Date of Lesson: 11/12/08 Time: 12:45pm Length of lesson: 30 minutes
Curriculum Area: Social Studies Content Area: Shelter
Title of Lesson: Native American Shelter
Age/Grade level: 4th grade
Differentiation of
activity is to be provided throughout the lesson plan to ensure that childrenÕs
individual learning needs are met.
1. Learning Objectives
× Students will be able to categorize the different types of Native American shelters throughout the United States by matching shelter facts with the corresponding picture.
× Students will be able to check their activity answers with the picture board provided at the center.
× Students will be able to draw their favorite Native American shelter and include an explanation of why they chose it.
2. Assessment
(a) Learning outcomes of previous lesson related to this topic – As a class we read Life in A Long House Village and learned about the northeastern Indians and their way of life in long houses. After reading this book students should have a basic understanding of Native Americans. They should also have a basic understanding of what shelter is.
(b) Focus of assessment in this lesson (related to objectives) – The focus of assessment will be on studentsÕ ability to categorize the many shelters of Native Americans throughout the United States. Students will also choose a shelter they would like to live in and create a drawing of that shelter using a blank sheet of paper and colored pencils.
(c) Method of assessment used in this lesson – The teacher will facilitate around the room to make sure students are matching the correct shelter to the correct information. The teacher will be around to answer any questions the students may have. The board provided at the learning center will be a way for students to assess their own learning. They can look to see if they matched the index cards correctly. I will conduct a whole class discussion at the end of the lesson to make sure they understand the Native American shelters we learned about.
(d) Differentiation (of expected outcomes) – I will create an example of a shelter that I would like to live in for those students who are unsure of what they can do. I will provide a handout of shelters with an explanation for students to keep for themselves. The lesson is already differentiated because students are able to control their own learning and at their own pace. The students will also have the choice of creating their own three dimensional shelter at home and bring it to class the following week. Those students who want to can present their visuals to the class.
New York State
Learning Standards
Social Studies
Standard 3: Geography- Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the EarthÕs surface.
Students: Gather and organize geographic information from a variety of sources and display in a number of ways.
ELA
Standard 1 – Students
will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding.
1C. Students select
and use strategies they have been taught for note taking, organizing, and
categorizing information.
4. Materials - poster board, construction paper, colored pencils, glue, scissors, book, index cards
5. Lesson Process
(a) Introduction (5 minutes)
I will explain to the students the activity that they are going to be working on. They will break up into small groups of three to four people. I will explain to the students that they are going to play a matching game. Using their prior knowledge of Native Americans and shelter they will match the correct picture to the written information in the index cards. I will hand out fourteen index cards to each group, seven will be pictures of the different types of shelter and the other seven will be index cards that have the information on them. I will ask the students if they have any questions. After questions are answered, I will tell the students to begin playing the game.
(b) Learning procedures relating to objectives (15-20 minutes)
The students will work within their groups (or when they have time if they are at the learning center by themselves) to match the information with the correct shelter. Using social skills and team work students will have to talk to work together to find the answers. Since this is new information presented to them, they should take a while to complete the activity. Students can check their work by discussing with the group next to them what they came up with. When they are finished they can go to the Native American Shelter board to see if they matched the information to the correct shelter.
Conclusion (5-10 minutes)
I will close the lesson by bringing the whole class back together for a discussion. Questions I will ask to check for understanding are:
What type of shelter is most likely found in the North Eastern part of the United States?
What was this type of shelter made from?
What part of the United States did the Native Americans build Tepees?
Why were wigwams helpful against the worst weather in any region?
6. ŌIf timeĶ/ extensions – The students will choose a shelter that they would want to live in and write a few sentences about it. Then students will pair up and discuss the type of shelter they would want to live in and explain why.
7. References
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/socstands/socstand.html
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/settlements/
http://usny.nysed.gov/teachers/nyslearningstandards.html
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/settlements/
In the start my group had a lot of trouble with deciding what to do our learning center of shelter on. Then we all agreed to do different countries because we thought it would be easiest, but in reality we made our lives even harder. We all met at the library numerous times to work on our projects. I feel that we all put a lot of effort into our projects and worked together well, as we always do. Each of us worked cooperatively and independently.
I feel that my participation level for this assignment has been very high. Originally we were going to create an activity for the class using DanielleÕs lesson. I created a poster board because I knew we werenÕt going to create a power point. I figured I would want to show the class a visual of what I would do, as if I was really implementing the lesson. Danielle saw my poster and thought it would be a great idea to turn it into the class activity. With that being said, I created the index cards as a class activity that goes along with the poster board. I spent numerous hours working on this assignment and really enjoyed learning more about Native American shelter.