Marshe Collins Inquiry 4 Choice 1: Making Your Social Studies Beliefs Real Based off of my culture, race, and

background, I find that it is very important for individuals to continue to learn about the history of their people as well as the history of others. As a nation, we have all had many obstacles to face and overcome. With that being said, we can learn to empathize with other cultures based off of our knowledge about their history. With the things that we know about ourselves, we can teach others so that we can decrease the stereotypes floating around. By everyone knowing a part of another persons history, chances of building positive relationships are increased amongst that group of people. I want my classroom of students to be able to experience this. By them getting a chance to get to know everyone on a deeper level, they can create the type of bond that will result in the type of classroom environment that I hope to achieve; one in which everyone shows respect to others and aims to learn more about other cultures outside of their own. History teaches everything including the future. Lamartine This semester, I was able to introduce to my group of students a few holidays celebrated from different cultures. The make-up of my classroom is 100% Caucasian and it is filled with students who celebrate holidays from the American culture. Based off of what I knew about the students, I wanted to expose them to holidays that other cultures celebrate so that they would hear about the things other children do around this holiday time. The holidays included

Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Chinese New Year. As I asked students questions about the days they celebrate, I also tried to see what they already knew about other cultures. Then, I read the students books about the previously mentioned cultures and we discussed them. In the process of doing the activity and having a discussion, I was able to learn more about the students and what they have been exposed to. Through the activity, I was able to incorporate information about students families and cultures, and use it as a basis for connecting the instruction to the students experiences. While learning more about them and teaching them about other cultures, I was able to demonstrate a positive regard for individual students and their families regardless of culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and varying abilities. Despite what they do or dont celebrate, the purpose was for them to be exposed to new information about others. History is something that happens to other people. Anonymous Based off of what I learned from the assignment I was able to do with the students, I decided that I want to go a step further when the time presents itself in my own classroom. While learning about traditional holidays is something new, I also want students to learn about the history, culture, values, and beliefs of others told by them. The textbook can sometimes be an invalid source due to the biases of the different authors. Therefore, for activities, I want the students to learn things about their families from their actual family members. I want them to take the information they learn and then write their own historical documents. The word history speaks for itself with its meaning. It is the story of an individual based off of the information

they are presented. Therefore, its okay for students to come up with their own story on how things went. History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. George Santayana While I hope to get a teaching position in elementary grades, my ideal grade level is fourth. With the assignments that are presented in this project, my main goals for the students are for them to learn more about their history, educate others about their history, learn more about the history of others, and create their own work so that what they learned will be taken into account and recorded. When I think about history, I think about the many events that happened to groups of people in the past that contributes to what is happening in the present. I realize the importance of my students learning about their history and how it relates to others. Throughout the school year, I am giving my students assignments that will allow for them to see why its important to know what happened in the past so that they can have a better understanding of why things occur in the present. Just like previous historians, I want my students to contribute to society by educating people on their history. They owe it to themselves to be educated about their past. But, they owe it to future generations to recycle the information theyve learned. Once we learn our history and educate others about it, we too will be considered a contributor to todays society. Marshe Collins

Annotated Lesson Plan 1 Lesson: Learning About Your History

Time of year for lesson: End of 1st Quarter Enduring Understandings or Essential Questions for bigger concept: (2-3 EUs or EQs) Tell me about the order of things/events that took place in order for you race to gain its full independence? Using information from the people in your family of different generations, explain what life was like before your time. Prerequisite Knowledge/Experiencesstudents will need to know how they can use their resources to find out specific things that occurred in history. They must be able to conduct an interview with an adult to get information on what the world was like before they existed. Materials: Access to the library and its resources Interview sheets that will ask the following information: Gender Race Birth year What was life like when you were a child? What type of education were you able to receive? How were you treated by people of your race? Different Races? What is one thing that you really wanted to change during your time? A Detailed Description of how this lesson will proceed: Students will interview adults in their families from different generations to learn about the obstacles they faced and had to overcome. They will use information on the web, textbooks, and other resources to create a timeline of the things that happened in order for the people of their race to gain their independence and be treated equally. Students will be responsible for turning in a timeline of at least 10 events, an explanation of why the events were important, and a sheet with the responses of three people that were interviewed from at least 2 different generations. Students will be assessed on the information they were able to gather and their explanation on the importance of the events. Annotated Lesson Plan 2

Lesson: Acting Out Your History

Time of year for lesson: End of 2nd Quarter Enduring Understandings or Essential Questions for bigger concept: (2-3 EUs or EQs) In what ways have the events that happened in history affected the people of your race? What was it like to be a black/Hispanic/Asian person in the early-mid 1900s? Prerequisite Knowledge/Experiencesstudents will need to know how they can use their resources in order to create a character from the early-mid 1900s period. Materials: Wigs

Clothes Props Chair A Detailed Description of how this lesson will proceed: Students will learn about the different events that affected the people in their particular race. Once they have gathered enough information, they will be responsible for keeping a report on what sources they gathered their information on. The students will then be placed in the Hot Seat in which they will dress up a character from their time and answer questions that would pertain to that person. Questions might include: What was it like living in your time? Were you treated the same as everyone else? What kind of jobs were you able to get? What type of education were you able to receive? Where you able to make a difference amongst your people? How has things changed since then? Once the person is through giving information to their classmates, one will sum up the key points in which the person made throughout their reenactment. After each reenactment, the class will be responsible for listing three things they learned from that person. The students will be assessed based on how well they acted out their character, how well they were able to answer questions, and how well they paid attention to others.

