Social Studies Unit for Second Grade

Stephanie Hunsinger

ET/IL Final Project

Social Studies Unit for Second Grade

April 2004

1. Lesson Title: What Kind of Home?

Subject Area: Social Studies

Grade Level: Second Grade

2. Unit Description:

The second grade Social Studies curriculum provides the backdrop for this unit. Students will begin by learning about natural resources from our Social Studies Big Book. Students will use the knowledge about what natural resources are to begin to inquire what is shelter, why most living beings need shelter, and how the environment effects the choice of shelter by living things. The students will then research and choose one of three basic living environments. Finally, students will synthesize all of the information above to choose a living environment and create a shelter to live in. The students will write a research paper on the environment they chose and the house they would build. They will also create a model of their house.

Related activities will include:

 Using natural resources around our school, create a home for a cricket.

 Observe homes in our school neighborhood and identify the natural resources used in the construction.

 Visit a homeless shelter to understand the impact of being without shelter.

 Create landform maps for the environment the students choose for their house.

 Read and reflect on literature about houses around the world, and for other living beings, including The Super Three story, “A Home for Toad”

3. Lesson Summary: I have chosen to write a full unit description for my final project. The lesson that I am describing in this section, and that I will have my administrator observe will be just one part of this project. I intend to have my administrator observe the lesson in which students will begin researching 3 different living environments. These will include the African Rainforest Environment, the Arctic Region, and the Desert Southwest. The students will then decide in which environment they would like to create a house. They will use Kidspiration to create a web on what makes their environment unique, and why they chose it.

4.Standards

Social Studies/Geography

 #1 Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.

 #5 Students understand the effects of interactions between human and natural systems and the changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.

Language Arts

 #1 Students read and understand a variety of materials.

 #2 Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.

 #5 Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.

 #6 Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.

Information Technology

 #1 Students use technology to access, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.

 #3 Students use technology to collect and organize information to solve real world problems.

 #4 Students demonstrate an understanding of the nature and operation of technology by using it in an ethical and responsible manner.

5. Technology Application

The students will:

 Use Kidspiration to web and organize information gathered on natural resources and natural environments.

 Use the shared folder to visit websites on Shelter, Animal Homes, and natural Environments.

 Use Kidspiration and or Ultimate Writing and Publishing to write a research report on the natural environment they chose to live in and the type of house they created.

The teacher will

 Use the L.C.D. machine to facilitate class webs on Kidspiration.

 Locate and add websites to the shared folder for student use.

 Collaborate with the media specialist in order to find additional websites that will help students with their research.

 Utilize word processing skills for lesson planning and worksheet/outline development.

 Conduct an OPAC search in order to secure resources in addition to the Internet.

6. Essential Questions/Subsidiary Questions and Critical Thinking Skills:

Essential Questions:

 Why do most living things need shelter? (Analyze)

 How does the environment affect the choice of shelter by living things? (Apply)

 If you were living in ______, what type of shelter would you choose to build? (Create and Synthesize)

Subsidiary Questions:

 What is shelter?

 Why do we need shelter?

 What do you need to build a shelter?

 What is unique about the environment I will be living in? What do I need to be safe?

 How can I use the environment to help me create a shelter?

7. Research/Real Life Application

The students will use The Super Three Research model. This primary version of the Big Six will help students to structure their research process and provide the support that they need. Because the method activates internal questioning it will coincide with the rubric assessments and allow students to design their projects with the end in mind. The steps for The Super Three Model are as follows:

a) Plan: Students identify what it is they need to do, make, and find out, as well as identify what the end product will look like.

b) Do: Students identify how to proceed and what materials they will use, as well as create a product to show what they learned.

c) Review: Students self evaluate their work and check to make sure all required elements are in place.

In order to complete the planning process the students will need to be coached in identifying the key elements of a quality project. The teacher will model and provide examples of quality projects, as well as provide and explain rubrics for evaluation and guidance.

During the Do stage, the students will need continuing guidance from the teacher. The teacher will help the students to find appropriate resources, using the Internet and library books from the media center. The teacher will provide the students with an outline form that will guide the students in collecting appropriate materials. The rubric evaluation will serve as the guideline for showing what the students have learned.

When the students enter the review stage, they will use the project rubric as a self-evaluation tool. Both the teacher and the students will evaluate the student project. Students will be encouraged to revise their work for final evaluation.

