Social Studies: Core Decisions
What:
I planned a lesson on homelessness to be taught to a small group of 5-6 fourth grade students. During the lesson, the students will examine two related questions:
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What does it mean to be homeless?
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What can we—as students and members of the community—do about it?
My goal in teaching this lesson was to supplement/compliment what the students are learning in class by allowing them to engage in a deeper exploration of homelessness. This connection was emphasized through the development of a list of ways that they—as students and members of the community—can help homeless people.
How:
This lesson was designed to simultaneously supplement and compliment what the students are learning in class, in both social studies and literacy. I planned to begin the lesson by introducing and reading Eve Bunting’s Fly Away Home to the students. I read aloud, showing the pictures, and pausing periodically to provide time for the students to draw inferences from the text. Each student recorded his/her personal observations/thinking on the provided graphic organizer. We will then discussed the text as a group, highlighting the challenges the characters faced. I recorded student contributions on a sheet of chart paper. This list was used to develop a list of ways that students and other members of the community can help homeless individuals.
Why:
There is no standard social studies program for fourth graders at the school where I was placed this fall. Rather, for the last three years, the school’s two 4th grade teachers have brought their classes together to collaborate on a yearlong service-learning project with an organization called Need in Deed. The project highlights learning in cooperation with the community about things that happen in everyday life, helping the community, and teaching others. Each year, the students work together to select an issue that they feel is important, research its various aspects, and create a project. Previous projects include a student-created public service video about bullying. The students were formally introduced to the program at the beginning of October. While they had yet to select a topic as I was planning my lesson, the remaining issues were: guns, crime, bars/drug/smoking, bullying, and homelessness.
In consideration of this service-learning focus, and the remaining topics, I chose to focus on homelessness for my lesson. I selected Fly Away Home, by Eve Bunting to help approach the topic. While homelessness was one of the remaining topics, it was chosen by the fourth grade as a whole. I anticipated that the students in my small group may not have been familiar with the topic. As I was unaware of their background knowledge and opinions, a fictional text seemed most appropriate to provide a degree of common knowledge and material for discussion. Although I planned to read the text aloud to the group, I planned to let the students lead the conversation. My questions were intended to spur thought and discussion.
Additionally, designed the open-ended nature of the task to allow for differentiation. Different students inevitably brought different levels of background knowledge, interest in the topic, and skills to the lesson. While the complexity of responses may vary, no one would be excluded from contributing to the discussion as the students worked as a group to develop a list of ways to help homeless individuals.