Friday, August 28, 2009
Partner Blog III Proposal Discussion
Quick write a short proposal with rationale, area of focus you are considering and a few ideas of what you envision your outline to look like. Include ideas from readings. Share your quick write/overview with your Blog Partner and Seek Feedback. Partners will ask probing questions of each other and share resources and ideas.
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Good morning Ladies,
ReplyDeleteI have begun to gain a better understanding of what I would like my unit to look like. In this blog I have included a short proposal with rationale, a potential title for my unit, a potential essential question for my unit and an outline for what I would like my unit to look like...
Title: Understanding American History Through Drama.
Students: This unit is designed for 10th/11th grade students in either their English or Social Studies classroom. This unit can be implemented in either classroom since the integration between the two content areas is strongly enforced in this unit.
Essential Question: How does a collective fear affect a group of people?
Brief Description: In this unit I hope to help students more effectively understand critical events which have taken place in American history (The Salem Witch Trials and The Red Scare) Rather than using a generic social studies textbook to teach the students about these two events, I will be using Arthur Miller's The Crucible to more effectively convey the information. Furthermore, students will use non-fiction articles to better understand the material at hand. As the students read the fictional play, they will gather information about the Historical events of the Salem Witch Trials. Furthermore students will be guided to see that The Crucible is also an allegorical reference to McCarthyism and The Red Scare. By the end of the unit students will collect and convey the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials and The Red Scare. This integration will be possible by focusing on the idea of Fear, and the effects Fear can have on a group of individuals.
Outline of Unit:
ReplyDeleteActivity 1: Pre-reading Activity with KWL and Think Pair Share. Students independently record information that they already know about the Salem Witch Trials, and information they want to know about the Salem Witch Trials. They will then share this information with one or two peers. The will record what they have learned as we navigate through our unit.
Activity 2: Interpreting Images...Students will be given a variety of pictures which depict fear. Students will be encouraged to define fear, and explain what fear looks like.
Activity 3: Students will read a non-fiction article on the Salem Witch Trials. As they read they will actively take notes to be used later in a socratic seminar.
Activity 4: Virtual Tour (National Geopgraphic) This virtual tour will inform students about the Salem Witch Trials, and will emerse students into that specific time period. This virtual tour will also stimulate a feeling of fear.
Activity 5: Non-fiction articles on The Red Scare and McCarthyism. Students will gather background information on The Red Scare.
Activity 6: Cyber Lesson/Powerpoint Presentation on Senator Joseph McCarthy and the REd Scare.
Activity 7: Students will take part in a socratic seminar and discuss some guiding questions.
Activity 8: Students will create a compare and contrast chart on information they have gathered about the Salem Witch Trials and The Red Scare. They will also conduct a writing assignment which reflects their ability to convey the similarities and differences between these two historical events.
ReplyDeleteActivity 9: Students will take part in some sort of culminating activity/project that demonstrates their understanding of the two historical events depicted in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. This culminating project will give students a choice of 3 projects to choose from.
Note: During all these activities students will be reading The Crucible both in class and on their own. As they read they will keep a journal on important quotations, questions, and comments they have as they read.
Ladies, This is just a brief outline of what I would like my unit to look like. I have many other ideas that I would like to bounce off you two in order to make this unit the best it can be. I look forward to hearing feedback, and I look forward to seeing your unit proposals.
Thanks!
Ashley
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI think your unit proposal looks great. You have really laid out a thorough plan of implementing this unit. I like how you provide a lot of opportunity for students to interact and discuss their thoughts.
What were your other ideas?
Mary
Hi Girls,
This is what I have so far for my unit. Let me know what you think. I am really struggling with organizing my activities.
The title I am thinking of is "Connecting the present to the past."
The unit is intended for fourth grade students. It is designed to integrate the fourth grade Colonial Life curriculum through the use of multi-genre and multi-media resources. The purpose of this unit is to teach students about what everyday life was like for children back in colonial times. My goal is for students to use the knowledge they obtain through this unit to identify how life has changed for children since colonial times.
The two articles I read related to how students struggle to learn historical information through textbooks. One of the articles discussed how technology and use of artifacts assisted students in understanding the historical events. The other article discussed how the teacher used picture books and poems on the topic of the constitution, to build her students background knowledge. She used these materials during read alouds, prior to introducing students to the textbook.
