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Part 1 - Is School More Difficult Today?

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Part 1 - Is School More Difficult Today?

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Do you think school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past?

2nd Grade

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Part 2 – Standards, Disciplines, Skills, & Concepts

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Part 2 – Standards, Disciplines, Skills, & Concepts

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Standards

HSS Standard: People Who Make a Difference - How Do Families Remember Their Past?

HSS 2.1 - Students differentiate between things that happened long ago and things that happened yesterday. 1. Trace the history of a family through the use of primary and secondary sources, including artifacts, photographs, interviews, and documents. 2. Compare and contrast their daily activities at school with those of their grandparents.

Disciplines

History: the study of past events, particularly in human affairs; the whole series of past events connected with someone or something

Geography: the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries

Mathematics: the abstract science of number, quantity, and space

Skills

1.     Students will interview and gather information from grandparents (or guest speakers) to identify how their school today is different from their interviewee’s era/culture, identifying important events that took place in their own lives, and comparing them to important events that occurred in their interviewee’s lives. Students will compare and contrast the two eras, and decide if they believe school is better today or school was better long ago.

2.     Students will also create a timeline of their life from birth until present day with their interviewee, and note significant events that occurred in both of their lifetimes. (e.g., birth, presidency, year/age they started attending school)

Concepts

Change: to make or become different

Continuity: the unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over a period of time

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The purpose of this unit is to guide students to identify difference and similarities in the education of theirs, and those who came before them. Students will interview their grandparents/guest speakers, and ask questions that compare the two lives as it relates to school. Students will then express if they believe school is better today, or was better in the past, stating which era had a more difficult school setting according to their findings from their interviews, and other primary resources. Students will then create a timeline displaying significant events that occurred in their interviewee’s life, as well as their own life, such as birth, and attending school. This unit is important for it provides a foundation for understanding cultural and government advancements in the United States, and how family lifestyles have significantly changed as a resort of it.

Compelling Question

How is school similar today from the past? How is school different today from the past?

Focused Inquiry Question

Do you think school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past?

Supporting Questions

1.     What made you happy today? Not so happy today?

2.     What is something you enjoy doing every day at school? Did students in the past get to do that?

3.     How was school for your grandparents as they were growing up?

4.     How do you get to school every day?

Connections

Students have been learning about family history, and the history of the United States through the use of primary and secondary sources, including artifacts, photographs, and historical documents (Standard 2.1.1). In this unit, students will further expand on their understanding about how school is has changed and is different now compared to the past, through the use of interviewing their grandparent/guest speakers. Additionally, the lesson will cover laws that have changed, and even revoked from the interviewee’s childhood, to the current era (Standard 2.3.1).

Key Disciplines

This unit will cover the key discipline of history, in that it addresses differences in the education system from student’s grandparents’ experiences to now. It calls for the students to identify the differences, as well as similarities, and explain why either school back then, or school now is better for them. Students will develop historical awareness of important occurrences to be noted in a time line, and identify improvements in the United States. The unit will also address the discipline of geography, as many of the grandparents and guest speakers being interviewed will be those who were not born in the states, but immigrants from different countries. Students will compare differences in cultures, how that affected students in the past, and how they are affected now. Students will also be looking into how much the United States has come in accepting one another, after the civil rights movements.

History-Social Science Content

The concepts of “family”, and “continuity” have been mentioned and defined in many ways. The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides the following definition for family: a group of persons of common ancestry. The definition for continuity is listed as: uninterrupted duration or continuation especially without essential change For this unit, the class will determine important events that have occurred on the time frame listed in their time line, taking both their life and their grandparent’s life into account, and identify similarities, difference, which was easier, better, and note the cultural and historical evolutions that have taken place. I anticipate the class will construct a definition similar to the following:

Family: people who live together, are related to them

Continuity: staying the same over time

While family and continuity can be described in countless ways, this lesson with focus on the students’ lives and their ancestors whom they will interview, and their experiences in school. The students are predominantly of Hispanic decent, and most of them come from Spanish-speaking homes.

Do you think school is more difficult today compared to the past?

