Once upon a time, in a one room school house...

Subject Area(s):

• Grades K-4 History
• Higher Ed: Arts

Grade Level(s):

• K-2nd Grade
• 3rd-4th Grade

Description:

This lesson starts with learning how communities change and ends with a field trip to the local historical society. To create relevance for these young children, the lesson will focus on how schools in the community have changed over the past 100 years. The students will research using primary documents, interviews, and other print and electronic resources. The research will be used to write a historical journal entry and to accurately participate in a reenactment of a school day at the local historical society.

Goals & Objectives:

Instructional Goals:

• Students will gather information from a variety of sources.
• Students will decide what information is relevant to this project.
• Students will present their information in a variety of formats.
• Students will apply the newly acquired information to a relevant situation.

Learning Objectives:

• Students will perform interviews, examine pictures, and read passages to extract relevant data.
• Students will decide who to interview and formulate interview questions to extract relevant data from the information source.
• Students will write a journal entry in first person narrative describing a day in the life of a one room school house.
• Students will actively participate in and significantly contribute to a two hour long real life reenactment of a day in the life of a one room school house at the local historical society.

Motivational Goals:

• Generate student interest in the research process.
• Interest students in thinking about life long ago.
• Encourage students to continue the research process after the project is complete.
• Generate confidence and a feeling of enthusiasim when presenting their findings.

Materials:

See supporting files for lesson plan

Procedures:

See supporting files for lesson plan

Assessment:

See supporting files for lesson plan

Supporting Files:

• One_Room_Schoolhouse.doc
  Lesson Plan

Standards:

National Information Literacy Standards (K-12)

Evaluates information critically and competently.

• Selects information appropriate to the problem or question at hand.

Uses information accurately and creatively

• Organizes information for practical application.
• Produces and communicates information and ideas in appropriate formats

Pursues information related to personal interests.

• Designs, develops, and evaluates information products and solutions related to personal interests.

Appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information.

• Derives meaning from information presented creatively in a variety of formats.
• Develops creative products in a variety of formats.

Participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.

• Collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies, to identify information problems and to seek their solutions.

Information Skills and Subskills (K-16)

Definition

• Determines amount/type of information needed to complete research task

Selection

• Narrows topic to be explored

Planning

• Identifies potential information sources

Exploration

• Explores range of information resources

Collection

• Identifies and extracts relevant information from selected sources

Organization

• Organizes final information for presentation

Presentation

• Presents results
• Subject: Grades K-4 History

National Content Standards (K-12)

Topic 1 - Living and Working Together in Families and Communities, Now and Long Ago

• Understands the history of a local community and how communities in North America varied long ago