INQUIRY- Where We Are in Place and Time

Header: Introduction to our next transdisciplinary unit, Where We Are in Place

and Time.
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Date of Lesson Enactment: November 20, 2015
Topic: How a timeline helps make our lives coherent and how it fits into the
larger, on-going, historical timeline.
Essential Questions: (What question(s) will students grapple with as they
learn through this lesson?)
-

How does history impact me as an individual today?

How does my place in time play a role in history?
Why is it important for me to know my place in time?
Primary Content Objectives:
Students will know: (facts/information)

The new transdisciplinary unit of Where We Are in Place and Time

Why it is important for us to use this broad unit of inquiry to look at science and
social studies
- How their own lives have a timeline/sequence of events
o How the events in their lives shaped who they are in place and time
-

Students will understand: (big ideas)

-

How understanding our place in time helps us understand the past and the
future
Students will be able to do: (skills and behaviors)

Create a timeline with the appropriate labels and markings

Make a timeline of historical events given relevant information

Create a timeline of their own lives

Related state or national standards: (Examples include State Standards of
Learning, Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards or
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies)

- History and Social Science Standards of Learning: Overall Goals

o Through the study of history, students can better understand their own society
as well as others. Students will understand chronological thinking and the
connections between causes and effects and between continuity and change.
History enables students to see how people in other times and places have
grappled with the fundamental questions of truth, justice, and personal
responsibility, understand that ideas have real consequences, and realize that
events are shaped by ideas and the actions of individuals. History shows the
relationship among past, current, and future issues.
Assessment: (How (and when) will students be assessed? What evidence will
you collect to determine whether students have met the lesson objectives? Will
the assessment(s) be a pre-assessment (diagnostic), formative (ongoing
feedback) or summative?)
-

Formative Assessment(s):
Students will also work on the their timeline activity and verbally share with me
why they chose the events that they did. The requirements will be to explain
how the event impacted them, their family, and the future implications that it
had on their lives. (APPENDIX A)
Summative Assessment(s):
This is the introduction to an entire quarter-long study. The summative
assessment of understanding the thematic study of where we are in place and
time will take place at the end of the quarter.
Materials and Resources: (List here all materials that you will need in order
to successfully teach this lesson. Include technology and website links, texts,
graphic organizers, student handouts, physical manipulatives, etc.)

Smart Board
Pencils/Markers
Construction Paper
Info cards on major events in history
Key Vocabulary and Definitions:

Timeline: A graph of important and or relevant dates to a specific topic or

subject.
Lesson Procedures:

1.
-

Introduction and goal orientation:

The lesson will take place over a period of two days
Introduce the Timeline of My Life assignment
Share with the students the new transdisciplinary unit we will be starting, called
Where We Are in Place and Time.

2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences: (Questions or activities that

help students make links)
- Connect it to how we inquired about How We Organized Ourselves for the first
quarter. Share with the students that we will be doing the same thematic study
with Where We Are in Place and Time
- Discuss with the whole group what it might mean.
- Day 2
- Discuss and share out with the class everyones timeline.
- Pose the challenge questions: how did your events play a role in how the rest of
your life has played out so far? Do you think there are historical events that do
the same thing, but for the world as a whole?
- If many of you experienced something similar, would it impact a large portion of
the population, impacting how the world plays out?
3. Tasks and activities: (What challenging tasks and activities will students engage
in as they construct knowledge, learn new skills or behaviors and develop
understandings?)
- Give students history info cards, discuss how each of those events may have
had a broader impact than just on the people who experienced it in the past.
- Do the events impact you? Even though you are in the present?
- Did they have future implications?
- Each table group picks one info card and writes up why they think it may have
had future implications/did have future implications/how it impacts us now.
4. Closure: (How will you wrap up the lesson and reinforce key ideas? Closure may
include some form of assessment or exit slip)
- Present/share out with the class the short written assignment and discuss as a
whole class about how it connects to Where We Are in Place and Time.
Accommodations for individual differences: How will you modify the
content (what is learned), the process (how the content is mastered) or product
(how the learning is observed and evaluated) to support diverse learners?
Describe additional supports that can be used for re-teaching if needed, and a

challenging extension for students for demonstrate mastery quickly or show

evidence of a lot of prior knowledge.
-

For students who have background knowledge about the historical events, give
them the opportunity to share out to the class to catch everyone up.
If they finish early, ask them to think about how their place in time may impact
the future.
For students who need some scaffolding, they will be working with peers in their
class who can help them. Our table groups were recently rearranged so that
there were various levels of students at each table group.
Behavioral and organizational strategies: What behaviors will you model or
discuss with students? What do you want to remember about organizing the
lesson and materials? Use this section for reminders to yourself about
behavioral and organizational strategies. For example, do you want to explicitly
model how to work with partners in this lesson? Or demonstrate how to use
mathematical tools?
To keep students engaged, give the students a chance to share their knowledge
and understanding.
Give them the freedom to interpret the assignment while also guiding them by
walking around the class.

APPENDIX A

My Life Timeline
Where We Are In Place and Time
Your goal is to create a timeline of important events in your life. Think of events that impacted you
greatly as an individual, or events that had future implications. Some questions you can ask yourself
are:
-

How did the event impact me?

How did the event impact my family?
How did the event have future implications in my life?
Did these events help me organize or reorganize different aspects of
my life?

You must have:

-

A minimum of five events, with a short (one sentence) description of

the event and a date

A title
The five events labeled on the timeline in chronological order

You can: make it visually appealing!

Use this space to brainstorm!
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