The students will identify what factors, events allow them to learn, as well as challenge them. They will cover important tasks they conduct on a weekly basis, and address whether those tasks are challenging to them. They will also ask their grandparents/guest speakers if those same tasks were conducted in the past.

I school better today? Or better in the past?

How was school for your grandparents/guest speakers growing up? Did they struggle? Was it difficult? What was their daily routine at school? How many days did they go to school in a week? Compare them to the daily routine at school now.

Students will answer each question and give reasonings behind their answers. Mentioning differences as well as similarities, and gaining awareness in important areas of development throughout recent history.

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Reading standard for Literature

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

·       Students will listen as the instructor will read the picture book, “Children Around the World”, by Donata Matanari and be able to explain back what the book stated, demonstrating their understanding of diverse cultures, and the central message in the text.

Reading Standard for Informational Text

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

·       Students will watch a YouTube video demonstrating differences in schools amongst different cultures, and different eras. They will answer questions and complete a worksheet assignment to demonstrate their understanding of the video.

Writing Standard

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

·       Students will create a timeline of their life, describing key events that took place.

Listening and Speaking Standard

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.3 Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.

·       Students will interview their grandparent/guest speaker and ask questions regarding their experiences at school. They will then answer the same questions themselves, and create a time line to include all of the occurrences starting from the interviewee’s birth. Students will present the finished time line to the rest of the class at the end of the lesson.

Mathematics Standard

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.OA.B.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.² By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

·       Students will place years and age on a time line, citing the age differences and how many years they have experienced going to school, compared to their interviewee’s experiences and amount of years spent in school.

Visual and Performing Arts Standard

2.VA:RE7.2 Categorize images based on expressive properties.

Students will explain what they see, and what they believe the characters depicted in the book, “Children Around the World”, by Donata Matanari are doing, thinking, and feeling, based on the illustrations. Students will also create illustrations of their own, describing activities they do at school and draw expressive properties that depict whether they enjoy the activity or not.

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Part 5 – Culture Diversity and Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Part 5 – Culture Diversity and Culturally Responsive Teaching

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To introduce awareness of important difference in lives amongst different time frames, the teacher will ask what the students how they got to school today. The teacher will then read a picture book, “Who’s in a Family?” by Robert Skutch. The students will listen and answer as the teacher guides them through the reading, tapping into their background through asking them who brought them to school that day. The class will complete a word wall, with the teacher listing those who are included in a family. For ELA/ELL students, the teacher will strategically seat them next to bilingual students for assistance. Additionally, those students will be able to answer using illustrations from the picture book for metacognitive development, and the teacher will always speak clearly, and slowly, asking if anyone needs clarification or any instructions/ concepts repeated in the lesson.

The teacher will then explain how students’ grandparents were once their age and experience similar challenges as well as accomplishments that the students face now, such as attending school. The teacher will introduce several toys/artifacts that over 50 years old so that students can see how children in that era played during recess time. The teacher will ask the class to compare them to the toys they have now at school, and record their comparisons in a journal.

The teacher will then ask if they believe school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past? The teacher will ask the students to conduct a think-pair-share activity that is to be completed at their tables, with guided questions listed on the board, and have the groups present their findings, opinions, and what they spoke about. The teacher will ask follow-up questions on why the students chose their stance, and relate it back to the toys that were previously shown, compared to the toys and technological equipment that is currently in their classroom.

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Part 6 (1) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Part 6 (1) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Activity 1 – Introducing the Unit

To introduce ideas of different lifestyles and changes over time, the teacher will read the picture book, “Children Around the World”, by Donata Matanari to the students. Afterwards, the teacher will explain to the students how different children around the world live different lifestyles, and their everyday experience in school may be different from theirs.

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A. Overview and Objectives

The purpose of this unit is to guide students to identify how schools today is similar/different from schools in the past. Students will interview their grandparents/guest speakers, and ask questions to compare their everyday life at school with their interviewee’s life, describing whether they believe school is more difficult today, or if it is easier today, focusing on daily activities, and important dates in their lives. Students will then create a timeline displaying significant events that occurred in their interviewee’s life, as well as their own life, such as birth, and attending school. This unit is important for it provides a foundation for understanding educational advancements in the United States, and how lifestyles have significantly changed as a resort of it.

