Social Studies Lesson Plans





Social Studies Lesson Plan – Creating a Colony

Grade Level: 5

My Goals for the Lesson:
· Students will put themselves in the shoes of early colonists and understand the difficulties they must have faced coming to decisions that affected everyone.
· Students will work cooperatively to create their own colonies, with descriptions and rules. They will present their colony to the class and show a poster depicting it.

Connections to NCSCS:
· 8.3 Describe how governments in the United States, Canada, and Latin America select leaders and establish laws.
· SKILL IV: The learner will effectively participate in civic affairs.
Teacher Materials Needed:
· Markers for the class to use
· Poster boards for each group

Student Materials Needed:
· Pencil
· Paper

Launch:
Ask students to independently brainstorm a list of traits and laws they would want a country to have if they could create one for themselves to live in. It's okay for the traits to be silly! After about five minutes ask the students to stop.

Explore:
Explain to the students that they will be working in groups of four to collaborate their ideas into one new country, but instead of using the word country, they’re going to be creating colonies, like the thirteen that The United States began with.  Each group will be able to choose only three characteristics/laws from each person’s list for their colony and they must decide on these together. Then the group will create a poster for their colony, illustrating what it looks like and its traits and laws. They must remember also to agree on a name for their colony. Draw names from a hat to randomly form groups of about four, as colonists did not get to choose the people they had to make decisions with all the time. Let students work out their own disagreements.

Summarize:
Each student group will present its colony to the class. They will describe each trait or law of the colony and which group members they came from, and explain their poster, pointing out physical features, names of landmarks, etc. They’ll also describe any disputes the group had and how they finally came to an agreement, if they did.

Assessment/Evidence of Learning:
Before the end of the day, each individual student will write on a sheet of paper three things that they learned from this activity. This will help the teacher discover whether they understood the perspective of early colonists and the difficulty in sharing important decisions with others, and what, if any, their strategies for problem-solving were.
 

Social Studies Lesson Plan:
Introduction to Pilgrims (Launch Activity)
 

Focus:
Introduce the book the group is going to read, The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce, A Pilgrim Boy. I would hand out the book and ask students to look at cover and through the book to get them excited and ready to read it.

Objectives:
Social Studies 5th Grade
1.1 Identify, locate, and describe major groups of people, past and present, in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
11.1 Identify and describe changes, which have occurred in ways of living in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
11.2 Identify examples of cultural transmission and interaction within and among the regions of the Western Hemisphere.
11.3 Evaluate the effects of change on the lives of the people of the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
12.1 Identify people, symbols, and events associated with the heritage of the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
Language Arts 5th Grade
2.02 Interact with the text before, during, and after reading, listening, and viewing by:
· Making predictions.
· Formulating questions.
· Supporting answers from textual information, previous experience, and/or other sources.
· Drawing on personal, literary, and cultural understandings.
· Seeking additional information.

Materials Needed:
· 3 pieces of chart paper
· Marker

Teacher Input:
Hang up two pieces of the chart paper labeling them What We Know About Pilgrims and What We Want To Know About Pilgrims. Explain that on the first piece of chart paper we want to list all the things the group knows about pilgrims and on the second we want to list things that the group WANTS to know about pilgrims. The second list will be questions that the group will look for the answers while reading the book.

Guided Practice:
Students will when called upon give answers that can be put on two lists. Would be best to do one list at a time but is ok if there is some overlapping.
If students are having hard time getting started, some suggested questions to provoke their thinking are: Why they came? How many came? Where they came from? When they arrived? What they ate? There is no set amount of items for list, just do as many as you can till you feel the topic is exhausted.

Independent Practice:
After the two lists are completed, students can break up to begin reading the book. Remind them that as they are reading to keep their eyes open for answers to their questions about pilgrims.

Closure:
Closure of this activity will actually occur after students are finished reading the book. You would bring out the first two pieces of chart paper and put up the third beside the two. This one would be labeled What We Have Learned About the Pilgrims. True to its name, after having a closing discussion using the first to lists as prompts, you list items that the group has learned about pilgrims. Make sure to draw attention to misconceptions that were clarified after the reading.

Resources: http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/TLresources/longterm/LessonPlans/socst/Brower.html
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/
 

Social Studies-Salem Witch Trials, Courtroom Reenactment

Grade Level: Fifth Grade
Teacher Materials:
- Some type of gavel
- Movie clip with a courtroom scene, (To Kill A Mockingbird)
Student Materials:
-Paper
-Pencils

My goals for this lesson:
-The students will get a better understanding of the Salem Witch Trials.
-The students will be able to act out the material in which they have learned about through their literature circles.
-The class will get a better understanding of the United States judicial system.
-The students will be able to work together and discuss their views on how the women were treated in Salem, Mass. during the late 1600’s.