Annotated Lesson Plan 3 Lesson: Getting to Where We Are

Time of year for lesson: End of 3rd Quarter Enduring Understandings or Essential Questions for bigger concept: (2-3 EUs or EQs) Name the people who made big contributions to our society. List important events that took place in history that led us up to where we are today. Prerequisite Knowledge/Experiencesstudents will need to know the important people and things from the past that have made an impact on todays society Materials: List of important dates and people Poster board Coloring Utensils

A Detailed Description of how this lesson will proceed: Students will form groups of about 3-4 to create their own board game. The board game will consist of questions about people and events from the list given to them. Just like the people had obstacles to overcome, there must be obstacles in the game in which players would have to go back or miss a turn. The object of the game is to get from where we used to be as a people to where we are now. After the games are constructed, the students will take turns playing each other games. In the process of them playing the games, they will have to answer questions about the past and important people and overcome the obstacles in order to reach the finish line. The students will be assessed on their creativity and knowledge.

Full Lesson Plan Grade Level: 4th Position within sequence: End of 4th Quarter Enduring Understandings or Essential Questions for bigger concept (2-3 EUs and EQs) From what you have gathered and learn throughout the year, tell me about the historical events that took place? Using all of your resources and the assignments that you have done prior to this one, list the important people and things that occurred as well as their significance to society. Student Objectives/Student Outcomes Students will use the information they have learned and gathered through the interview, hot seat reenactment, and board game to create their own history book. Social Justice principles SJ#1 and SJ#2 Content Standards 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past, present and future time; place themselves in time. 16.A.2b Compare different stories about a historical figure or event and analyze differences in the portrayals and perspectives they present. Assessment for this lesson: Based off of the information they have learned throughout the year via assignments, textbooks, and class discussions, students will be responsible for creating a book about history or herstory in which they will discuss important people and things that has occurred up until now. Based off of the information that is presented in their book, students will show me what they considered to be important and what should be passed down to a future generation. They will be assessed using a rubric that will be passed out when directions will be given. Prerequisite Knowledge: Students must know the different things that took place in history that was discussed in the class. Approximate Time 5- 1 hour periods Materials/Resources/Technology Computer Lab Previous Assignments Opening of lesson: Students will be reminded about the 3 previous assignments that they did during the school year. They will be reminded about how important it was for them to learn about the history of their people as well as the people from different races. A quick discussion will take place in which students will answer the following questions: SJ#2 What information did you learn about your own race? What information were you able to teach others? What did you learn about other people outside of your race and how they contributed to society? They will then be told how history is a combination of stories told by different individuals and how important it is for everyones story to be heard. The teacher will then go into details by telling the students how they will create their own book of 12-15 pages that will consist of events, people, interviews, pictures, and their own opinions. They will be told how important they are as individuals and how they should contribute to society by giving their story. SJ#1 Accommodations*- Students that might appear to struggle with the assignment will be responsible for

turning in a book that has 8-10 pages. Everyone will have the option of being able to work on the assignment outside of class if they need more time. Procedures: For the 1st two days, students will gather information that can be included in their book. This includes the information that was gathered from the previous assignments. They will use the internet to gather pictures and information about events and people they need to learn more about. They will view books as examples of how they can structure and create their own books. For the next two days, students will put the information they gathered in the order of which things happened together to create their actual book. They will include their own opinions about the different things that took place and label it under sections titled Authors Opinion so that the reader can distinct between the authors thoughts and the information that they gathered. Students will create a reference page that tells where they received their information. . Summary/Closing of the lesson On the last Day, students will present their books to the class and will be assessed based off of the given rubric.

Social Learning Applications Rubric (Self-Evaluation) Rationale Statements Should 1. Be clearly stated. a. My Interpretation: The reader is able to understand the specific reasons for using the lesson plans. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 2. Have solid justification from your academic readings/research (which have been cited) and your clinical experience. a. My Interpretation: The rationale includes at least TWO pieces of specific evidence from my personal experience and TWO pieces of specific (and properly cited) evidence from academic readings from any class. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 3. Explain why these beliefs should be put into action at your chosen grade level. a. My Interpretation: The rationale should connect theory with practice by using research and experiential examples that make sense in a second grade classroom. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Total: 28/ 30 points Your Lesson Plans/Ideas Should 1. Reflect your beliefs. a. My Interpretation: The techniques/activities in my lessons clearly relate to my rationale. 10 . 2. Be developmentally appropriate. a. My Interpretation: For me, developmentally appropriate means appropriate for fourth graders in terms of content, ability level(s), and materials needed. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 3. Have creative and engaging activities that apply a variety of instructional strategies. a. My Interpretation: The activities seem similar to activities that fourth grade students would choose. Also, the teacher presents information in many different ways. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 4. Address a variety of learning styles in both the lessons and assessments. a. My Interpretation: Students have many options on how to perform tasks and present their findings. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

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5. Have authentic assessments that have a clear intent. a. My Interpretation: Assessments clearly relate to the goals of the lesson/activity, and are explained to students clearly. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 6. Include sensitivity to issues of diversity and social justice. a. My Interpretation: Lessons/Activities include all students equally and promote action. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 7. Include multiple perspectives where appropriate. a. My Interpretation: There is a variety of sources from which students can draw from, and the teacher presents information from different sources during instruction.. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 8. Have a logical and meaningful sequence if meant to be taught in a sequence. a. My Interpretation: Lessons/Activities draw from previously acquired knowledge. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9. Be authentically yours; you may pull the kernel of a lesson idea from the web, a book, or and experience, but then must expand and develop that idea into a meaningful activity that reflects your specific intent for your students. a. My Interpretation: The reader will NOT be able to find the lesson, word-for-word, using the citations or otherwise (although coincidences may occur), and the lessons are specific enough to clearly relate to the rationale and previous/subsequent lessons. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Total: 88/ 90 points