Date of Lesson: Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Time: 12:45pm

Length of Lesson: 15-20 minutes

Curriculum Area: Social Studies

Content Area: Shelters

Title of Lesson: Shelters in Italy

Age/Grade Level: 4th grade

Differentiation of activity is to be provided throughout the lesson plan to ensure that childrenŐs individual learning needs are met.

1. Learning Objectives:

                        Students will be able to identify different types of shelters in Italy.

                        Students will be able to explain why different shelters are in different locations.

                        Students will be able to explain what is used in building these different shelters.

                        Students will be able to explain why a specific type of transportation is used for a specific type of shelter.

2. Assessment:

(a) Learning outcomes of previous lesson related to this topic:

                        Students have had some experience with the geography of Italy.

                        Students should know that different locations require different types of shelters.

(b) Focus of assessment in this lesson (related to objectives):

                        Focus will be on studentsŐ abilities to match a picture of a type of transportation that should be used for a specific type of shelter.  For example, if someone lives on the water such as in Venice, the type of transportation that would be used would be a gondola or other type of boat.  Students should also be able to write a short explanation why that type of transportation would go with that particular shelter. 

(c) Method of assessment used in this lesson (example attached):

                        Teacher will tell the students about different types of shelters that are in Italy, such as villas in the streets and piazzas as well as types of shelters on the water like in Venice that are higher up.  For the shelters that are on the water, students should know why the houses are on stilts.  This can be for protection from the water, because when it rains too much and flooding occurs, the houses are less likely to be flooded if they are higher up on stilts. 

(d) Differentiation (of expected outcomes):

                        For students with disabilities, there could be pictures as well as words on the pieces of paper to describe the locations of the shelters as well as the type of shelters that would be in that location.  For advanced students, they might need to hear only the descriptions of the shelters instead of looking at the pictures too.

3. New York State Learning Standards:

            NYS Social Studies Learning Standard 3- Geography

            Geography requires the development and application of the skills of asking and answering geographic questions; analyzing theories of geography; and acquiring, organizing, and analyzing geographic information.  Students:

                        -Ask geographic questions about where places are located; why they are located where they are; what is important about their locations; and how their locations are related to the location of other people and places

                        -Gather and organize geographic information from a variety of sources and display in a number of ways

                        -Analyze geographic information by making relationships, interpreting trends and relationships, and analyzing geographic data

            NYS ELA Learning Standard 1- Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

            As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts.  As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.  Students:

                        -Gather and interpret information from childrenŐs reference books, magazines, textbooks, electronic bulletin boards, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, and from such forms as charts, graphs, maps and diagrams

                        -Select information appropriate to the purpose of their investigation and relate ideas from one text to another

                        -Select and use strategies they have been taught for note taking, organizing, and categorizing information

                        -Ask specific questions to clarify and extend meaning

                        -Make appropriate and effective use of strategies to construct meaning from print, such as prior knowledge about a subject, structural and context clues, and an understanding of letter-sound relationships to decode difficult words

                        -Support inferences about information and ideas with reference to text features, such as vocabulary and organizational patterns

4. Materials:

                        Lined paper

                        Pencils

                        Imagine a House by Angela Gustafson

                        Pictures of shelters in Italy

                        Pictures of different types of transportation

5. Lesson Process

(a) Introduction (5 minutes)/ Links to prior knowledge

                        Teacher will ask the students why they know about the country of Italy and the geography, such as the bodies of water that surround the peninsula.  Students should have some knowledge of the types of transportation and shelters that are in Italy, such as gondolas, villas, and different types of materials that are used to build these shelters such as stucco.  

(b) Learning procedures relating to objectives (10-15 minutes)

                        Teacher will read the book Imagine a House to the class, which features different types of shelters in different geographies and locations in different countries.  One house in particular is a house on stilts, which the Africans use to keep their houses from flooding when the rivers get too high.  The class would then talk about the different geographies and locations in Italy and discuss the different types of shelters that would be located there, such as in villas in Rome and the raised houses on the water in Venice.  The students would then play a game that involves matching a shelter with the location in Italy they think it would go.

(c) Conclusion (5-10 minutes):

                        Teacher will check the answers of the students to make sure their answers are correct.  The class as a whole will discuss the answers and the teacher will explain why

6. "If time"/extensions:

                        Students will write a short paragraph picking a type of shelter in a specific location in Italy.  For example, if the student picked Venice, the student could write about how the houses on the waterways, the type of transportation that would be appropriate for the water such as a gondola or other boat.  The student could also write about why they think that type of transportation would be appropriate for that type of shelter. 

7. References

                                    Imagine a House: A Journey to Fascinating Houses Around the World.  Angela Gustafson.  Out of the Box.  Minneapolis, MN

                                    English Language Arts Learning Standards.  http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/elastandards/elamap.html.  Retrieved on 11/7/08. 

                                    Social Studies Learning Standards.  http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/socstands/socstand.html.  Retrieved on 11/7/08.