Overview -

What will be taught?

The children will understand all areas and avenues of the community.

What will students do and learn?

Students will complete in-depth explorations of their own community, as well as surrounding communities and those around the world.

Rationale - Purpose for the unit as a whole. The WHY questions.

Why would you teach this unit? Children need to have an understanding of what makes up a community. They are constantly interacting with individuals within the community and exposed to happenings within the community, on a daily basis.

Why would this qualify as an Engaged Learning unit? This area of the curriculum directly affects the children and their lives on a daily basis. The children have a knowledge base of communities.

Why is technology an important component of this unit?

The children were able to use the Internet to explore different types of communities. They were also able to use the computer for graphic aides. We as teachers were able to use digital cameras, iphoto, islide show and digital video cameras to help put our final presentation together.

Why is this project authentic/ meaningful and challenging for students?

This project is meaningful for children because they are members of communities and they need to be knowledgeable of their surroundings.

It is challenging for primary aged students to understand the different types of communities and what their characteristics are. 

Goals - Content, Cognitive and Social - The WHAT questions 

What new attributes (knowledge, skills, attitudes) do you expect students to gain?

We expect that students will become knowledgeable of their surroundings and their own communities, as well as those significant communities surrounding them.

What school, district, state and national standards/benchmarks are addressed?

State Goal 18: Understand social systems, with an emphasis on the United States.

State Goal 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

State Goal 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.

Learning Activities - The activities required to achieve the goals.

The How questions.

Student Assessment- Enables student and teacher to measure student's attainment of goals.

What are my scoring characteristics? (What do I want to measure? What is an important outcome of this unit?)

The important outcomes of this unit would be that all children have the opportunity to explore communities and present what they learned in their own community project. We have also developed a student checklist to help guide students with the appropriate information to be included in their projects.

What will indicate that students are novices, practitioners, or experts?

We will be able to assess knowledge and understanding from their presentations and viewing final projects.

How will I measure and communicate student progress on the goals?

Through guidance, discussions, meeting with students and rubrics.

How can students be involved in establishing goals and criteria for the assessment?

Children will help to brainstorm ideas to collaborate into a checklist of goals to be attained.

How will the assessments be implemented to ensure that they are generative? Seamless and ongoing? Equitable for all students? An authentic task?

They were involved in the process of putting the checklist/rubrics together. Therefore children will feel invested.

How will students demonstrate their knowledge and skills?

Children will demonstrate their knowledge and skills by making their own community (rural, suburban and urban) to present to the class.

Management

How will you manage student work individually and in groups? - What resources will you need to do this unit?

We will need computers, books, modeling clay, boxes, paper, markers, crayons, poster board and writing utensils,

How will the room(s) be arranged.

The room will be arranged in groups to cooperative learning.

Where will equipment and materials be located to promote maximum use?

Equipment and materials will be dispersed throughout the classroom for easy access.

Where will students need to work and how can they be accommodated?

Students can work wherever they are comfortable and productive.

How will students with special needs be helped?

Students will special needs will be helped with their cooperative group by peer tutors and with guidance from the teacher.

Unit Evaluation

What will I need to do, be aware of, and/or gather while teaching the unit in order to answer these questions:

I will need to be aware of details of this community and the surrounding communities to help answer questions from the children.

What was effective?

The students used their own knowledge base to create their own communities. They truly enjoyed working together in cooperative groups and presenting to the class.

What wasn't effective?

It was hard to come up with new ideas to keep interest levels high.

What will I do differently next time?

I will create put time limits on the amount of time spent on the project.