Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Final Project

The lesson that I am using is one that I had to make for one of my other classes. It is a fourth grade lesson on Why people moved to California. It is a 2 day lesson and I am going to post my lesson plan to this post.




Lesson Plan
Concept / Topic to Teach: How and why did people travel to California?
History and Social Studies Standards: CA Standard 4.3.2
Compare how and why people traveled to California and the routes they traveled (e.g., James Beckwourth, John Bidwell, John C. Fremont, Pio Pico
Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills: 
·         Chronological and Spatial Thinking
o   Students use map and globe skills to determine the absolute locations of places and interpret information available through a map’s or globes legend, scale, and symbolic representations
·         Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View
o   Students differentiate between primary and secondary sources.
o   Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artworks, and architecture.
·         Historical Interpretation
o   Students summarize the key events of the era they are studying and explain the historical contexts of those events.
o   Students identify the human and physical characteristics of the places they are studying and explain how those features form the unique character of those places.
Multiple Intelligences:
·         Mathematical-Logical Intelligence
·         Visual-Spatial Intelligence
·         Interpersonal Intelligence
·         Intrapersonal Intelligence
Organization: Divide class into 4 groups
Grade Level: 4th grade
Time Duration: 2 Days (1 hour each day)

Required Materials:
·         PowerPoint Presentation
·         Map of world (enlarged/should already have up in classroom)
·         Explorer Biographies
·         Handouts
o   Outline Map of the Western United States
o   California Travelers Graphic Organizer
·         Art Supplies
Step-By-Step Procedures:
Day 1
o   PowerPoint Lesson Plan (attached printed out slide)
§  Go through the PowerPoint lesson and perform the mini ACT IT OUT that is included in the PowerPoint
Day 2
o   Introduce Activity:
§  Explain that the people who came to California in the 1700s and 1800s traveled in many different ways.  Using a classroom map of the world, describe many ways settlers came to California: overland from the East, across the Pacific Ocean from Asia, around Cape Horn, and across the Isthmus of Panama
o   Activity Steps:
1)      Divide the class into four groups.  Assign each group one of the following people: James Beckwourth, John Bidwell, John C. Fremont, and Pio Pico, and five them the corresponding Biographies.  Give each student and Outline Map of the Western United States handout and a California Travelers Graphic Organizer hand out
2)      Have members of each group read their biographies and record key points about the person in the appropriate section of the graphic organizer.  They most also label the route their person traveled on the map
3)      Project a large version of the Outline Map of the Western United States handout on the board.  Provide time for each group to share its findings with the class (6 minutes per group) and label the person’s route on the large map.  Have the rest of the class record the key points in the appropriate section of their graphic organizers, and then label the person’s travel route on their outline maps.  Conduct a discussion comparing and contrasting the journeys.
Extending the Lesson:
·         Depending on the time you have you can take the students outside for PE and have them complete and obstacle course and you can relate it back to the difficulties people had when coming to California and all the obstacles they had to overcome.
·         If you are teaching this lesson in the fall and you have a corn maze nearby, you can take a class field trip their and divide the class into four different groups and they have to find their way out of the corn maze.  However, they have to keep track of the route they take and you can relate it back to this topic.
References:
·         “Our California.” White, William. Our California. Illinois: Pearson Education Inc., 2006.
·         http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkd/
·         http://www.cahistorysocialscience.com/pdfs/g4_teacher_pp.pdf

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