Here's how I thought I would start off the unit
Activity 1-
We begin with a KWL to identify what background knowledge students have about life in colonial times. They will then take an online quiz to see if they would have survided in colonial times. Then they will watch a 10 minute video about a Puritan Settlement. After completing these activities they will go back to their KWL chart to add in information that they learned and questions they still have. (students will continue to add to the KWL as they learn more information)
Activity 2-
Students will be read a selection of poems about colonial america. Then they will be given time to select one of the poems and create an illustration to go along witht the poem they selected.
Activity 3-
Students would be able to read journal entries and diaries of people from colonial america. There is also an opportunity for them to hear diaries of people from colonial times, through the pbs.com website. They will create a comparison chart between their life and the colonists.
Activity 4-
Watch the Dear America movie A Journey to a New World. Students will create a Venn diagram comparing their life to Mem's.
Activity 5-
Students will have an opportunity to experience life as a colonial child as they participate in activities children of this era participated in.
Activity 6-
Cyberlesson to go with the book "If You Lived in Colonial Times" (from RDG 585)
Activity 7-
Cyberlesson for "The Courage of Sarah Noble" by Alice Dalgliesh.
Activty 8-
A culminating activity where students demonstrate their knowledge of the differences and similarities between colonial life and life today.
I look forward to any input you could give me on this. I feel a little lost with how it should look.
Mary
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI just wrote to you but lost it! OK. You have sorted out what you want to do and it sounds like an exciting unit. Question: How does this interface and align with your social studies curriculum and what social studies teachers address? Also, how does this address your own PD goals. Question: How will you convey the idea of an allegory?
Dear Mary,
ReplyDeletePlease make sure you address how this differs from what you already do. Tell me what that is and how then how you will fill in areas of need. Also, how will this address your PD needs and addresss district curriculum? Please make sure your focus is clearly aligned with district content.
Having said that - unit appears engaging.
Did not understand your plan for cyberlesson book.
My proposal will discuss in further detail my plans for my cyber lesson and unit. However, I chose to do my unit in the content area of social studies on the topic of immigration. The reason why I chose immigration as my topic is because it is a topic covered in my past fifth grade social studies curriculum at Marlborough Elementary School. I have found several articles on the topic of immigration and integrating language arts into the social studies curriculum. One article that I think I will be using to help me in my unit plans is an article called "No lam;ps were lit for them: Angel Island and the historiography of Asian American Immigration" from the Journal of American Ethnic History. The reason why I think this article will help me when planning my unit is because I know quite a bit about Ellis Island as an enterance for immigrants, but do not know much about Angel Island. I think that many people think Ellis Island was the only place immigrants entered through. I want my students to know that Angel Island was another place where immigrants first enteredt he United States as well, but first I need to know more about this island myself. Another article that I will be using to help me integrate language arts into the social studies curriculum I found in The Reading Teacher journal and it is called, "Leave no discipline behind." This article was written in 2006. Also, I found two websites that will be particlularly helpful for my students gaining knowledge on Ellis Island and also immigration in general. One of the websites is www.jaha.org (this website is about a museum in Pennsylvania that takes visitors through what the immigration experience would have been like through the eyes of historical accounts of actual immigrants. The website had great activities and also articles the students could complete.) The second website is www.scholastic.com (The Ellis Island Interactive tour) This is an actual tour that students complete to see what the actual Ellis Island process was like. This website came in very handy when I actually taught the immigration unit in my own fifth grade class last year because the students took part in an Ellis Island Simulation in my school's auditorium. I also found many picture books that I am thinking about using for my cyber lesson, but I still haven't narrowed down one particular book that I want to focus my cyber lesson on.
ReplyDeleteMy main question to you girls that I need help with is: Do you know of any picture books that would be great to use for a cyber lesson on immigration? I would like to focus on expository text if possible, but I will take any suggestions even if not an expository book but maybe a historical fiction.
Thank you for your input,
Heather Mahler
My activities plan is as follows:
ReplyDeleteUnit Plan: (possible lessons)
Intro day: Go over important vocabulary. Such as the difference between immigration and emigration.
Day 1: For what reasons did people immigrate to America? (Why did they leave?)
- Complete the “before visiting” section called “push-pull factor” on the www.jaja.org website. This talks about why immigrants were pushed to leave their home countries and what pulled them to come to another country.