B. Sources

Source #1 – students will interview their grandparents, or a guest speaker and ask them if they believe school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past?

Source #2 – teacher will provide current images of the area, retrieved from Google Earth which will be compared to older images of the city of Whittier from the book, “Images of America: Whittier”, by Mike Garabedian and Rebecca Rudd.

Source #3 – the teacher will bring in several common toys from approximately 50-60 years ago for students to explore.

C. Introducing the Inquiry – Do you think school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past?

Students will be asked the following questions:

What made you happy today? Not so happy today?

What is something you enjoy doing every day at school? Do you think students in the past got to do that?

How was school for your grandparents as they were growing up?

How do you get to school every day?

Students will go deeper into these questions and write in their journals what made them happy, and not so happy. They will also predict if schools had such activities in the past, pulling prior knowledge from past activities, and interviews. Students will share their answers with one another, with the teacher leading and guiding them to ensure accuracy and appropriate content. Students will then write their findings into their journals as well.

The Teacher will introduce several items from the past, and compare them to similar items from the past, such as learning tools (ie. White board/smart board, compared to the chalk board, iPads/computers compared to typewriters, the internet compared to encyclopedias, etc.) and ask students which is easier to use in their opinions and explain why? Which one would the students prefer to use?

D. Conducting the Inquiry

Students will interview their grandparents, or a guest speaker and ask them if they believe school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past? They will compare their interviewee’s answers with their own, and consider their daily school routines, what they enjoy about school, what they don’t enjoy about school, technological advances, and important tasks that are required of them at school. Students will document everything on a timeline, and complete other required worksheets in the lesson plan, answering questions such as what their current likes and dislikes are in school, and what makes the current education system seem more ideal than the past, or vice versa. Students will state their positions and provide evidence from their interviews to answer why they take the position they have taken, recording everything on their journals, and completing worksheets with sentence frames asking specific questions to their interviewees.

The teacher will provide current images of the area, retrieved from Google Earth which will be compared to older images of the city of Whittier from the book, “Images of America: Whittier”, by Mike Garabedian and Rebecca Rudd. Students will guess what the image is, where in the city it was located, and chart it onto a map. As they do so, the teacher will also provide images of the location now, and students will also map that so they will be able to visually compare and contrast, identifying significant changes in the area. The images will be focused on schools and how children back then traveled to school, and what they did for fun, noting cultural and technological differences that may have occurred between the two pictures. Students will record everything into their journals.

The teacher will bring in several common toys from approximately 50-60 years ago for students to explore. The students will be able to get a hands-on experience identifying what the toy is, how children in the past got their excitement, and how technology has advanced throughout time, comparing the items to toys that are common now, that the students usually play with at school, and at home. Ask students to share what they think, what they have learned, and record it in their journals. Students will indicate whether they would rather have the toys they play with now, or the ones that were brought in from the past, and share with one another.

E. Responding to the Inquiry Question

To explain their opinions with supporting evidence, students will explain individually as an exit slip why they believe schools is more difficult today, or was more difficult in the past, why school is better today, or school was better in the past, based on information provided to them through interviewing a grandparent/guest speaker with guided questions. For ELA/ELL students, teacher will allow option to draw difference in the past, compared to the present, and circle which one they believe to be better. They can also write out their responses in their native language.

To demonstrate the changes and differences in schools over time, the students will create a time line to describe exactly how long ago in years, the different experiences at schools have from each other. After their initial interview, students will interview a second family member or guest speaker to get a broader perspective, and recognize other changes and perspectives of school. Student will follow a guided questionnaire with sentence frames to conduct the interview. Students can ask 2 questions of their own, as a follow up question, or a completely separate question that they are interested in knowing about the past, at the bottom of the worksheet. All answers must be documented and a signature from the person they interviewed is required on the worksheet as well.

The interviews the students conducted will be created into a story book, titled, “The Life of…….” and presented to the class when completed. These books will be created in class, with the teacher guiding the students on what the area of focus is on each page, school, transportation, toys, etc, and the book will each be limited to 10 pages. The students will also be required to bring in one artifact that the interviewee stated was important to them to show the class, and pass around for everyone to see its significance.

