Content Class LessonFoundation for a SDAIE Portfolio

By

Donna Nolf

Content Class LessonFoundation for a SDAIE Portfolio

Porfolio-Part 1Background and Content Objectives

SUBJECT: Social Studies/HistoryTOPIC: Harriet TubmanStandard: 8.3.3 Grade 3

Unit Objectives:

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1) Identify Harriet Tubman’s contributions to U.S. history.

2) Identify and describe the Underground Railroad as an important historic site in U.S. history.

3) Identify important changes the Underground Railroad made in U.S. history.

4) Identify conflict among slaves and slave owners in U.S. history. (Racism and working conditions, labor.

Class Make-up:

It is a third and fourth grade class. Home languages include Portuguese, Polish,Turkish, French, and Spanish. Language proficiency levels (CALP) range frombeginner-beginner to mid-intermediate.

Portfolio-Part 2Teaching Content Objectives

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1) Start by hanging pictures of Harriet Tubman and discussing them.

2) Picture walk through the book about Harriet Tubman. Discuss pictures.

3) Read the book slowly and explain as you go along pointing out vocabulary words. Ask questions that need more than a yes or no answer to besure students are comprehending.

4) Give students journals to keep notes. (vocabulary words, facts, etc.)

5) Write vocabulary words and describe w/ pictures, action, etc., if needed.

6) Again ask questions or make them use the words in a sentence to checkcomprehension.

7) Read the book Minty and the Drinking Gourd. Repeat 2 through 5.

8) Pair or group students to brainstorm facts, discuss facts, and share ideas.

9) Make a graphic organizer using Harriet Tubman.

10) Reenact an auction for slaves.

11) Draw a big scenery for a background for a skit. Use cotton balls for the fields. Have the students do the work for hands on activities. Use fluorescent stars for the big dipper.

12) Do a day of the life of a slave. (students act out working in fields) Then a night version with lights out with students escaping using desks for safe houses.

13) Have students make picture cards by making copies form the book and coloring them. Glue to poster board paper and then write story on theback. Students will do a Reader’s Theater by standing in front of the scenery and reading to the audience. The audience will then ask students questions.

14) Have students write their own play and act it out. They will dress the parts and put on a skit.

15) Show a video. Have a lady who impersonates Harriet Tubman come to the school to tell her story and answer questions.

16) Have students draw map showing the route. Use map to estimate the distance of the Underground Railroad.

17) Color code a map of the United States showing which states were free, which were not, and which were neutral.

18) Do a cause and effect paper.

19) Play a bingo game, Charades, Mad libs, pictionary, and Hang man for vocabulary and grammar. Practice with chants and songs.

20) Listen to the song, “The Drinking Gourd”. Learn the words. Sing after skits.

21) Learn codes for Underground Railroad and the song, “The Drinking Gourd”.Students make up their own code words.

22) Write a story about how you would feel if you were a slave. Would you try toescape?

23) Write a story about your journey from you own country and the difference between that and the Underground Railroad.

24) Do a lesson on the Big Dipper. Other names, tell about the seven brightest stars, and tell about the North Star.

25) Make up a lesson on nature. How to know what to eat, why moss grows on one side of the tree, etc.

26) Do a Web quest or Scavenger Hunt on the computer about Harriet Tubman.

27) Have students do a PowerPoint about the Underground Railroad.

28) Do an Acoustic poem with Harriet Tubman. Write poems using who, what, when, where, and why. Do a Diamante Poem.

29) Make up an interview for Harriet Tubman. Make a newspaper. Each student will have a section or page of a newpaepr. Fromt page can have amajor headline and a story about Harriet Tubman. Local page can have a story about the Underground Railroad. Students can make a nature page, comics, kids puzzle page and more.

30) Read and follow the directions for a recipe of Johnnie Cakes. A Civil War period recipe. Make the cakes and eat them!

