Title: Revolutionary War Events

Engaged Learning with Technology

Unit Framework

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title:  Revolutionary War Events

Subject and Level: Social Studies/ 5th Grade

Learner Description -   This unit will be completed by 18 fifth graders.  One student has special needs. 

Overview -

What will be taught?

Essential Questions: 

• What happens when people don’t agree?
• How do people create government?

Students will be learning about the Revolutionary War.  They will be learning the causes of the war, events, battles, famous figures, and effects.  The students will be focusing on the reasons behind war and the perspective of the two sides.

What will students do and learn?

Station 1- Powerpoint of Major Revolutionary War Events

• Students will discover the key events of the war.  They will have to find the dates, location, important figures, and facts of each event.

Station 2- Revolutionary War Plays and News Broadcast

• Students will perform a play relating to a key event of the Revolution.  They will learn how this even effected people’s lives.

Station 3- Library- Summarizing American Revolution Articles

• Students will learn about life during the Revolutionary War.  They will also be practicing the skill of summarizing.

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

Why would you teach this unit?

• The Revolutionary War is a major part of the fifth grade social studies curriculum. 

Why would this qualify as an Engaged Learning unit?

         This unit meets the following Engaged Learning Indicators:

• Sudents are responsible for learning.
• Learning is strategic
• Students are energized by learning
• Tasks are challenging
• Tasks are multidisciplinary
• Assessment is performance based
• Assessment is seamless and on-going
• Equitable assessment
• Interactive Instructional model
• Generative instructional model
• Collaborative learning context
• Heterogeneous grouping
• Equitable grouping
• Teacher as Facilitator
• Teacher as guide
• Teacher as co-learner
• Student as explorer
• Student as producer

Why is technology an important component of this unit?

• As part of Station 1, students will use the Internet to conduct research.  They will also be creating PowerPoint projects.

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

• The project requires the students to acquire information from multiple sources.  They will be using multiple intelligences throughout the unit. 

Goals - Content, Cognitive and Social - The WHAT questions

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

• Knowledge- The important causes and effects of the Revolutionary War along with a better understanding of the previously noted essential questions.
• Skills- Working with a group, using the Internet for research, deciding on relevant information, creating a PowerPoint presentation, summarizing.

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

• State Goal 1: Read with Understanding and Fluency
• State Goal 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas. 
• State Goal 3:  Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.
• State Goal 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.
• State Goal 5: Use the language arts to acquire, assess, and communicate information.
• State Goal 15: Understand economic systems, with an emphasis on the United States.
• State Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
• State Goal 18: Understand the social systems, with an emphasis on the United States.

LearningActivities - The activities required to achieve the goals.

The How questions.

StudentAssessment- 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?)

• Students should be able to:
• Explain causes, effects, and events of the Revolutionary War
• Explain the viewpoints of the two sides
• Create a Powerpoint presentation
• Understand life during the Revolution

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

• Students will demonstrate their ability by completing the required projects in the unit.

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

• I will use observation throughout the unit.  Students will also be assessed when they complete each station. Assessments will be shared with students.  Then we can discuss what needs to be done differently.

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

• Due to a lack of time, students were not very involved in developing the criteria for assessment.  Next time, I would allow the students to created rubrics to assess each station.

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

• Assessments will occur throughout the unit.  They will be based on students abilities and individual bests.

How will students demonstrate their knowledge and skills?

• Students will present their PowerPoint presentation.  They will write article summaries and perform a play and news broadcast.

Management

How will you manage student work individually and in groups?

• Some sections of the project will require students to work somewhat individually.  Students will be asked to turn in work each day to be assessed.  Students will also receive individual participation points each day.  Additionally, students will be completing self-evaluation rubrics after each activity.
• When students are working as a group, behavior guidelines will be followed.  The students will be able to select the students they would like to work with.

- What resources will you need to do this unit?

• Resources needed: social studies books, American Revolution magazines, News of the Nation cards, library books, American Revolution plays, access to computer lab, Internet access

How will the room(s) be arranged?

• The regular classroom will be used for students working on the magazine articles.  Students working on the plays and news broadcasts will utilize the empty room next door.  The computer lab will be used for students doing research and creating presentations.

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

• The materials will be stored in the classroom with the exception of the library cart and computers.  The library cart will be transported to the computer lab each day.

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

• Students will work in the classroom and the computer lab.  Very few accommodations will be necessary.

How will students with special needs be helped?

• Students with special needs will be helped by being in a group with other students and the assistance of the teacher’s aid.

Unit Evaluation

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

What was effective?

• All of the stations were effective.  Students made several interesting discoveries about life during the Revolution.   I was very happy with the flow of the unit and the progress the students made.

What wasn't effective?

• I don’t know that there were any parts of the unit that were uneffective.
• I do think the students could have been more involved in determining how they would be assessed.

What will I do differently next time?

• Next time, I will allow the students more flexibility and choice about the type of project they would like to create.  Then I can assist them in narrowing down their individual projects and keeping focused.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Authors: Jo Williamson, Kristin Ciesemier

Created: February, 1997, Updated: July, 1997

For: Area One Learning Technology Hub