Social Studies Unit Plan 1 st Grade

1. Social Studies Unit Plan1st Grade American History: Cooperation, Toleration, and Conflict in Early America

2. American History: Cooperation, Toleration, and Conflict in Early America • Native America • European Exploration • European/Native Encounters • Thanksgiving Day and Columbus Day • Mapping European Exploration and Native America

3. Key Perspectives • Activist: Children should come to see themselves as truth tellers and change makers. • Multicultural, anti-racist, pro-justice: The children should discover the truth behind the roots of the country and the Native Americans who were the original inhabitants of this country. • Grounded in the lives of our students: The Children should look at how the European Explorers their culture to the country and how the culture is related to their lives today.

4. School 1 Very supportive of Thanksgiving and discussed what it meant. 1st graders said it was “to give thanks and to be thankful for what we have”. Need to learn it was not always peaceful here. Need to learn what ignorance can do without going into great detail on the horrific events of many explorations. School 2 Thanksgiving as birth of America 1st graders said it was about turkey and Pilgrims Need to learn truth behind Columbus and other explorations Explorations were not always peaceful-many fights and misunderstandings between natives and the Europeans. Background Information

5. Background Information from Academic Readings • Columbus Day celebrates a huge misconception in the United States. • In reality, the explorers treated the native people as if they were not human. • They were extremely cruel to the people who were living in the country when they arrived. • Thanksgiving is meant to celebrate the exchange of cultural ideas.

6. Rationale • This unit is important to teach students about the history in our country. • Students need not learn all the gory details of the events of early settled America, but they need to be told both sides of history. • This unit is important for the children to be able to connect their lives to the lives of people who have culturally changed our country.

7. Instructional Strategies • Using role play, debate and simulation • Using oral history • Integrating drama

8. Reasons for Instructional Strategies • Using role play, debate and simulation • The students will understand perspective by role playing. • Using oral history • They will read the letters aloud to the class. • Integrating drama • The students will role play to gain perspective about life in North America in the sixteenth century.

9. Instructional Strategies in Schools 1 & 2 • Our teachers use oral history in the classroom. • They use artifacts from the time period being studied. • They show videos about historical events. • They play tribal music.

10. Background Information from academic readings • The European explorers did not “discover” North America. • Encounters between Natives and Europeans were not peaceful. • Europeans attempted to convert Natives to Christianity. • Many Natives were taken as slaves by the Europeans. • The Pilgrims came to America and encountered Native Americans. They only survived because of the Native Americans’ help. • There are many different Native American tribes throughout the United States, with unique characteristics and different cultures.

11. Literacy Links • We will use poetry about Native Americans. • We will read biographies about the explorers. • We will have the children give oral presentations about different explorers and different Native American tribes. • The students will role play and write letters to family and friends about life in North America.

12. Literacy Link Explanation • We would like to expose the children to the information in as many ways as possible. • Children can be visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. Therefore, we will teach the students using various methods in order to reach the majority of the students.

13. Critical Perspective on Teaching Methods for Literacy • It is known that all children have different learning styles. • It is the teacher’s job to try to expose the children to various teaching methods in order to reach the most students.

14. Unit Essential Questions • Native America: What are the different tribal nations, traditions, and ways of life? • European Exploration: What are the reasons for exploration, who were some well-known explorers, and what were some of the experiences that the explorers had? • European/Native Encounters: What were the encounters like (both positive and negative)? • Thanksgiving and Columbus Day: Why are these days celebrated and what do they mean? • Mapping European Exploration and Native America: Where did the Europeans first settle and what were some exploration routes?

15. Unit Standards Alignment • 14.F.1 Describe political ideas and traditions important to the development of the United States including democracy, individual rights and the concept of freedom. • 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past, present and future time; place themselves in time. • 16.A.1b Ask historical questions and seek out answers from historical sources (e.g., myths, biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork, other visual or electronic sources). • 16.A.1c Describe how people in different times and places viewed the world in different ways. • 16.C.1b (W) Explain how trade among people brought an exchange of ideas, tech­nology and language. • 16.D.1 (W) Identify how customs and traditions from around the world influence the local community. • 17.A.1a Identify physical characteristics of places, both local and global (e.g., locations, roads, regions, bodies of water). • 17.A.1b Identify the characteristics and pur­poses of geographic representations including maps, globes, graphs, photographs, software, digital images and be able to locate specific places using each. • 18.C.1 Describe how individuals interacted within groups to make choices regarding food, clothing and shelter.

16. Native America • Lesson Ideas: 1. Picnic with foods that the Native Americans would have eaten. 2. The students will create a totem pole • Instructional strategies: • Construct learning centers • field experiences.