Portfolio – Part 2Teaching Content Objectives

LESSON PLANS

I would start out by hanging pictures of Harriet Tubman on the blackboard. Iwould ask questions like, “Does anyone know who this is?,“ “When does it look like shelived?” What does she look like?”, etc. Next, I would picture walk through the book ofHarriet Tubman and do some predicting and discussing different things on the picturesin the book. After that, I would slowly read the book of Harriet Tubman and try toexplain things that are not understood by acting out, or using gestures to be sure theycomprehend. As I am doing this, I might be writing the vocabulary words on the board.I could explain by using pictures, actions, or any other methods to describe the words.The students would have been given a notebook to start keeping facts and words notedas we go along.

If there is access to other Harriet Tubman books, I would read them in the samewary and follow the same procedures. I like to read Minty, The Underground Railroad,and The Drinking Gourd, which are all related to Harriet Tubman. This is a good time togrouped the students and have them brainstorm ideas. When they have finished, Iwould regroup them and have them share their ideas.

Students need to have fun while they learn, so I would have them re-enact aslave auction with fake money and costumes. We would start drawing a background ofa plantation and painting it on a large strip of paper and use cotton balls for the fields.Now we could hang fluorescent stars on the board in the shape of the Big Dipper andthe North Star. I would turn the lights out, and students would pretend to be sneakingand following the drinking gourd. Harriet Tubman (one of the girl students), would beleading the way. When the lights go back on, it is now daylight at the plantation. Someslaves could be working, others secretly talking about escaping, and one might even tryto get away.

If possible, there are videos available and a lady actress who comes to schooldressed as Harriet Tubman. She tells stories and answers questions. Now that wehave had so much fun, the will begin their ‘”wanted poster” of Harriet Tubman. Theymay use a picture or draw a picture on a poster board and write the word “Reward”. Inwriting or on the computer, the students will use the facts to describe Harriet Tubmanfor the poster. The students will be drawing a map showing the route of theUnderground Railroad, and by using a real map, will estimate the distance. Everyonewill need to do an essay on what it would be like to have been a slave at that time. Wecan do an organizer for cause and effect.

Last, but certainly not least, we could play bingo using our vocabulary words,make crossword puzzles, word searches, or play pictionary. If time allows, we couldmake an acoustic poem using HarrietTubman or a “who, what, when where, and why”poem. For the music lovers, there are songs to be sung. Last, for the seamstresses,

we would work on a quilt, each person doing something about the journey they took tocome to the United States.

Depending on the time allowed, I would go to the computer and show or work ona PowerPoint or a WebQuest.

Finally we would do a newspaper. Here we would be able to use many of ouractivities. The slave story would be on the Local page, the Underground Railroad wouldbe on the front page, a story of Harriet Tubman on the obituary page, and so on.

As we reach the end of the Underground Railroad, I hope everyone has traveledfarther into the history of Harriet Tubman. The nice part about this lesson is that it cancontinue on with Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and more on equal rights. It is a greatBlack History Month project.

“Scenery” drawn by students using cotton balls, etc.

Portfolio – Part 3Teaching Vocabulary

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BICS CALP

free plantation

railroad slave

quilt underground

log cabin auction

cotton reward

nurse runaway

star conductor

Objectives: By the time we have completed this project, students will be able to:

1) mentally associate a word with its picture

2) spell the words

3) know what the word means

Time needed for the activity: Teacher needs at least one hour to make the game. Theteacher will need at least four one-hour lessons to go over the words, get students toknow the meanings and how to spell them. Allow at least 20 minutes per game played.

Materials needed are: Manilla paper, a book with pictures to copy, a copy machine toshrink down the pictures, computer to type words on, a list of questions to ask, andsome kind of beans or markers for the Bingo game.

Teacher begins by making copies of pictures and making them smaller on the copier.Now draw a grid on the manilla paper for the pictures and glue the pictures in thesquares. Type out the words and do a grid on the other side of the paper and glue themon. If a laminator is available, have the boards laminated. Make a list of questions. Foryour first lesson, use gestures and/or pictures to be sure the students comprehend thewords. Next, do spelling activities to help students practice spelling the words. Finally,play Bingo!

