TransportationTwo Weeks

/ Social Studies
Lesson Plan
Teacher: 6th Grade Teacher / Grade: 6th Grade
Lesson Title:
Vikings
STRANDS
History, Individuals, Groups, and Interactions
LESSON OVERVIEW / Summary of the task, challenge, investigation, career-related scenario, problem, or community link.
The focus of the Transportation Unit is on means of traveling on water. The Vikings are famous (or infamous) for their use of the long ship. This transportation innovation is a key reason they are viewed as a historically significant group of people. Students will realize who the Vikings were from a historical standpoint to better understand how this ship was so advantageous to them. They will also be exposed to the engineering or construction view of how this boat was made. The Viking long ship was larger, faster, and moved more efficiently than other boats in the world during this time. This allowed the Vikings to raid large portions of Europe and even be the first Europeans to step foot in the Americas. Students will also calculate a rough estimate of travels made by Viking ships during the Viking Age. Examining such items will allow students to realize the things that can be accomplished with transportation advantages.
MOTIVATOR / Hook for the week unit or supplemental resources used throughout the week. (PBL scenarios, video clips, websites, literature)
“Port of Los Angeles” Found in Appendix A
DAY /
Objectives
(I can….) /

Materials & Resources

/

Instructional Procedures

/ Differentiated
Instruction /

Assessment

1 / I can identify the Vikings as a historically significant group of people.
I can elaborate upon the Viking’s impact on Europe. / Found in Appendix A
iPads
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Vikings - History Chanel
Vikings Impact on Europe / Essential Question:
  1. Why are the Vikings a historically significant group of people?
  2. How did the Vikings impact Europe?
/ Remediation:
Seating to minimize distraction
Heterogeneous Table Groups
Anchoring Activity: As students work on their worksheets there will be one on one attention provided to students in need.
Enrichment:
Heterogeneous Table Groups / Formative:
Worksheet
Exit Tickets
Set:“Write down the first two or three things you know, or think you know, about Vikings.” Students will be given a few moments to generate responses. Volunteer students will share their thoughts with the class.
Teaching Procedure:
  • Students will first view “Vikings – History Chanel” to be provided with an overview of who these people were.
  • The class will very briefly discuss the highlights of this short video.
  • Students will then be directed to “Vikings – Ducksters” and perform the correlating worksheet.
  • Selected students will provide their answers to the worksheet’s questions to stimulate discussion of the content.
  • The class will then view “Vikings Impact on Europe.”
  • A brief discussion of the video’s highlights will follow.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • As an exit ticket students will provide two ways the Vikings impacted Europe.

2 / I can explain what daily life of a Viking was like.
I can identify reasons as to why the Vikings invaded Europe. / Found in Appendix B
iPads
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Daily Life as a Viking
BBC Vikings / Essential Question:
  1. What was daily life of a Viking like?
  2. Why did the Vikings invade Europe?
/ Remediation:
Seating minimize distraction
Adjusted Questions
1.If the Vikings lacked resources and wealth, why would invading Europe be an attractive option?
2.What did the Vikings lose by leaving their homeland?
3.What did they gain by traveling to Europe?
Enrichment:
Homogeneous Groups / Formative:
Worksheets
Exit Tickets
Set:“If aliens ever invaded earth, what would be their reason?” Students will be a given a few moments to generate responses. Volunteer students will share their thoughts with the class.
Teaching Procedure:
  • The class will first watch “Daily Life as a Viking” and briefly discuss the highlights of the video.
  • Students will then be directed to “BBC Vikings” and perform the correlating worksheet.
  • Volunteer students may share their thoughts with the class to stimulate discussion about the content.
  • The class discussion will then move to the central question as to why the Vikings needed to invade Europe.
  • Students will work in homogeneous groups of three to formulate a hypothesis and elaborate upon their reasoning. (Reasons were addressed in ‘Daily Life’ video)
  • Students may perform independent research on their iPads to support hypothesis.
  • Groups will be given the opportunity to share their thoughts with the class, building upon the information realized in the video.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • Students will compare and contrast the reasons for the Viking’s invasion of Europe to their thoughts on why aliens might invade earth. This will be submitted as an exit ticket.

