 |
Standard 1: The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.
Standard 2: The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently.
Standard 5: The student who is an independent learner is information literate and appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information.
Standard 9: The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.
Related Content Standard(s):
ELA
Reading: Read and respond to literature.
Read and comprehend informational materials.
Read four books or pieces of writing about the same subject.
Speaking, Listening, and Viewing:
Participate in group meetings.
Prepare and deliver an individual or group presentation.
Social Studies
Standard 1: Students will study family, neighborhood, community, New York State and United States history, culture, values, beliefs and traditions and the important contribution of individuals and groups.
Standard 2: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Instructional Goals:
* Students will be able to successfully find biographical information about a subject particular person in history) in the Web resources provided by the teachers (navigating specific websites, web pages, and databases).
* Students will use and evaluate various print and nonprint biographical resources about one person from history, and consider the authenticity and believability of the resources. (*Considering and trying to uncover the different perspectives of different writers, what information is included or excluded, is information verifiable -are there resources and bibliographic information included for you to check, etc.)
* Students will synthesize information read across texts and resources in order to form theories or big ideas.
* Through close reading and wide reading of print and nonprint resources and students will become experts on the life of one person and establish the impact of different events on this person's life.
* Students will gain a better understanding of how important their person was and how their life shaped history and impacted on the world.
* Students will orally and visually share what they have learned about the person's life and how and why they were important in history.
Learning Objectives:
* Fifth grade students will perform a successful search of the Web resources and find two biographical sketches about their subject.
* Students will use books and information gained from the Web resources, students will be able to complete a graphic organizer and a timeline about their person, noting important events that shaped the person's life.
* Students will participate actively and work successfully in a group to conduct their research and complete their assignment.
* Students will acquire accurate information to orally and visually report their findings.
Motivational Goals:
* Generate interest in the research process.
* Build students' confidence in their ability to learn and use information skills.
* Maintain students' interest in the research process.
* Reinforce students' confidence in their ability to learn and use information skills.
* Promote students' satisfaction in their research accomplishments.
* Encourage students' on-going confidence in their ability to learn and use information skills.
* Allow for creative expression.
The Three Little Pigs,
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieska
The Blind Men and the Elephants
props,
chart paper, markers
Computer,computer projector
Biography worksheets
Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni and Time for Kids Biography: Rosa Parks for demo and excerpts
rubric
Motivation and Introduction: The library teacher tells students that she really wants to be famous one day, the most famous children's librarian ever. If they were going to be writing a biography about her, what would they say?
In this way, she briefly introduces the idea of perspectives by asking students to write sentences about her. The students know her well, and so there should be very diverse answers. Introduces the idea of different perspectives and that different people might choose to emphasize different things (one might want to say the library teacher was funny, another might say she was mean because once she gave him a low grade on a project, another might talk about her childhood stories she shared, another might tell the story about how she got her hooked on books...
Who decides? Well, whoever writes the book of course. There could also be many different books- offering different perspectives- one concentrating on her childhood, another written by an enemy of hers, you get the idea...
Library teacher briefly reminds students of the stories of Three Little Pigs and the fractured fairy tale The True Story of The Three Little Pigs, two books class knows well. Reviews the story of The Blind Men and the Elephant. Sometimes people leave out information- the blind men concentrate on what part of the elephant that they understood. To have a complete picture of an elephant, we need all of the blind men's' perspectives. It is not so different with biographies. To have a really complete picture of a person and really learn about how an important person shaped history, we have to be readers, researchers and thinkers.
SLMS gives a mini-lesson on perspectives and how authors choose what to put in or leave out of their texts Written on chart paper: "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." Authors have different perspectives. It is important that we as readers try to understand what perspective that an author is taking. Good readers to question as they read They ask things like: What is the author trying to get me to believe about this person?" How do you know for sure? Keep reading. Check for accuracy. Be a smart reader. Ask lots of questions, and read for different perspectives.
Try by reading another book and comparing what information is the same and what is different?