Example Bingo Card

Portfolio – Part 4Reading

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Reading Material: Copy of a Johnnie Cake (Civil War Era) recipe taken off the Internet

Material Needed: cornmeal, milk, vegetable oil, baking soda, salt, large bowl, woodenspoon, measuring cups, measuring spoons, cookie sheet, plates, molasses, and atoaster oven.

Objectives: Upon completion students will be able to:

1) read and follow directions

2) write a narrative procedure to read to the class telling what they did

3) measure ingredients

Time needed for activity:

About two hours and ten minutes. One hour to read, go over the recipe, and talk aboutthe ingredients. One half hour for preparing the food, 25 minutes baking time, and 15minutes to enjoy the treat.

Description of Activity:

If in a position to do a short field trip with the students, go to the store and buy theingredients. If not, the teacher can shop ahead and bring in the ingredients as well asthe equipment needed. Have each student read the recipes to him or herself and thenread together. Have each person add one ingredient. Talk about words like pour, mix,and measure, and what a stiff batter means. You might want to have the students readthe labels on the ingredients and talk about them.

Portfolio – Part 5Oral Language

Oral Practice: A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman, written by David A. Adler and a copy of the song, “The Drinking Gourd”, written and on tape.

Materials Needed: Paint, large paper, manilla paper, cotton balls, markers, fluourescentstars, a highlighter, tape of the music with a tape recorder, and access to a copy machine.

Objectives: Upon completion, students will be able to:

1) plan and present an oral activity

2) answer simple questions posed by the audience

3) sing the words to the song

4) verbalize more fluently and accurately

Time needed for activity:

This activity will be an ongoing process. It will take about ten one-hour sessions tocomplete the final project.

Description of Activity:

After reading our book, students will be drawing and painting a backdrop for theirperformance which is a great hands-on activity. Each student will have a copy of thebook for reading. The reading and re-reading to practice for their show will help with thefluency. They will take turns rating the other students as they speak. Using one of thecopies of the book, students will color the pictures and paste them on the manilla paper.The reading for the page will be pasted on the back for the students to read. If possible,laminate the pictures.

Now students will listen to the song on tape. They will read and practice the words.After that, students will practice singing the song. When the group is ready to perform,they will be in front of an audience holding up pictures about the story while reading thestory on the back of the pictures. When reading is finished, students will sing the song.Audience will be asked to ask questions which students will answer.

Portfolio Part 6Grammar

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Grammar materials needed: Chalkboard, chalk, paper, pencils, hand out with the partsof speech and what thay are, worksheet for tenses, worksheet for singular/plural words, and a dictionary.

Objectives: Upon completion, students will be able to:

1) know at least 5 parts of speech and give examples

2) know the 3 tenses

3) know the difference between singular and plural

Time needed for activity: Students will need at least six one-hour lessons on the threeobjectives named above.

Purpose of this activity will be learning to use form, meaning, and usage of the abovegrammar points.

Description of Activity:

On the first day for one hour, students will discuss parts of speech. The next day for anhour, they will talk about the present tense, past tense, and the future tense. On thenext lesson, students will go over the difference between singular and plural. Studentswill use the practice paper (attachment) to learn to chant and sing to help themremember the grammar we are working on. For the fourth lesson, the teacher willreview what they have gone over. The day of the fifth lesson, the first 15 minutes will beto ask questions if needed. Now the class will play the Mad lib game a few times. Theday of the sixth lesson, each student will make up their own mad lib. They will write astory and then highlight the parts of speech, tense, singular or plural words. Now theywill rewrite the story and replace the words that are highlighted by writing what part ofspeech, which tense, or whether it is singular or plural. The class will now play thegame using their own stories. Other games to play for practicing their grammar would bHang Man, Pictionary, and Charades. Students will give clues in the games like noun,verb, singular, past tense, etc. If student is not sure what the word is, they are to look itup in the dictionary to find out.

GrammarAttachment

Parts of Speech:

N is for noun, it’s a person, place, or thing,V is for verb, it helps me do most anything,A is for adjective, it describes the noun,Like tall, smart of maybe even brown!And don’t forget the pronoun, it gives the noun a break,He, she, it, them, or you for goodness sake!Finally the adverb, it changes manner, place, and time,Quickly, timely, distantly, or silently like a mime!

Tenses:

In the past I did it, it’s over, said, and done,Today is the present, I’m singing or I can run,Tomorrow is the future, it’s things that are yet to come,I will sing, I will run, I’ll even chew some gum!

Singular or Plural:(sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping?)

Singular, singular,That means one, that means one,If you need to add more,It becomes a plural,More than one, more than one.

Portfolio- Part 7Teaching Writing

Writing Material: A newspaper

Materials Needed: The newspaper, manilla paper, scratch paper with pencils, glue, computer, Men’s felt hats. Copy machine.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

1) edit their own work

2) retell in writing an important historical event

3) write creatively (similes, descriptively, etc.)

4) understand paragraphs, indenting, grammar, and punctuation

Time needed for Activity:

This will be an ongoing activity. Approximately eight weeks of one hour lessons.

Description of Activity:

Students will be learning about paragraphs, indenting, punctuation, creative writing, andediting. We will be talking about onomatopoeias, hooking in your reader with a greatopening sentence, keeping your reader captivated with interesting facts and greatdescription. We may be adding conversation to the writing as well. Finally, we wouldtalk about closing statements. We will begin by going over the newspaper and readingan article or two to get the idea. Students will pretend to be a newspaper reporter.They will be wearing hats with a press badge made with the manilla paper. Studentswill choose or draw out of a hat which section of the paper they will do. The first pagewill need the name of the newspaper which will be decided by the class. Below thename will be a big headline like, “Slaves Escape on the Underground Railroad”.Students will write a story about the railroad. Maybe the local section could be aninterview with a slave where students will make up and write an article like a humaninterest story. For a sports page, there is a game that was called, “Rounders”, whichwas similar to baseball. The weather/astrology page would be an article about the BigDipper. There could be a kid’s fun activity page with an article about nature. Studentscould use parts of the story about Harriet Tubman’s father and what he taught her aboutsurvival in the wilderness. An obituary page could have Harriet Tubman’s death givingthe student an opportunity to do a story about her. The activity page could includeacoustic poems, regular poetry, decoding games with the code words from theUnderground Railroad. The next page could be a funnies page where students canmake up their own cartoons and put some word searches or crosswords with

vocabulary words from the lesson. The students will first edit their own work, then passthe work to another student to re-edit the story and then type out a final copy. Studentswill find pictures for the paper and gather all the work together. It will be arranged like anewspaper, glued on, and final copies made. The final product will be a newspaper.“EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!”

Portfolio – Part 7Teaching Writing

Writing Material: The book “Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt”, by Deborah Hopkinson,

Materials Needed: Any fabric cut into squares. (I use felt) Yarn and big plastic needles. Scratch paper and pencils. Construction paper to write the story on and a paper punch.

Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1) relate in writing how it would have felt to be a slave.

2) re-tell in writing how it felt when when they arrived in America

3) compare the difficulties in their trip and the slave’s trip.

Time needed for the activity:

This would be an ongoing activity. Approximately four one-hour lessons.

Description of activity:

Prior to doing this lesson, I would try to work with the students on different writingstrategies. We would talk about the “Hook”, where the opening sentence draws thereader in. We would talk about onomatopoeias and how to use adjectives to make thestory more interesting. Students will learn about paragraphs, indenting, andpunctuation. Students may be encouraged to add conversation to the story and learnabout quotations, etc. They need to have a closing to the story, also. I would start thelesson by picture walking, going over vocabulary words, asking comprehensionquestions, and making sure the students know what a quilt is and how it was used bythe Underground Railroad. After reading, we will begin the writing. Each student will bedoing two papers. One will tell about being a slave, and the other will tell about theirjourney to America. After doing a “sloppy copy”, students will be editing their ownstories. They will then take turns re-editing each other’s work. Students will write finalstories on construction paper or type them up. Holes will be punched around the paperto sew the paper to the felt. When all the squares are finished, the students will sewthem together with the yarn. Final project will be a beautiful quilt with wonderful storiesto tell to future generations.