3 / I can elaborate upon why most Europeans viewed the Vikings as barbarians.
I can provide details about the Viking’s long boat. / Found in Appendix C / Essential Question:
  1. Why are the Vikings viewed as barbarians?
  2. What technology was critical to the Viking’s success?
/ Remediation:
Seating to minimize distraction
Prompting
Adjusted Question:
1.Does the United States have a large navy?
2.What advantage does this give us over countries that do not have effective navies?
3.How can this be compared to the Viking’s naval advantage?
Enrichment:
Adjusted Questions
1.Why was the naval advantage geared towards raids rather than economics for the Vikings? / Formative:
Worksheets
Set:“Who was the king of the Vikings?” Students will be given a few moments to generate responses, and selected students will share their thoughts with the class. The goal is to discover that the Vikings were independent groups all with their own leadership.
Teaching Procedure:
  • The class will view “Secrets of the Vikings.”
  • Students will be presented the lesson’s essential questions and work in their table groups to formulate answers.
  • Volunteer tables will share their thoughts to generate class discussion and ultimately answer the essential questions.
  • Students will then be directed to “PBS Viking Ships” and perform the correlating worksheet.
  • Selected students will share their answers to stimulate class discussion.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • Having previously learned about how the Ancient Egyptians naval advantage helped their economy, students will compare the two groups.
  • Why is having faster, more efficient ships such an advantage?
  • Students will work independently to formulate a response in paragraph form.
  • Volunteer students may share their thoughts to close the class session.

4 / I can provide details about the construction of Viking long ships. / Found in Appendix D
iPads
Apple TV
PDF Notes / Essential Question:What about the construction of the long ships provides them with such an operational advantage? / Remediation:
Seating to minimize distraction
Prompting
Anchoring Activity – While students write their summarizing paragraphs, students in need will receive one on one attention.
Enrichment:
Adjusted Questions
1.Would Viking raids on Europe be an important part of world history without the long boat?
2.What might be different about Viking history if they were a more governmentally organized group of people? / Formative:
Worksheets
Summarizing Paragraphs
Set: “What advantages can be had in most athletic competitions from being faster and quicker?” Students will take a few moments to generate responses. Volunteer students will share their thoughts with the class.
Teaching Strategy:
  • Students will first watch “Dragon Harald” to see how a Viking long ship is constructed.
  • Following the video the class will discuss what advantage the gentlemen building the boat in the video have over the Vikings of over a thousand years prior.
  • Students will then be directed to “eHow Viking Long Ships” and perform the correlating worksheet.
  • Selected students will share their answers to stimulate class discussion.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • “Vikings invaded Europe because their homeland lacked wealth and resources. Combining this with the fact that the Viking long ship’s speed and effective maneuverability, what deductions can be made about their historical significance.”
  • Students will be instructed to write a paragraph on the prompt and this will be submitted before the class session has ended.

5 / I can identify Leif Erickson as a significant historical figure. / Found in Appendix E
Erickson v. Columbus
iPads
PDF Notes
Apple TV / Essential Question: Who is Leif Erickson? / Remediation:
Seating to minimize distraction
Prompting
Homogeneous Groups
Anchoring Activity – Pairs that require some additional help during the summarizing paragraph will receive it.
Enrichment:
Homogeneous Groups
Adjusted Question
1.Does the Viking’s history of being a barbaric people have anything to do with why Erickson does not receive his credit? / Formative:
Worksheets
Exit Ticket
Set:“Who discovered America?” Students will be given a moment to answer the bell ringer. Selected students will share their answers with the class.
Teaching Procedure:
  • Students will first be directed to “Vikings Discover America” and perform the correlating worksheet.
  • Volunteer students will share their answers with the class to stimulate class discussion on the content.
  • Class will then watch “Erickson v. Columbus” to further explain the importance of Leif Erickson and the Viking long ship in world history.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • “Why do you think Columbus receives more recognition than Erickson for being the first Europeans to arrive in America?”
  • Students will be grouped into homogeneous pairs to write a paragraph on the question and submit it as an exit ticket.
  • Volunteer students will share their thoughts to close the class session.