- Research one country that immigrants emigrated from before coming to the U.S. Research the “push/pull factors” that brought these immigrants to the U.S. from their home countries. Make sure you research during the Golden Age of Immigrantion from the mid 1800’s to the early 1900’s.
Day 2: The journey and what it was like
Day 3: What was life like for immigrants once in America? Was it what they thought it would be?
-Complete the online thread “Making a Life: Creating a Community” activities on www.jaha.org website. This website talks about what life was like once immigrants came to U.S. and how they tried to build a community.
-Complete online thread “Making a Living” on www.jaha.org website. This thread talks about what immigrants did for work once they arrived in the U.S.
Day 4: Ellis Island (2 days- interactive tour on scholastic.com)
Day 5: Angel Island (Angel Island: Meet Li Keng Wong 1-2 days)
Day 6: Comparing and contrasting immigrants of the past and present (online reading scholastic.com “Immigration: Stories of Yesterday and Today”
Day 7: Currency: Exchange Rates (math lesson)
Day 8: WW1 and the role in played on immigration.
- GI Bill, meant boys would take free college classes and also meant no longer follow in footsteps of fathers working in the mills or coalmines.
Day 9: How immigrants developed a rich cultural life that is still celebrated today. (Immigration and how it impacted life today)
RESPONSE TO ASHLEY'S QUICK WRITE:
ReplyDeleteAshley,
I love how you plan on having your students all read the historical fiction "The Crucible" and then also use online articles that are expository to research other aspects of the Salem Witch Trials, etc.
I have a question for you:
in your day 3 activiy, what is a socratic seminar? Is this something the students will be leading? What does it entail?
I think the day 4 virtual tour on National Giographic will be great for bringing new information to your students. I have something similar in my unit plans if you look at my activity list. I plan on having my students complete the scholastic.com Ellis Island Interactive Tour. My students did this last year and I felt as though it really brought Ellis Island to life for my students. I hope you have as much look as I did with an interactive tour. One word of advice to you about the interactive tours. Your students are older than my fifth graders so maybe you can trust them to truly work independently on the reading online. I found that when I asked my students to go through the tour and navigate the site some were saying they were finished in like five minutes. I ended up modifying my initial request by creating a word document that was like a scavenger hunt where I made sure the students had to go through each of the Ellis Island stations on the interactive tour by having to answer questions and click on all the additional links. You might want to create something like this as well.
Heather Mahler
p.s. I hope this helps! Good luck!
Good evening Ladies,
ReplyDeleteI will first address both of your proposal ideas, then answer questions about mine.
Mary, I think your idea of connecting the colonial times to the lives of our students today is a great idea! I think you have some great ways of integrating the information, rather than simply using a textbook. Between the poems, journals, pictures, technology, etc. it seems as though the students will have many opportunities to explore colonial life. I really liked the way you conducted the KWL then allowed the students to gather information from the video and then go back to the KWL activity one sounds like there is great flow.
In acitivity 3 with the colonial journal entries...I think it is great that the students can read the journals, maybe you can also have the students write their own journal entries of a typical day in current day life. They could use one of the journal entries they read as inspiration to recreate one of their own. This might add a nice wriring assignment to the project, and further allows the students to interact with the material.
Before I give my suggestion about the culminating activity, what did you ultimately want to accoplish in this unit? Did you want the students to have an overall understanding of the colonial lifestyle and make connections to their lives, or did you want the students to identify specific dates and events taken place during the colonial times in America.
With regard to the culuminating activity, you might be able to give the students a couple projects to choose from. YOu could have them create a book which identifies important aspects of colonial life and simulataenous identifies similar aspects in current day living. For example on one page of the book the students could create a picture of a typical meal in colonial times, and then a typical meal in current day living on the next page so they are side by side. Along with the images, students would write brief descriptions of each image (coloinal times and current day)... Just an idea but it might work out well... I could explain in more detail when we meet in class.
One other question, what specific social studies standards or skills do you hope your students to achieve when they are finished with this unit.
I hope this helps!
Heather,
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about the picture book on immigration, you could probably use the graphic novel bought for this class. I know that you wanted a historical fiction, or expository text, but the graphic novel, The Arrival, clearly depicts the journey of immiagration. I really think you might want to implement that somewhere into the unit.
