directions on it. The directions will also be written on the board for the students to look at.

· When the students are to participate in small groups, they will be placed with students that will support their learning and guide them throughout the lesson.

· The graphic organizer will be differentiated for the students in the classroom.

· The teacher will provide the necessary supplementary aids for the students with the IEPs.

· If needed, the teacher will provide extra time for the student to complete the assignments.

· If the student cannot keep up with any note-taking, the teacher will provide guided notes for the student or partner write with them.

· If the student is acting out, the teacher will give the students a private cue.

Gifted Students

· Provide many formats for assignment submission.

· Allow choice and student research methods.

· Allow for varied work area choices.

· Provide opportunities for the student to teach their peers in other small groups.