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Students will present their conclusions to their parents/guardians, an adult at home to show case their findings and explain their reasonings on why they came to the conclusion of either believing that school is more difficult now or was more difficult in the past. Students will also be required to explain their findings and opinions on paper as a writing assignment, and explain their stance, list something they believe to be a benefit of going to school now, as well as a benefit of going to school in the past. A negative factor of going to school now, and a negative factor of going to school in the past. Students are to back their beliefs based on the answers provided to them through the guest speakers on the interviews, as well as the lessons in class on how the local area was in the past. Students will be required to get a parental signature on the assignment for verification of completion.

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The expected student outcomes will be for students to indicate that school is more difficult now, but also better now. There is no right or wrong answer, but students are to give reasons, based on the interviews, and activities to explain their stance. At the conclusion of the unit, students will be assessed on a completed worksheet with sentence frames from the interview, and a timeline for the final project, along with the presentation of it. Teacher will ensure that the focused inquiry question is answered, and that the student gives reasonings to back up their stance. Presentation will need to be clear and concise with little to no confusion from the audience.

Summative Assessment: the teacher will ensure students have a recognition of school in the present and school in the past. The students will complete a timeline to show level of understanding.

Formative Assessment: the teacher will evaluate student’s worksheet after interviewing a grandparent/guest speaker, and documenting their interviews. The student will take a stance on whether they believe school is more difficult now, or was more difficult in the past, and if they believe school is better now, compared to the past. Teacher will also review journals in which students record their answers and understanding from the Kahoot! quiz.

4 Points

Worksheet: Student answered all questions on the sentence frames, and the answers make sense. There are no unanswered questions, and student describes in detail why school is more difficult now/before, and whether school is better now, or was better before. Proper grammar usage and punctuation is also used.

Timeline: Student has accurate dates and times for significant events in the timeline starting from birth to now. There are at least 5 significant events listed with detailed explanations, and images/illustrations. There are no grammatical errors, and the sentence structures are accurate.

3 Points

Worksheet: Student answered all questions on the sentence frames, and most of the answers make sense. There are no unanswered questions, and student gives a reason to why school is more difficult now/before, and whether school is better now, or was better before. There are 1-2 grammatical errors.

Timeline: Student has mostly accurate dates and times for significant events in the timeline starting from birth to now. There are at least 3 significant events listed with detailed explanations, and images/illustrations. There are 1-2 grammatical errors, and the sentence structures are mostly accurate.

2 Points

Worksheet: Student answered most of the questions on the sentence frames, and some of the answers make sense. There are 1-2 unanswered questions, and student did not give a reason to why school is more difficult now/before, and whether school is better now, or was better before. There are numerous grammatical errors.

Timeline: Student has some accurate dates and times for significant events in the timeline starting from birth to now. There are at least 2 significant events listed with some explanations, and images/illustrations. There are numerous grammatical errors, and sentence structure errors.

1 Point

Worksheet: Student answered some of the questions on the sentence frames, and some of the answers make sense. There are 3-4 unanswered questions, and student did not give a reason to why school is more difficult now/before, and whether school is better now, or was better before. There are many grammatical errors.

Timeline: Student has a few accurate dates and times for significant events in the timeline starting from birth to now. There is 1 significant event listed with some explanations, and images/illustrations. There are many grammatical errors, and sentence structure errors.

0 Points

Worksheet: Student answered some or none of the questions on the sentence frames, and none of the answers make sense. There are over 4 unanswered questions, and student did not give a reason to why school is more difficult now/before, and whether school is better now, or was better before. There are many grammatical errors.

Timeline: Student has no accurate dates and times for significant events in the timeline starting from birth to now. There are no significant events listed with any explanations, or images/illustrations. There are many grammatical errors, and sentence structure errors.

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Garabedian, M. & Ruud, R. (2015) Images of America: Whittier. Charleston, South Carolina. Arcadia Publishing

Google Earth. (2015). For MAC and PC. Whittier, CA: Google. This program provides students with a map of the area, and will be utilized to identify and label schools and the surrounding areas in their community.