6 / I can provide details about the daily life of a Viking.
I can provide details about Viking exploration routes. / Found in Appendix F
iPads
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Six Sided Dice (10) / Essential Question:
  1. What was the daily life of a Viking like?
  2. Where did the Vikings travel?
/ Remediation:
Seating to Minimize Distraction
Prompting
Anchoring Activity – Students that may require additional assistance during the map calculation will receive help.
Enrichment:
Comparing Viking Exploration distances to Columbus or Polo. / Formative:
Map Calculation
Set: “If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?” Students will be given a moment to generate a response. Volunteer students will share their thoughts with the class.
Teaching Strategy:
  • Students will first perform “Viking Daily Life” to review what the basic life style was like for this group of people.
  • Students will be prompted to look at previous lesson’s worksheets or independently research on their iPads to do a thorough job on the assignment.
  • Next, the class will examine “Viking Map” to see where the Viking’s homeland was. Also to see the large extent to which they were able to travel.
  • Students will then be paired into heterogeneous groups of two. These pairs will be given one six sided dice. They will play “Viking Exploration Game” for about ten minutes.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • Using the “Viking Map” students will take rough measurements of the total distance traveled by Viking explorers.
  • Students will use Google Maps to roughly calculate distances.
  • There may be other outlets of research that need to be explored, depending on the student’s prior knowledge and map reading ability.
  • Any student who finishes with time remaining will compare this to distances traveled by Columbus or Marco Polo.

7 / I can identify how the long ship cemented the Vikings place as a historically significant people. / iPad
Doceri / Essential Question:
  1. Why are the Vikings a historically significant group of people?
  2. How did the long ship help the Vikings become historically significant?
/ Remediation:
Seating to minimize distraction
Prompting
Homogeneous Groups
Adjusted Questions:
1.Where is the Viking’s homeland?
2.If your homeland were out of resources, what actions would you take?
3.Why does having a bigger, faster, more efficient means of traveling so beneficial?
Enrichment:
Adjusted Questions
Homogeneous Groups
1.Are the Vikings barbaric or do the means justify the end?
2.Could the Vikings have used their long ships in a more peaceful, economically beneficial way? / Summative:
Doceri
Set:“What happenings in our world today will be written in history books thousands of years from now?” Students will be given a few moments to generate responses. Selected students will share their thoughts with the class. The goal is to recognize the difficulties in recognizing historical significance in contemporary history.
Teaching Strategy:
  • Students will be creating a Doceri presentation.
  • This presentation will have the slides answering the following questions:
  1. Who were the Vikings?
  2. Why did the Vikings invade Europe?
  3. Why did they attack monasteries?
  4. How did the long ship aid their successes?
  5. Who is Leif Erickson and why is he important?
  6. Why did the Viking Age end?
  • Each slide is to have an image and at least three supporting details in bullet form.
  • Students will work in homogeneous pairs on this project for the entire class session.
Summarizing Strategy:
  • Volunteer groups will air play their finished presentations for the class to view and discuss.

8
Project Day 1—refer to unit plan
Topic—IA Maritime Challenge
9
Project Day 2—refer to unit plan
Topic—IA Maritime Challenge
10
Project Day 3—refer to unit plan
Topic—IA Maritime Challenge
STANDARDS / Identify what you want to teach. Reference State, Common Core, ACT
College Readiness Standards and/or State Competencies.
GLE’s
5.12 Understand the place of historical events in the context of past, present and future.
SPI’s
6.6.spi.1 identify examples of groups impacting world history (i.e., Muslims, Christians, Mongolians, Vikings, slave traders, explorers, merchants/traders, inventors.)
6.5.spi.7. recognize major historical time periods (i.e., Early Civilizations, Classical Period, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance).
6.5.spi.11. identify characteristics including economy, social relations, religion, and political authority of various societies (i.e., Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek City-States, Roman Empire, Indian, Medieval).
6.5.spi.12. recognize the possible causes of change in civilizations (i.e., environmental change, political collapse, new ideas, warfare, overpopulation, unreliable food sources, diseases).

Vocabulary:

  • Vikings: Any of the Scandinavian seafaring pirates who raided Europe
  • Monastery: Building occupied by monks living under religious vows
  • Pillage: To steal using violence
  • Norse: Norwegians or Scandinavians in medieval times
  • Quest: A long search