societies around the world

students will research an assigned country and will answer the question, how do the five strands of Social Studies affect your assigned country’s way of life?

collaboration between school media specialist and classroom teacher

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students will be using print and non-print materials to research assigned foreign countries.

Name of lesson: Countries of the World Research Project, Day One: Note Taking

 

Essential Question

How do the five strands of Social Studies affect your assigned country’s way of life?

 

Objective

Students will be able to evaluate what information is necessary and most important during the research process.

 

AASL Standards for the 21^st Century Learner

1.1.3: Develop and refine a range of questions to frame the search for new understanding.

1.1.6: Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.

 

NYS Learning Standards

CC.5.SL.1: Comprehension and Collaboration: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CC.5.R.I.7: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

 

Materials

• Smart Board
• Printed copy of passage

 

Modifications

To assist diverse learners, have a printed version of the reading passage handy for students to read from, highlight, or underline.

 

Body of lesson

            As an introduction to the research project the class is going to begin, explain to the class that they will be assisting the school media specialist today in several tasks.  Begin by bringing up a short passage on the Smart Board on any topic, for this example use a biography.  Ensure that the passage is several paragraphs long.  Ask for volunteers to read the passage, pausing at times for questions to reinforce what was just read.  After the passage is finished, bring up a blank screen on the Smart Board in order to write down main ideas with supporting details that are brought up during a discussion.  On another blank screen, discuss and create different categories information from the passage can be sorted into.

            Explain to the students the “long story short” concept, taking a long phrase and shortening it into shorter phrases.  Discuss how shortening long passages into shorter phrases and keywords will be easier for students to look back at notes when preparing projects or studying.

            After it has been confirmed that the students have met the objective, and understand reasons for note taking, introduce that they will be starting a research project about a specific country of the world, and will eventually be creating a brochure for their country.