17. European Exploration • Lesson idea: The students will role play as a European explorer and will write letters to relatives that are in Europe about North America. • Instructional Strategies: • Simulation/Role play • Using documents and interviews

18. European/Native encounters • Lesson Ideas: 1. Discuss communication problems between Natives and Europeans. 2. Make a compare/contrast chart about the differences and similarities between the Native Americans and the Europeans • Instruction strategies: • Oral History • Integrating writing activities

19. Thanksgiving and Columbus Day • Lesson Ideas: 1.Create a Thanksgiving feast 2.Role play the Pilgrims and the Native Americans 3.Role play Columbus and the Native Americans • Instructional Strategies: • Simulation/role play

20. Mapping European Exploration and Native America • Lesson ideas: 1.Have the children create a map of the location of all of the Native American nations. 2.Map the European exploration routes. • Instructional strategies: • Use primary source materials

21. Children’s Literature • Mesquakie : the Sauk and Fox Indians of Illinois / Jacquie Salisbury • The Cheyenne / by Andrew Santella • The Arapaho / Raymond Bial • The Algonquin / Richard M. Gaines • 1492 : the year of the New World / Piero Ventura • The Age of exploration : Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Herman Cortes • The first Thanksgiving / Susan Whitehurst

22. Teacher Literature • http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/indexa.shtml

23. Unit Assessment Plan • For formal assessment, we will have a written oral test, mostly vocabulary and simple sequencing and map identification. • For informal assessment, we will keep a journal of observations on each student throughout the unit and keep track of progress and participation in the activities.

24. European Explorers: Coronado • Topic: Francisco Vasquez de Coronado • Grade: 1st • Purpose: To investigate and explore the reasons for European exploration of North America.

25. Essential Driving Questions • Who is Coronado? • Where is he from? • What did he discover or “explore”? • When did he explore North America? • Who did he encounter upon his arrival? • Which part of America did he explore? • What kind of things did he do here?

26. Enduring Understandings • The students will demonstrate knowledge of Coronado’s life and explorations through writing, classroom discussion, and dramatic performance.

27. Key Concepts • Reasons for exploration • Communication with others • Geography of North America

28. Standards Alignment • 14.F.1 Describe political ideas and traditions important to the development of the United States including democracy, individual rights and the concept of freedom. • 16.A.1a Explain the difference between past, present and future time; place themselves in time. • 16.A.1b Ask historical questions and seek out answers from historical sources (e.g., myths, biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork, other visual or electronic sources). • 16.A.1c Describe how people in different times and places viewed the world in different ways. • 16.C.1b (W) Explain how trade among people brought an exchange of ideas, tech­nology and language. • 16.D.1 (W) Identify how customs and traditions from around the world influence the local community. • 17.A.1a Identify physical characteristics of places, both local and global (e.g., locations, roads, regions, bodies of water). • 17.A.1b Identify the characteristics and pur­poses of geographic representations including maps, globes, graphs, photographs, software, digital images and be able to locate specific places using each. • 18.C.1 Describe how individuals interacted within groups to make choices regarding food, clothing and shelter.

29. Adaptations for Group/Individual Differences • We will have a special education teacher who will assist in the classroom if we have any specific needs that need to be met.

30. Materials: Teacher Literature Francisco Vasquez de Coronado: Explorer and Conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510-1554) was a Spanish ruler, explorer and conquistador. He was the first European to explore North America's Southwest. Coronado was a governor of New Galicia, a western province of Mexico. He searched fruitlessly for treasure that was rumored to exist in northern Mexico: the fabled seven Golden Cities of Cibola. With a group of hundreds of Spaniards and enslaved natives, he traveled through what is now northern Mexico and the southwestern USA (including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas). His expedition found only Zuñi, Hopi, and Pueblos, native Americans who repelled Coronado when he demanded that they convert to Christianity. Coronado killed many native Americans during this expedition. Since he did not find gold, silver, or other treasures, his expedition was branded a failure by Spanish leaders.

31. Materials: Children’s Literature • Coronado : Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explores the Southwest by Robin S. Doak • The travels of Francisco de Coronado / by Deborah Crisfield ; illustrated by Patrick O'Brien • Francisco de Coronado / by R. Conrad Stein • Coronado : dreamer in golden armor / by William Jay Jacobs • Francisco Vásquez de Coronado / Kristin Petrie • Francisco Vásquez de Coronado : famous journeys to the American Southwest and colonial New Mexico / Lesli J. Favor • Francisco Coronado / Malcolm C. Jensen ; Illus. with prints, maps, and photos

32. All Other Materials

33. Procedure • First, the teacher will introduce Coronado by reading aloud Francisco Coronado / Malcolm C. Jensen ; Illus. with prints, maps, and photos . • Then, the teacher will pass out the rest of the children’s books to the students and allow them time to browse through the pictures and text. • The teacher will then read the teacher’s passage aloud, as it is displayed on a transparency. • The students will view the map of Coronado’s exploration and then will be asked to pretend that they are traveling with Coronado to America, which is a brand-new world to them. • Ask the students to brainstorm ideas about new things that they will encounter in America by constructing a K-W-L chart. • Then, ask the students to write a letter home to Spain telling family and friends back home what they are encountering in the “New World”. They will be role-playing a Spaniard traveling with Coronado.

34. Assessment • Formal Assessment: • The students will have a test on Coronado and his “exploration of North America”. • Informal Assessment: • The student will be observed communicating and interacting with other students. The student will be actively participating in class discussions and will complete an accurate letter about life in North America.

35. Reflections • Process: We learned that it is important to have a sequence of lessons and to build on each lesson as we go along so that the children can relate each lesson to the next. • Content: We had previous knowledge on the subject, yet we found many new resources that provide a strategy for relating a complex subject to young children. • This experience will improve our future work with children, expanding our teaching methods to include a variety of strategies and assessments.