ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

The students I work with need reinforcement in the areas of reading and writing. Many of them need extra practice in the phonetic sounds of words, which can be in their use of reading words or writing them. It is important that they get the basic background knowledge of these sounds, which has been introduced to them by this level, but the vowels in words seem to always be a problem. There are many rules to remember for vowels, vowel digraphs, etc. I thought that it would be a change of pace for these students to do more with books at their level than just reading them. It will give them a chance to learn more about a book by getting to know about the author, why reading is important, and that by sounding out words you find information. As I looked at the fourth grade North Dakota State Assessment from last school year, I found that students needed to work on making or confirming predictions to understand text. This would come from being engaged in the reading process, which is Language Arts Standard #2. First the basic sounding out of words has to be accomplished to move on to other elements of the reading process, or in conjunction with the other elements of reading.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want the students to understand the following long after they leave my classroom: A) important symbols of our country B) where our state is located on a U.S. map C) where the Great Lakes are located D) who Christopher Columbus was and what he did E) the importance of Independence Day F) our freedoms G) about voting H) reading a diagram about the parts of the Statue of Liberty Goal(s): The Students will identify their country as the United States of America and their state. The students will identify the symbols, history, heroes, celebrations, songs, and freedoms of the U.S. The students will also identify leaders and how they affect our lives. They will understand that our country has changed over time. The students will need to define the following vocabulary words: state, country, flag, laws, and President.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: Some of the essential questions that will guide and focus teaching and learning include the following: A) What country do we live in? B) What state do we live in? C) What is the name of our nation’s capital? D) Who was Christopher Columbus and why was he important to our history? E) Why do we have Independence Day? F) What are some of your freedoms and how do you use them? G) Why is voting an important right in the U.S.A.? H) Why is the flag an important symbol of our country? I) What are some symbols that represent the U.S.? Objectives: The students will be able to locate on a U.S. map the major bodies of water. The students will explain Columbus’s voyage to America. The students will explain the importance of the American flag. The students will identify a freedom and its meaning. The students will identify the process of voting. The students will identify American patriotic symbols.

Assessment

What quiz and test items e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? The following quiz and test items will provide for me evidence of understanding: Part A)Write the word that goes on each line A)state B)President C)flag D)country E)laws 1) The United States of America is the name of our____________________________. 2) Red, white, and blue are the colors of the American__________________________. 3) There are fifty stars on the flag. Each star stands for a ________________________. 4) Americans like to be free and make their own______________________________. 5) George Washington was our first ______________________________________. B) 6) Circle the names of our country’s neighbors. A)Mexico B)England C)Canada D)Texas 7) Who were the first Americans? _____Columbus and his men _____people from England _____American Indians 8) What did the Indians give Columbus? _____corn and peanuts _____horses and pigs _____bread and milk 9) Write the letter of each place to show where it belongs on the U.S. map. A) Atlantic Ocean B)Pacific Ocean C) Mississippi River D) Great Lakes (I will have an outline of a U.S. map and the students will put the letter on the appropriate blank on the map.) What academic prompts e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? My academic prompts will include having my students color a U.S. flag. They will then write a response that explains the flag (e.g. what the stripes represent, the meaning of the stars, that it is an important symbol of our country, where they have seen the flag displayed, and why it is displayed on Independence Day). My students will use a pattern to make an accordion book and then will be asked to design a patriotic stamp collection. They will need to cut and paste a picture, from the internet, on each of the four stamps of the accordion book. Each picture should be of something that makes America special like the Liberty Bell, the American Flag, Mount Rushmore, the White House, etc. My students will also be asked to complete the sentence “If I were president of the United States, I would….............................. ” They will demonstrate understanding of the president by naming one of his leadership skills. What performance tasks and projects e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? The students will provide understanding of Independence Day by drawing a picture to show what happens on Independence Day and then write why we have this holiday. The students will cooperatively come up with a voting ballot about school choices and have other elementary students come to a polling place in our classroom to vote; the students will then use the results to make a graph and list the results in the daily bulletin at school. What other evidence e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? Some other work samples that I collect will be a page dealing with freedom on which each student tells what freedom means to them and draws a picture to go with it. For review, I will have the students list 16 words that have to do with this unit on a sheet with 16 stars on it, so one answer per star is a student self assessment. I will have the students write the parts of the Statue of Liberty on a diagram of it; I will provide a word list for them to use. I will fill out a rubric for the students’ presentations on freedoms. The students will do a rubric for the voting activity and one when we complete the unit.