(Ever had someone "twist the facts" on you? tell only their side of the story? give their opinion but try to make it seem like fact?)
To be smart readers, we have to learn to look for these things. We know that sometimes biography can present itself as nonfiction, and some of the information may be only partially true, or it may not be true at all. Some of the information might be folklore, like the story about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree. Do you know that story? Who told it to you? Did you read and so believe it must be true?
The class follows along while the SLMS demonstrates finding and retrieving a biographical sketch from biography.com, and compares information from two different biographies about Rosa Parks... Think aloud, demonstrating how to notice what author concentrated on and what their perspective might be.
Active Engagement:
Students try this out using two very short excerpts from books demonstrating what author chose to write about in the two different texts.
At this point, the task is introduced to the students. SLMS explains to the students that they will be working in cooperative groups if 3-4 people to locate and synthesize information about an important person in history. As they locate different resources they will become experts about the person and experts at noticing how to evaluate for accuracy (Some of these are n a chart for support) by Each group will choose their person they will research. This will be the subject of their research and their goal will be to learn who the person is, what he/she did and how this person changed history in some way. To help focus the students, a handout is provided that requires the students to find specific information in order to complete the sheet and helps to focus them on important features of the person's life. The students are shown some applicable web resources and reminders of the objectives of the task. Students will have class time to work on the lesson and begin preparations for their presentations, which allow for lots of creativity and divergent responses.
SLMS gives a mini-lesson on perspectives and how authors choose what to put in or leave out of their texts Written on chart paper: "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." Authors have different perspectives. It is important that we as readers try to understand what perspective that an author is taking. Good readers to question as they read They ask things like: What is the author trying to get me to believe about this person?" How do you know for sure? Keep reading. Check for accuracy. Be a smart reader. Ask lots of questions, and read for different perspectives.
Try by reading another book and comparing what information is the same and what is different?
(Ever had someone "twist the facts" on you? tell only their side of the story? give their opinion but try to make it seem like fact?)
To be smart readers, we have to learn to look for these things. We know that sometimes biography can present itself as nonfiction, and some of the information may be only partially true, or it may not be true at all. Some of the information might be folklore, like the story about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree. Do you know that story? Who told it to you? Did you read and so believe it must be true?
The class follows along while the SLMS demonstrates finding and retrieving a biographical sketch from biography.com, and compares information from two different biographies about Rosa Parks... Think aloud, demonstrating how to notice what author concentrated on and what their perspective might be.
Active Engagement:
Students try this out using two very short excerpts from books demonstrating what author chose to write about in the two different texts.
At this point, the task is introduced to the students. SLMS explains to the students that they will be working in cooperative groups if 3-4 people to locate and synthesize information about an important person in history. As they locate different resources they will become experts about the person and experts at noticing how to evaluate for accuracy (Some of these are n a chart for support) by Each group will choose their person they will research. This will be the subject of their research and their goal will be to learn who the person is, what he/she did and how this person changed history in some way. To help focus the students, a handout is provided that requires the students to find specific information in order to complete the sheet and helps to focus them on important features of the person's life. The students are shown some applicable web resources and reminders of the objectives of the task. Students will have class time to work on the lesson and begin preparations for their presentations, which allow for lots of creativity and divergent responses.
Students will have an one and fifteen block of time period to work on background research. The topic preparation and delivery of presentations will require a few class sessions to complete. At the end of the time today, each group of students will need to have the biography worksheet filled out for a person of their choice (*introduced parameters set up person from history,etc.) , and groups will be expected to teach the class all about that person- by reading and learning as much as they can about the person. They can create a Reader's Theater or other type of skit to demonstrate their learning, have a posterboard with a timeline, photographs or pictures, interesting facts.
Each group will be expected to create a timeline of their person and highlight how life would be different if this person had never lived. Groups will work together to learn as much as they can by reading "smartly like detectives" and teach the class all about this person and how they made a difference in people's lives and are significant in history.
