It’s a BIG, BIG World Lisa Tilzey
Portfolio Cover Sheet Author: Lisa Tilzey Nevada History Standards: Historical analysis and interpretation: People, cultures and civilization: Background: People have been exploring for a long time and for many different reasons. Early explorers left the safety of their homes in search of food, settling in new areas and establishing permanent communities. Soon different communities started trading with other communities. Trade became important around the world, rich trading empires grew, and people started exploring, looking for easier trade routes. The Eastern and Western Hemispheres were coming into contact with each other. Plants, animals and customs traveled back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean which was labeled the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange had a significant impact on native peoples. Some explorers explored because they had a spirit of adventure and curiosity but many later explorers came to establish colonies. After the early explorations of parts of Asia, Africa, India, and even Iceland and Greenland, explorers began to further their explorations westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Spain sent conquistadors, conquering the Aztecs and Incas in the Americas and what is now Peru. England challenged Spain and began to establish colonies in the Americas. Dutch and French settlers also established colonies. With these colonies further explorations occurred, again to find easier trade routes.
DETAILED EXPLANATIONS OF ACTIVITIES Introduction: These lessons are developed to enhance the 5th grade social studies Scott Foresman curriculum Unit 1 Chapters three, four and parts of five, pages 100 through 166 – explorers and conquerors. Students will be given a picture and an assignment of an explorer they will research. They will write their explorer on their assignment sheet and put their picture on one of the four timelines which will be hung up in the classroom. An example of the timelines can be found on page 116 of the social studies textbook. Another timeline for the Americas will be added. The class will discuss their observations of the timeline once all of the picture are attached. They will have already been exposed to timelines, but these will be parallel time lines. They should conclude that these parallel timelines show major events happening in different places during the same time period and sometimes events taking place in one area (continent) reach another area. They should also conclude events in the Americas occurred later. Students will complete three activities as outlined in the assignment sheet (see page entitled Your Adventure is About to Begin!). They will present information to the rest of the class. As these presentations are made, students listening to the information will take notes which will be used for the last activity – making a flip book. The detailed activities are listed in the chronological order for the lessons. The list of explorers, along with page numbers from the Scott Foresman Social Studies The United States which the students will read, follow:
TABLE OF CONTENTS Activity 1: Wordle Activity Activity 2: Literature Connection: Activity 3, 4 and 5: Internet/Technology, Foldable, and Student Project Activity 6: Art Piece/Writing
WORDLE PASSAGES The first activity to introduce the subject matter is a WORDLE activity. In order to introduce the lesson each group will be given two Wordles which they will compare and contrast. Each group will review their findings with the class and their findings will be recorded. The class will determine what the subject matter is as an introduction to the topic. The class will them look at a web site that provides a good overview of the subject and discuss the meaning of the reading passage. Although this site has to do with exploration starting with the early 1500s we will be study explorers beginning in the late 900s. Student learning will be evaluated based on observation. What causes someone to leave a comfortable home and travel into the unknown? The Age of Exploration or Age of Discovery as it is sometimes called, officially began in the early 15th century and lasted until the 17th century. The period is characterized as a time when Europeans began exploring the world by sea in search of trading partners, new goods, and new trade routes. In addition, some explorers set sail to simply learn more about the world. Whatever their reasons though, the information gained during the Age of Exploration significantly helped in the advancement of geographic knowledge. Explorers Explorers Explorers Conquistador meaning "Conqueror" in the Spanish and Portuguese languages is the term used to refer to the Portuguese and Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain and Portugal in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World. Two of the leaders of the conquests were Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro. Conquistadors were usually mature men, who fought in earlier battles with the Muslims in southern Spain. Conquistadors were more mercenaries than actual soldiers. They had to buy their armor, sword, and horses. The stated purposes of these conquests were equally to spread the word of God and to bring civilization to the most obscure parts of the world. CONQUEROR CONQUISTADOR.