How to Make a Timeline. Simon Kids Retrieved March 20, 2019 from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=842mEdbuTJs. YouTube video on how to make a timeline for elementary school students.

Kahoot! (2013). For MAC and PC. Norway. This app allows teachers to create quizzes and project them to the students. The correct answer will be identified after the initial question for students to reference. The students will be participating out loud to identify their answers. https://kahoot.it/

Matanari, D. (2001). Children Around the World. Kids Can Press.

This picture book provides excellent illustration and explanation of different families and children from around the world. It shows the differences and commonalities among different countries and cultures including the United States.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved March 20, 2019, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/change. This dictionary was used to identify a definition of “change”.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved March 20, 2019, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/continuity. This dictionary was used to identify a definition of “continuity”.

Skutch, R. (1997). Who’s in a Family? Tricycle Press.

This children’s picture book displays the common family household in the United States. It provides examples of families, children, and their daily routines.

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Students were provided with worksheets, visuals, sample materials, definitions, and a guest speaker in order to effectively understand and participate in this lesson. Scaffolding was done through prior seating arrangements, and allowing students to answer questions through illustrations, and writing their response in the language they are most familiar with.

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Part 6 (2) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Part 6 (2) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Activity 2 – Digital Technology

The teacher will present a quiz from the app Kahoot! based on the book, “Children Around the World”, by Donata Matanari on the projection screen. Students will raise their hands and answer out loud. Teacher will ensure participation from entire class, and be able to decipher if students need any more clarification in their understanding of the book.

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Part 6 (3) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Part 6 (3) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Activity 3 – VAPA Activity; Digital Technology

To introduce important events in the children’s lives, the teacher will go over some of the national holidays that have already passed within the school year and explain the historical meaning behind each of them, providing visual illustrations on the screen. To introduce time lines, the teacher will show a YouTube video that explain what a time line is, what it represents, and how to create one. Once the video is over, the teacher will answer any further questions that need to be clarified, and then instruct all of the students to create a time line that includes events that occurred in their lifetime as it pertains to school. The students are to include the month and year, except for the day they were born, and the present day, that will have to be written out in full, month, day, and year. The timeline will be on a construction paper, with illustrations that express how students felt on that day, and then students will share with the class something that was important to them that had occurred.

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Part 6 (4) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Part 6 (4) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Activity 4 – Activity that addresses the past

To understand first-hand what significant changes have occurred throughout recent history that have impacted the students, they will interview their grandparents or a provided guest speaker in and ask specific questions regarding their thoughts on school when they were in the second grade. Such questions as, “Do you think school is more difficult today compared to the past? Better today? Or better in the past?” along with supporting questions such as how and why they hold that belief. Students will fill out sentence frames on a worksheet to record answers received.

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Part 6 (5) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Part 6 (5) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Activity 5 – Literature-Based Activity; VAPA Activity; Activity the addresses the past

The students will compare the answers they received in the interview with their own personal answers and experiences. Afterwards, the students will make additions to their time line, this time including the interviewee’s life. Students will be able to add pictures, illustrations that depict their feelings, and explanations of their experience at school on it, expressing what they like, and don’t like in their artwork. It will describe events such as the first day of school, how the person felt about it, and compare the two’s experiences noting similarities as well as differences. Once completed, the students will present their findings to the rest of the class.

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Part 6 (6) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Part 6 (6) – Developing Content, Concept, and Skills

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Activity 6 – Activity that addresses the past

The teacher will also present pictures from the book, “Images of America: Whittier”, by Mike Garabedian and Rebecca Rudd to show what the area surrounding the school looked like 50-100 years ago. Pictures of those who lived in the area, and how people dressed, schools, toys, and transportation methods will all be shown on the ELMO projector for the entire class to see. The teacher will point out, and ask guided questions on the difference students see compared to today. A map of the city of Whittier will also be projected, and the teacher will show the students how the local area, including some of the schools that are still around today, looked, placing them on the map next to each other for students to see the changes. A worksheet will be provided to each student, along with their grandparent/guest speaker to complete together, citing which schools remained the same, and which schools had changed.