On your day 2 activity how were you planing to expose the studetns the the Journey and what it was like...will they be reading information on the journey, watching a video, having the students take down notes? How do you plan on presenting this material?
Also what type of culminating activity did you have in mind?
Heather, I really think the immigration unit is great, and there seems to be so many great opportunities for some exciting activities.
I hope my suggestions help.
With regard to the questions asked about my proposal:
ReplyDeleteProfessor, (question about aligning with s.s. curriculum)During the sophomore year of social studies (specifically the second semester) all sophomores take a class called Foundations of U.S. History. During this unit the teachers cover orginis of American communities including that of Salem and the events which took place during the Salem Witch Trials. Furthermore, In Standard 4 of the Social Studies Framework Students are required to apply history: initiate questions and hypotheses about historic events they are studing. This social studies standard directly relates to this unit as students will interact with and ask questions about the time period in which the Crucible takes place.
Furthermore this unit directly relates to Standard disucssing Historical Thinking where students must describe the multiple intersecting causes of events. This standard can be applied to both the study of The Salem Witch Trials and The Red Scare. Students will have the opportunity to understand the causes and events in both. (I may need to go back and create an acitivty which more directly relates to this standard and goal)
Question regarding professional development:
At East Hartford High School, we work on teams (An English, Social Studies, Science, and Math) teacher work together with the same group of students for two years. One of the goals of teaming is that teachers create interdisciplinary units. This unit is a great way to incorporate both the social studies and english curriuculms. Furthermore, during sophomore year students will participate in the CAPT teating where they must become more familiar with non fiction artciles in order to effectively answer the reading for information section on the CAPT test. This particular unit will allow students to practice those skills prior to taking the CAPT. This unit helps with my professional development in the sense that I will have the opporutnity to create an interdisciplinary unit.
**Professor, did the previously two responses effectively answer the questions you asked. I was a little confused as to what was expected as a response for the curriculum question and pd question. Thank you for your feedback!
As mentioned earlier, I will better convey the idea of allegory when alignining the historical thinking standard and recreating an activity that may more effectively convey the idea of allegory. Furthermore, the power point presentation and non fiction article on the Red Scare will play a major role in conveying the idea of allegory, I may need to have the students conduct a writing assignment to demonstrate their understanding of the idea of allegory.
Heather you had asked a question about the socratic seminar: A socratic seminar is similar to a fish bowl activity. There are two groups of students...two circles, one circle of students inside the other. The inner circle takes part in a discussion while the outer circle simply listens and take notes on the discussion taking place. The circles switch and the process goes on. The inner circle which was once the outer can now responds to the things said by the previous inner circle. (I hope this answer makes sense...) I can definitely explain it better in class if needed...
I hope my comments answered the proposed questions. Thanks
Ashley Prete
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input about activity 3, I think having the students create an entry about their daily lives is a great extension.
In regards to your question about my culminating activity, my overall goal for this unit is to have students be able to compare and contrast thier lives to the lives of colonial children. The idea about a compare and contrast book ties in well with this goal.
There are two Social Studies Standards that this unit addresses, are standards 3 and 4. The second performance standard states that students will be able to examine family life and culture of different peoples at different times in history. There were three performance assessments under content standard 4 state; students will exhibit curiosity and pose questions about the past when presented with artifacts, records or other evidence from the past. Students will display empathy for people who have lived in the past. Students will recognize relationships between events and people of the past and present circumstances, concerns and development.
I hope this clears up the confusion.
In regards to your unit, I love the idea of using images to help students understand and define fear. I was curious if students were able to work together for activities 2 and 3, and discuss their their thoughts. Also for activity 3 is there a specific style of notetaking students will use? I was interested in learning more about what a socratic seminar is. Is is like a debate?
Since you gave me a great idea for my culminating activity I thought I'd return the favor with an idea I had for yours. I'm not familiar with the book so I don't know if this will work. What do you think about having students select a character from, The Crucible and have them create a diary entry through that persons viewpoint and share it with the class. Maybe you could have students select a scene from the play that they think represents how collective fear can affect a group of people. These are just a few thoughts that I had that may work. Hopefully these ideas were helpful.
Heather,
In regards to your question about picture books there is one that comes to mind, Jouney to Ellis Island, How My Father Came to America by Carol Bierman.
The push and pull activity you discussed sounds like a great way to engage students and help them understand what immigration is. The website you found sounds like it gave you a lot of ideas!
I had a few questions about your research activity, will students be given materials to explore and time in class to find their country?
Also what is the culminating activity for this unit? What are you expecting students to demonstrate an understanding of at the end of this unit?
Mary
Dr. Kurkjian,
ReplyDeleteThis unit differs from how I usually teach this unit because in previous years I have only used the book If You Lived In Colonial Times. I break the story into sections based upon information discussed about Colonial Times. Then, I usually have students work with partners to read these designated pages and respond to open ended CMT style questions. After reading the article about the use of social studies textbooks I came up with a more engaging approach to teaching about Colonial Life. Through the RDG 585 class I had started to enhance the reading of this book, by creating a cyberlesson for this book. The use of differnt genres and technology will assist students in building background knowledge about colonial life, prior to reading this book. In the article the teacher used the textbook as a resource for students to obtain further information and did not have students read the book page by page. Although If You Lived in Colonial Times is not a textbook, it does contain a lot of information and is overwhelming to many of my students. In this integrated unit I will use this book as a resource for students to learn more about Colonial Life.
I am not sure what you mean when you asked about how does this unit address my PD needs?
The book I selected for my cyberlesson is a historical fiction that relates to colonial life through the eyes of a child. I have not fully developed this lesson, and am not 100% sure about using this particular book to create a cyberlesson around. This was one book I thought might work. I also thought about The Sign of the Beaver and somehow connecting the two. The cyberlesson is a work in progress. I am open to suggestions.
I hope that this response has clarified most of your questions.
Mary
Mary,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the great ideas! I will definitely use the journal entry idea. There are so many important characters in the story and I think if they write from the perspective of the character in a jounral entry they would better understand the story.
I also like the idea of the students working together to pick a scene which represents collective fear.
I am really going to have to go back and rearrange some of my activities so I can add your ideas in. I think they would really help make my unit more affective.
Thank you so much!
Mary and Ashley,
ReplyDeleteMy culminating activity would be the Ellis Island Simulation and Heritage Projects that the students will be adding to as they go through the unit. At the very end of the immigration unit the students all participate in an Ellis Island simulation. The students have to keep journal entries of their experience and how they think it pertained to that of real immigrants coming through Ellis Island. I will be looking for information that the students understand the immigrant experience and will be looking for factual information from shared readings, independent readings, the websites, ect. from class work in their journal and how they respond to the simulation. Also, I will look to see the research behind their Heritage Projects. Usually, I have my students research one of the countries from their own heritage. They should show me that they are really familiar with why the country they studied primarily emigrated to the U.S. What hardships did their own family members face? etc.
Heather
Mary,
ReplyDeletewith your title I "Linking the present to the past" I would try to include something about colonial times to your title so people will know what the unit is about.
I like how you have included different genres for your students such as the poems on colonial life on day 3.
Heather
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about my Day 2 activity called "The Journey and what it was like" I basically was just putting a heading down for what this day would be like. Basically, on day 2 the big question for my students is going to be What was the journey to America like for immigrants? I will then have books and activities and resources to go with this big question, but didn't yet have any specifics. I researched a whole bunch of books and now it would just be a matter of fitting a book with this question. I was thinking possibly Grandfathers Journey by Allen Say for one of the books. I might use The Arrival as another title. I was thinking about having groups of students work on different picture books that would tell about the journey to America and then have the students present a project of some sort showing the class what the journey was like and presenting their project through the class. Then, after all of the presentations I would have my students write a journal entry about what they thought the journey was really like based on all of the presentations. I'm focusing a lot on writing as a response to text so I want my students to always respond in their own notebooks after each days lesson. At the end of the unit I will be collecting my students journal entries on their thinking to the days lessons. What do you think about this idea? Ashley does this answer your question better for day 2's activity?
Dear all,
ReplyDeletePlease make sure you define the areas in your teaching in which you want to grow. That is what I mean in terms of PD needs. What areas do you want to enhance in your teaching- and/or in terms of your student's learning
Professor Kurkjain,
ReplyDeleteI want to enhance my unit on immigration by including lessons on immigrants other than of European decent. I plan I including a section on Angel Island in my unit, which is something I had not previously included when teaching the unit. I also found journal articles to help me learn more about Angel Island. Also, I would like to use more activities to aid with vocabulary development. Does this answer your question about PD needs?
Heather