Literature Connection – Picture books The purpose of this lesson is to have students think about why someone would leave the comfort of their own home to explore, to understand that sometimes homes are not comfortable and are a place to escape from, to understand the complexity of travel and exploration, and to hear wonderful examples of great writing while reviewing reading comprehension strategies and learning new vocabulary words. The class will listen to the picture book, You Wouldn’t Want to be a Viking Explorer! Voyages You’d Rather Not Make, by Andrew Langley. ISBN # 0-531-16205-2. During the reading, difficult vocabulary words will be written on large lined paper, with a brief explanation for each and reading comprehension strategies will be reviewed. The class will discuss the author’s purpose in writing the book. With the teacher as scribe, the class will discuss and make a list on large lined paper things they learned from the book. This book has great illustrations and in a very entertaining way, tells the story of Thorvald, Leif Ericsson’s brother. It let’s the reader know that the life of an explorer isn’t all adventure, that there are a number of obstacles that need to be overcome. The following day, the class will revisit what we learned yesterday from You Wouldn’t Want to be a Viking Explorer! Voyages You’d Rather Not Make. The class will then listen to the picture book, How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz. “Having traveled a long way from their troubled homeland, a boy and his family are living in poverty in a strange new country. The boy has no toys and no books, and, worst of all, food is scarce. But then instead of bread his father brings home a map and hangs in on the wall. Suddenly, without ever leaving the room, the boy is transported to exotic places. In this story, based on his childhood memories of World War II, Uri Shulevitz tells how a map and his imagination took him far away from his hunger and misery.” Again, during the reading, difficult vocabulary words will be written on large lined paper, with a brief explanation for each and reading comprehension strategies will be reviewed. The class will discuss the author’s purpose in writing the book. Afterward the class will together complete a Venn Diagram to compare the two books. During the week the class can compete a word search of the new vocabulary words. I would have them do this together in pairs or groups, while I am pulling other students for intervention. Student learning will be evaluated based on observation. INTERNET/TECHNOLOGY – OPTION 1 Student engagement with the site(s): TEN STUDENT FRIENDLY INTERNET SITES: 2. http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com/ 3. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/indexv.shtml 4. http://www.wikipedia.org/ 5. http://www.askkids.com/ 6. http://education.yahoo.com/reference/ 7. http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ 8. http://www.wordle.net/ 9. http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/ 10. http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp 11. http://www.hyperhistory.com/
FOLDABLES Students will do two foldables. They will use Dinah Zike, M.Ed.’s book Notebook Foldables, page 62 to find five new vocabulary words while researching their explorer. They will be given the template, which they will cut and paste onto another piece of paper. On the top of the tab they will write the word. On the back of the tab they will write what they think the word means. Under the tab they will write a dictionary definition of the word using an on-line dictionary. On the other half of the page they will pick one word, use it in an original sentence and illustrate. The second foldable is a cootie catcher. The instructions for this can be found at http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/fortune_teller.htm and will be provided step-by-step by the teacher in class. On the outside of the cootie catcher they will use the four squares to write the following:
On each of the middle eight triangles students will write one word or draw a symbol pertaining to that explorer. On the four center squares students will write an interesting fact that corresponds with the two words/symbols written/drawn on that square’s middle triangles. Once these are done students will line up in two concentric circles facing each other. They will share their cootie catchers and then the inner circle will move one space and share with a different student. The circles will keep moving as time/student interest allows. NARRATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT CHOICES Your writing will be scored 1-5 using the Student Publishing Checklist just like we have practiced in class. Complete the checklist, using checkmarks before you submit your writing. 1. Suppose you are an explorer. Write a letter to your ruler explaining why he or she should pay for your expedition. Explain what you hope to find and why it will be valuable to your country. Follow the proper format and proper punctuation for a business letter. Remember in persuasive writing you need reasons and examples to go with your reasons. 2. Suppose you are the explorer you researched. Write a week long journal entry about your experiences during the week. Try to use transitions words from your list. 3. Suppose you are an explorer and have just met one of the people living on this new land you found. Pretending you speak the native person’s language, write a conversation between you and the character you just met, using only dialogue, of their first meeting. Remember whenever a speaker changes you must start a new paragraph. Also remember dialogue punctuation rules. 4. Suppose you are an explorer that is looking for a new place to start a colony. Once you get to this new land you will be the ruler in charge for your Mother Country. What will you need to take with you to start your colony? What rules will the people of your colony have to agree to obey? Write a description of how you will establish your new colony. 5. Write a narrative of a future explorer. Where will they go? How will they get there? What will they learn and find? Use what we have learned so far about idea development, organization, conventions, fluency and voice strategies, to write an story with a good beginning, middle and end. YOUR ADVENTURE IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!
Explorer Assignment Research information for your assigned explorer using the two internet sites. Take notes of important facts about the explorer. You will be given three index cards to organize your notes for your three paragraphs. Use your six-tab foldable to find six vocabulary words. You will be finding the vocabulary meanings on line as your do your research. Write a three paragraph report of your explorer. The first paragraph will tell the name of your explorer and details of the person’s life including place and date of birth. The second paragraph will discuss the places this person traveled, things this person learned and any of their accomplishments. The third paragraph will tell what you learned from researching this explorer including what impact the explorer had on today’s world. Create a report cover including your name and your explorer’s name. Illustrate it and staple to your report along with your vocabulary page. Narrative writing: Final Assessment: Art Piece/Writing One objective of this project is to have students take responsibility for teaching the content area and do it in more depth than provided by the curriculum. That requires other students to listen and learn from their fellow students. To encourage active listening and understanding, all students will be completing a final assessment project utilizing information gained from listening to the student presenter/teacher. When a student is presenting their explorer report the students listening to the report will take notes. At least three complete sentences will be required of each presentation. Then each student will take these notes to the computer lab and complete a flipbook of explorers using the http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/flipbook/ web site. Students will choose 5 explorers for which they heard presentation. They will type their three facts on the applicable page, print the pages and illustrate them using crayons, markers or chalk. These will be stapled with an illustrated cover and will be turned in along with their notes for the other presentations not included in the flipbook. The illustration on the cover will be made with “tear art” – tearing paper into shapes and pasting onto construction paper to create a scene. After the books have been assessed (using the rubric) they will be posted on our classroom hallway bulletin board.
A cut, laminated copy like this example will be given to each student along with their assignment. The back will be velcroed and the picture will be placed on the timeline. EXPLORER RESEARCH VOCABULARY WORDS Student name_________________ Paste your foldable here. On the front tab On this side of your paper use
Explorer Flipbook Rubric
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