Title Page
Instructional Ideas & Extensions
This literature circle unit extends to many subject areas within the curriculum. The unit can incorporate areas of social studies through the roles of Investigator, Travel Tracer, Artful Artist, and Connector as well as language arts, and writing.
Extensions to other subject areas:
- (Social Studies) The children will pretend to be a pioneer as they plan their own trip westward across the country.
- (Language Arts & Writing) Have children write a story about their family as pioneers. They should include things which explain how they live their lives as a pioneer.
- Compare and contrast the movement of people westward from the past across the country to movements today.
Modifications for the:Special Needs Learner:
ESL Student:
- Incorporate additional activities to keep them on task
- Pair them with other students for reading and jobs
- Read the assigned sections aloud
- Allow them to choose the job they will be most successful doing, if they are poor writers, allow them to do jobs involving illustrations
- Tape record the readings
- Use large print books
- Provide individualized instruction
- Find an interesting way to show they know the answer to questions during discussions (tapping your nose, tugging your ear)
- Provide tape recorded versions of the readings
- Allow them to work with a Special Needs teacher to translate into their language
- Allow them to incorporate their language into the story and jobs, where appropriate (for Word Wizard, they could give the translation of the word in their language
- Partner reading
- Echo reading
- Prereading sections before reading aloud
- Use picture sorts to increase their image/name recognition
- Place them in a lower level group, where they can work on fluency, translation, reading rate, etc, so that they can gradually move up
Pioneers of the American West
By:
Tracy Hutchens, Jennifer Lucas,
Cammie Mitchell, and Emily Pratt