kelly harrell ss unit...
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Kelly Harrell Spring 2014
Social Studies Unit Plan: 2nd Grade Civics Topic & Rationale
This unit will focus on how people work together to improve their community and how to be a responsible community member. Some of the main ideas that we will focus on include the characteristics of a responsible community member, how individuals can make positive contributions to their families, schools, and communities, and how citizens can use their local resources to take action in their community. This unit is significant to our class because students will expand their understanding of how individuals can advocate for their ideas and work to improve the lives of other people in their community. We will also have discussions about how to work together to accomplish a goal, which is an important concept to our classroom and school community.
The overall goals for this unit are for students to identify the characteristics of a responsible community member and understand how they can make positive contributions to their communities by taking a stand. We will also discuss local organizations and resources that people can get involved with in order to put their ideas into action. Our discussions will relate to our classroom community, school community, family, and local community of Commerce City.
This topic connects to the current lives of the students and the community in so many ways due to the nature of the content and key concepts. By identifying the qualities and characteristics of a responsible community member, students will increase their understanding of how to best work with others in the classroom, throughout the school, at home, and in the community. This unit will also allow students to explore local government departments, resources, and community leadership roles in Commerce City, which will help them solve a problem that is meaningful to them. By incorporating place-‐based learning into this unit, students will “gain a deep understanding of the place they call home, including the cultural, natural, political, and economic processes that make it work and give it its character” (Schmidt, p.129).
2nd Grade Social Studies Standard • Responsible community members advocate for their ideas (Standard 4 Civics 1 from
Colorado Department of Education).
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Common Core Literacy Standard: Speaking & Listening • Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and
texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups (CCSS.ELA-‐LITERACY.SL.2.1). Essential Questions
1. What does it mean to be a responsible community member? 2. How can people work together to improve their community?
Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas
1. Responsible community members advocate for their ideas. 2. People can work together to improve their communities. 3. It is important to understand the roles and responsibilities of community leaders and
organizations. 4. People must cooperate and show respect for the different beliefs and ideas that people
share within a community.
Learner Outcomes Students will understand:
1. Responsible community members work together to improve their community 2. How to identify a problem in their school or local community and create an action plan
to solve the problem. 3. How to research local organizations and resources that are important to their
community. Students will be able to:
1. Explain ways that people express their ideas respectfully. 2. Describe characteristics of a responsible community member. 3. Identify how people monitor and influence decisions in their community 4. Work together to identify a problem and create an action plan to solve the problem. 5. Identify and give examples of civic responsibilities that are important to individuals,
families, and communities Overview of Major Activities
1. Create a citizen: Divide students into groups of 3 or 4, give each group a blank sheet of poster board and have them draw a “superstar citizen”. Make sure that they list the characteristics of their citizen and what their responsibilities are in their community.
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After completing their citizens, groups will share their citizens with the class and we will hang the posters on the wall in our classroom.
2. Hometown Tourist: Using city maps, brochures, event calendars, newspapers, and other printed materials about Commerce City, students will conduct research about their community. They will then share any new ideas or interesting facts that they found during their research through a Whip Around activity.
3. Create Your Own Community Map: Students will work in groups to draw a map of their dream community. They can include any buildings, geographical land forms, resources, and organizations that they want for their make believe community. After students create their own community maps, we will look at a real-‐life map of their town and do a compare and contrast on the real community map vs. the make believe maps.
4. Community Research Scavenger Hunt: Give students a list of kid-‐friendly websites, periodicals, and local brochures, maps, newspapers, etc. and a list of questions to research about their community. Websites could include the local government website, school website, or local newspaper online.
5. Group Project: Community Action Plans: As an ongoing project during the second half
of the unit, students will identify a problem or issue that is important to them. The problem that they choose can be a problem in their school or a problem in their local community. Next, they will work in groups to create an action plan to solve the problem and therefore improve their community. Students will have time in class to research local organizations or school resources that they would need to work with in order to solve their problem. Each action plan should state the problem or issue, why the issue is important to them, a description of the specific steps they will need to complete in order to resolve the problem or issue, and an explanation of how this action plan will make a positive contribution to their community. Groups can present their action plans by making a poster, writing a newspaper article, giving a presentation, performing a skit, writing a paper or outline, or creating a brochure. Students will share their action plans with the class and any family members, faculty members, and local community members who are able to attend. This project is not a summative assessment and is not included as part of the Performance Goal.
Assessments • Formative:
1. Exit Tickets 2. Whip Arounds 3. Classroom observations 4. Community Explorers Journal
• Summative:
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1. Group Project: Community Action Plans
Key Concepts & Vocabulary Community, Community involvement, citizen, responsible citizen, advocacy, action plan, stakeholder Visual Representations • Pictures (See Appendix A)
o pictures of young people performing community service o pictures of community workers such as police officers, crossing guards, fire fighters,
etc. o pictures of people and/or cartoon figures that are connected to show community o a drawing of a boy recycling to show a responsible citizen o pictures or cartoon figures of people raising their hands or making a declaration to
show advocacy o people or cartoon figures writing or making a list to show an action plan o photos of Commerce City’s City Council members, the Mayor, the Police Chief, our
school principal, and a picture of our class will be displayed as examples of stakeholders.