Related NC Standard Course of Study Goals/Objectives:
1.2 Describe similarities and differences among the people of the United States, and Latin America.
2.2 Evaluate the influence of beliefs, individuals, and practices associated with major religions in the United States, Latin America.
6.3 Judge how changes in the movement of people, goods, and ideas have affected ways of living in the Western Hemisphere.
8.1 Identify the three levels of government in the United States and describe their legislative, executive and judicial functions.
8.4 Compare forms of government in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and explain how they have changed over time.

Launch:
The class as a whole will have completed their literature circles for the Salem Witch Trials unit.  They will be able to share with one another what they have learned.  The class will watch a clip from a movie with a courtroom scene (To Kill A Mockingbird).  The students will be asked to pay special attention to the people in the courtroom.  What are their jobs?  How is this all working?  The teacher will explain to the students that our judicial system has changed from back in the days of the witch trails.

Explore:
The class will decide who will act out each character.  As a group activity, the class will recreate the Salem witch trials.  Instead of having the girls represent themselves, we will have lawyers.  The defense team, prosecutions team, judge and jury will all meet together.  The teams will have to brainstorm their different points of view.  The groups will need to take note to be sure they are coming up with logical stories.  Their cases need to be filled with factual information so that this will be a learning experience.  The rest of the class can act as witnesses for either side of the cases.  They can use characters from the books, or even create some of their own.  Once the groups have had enough time, the class will have the court case.  The teacher will monitor this.  It may be a good idea that the teacher is the judge in the case, so that he/she can have control over the situation.

Summarize:
The judge and jury can confer to see who they believe proved their cases the best.  After the ruling, the students can write why they believe the case ended the way it did.  The students who did not talk, as much will be able to express their ideas through their writing.  They will answer the following questions:
1. What did the winning group do to win the case?
2. What are at least three points they used to express their case?
3. What do you think should have done differently in the group that lost the case?
4. If you were the judge how would you have decided the case? Why?

Assessment/Evidence of Learning:
The teacher will be able to monitor this activity throughout the entire process.  The teacher can walk around seeing which children are helping plan the discussion.  The journal writings will be another way to assess.  This lesson is not really meant to “teach” so much about the Salem witch trails.  It is a review and a fun activity for the students to prove how much they learned through the literature circle.

Resources:
http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/tips.html
Salem Witch Trials Literature Circles
 

Social Studies Lesson Plan

Student Materials Needed:

Teacher Materials Needed My Goals for the lesson Related NC STandard Course of Study Goals

        1.1 Identify, locate, and describe major groups of people, past and present, in the US, Canada, and
        Latin America.
        1.3 Assess the role and status of individuals and groups in the US, Canada, and Latin America,
        past and present.
        6.2 Compare ways n which people, goods, and ideas moved in the past in the US, Canada, and Latin
        America with their movement today.
        11.1 Identify and describe changes which have occurred in ways of living in the US, Canada and
        Latin AMerica.
        12.1 Identify people, symbols, and events associated with the heritage of the US, Canada, and Latin
        America.

Launch:
    Read Joy Hakim's Making Thirteen Colonies to the class. Split them into groups of five or six students, called families. Explain that each child is a member of a family. The families have all been transported back into time to Colonial America. Each family needs to work together to find out what life was like at that time. Each family will then compare Colonial life to our lives today. An overhead transparency with guiding questions should be displayed. The sources of information for the this project are the library and the Internet.

Explore:
    Students will get into their groups and determine how they will research their information. Each family must use at least three print sources, and at least four sources from the World Wide Web. When the family regroups after finding their information, they should make an index card for each question. Below the question, the students should list any information they have discovered about that subject. Each family should then prepare a chart comparing and contrasting Colonial life with their present life.

Summarize:
    Each family will be assigned one or two questions to orally present their answers t the rest of the class. The compare/contrast charts will then be displayed, and a discussion about what is on the charts.

Assessment/Evidence of Learning:
    Check in with families t make sure they are on the right track, and they are finding useful resources. The note cards can be checked for accuracy and elaboration. The oral report should also be assessed. The charts and ending discussion should provide insight as t how well the class grasped this subject. This should give some clues as to whether it is time to move on to the next lesson or not.

Questions for Overhead: