Native Americans: The Land and Early People

Kelsey Masserant

Native American Unit

Table of Contents
Overview Unit Objective Content Outline Theme Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans Meeting Diverse Needs Materials Behavior Management Assessments Pre-Assessment Post-Assessment Pictures Assessment Reflection

Kelsey Masserant Elementary Student Teaching Unit Plan Overview Unit Title: Native Americans, The Land and Early People Theme: This unit focuses on the theme of how does where we live affect how we live? This key question encourages fifth graders to think about how certain groups of Native Americans adapted to the environments in which they were living. Grade Level: Fifth Grade Content Area: Social Studies Rationale: Zeeland Public Schools uses the Michigan GLCEs or Grade Level Content Expectations so all of my lessons are aligned to these standards. Zeeland also uses a specific standard test that all fifth graders must take at the end of this unit in Era one of the Social Studies curriculum. The state of Michigan and the Zeeland Public School District require this information to be taught to fifth graders. Big Ideas: The big ideas of this unit are the American Indian life in the Americas with respect to governmental and family structures, trade, and views on property ownership and land use. Students will also compare how American Indians adapted to their environment based on their location in America.

Unit Objective The main objective for this unit is that my students will be able to compare, in writing, how two different groups of Native American Indians adapted to their environment. Grade Level Content Expectations: U1.1 American Indian Life in the Americas

Describe the life of peoples living in North America before European exploration. 5 U1.1.1 Use maps to locate peoples in the desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River (Eastern Woodland). (National Geography Standard 1, p. 144) 5 U1.1.2 Compare how American Indians in the desert Southwest and the Pacific Northwest adapted to or modified the environment. (National Geography Standard 14, p. 171) 5 U1.1.3 Describe Eastern Woodland American Indian life with respect to governmental and family structures, trade, and views on property ownership and land use. (National Geography Standard 11, p. 164, C, E)

Content Outline The daily objectives relating to my unit objective are listed at the top of each lesson under Instructional Objectives. Understand and describe how Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands lived and worked. Demonstrate how the Eastern Woodland tribes met a basic need. Understand and describe how Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest lived and worked. Understand and describe the Native American life on reservations today. Compare the way Native Americans lived before to the way that they live today. Demonstrate how the Northwestern tribes met a basic need. Research and describe how American Indians in the Southwest and Northwest adapted to their environments. Understand and describe how Native Americans of the Plains lived and worked. Demonstrate how the Plains tribes met a basic need.

Students will learn about what materials Native American tribes used to make weapons, wigwams, and clothing.

Students will ask questions about Native Americans and their daily lives.

Major concepts of this unit are for the students to describe the daily life of the Eastern Woodland American Indian life, use maps to locate the different Native American groups, and compare the Indians of the Southwest to the Northwest.

Theme The theme of this unit is how does where we live affect how we live? This key question encourages fifth graders to think about how certain groups of Native Americans adapted to the environments in which they were living. Students learn about different Native American groups, environments, and topics relating to the life of these people before European exploration.

Interdisciplinary This unit incorporated learning in multiple discipline areas outside of the content area of Social Studies. I chose to incorporate literacy into this unit by adding the content areas of reading and writing to integrate into daily work, homework, and the pre and post-tests. Learners used their art expertise in the construction of Native American villages. They also used technology in creating Kidspiration organizers.

Meeting Diverse Needs I accounted for the needs of diverse learners in many different ways throughout this unit. One each lesson I wrote I included differentiation for students with visual impairments, emotional impairments, high achieving, and low achieving students. I described accommodations I would have in the lesson to help these learners succeed. I also structured this unit with different multiple intelligences in mind by using various activities and assignments. Students were able to read, write, listen, create, verbalize, move, watch, and be creative in different ways and in different groups throughout the unit. This accounts for auditory, kinesthetic, linguistic, visual, musical (in the videos), and interpersonal learners. I included a variety of types of questions with Blooms Taxonomy in mind. Question formats varied in the beginning of the lessons each day, during the lesson on worksheets and orally, on homework assignments, and on the test at the end of the unit.

Materials Elmo Pencils Note taking sheets Computer with internet access and Kidspiration program Native American research books iPads Projector Notebook Paper Copies of the pre-test Pictures Artifacts from Rosebud Paints Paint brushes

Plastic cups Paper plates Cardboard boxes Natural materials (grass, rocks, sticks, dirt, sand, pebbles, berries, leaves, etc.) Elmers Glue Clay Materials from home (toys, people, figures, animals, etc.) Snack Ziploc bags (for collecting materials) Trash bags Native American Study Guide sheet Native American Test Social Studies Notebooks Southwest reading and worksheet

Behavior Management At the beginning of each lesson I remind students of our classroom behavior management policies. I only call on students who are raising their hand and in the SLANT listening positio n. This is mostly during a large group lesson where the whole class is involved. I remind students during the lesson to follow our behavior expectations because if they are misbehaving they may lose minutes of afternoon recess the next day. Students are also expected to follow the ground rules for groups that the class came up during the Native American research project. Groups not following the rules or staying on task will receive a fine in Troll Cash in the classroom economy system. Groups who work exceptionally well together may receive a bonus in Troll Cash that they can spend at the auction at the end of the marking period.

Assessments My methods for assessing each daily objective changed depending on the lesson. At the end of each lesson plan I always state how I am assessing the learners in the evaluation section. I used a lot of formative observations during group work and class activities to assess the student learning. I also walked around and monitored student discussions and made observation notes. I had a few lessons that included an activity or slip that the students had to turn in to me. I evaluated class work and homework when they turned in assignments for a grade. The Native American essay written after the group research was one of the summative assessments that I used to evaluate their understanding of the topics taught in class.

Pre-Assessment The pre-assessment was a little five question quiz given on the first day of the Native American unit. The questions asked the students to write what they knew about Native Americans in regards to the standards they would soon be learning and later tested on. The pre-test questions were very similar to the post-test questions on the unit test. Students wrote as much as they could to answer the questions, but after reviewing their answers most had very limited information about Native Americans. Only six students answered two out of the five questions completely with correct answers.

Post-Assessment The final summative assessment was the Native American test which was the first test of fifth grade for the students. This test is standard across all fifth grade classes in Zeeland Public Schools. My students went through a study guide with me several days before the test along with a test best sheet to provide information on how to study and what to study in order to succeed. They had all weekend to study, yet over half of the class failed the first time they took the test. Only ten students passed the test the first time. We discussed as a class, the

importance of studying and not just reading the study guide and the students who failed wrote up a reflection afterward. They all received another copy of the study guide and were re-tested a few days later with the same test that was used the first time. After the re-test there were only 4 students who did not pass the unit test.