• Graphic Organizer: See Appendix B o Action Plan Graphic Organizer
Overview of Language Forms and Functions • Inquiry/Seek Information
o Something else I’d like to know is… o Based on my experience, I think…
• Problem Solving o In order to solve this problem we must first…. o The solution to this problem will require…
Family & Community Outreach Parents, faculty, and local community members will be invited to our classroom to watch the group Action Plan presentations at the end of the unit. Additionally, we will be involved with family and community concepts through our class discussions, community exploration, and neighborhood walk.
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Field Trips Visit Town Hall Neighborhood Walk Virtual Field Trip: Explore Local Government Websites and newspapers Virtual Field Trip: watch videos of local news stories Teacher Resources Augsburg College Public Achievement Online Teacher Guide: http://inside.augsburg.edu/publicachievement/teachers/teacher-‐guide-‐overview/ Annenberg Learner: Social Studies in Action: http://www.learner.org/libraries/socialstudies/k_2/vaughn/index.html Center for Civic Education: http://new.civiced.org Youth Service America’s Semester of Service Strategy Guide: http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/gysd/pages/3101/attachments/original/1386535491/YSA-‐2013-‐Semester-‐of-‐Service-‐Strategy-‐Guide.pdf?1386535491 Youth Service America’s Classrooms With A Cause Facilitator Guide: http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/gysd/pages/3336/attachments/original/1392327442/Classroom_Facilitators_Guide_Final_2-‐12.pdf?1392327442 Massachusetts Dept. of Education – Service Learning Project Ideas for all grade levels: http://www.doe.mass.edu/csl/grades.html?section=elem Online Directory of Civic Education Programs in Colorado: http://www.lawanddemocracy.org/cde.draft.dir.cat.html Matrix of Literacy and Oral Language Reading/Viewing Fiction
• City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-‐Ryan • My Grandma’s the Mayor by Marjorie White Pellegrino & John
Lund • The Big Orange Splot by Manus Pinkwater • Grandpa’s Corner Store by DyAnne DiSalvo-‐Ryan • Pearl Moscowitz’s Last Stand by Arthur A. Levine • If Everybody Did by Jo Ann Stover
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Non-‐Fiction • Olivia’s Birds by Olivia Bouler • The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles • We Live Here Too by Nancy Loewen • If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks by Faith Ringgold • Being A Good Citizen by Adrian Vigliano • The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette
Winter • Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson • Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull Web Resources Kids Can Make A Difference: http://www.kidscanmakeadifference.org Youth Service America: Inspriring Projects: http://www.ysa.org/resources Commerce City Youth Commission: http://www.c3gov.com/index.aspx?NID=826 Commerce City Government Website: https://www.c3gov.com Commerce City Sentinel: http://www.commercecitysentinel.com/news
Writing 1. Community Explorers Journal: Students will keep a journal
throughout the unit to write down reflections, questions that they might have, KWL Charts, newspaper cut outs, community brochures or maps, and research findings.
2. Power Writing: based on prompts such as “What does community mean to you?”, “How do you show that you are a responsible member of our classroom/school/town community?”, or “If you could interview any of the influential people or characters that we have read about (Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, Ruby Bridges, etc.), who would you choose and why?”
3. Interactive Writing: Work together as a class or in small groups to put together a Community Action Plan that will help solve a problem that we choose as a class.
4. “I am…” Poems: After reading about and discussing various
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historical figures and fictional characters who advocated for their ideas (i.e. Jane Gooddall, Ruby Bridges, Nelson Mandela, Marcy from City Green, Pearl Moscowitz, etc.), students will write poems from the perspective of these characters or real-‐life advocates.
Oral Interaction 1. Post A Connection: begin the unit on Community by having a group discussion with sentence starters such as “One thing I like about my community is…” or “I think that a responsible citizen is someone who…”. Students will continue the discussion by sharing what the topic makes them think of or they can give an example of how it relates to something that they have already learned.
2. Vocabulary Definition Predictions: using the new key vocabulary words for the unit, students will make predictions about what they think the word means and then perform a Think, Pair, Share about their ideas before learning the real meanings of the words.
3. Whip Around Activities: at the end of lessons we will have class Whip Arounds with the option to “pass”. Students will be given a few sentence starters such as “Today I learned that______.”, “One thing I wonder about is________.”, “The thing that was most surprising to me was______.”, or “The most interesting thing that I learned about was______.”.
4. Action Plan Group Project Presentations: Towards the end of the unit, students will work in groups to identify a problem that is important to them and create a community action plan to solve the problem. After completing the action plan, they can present their work to the class, other students, faculty members, family members, and community members through a presentation style of their choice. Options for presentations include writing a speech, performing a skit, sharing a poster, writing and performing a song, rap, or poem, writing an editorial and reading it to the class, or making a video.
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Appendix A – Photos for Visual Representation of Abstract Concepts Community:
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Community Involvement
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Responsible citizen
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Advocacy
Action plan
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Stakeholders Commerce City Council Members
Sean Ford, Mayor of Commerce City Troy Smith, Commerce City Police Chief
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Stakeholders continued:
Mr. Abdale, Alsup School Principal
Our Class
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Appendix B – Action Plan Graphic Organizer
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