Researching three different living environments and the natural resources of these environments would be difficult for second graders to accomplish without some systematic plan for guidance. The Super Three provides this scaffolding by its simplistic nature, and self-evaluating process. Plagiarism is avoided by the use of built-in synthesis and evaluation techniques. The students are not just simply gathering information to regurgitate, rather they must use this information to choose and justify why they would live in a particular environment and what their house would look like.

8. Collaboration Plan

I will work with our media specialist, Michelle Brown, in order to find websites that will assist students in finding information on different environmental zones around the world. With the help of Michelle, these websites will be stored on the shared folder for access in the computer lab and classroom.

9. Lesson (Unit) Introduction

Introducing and learning about natural resources will kick off the unit. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to answer the question, “What is a natural resource?” I will rely on the second grade Social Studies Big Book, Unit 2, Lesson 3 for this introduction. In this lesson, students:

 Identify ways people adapt to and change the environment.

 Identify some natural resources.

 Recognize that preserving our natural resources is important.

The teacher will use the L.C.D. machine to create a class web in Kidspiration. The web will name different kinds of natural resources.

10. Computer Activities

Prior to Computer Use:

 Teacher uses the Infocus machine to lead group webs in Kidspiration.

 Teacher uses the Infocus machine to demonstrate how to create individual webs in Kidspiration.

 Teacher uses the Infocus machine to demonstrate how to word process in Kidspiration (if new version is available), or in Ultimate Writing and Publishing.

 Teacher uses the Infocus machine to demonstrate how to access the shared folder and identified websites.

 Teacher states responsible use as staying in the designated websites and not “free surfing” the web.

 Teacher will provide books and other resources in addition to the websites on the shared folder.

 Teacher will show and explain the rubric used for evaluating student projects.

 The students will target the learning identifiers they intend to accomplish on the rubric.

 Teacher will use the Infocus machine to learn about the

Super Three Research model.

At the Computer Use:

 Students will organize their ideas using Kidspiration webbing techniques.

 Students will gather information on different living environments

 And the natural resources found in these environments. Students will collect this information in web formats in Kidspiration.

 Students will use the information gathered to create a document on Kidspiration or Ultimate Writing and Publishing which reflects their choice of house and environment, and justifies their choices.

 Students will self-evaluate and check progress according to rubrics provided.

After Computer use:

 Students will create a model of the house they chose to build.

 Students will present their model house and research project.

11. Supporting Activities

 Students will learn how to write a paragraph, using the Step Up to Writing model.

 Students will review basic writing mechanics; capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

 Students will review how to use basic word processing functions such as shift key, backspace, delete, and arrow keys.

 Students will learn about landform maps, and how to make one.

 Students will visit the Super Three Website and learn about this research method.

 Students will read and listen to many literature selections about house around the world.

12. Culminating Activity

The students will have three culminating projects:

 The students will write a research paper on the environment they chose to live in, and the natural resources found there. The paper will also include a description of the house they would build.

 The students will make a model of the house they would build.

 The students will be guided by the presentation portion of the rubric in order to present their paper and house to the class.

13. Assessment

Please see the rubrics and web planner at the end of this document. The web planner correlates to the Plan stage of the Super Three Research Model. The rubrics evaluations correlate to the Do and Review stages of the Super Three Research Model. By adding the words Plan, Do, Review to these documents, I intend to help kids make the connection between the research model and their actual work.

14. Bibliography

An OPAC bibliography has been sent, in hard copy form, to JoAnne Hibbard.

15. Management Plan

Instructional Models:

The teacher will use whole group instruction, inquiry and coaching/“Guide on the Side” techniques.

The classroom operates under the assumption of the following rules:

We will be safe.

We will allow others to teach and learn.

We will strive to do our best.

We will treat others the way we want to be treated.

These rules and their related consequences serve to create an optimal learning environment. In addition to these rules there are additional behavior guidelines for computer use in the lab and the classroom. They are as follows:

We will wait for directions before logging on and searching for sites or programs.

We will limit our talking to work related tasks.

We will treat the equipment with respect and use it as a learning tool.

We will demonstrate responsible use by using the computers for the intended work assignment.

Web Planner and Evaluation Rubrics: