SS5H5 The student will explain how the Great Depression and New Deal affected the lives of millions of Americans. a. Discuss the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, the Dust Bowl, and soup kitchens. b. Analyze the main features of the New Deal; include the significance of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. c. Discuss important cultural elements of the 1930s; include Duke Ellington, Margaret Mitchell, and Jesse Owens.
Carly Wilson
ECED 3500
U3 Classroom Culture
b. For my unit on The Great Depression, I will use the following resources to incorporate emotional safety indirectly in my classroom:
1. http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/curriculum.html
Books that will be read include: · Stewart, Sarah. The Gardener. ISBN 0374325170 · Adler, David A. The Babe and I. ISBN 0152013784 · Bud, Not Buddy · Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry · Along with other books about characters during the Depression. Theses books represent all types of people: abled/disabled, different cultures, and different types of boys and girls. They also mention people of different socio-economic classes. · During the readings of these books, I will encourage children to make text-to-self connections with the characters, incorporating background knowledge or life experiences. One of the lessons will incorporate comparisons between life during the Depression for children and what life is like now for the students in my class. · Another activity could incorporate an interview that students would make to interview people who lived during the Great Depression. The class would work in small groups of 3-4 students developing 10 questions that they would want to ask someone from the Great Depression. Volunteers from the class could then role-play with one student being the interviewee and the other being the interviewer. This exercise would help students discuss how people living during The Great Depression had to overcome many difficulties and how they did it. 2. http://educationworld.com/tools_templates/ · Using the above website, I would utilize the behavior chart for students to track their behavior. In conjunction with the chart, students would be given the opportunity to earn “decision dollars”. Because our unit is about the Great Depression, The dollars earned could be used as a reward system during the unit. Students would have the opportunity to earn “Decision Dollars” but also could lose their dollars based on their behavior choices. The dollars they earn will be used to purchase necessities, which would have been important during this era, such as food, clothing, rent, etc…The students would be responsible for keeping track of their money. If they run out of money, then they are out of the game and they have to perform classroom duties/jobs or jobs for others to earn more money. This would help students to set goals, monitor their progress, and celebrate their accomplishments. · I would also utilize this website for KWL charts if needed, graphic organizers, and for the “Who am I?” riddle book in which students have to create a riddle book of important people during this time for other students to figure their character out.
3. For activities done in class: · Students would create a scrapblog page for Eleanor Roosevelt or Franklin D. Roosevelt similar to the one we did in class. For this page, students would use information from biographies available in the classroom and on the computer to list a difficulty that this person had to overcome and also how they did it. Students would then create a scrapblog page of themselves listing the same information. This would indirectly help students realize their accomplishments as well as learn about others who have overcome difficult circumstances and talk about it.
c. Because my unit is about the Great Depression, which is also around the time of WWII, I would take this opportunity to talk about conflict resolution and ways to avoid conflict or solve conflict peacefully. We would discuss why conflicts occur and brainstorm ways to resolve it. Our class would work on a behavior rewards system, which allows them to earn or lose “decision dollars”. These dollars would be used for different classroom activities or to purchase rewards from the treasure chest. Our class would also have a “bad day” box and a “good day” box in which students could leave anonymous notes about problems that they encountered throughout the week or things that they really enjoyed. These would be discussed in class as a whole on Friday afternoons. As a class, we would come up with ways to avoid situations that appeared on notes in the “bad day” box.
d. For a direct lesson related to The Great Depression we would discuss what it means to be responsible and respectful. We would go into an in depth study about President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First Lady and discuss ways in which they showed these different character traits. Along with this, we would talk about character traits that the students each have and how they display these traits. This activity would be turned into a self-portrait art assignment, where the students would draw themselves displaying their positive trait as either the President or as the First Lady. We would display these along with collages made through wordle on a classroom bulletin board.
Along with the above, we will explore music from this era and the lyrics that make up these songs to help us discover what life was like during this particular era. As an extension activity, students will write their own lyrics about the Great Depression in small groups to go along with their favorite modern day melody. · http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/cherries.html · http://www.voicesacrosstime.org/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/07LLLGreatDepression.html a. Utilizing ideas from the following websites, I would include the following considerations to draw upon everyone’s learning styles and experiences. I would use authentic materials in the classroom, which would provide for hands-on learning experiences for every student. When choosing my authentic materials I would consider the following: “For the authentic materials to be effective, the questions must be well constructed to (a) give the students the opportunity to practice English, (b) help the students gain confidence in their English ability, (c) expose the students to cultural differences and customs, and (d) help the students develop their ability to find pertinent information quickly.” ( http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.html) I would also pair up my students based on their abilities and languages spoken. I would partner English-speaking students with my ELLs, and academically gifted students with those that are struggling. By providing this peer connection I would ensure that the students are learning from each other in a safe social environment. It would also provide for a different teaching approach in which students learn from each other rather than just from the teacher alone. When creating assignments and handouts, I would incorporate elements that are relative not only to my English-speaking learners, but also to my other, non-traditional students. For this unit, I would make sure that all types of ethnicities are represented in any visuals or books that are shown. We would also take a small session to see what was going on in other parts of the world while the United States were experiencing the Great Depression. I would specifically explore geographical areas from which some of my students came from. b. Some books that I would include during this unit to represent other cultures are listed below: · Bud, Not Buddy. By: Christopher Paul Curtis. This book is about an orphan living during the Great Depression who goes out in search of his father. · Pickle Song. By: Barthe DeClements. This book is about the difficult times of unemployed families during the Great Depression. · Nowhere to Call Home. By: Cynthia DeFelice. This book is about a child who lives the life of a hobo during the Great Depression and shows the conditions of being homeless. · Esperanza Rising. By: Pam Munoz Ryan. This book is about a girl and her mom who are forced to leave their wealthy lives in Mexico to work in a labor camps in Southern California on the eve of the Great Depression. They have to adapt to the harsh conditions of Mexican farm workers. · Uncle Jed’s Barbershop. By: Margaree King Mitchell. In this book, Sara Jean discovers the difficulties that her Uncle Jed encounters in his dream to open a barbershop during the Great Depression as a black man. This book discusses his difficulties of doing this and how he finally makes his dream come true through hard work and dedication. (There are many others, this list is just a sample of some that I would use.) c. For this unit on the Great Depression, I would use the following projects to incorporate multicultural art, music, and drama. · One activity that we would do would be to listen to the different types of music during this era and discuss the similarities and differences in the lyrics. · We would also do an activity called “Coalescing Across Town” in which students would be given a pen pal from a neighboring school or class. From this activity, students would learn about their pen pal’s home life, ethnicity, and interests. · As an icebreaker to this unit, our class would participate in an activity called “Me & We: We are all similar & different”. Through this icebreaker activity we would discuss the similarities and differences in our class and then how children during the Great Depression had to discover similarities and differences of socio-economic status and race and eventually how these similarities and differences changed. We would then view pictures and video clips of this era to see these similarities and differences. · “Family Ties & Fabric Tales” would be an activity where students would interview their family members and research what their ancestors were doing and what they experienced during The Great Depression based upon where they were located geographically. We would reveal our discoveries to the class by marking on a map where each child’s ancestors came from and by creating a paper quilt block which represented their research findings. 2. Based upon the descriptions of my class as detailed in the U1 chart, I would make the following accommodations and modifications to the lesson activities to take into account these learner exceptionalities. a. I would have my gifted learners help create an independent project activity. If these learners finish their regular classroom work ahead of other students, they would be given an opportunity to use this time to develop their creativity by allowing them to explore a special area of interest related to the topic being studied. Based upon their interests, I would recommend some sources that could be used to aid in their project. I would also team up with a Middle or High school classroom, to obtain a tutor from a higher learning level to come visit with my gifted learners 1-2 times per week to enrich the activities being completed. I would not want to provide busy work. The work being performed would be valuable to the student by giving them the choice of the extension activity to be completed. b. Some general adaptations I will make for my learners with disabilities includes the following: o I would provide oral instruction for students with reading disabilities. I would also present tests and reading materials in an oral format so the assessment is not affected by the student’s lack of reading ability. o I would provide learning-disabled students with frequent progress checks. By doing so, this would allow me to let them know how well they are progressing toward an individual or class goal. o I would give immediate feedback to learning disabled students. This would help to show the relationship between what was taught and what was learned in the lesson. o I would make activities concise and short, whenever possible. o If possible, I would provide them with concrete objects and events—items they can touch, hear, smell, etc. o I would provide very specific praise for their work and avoid general praise such as “Good Job!” o If necessary, I would plan to repeat instructions or offer information in both written and verbal form. o I would encourage cooperative learning activities when possible. I would pair students of varying abilities to work together on a specific project or toward a common goal. This, in turn, would help to create an atmosphere of community inside the classroom regardless of our differences. o If needed, I could provide assignments or instructions in my ELL’s native language or I could provide for a fellow classmate to translate the instructions for them in their native language. o Also if needed, I would allow my ELL’s to write in their native language and then work with a peer to translate their work into the English written language. o I would collaborate my lessons with the Special Education Teacher’s lessons to ensure that content being taught is common and in-line with each other. (http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/new-teacher/48460.html?detoured=1#ixzz1D6vOzTpZ)
Along with the above, we will explore music from this era and the lyrics that make up these songs to help us discover what life was like during this particular era. As an extension activity, students will write their own lyrics about the Great Depression in small groups to go along with their favorite modern day melody. · http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/cherries.html · http://www.voicesacrosstime.org/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/07LLLGreatDepression.html a. Utilizing ideas from the following websites, I would include the following considerations to draw upon everyone’s learning styles and experiences. I would use authentic materials in the classroom, which would provide for hands-on learning experiences for every student. When choosing my authentic materials I would consider the following: “For the authentic materials to be effective, the questions must be well constructed to (a) give the students the opportunity to practice English, (b) help the students gain confidence in their English ability, (c) expose the students to cultural differences and customs, and (d) help the students develop their ability to find pertinent information quickly.” ( http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.html) I would also pair up my students based on their abilities and languages spoken. I would partner English-speaking students with my ELLs, and academically gifted students with those that are struggling. By providing this peer connection I would ensure that the students are learning from each other in a safe social environment. It would also provide for a different teaching approach in which students learn from each other rather than just from the teacher alone. When creating assignments and handouts, I would incorporate elements that are relative not only to my English-speaking learners, but also to my other, non-traditional students. For this unit, I would make sure that all types of ethnicities are represented in any visuals or books that are shown. We would also take a small session to see what was going on in other parts of the world while the United States were experiencing the Great Depression. I would specifically explore geographical areas from which some of my students came from. b. Some books that I would include during this unit to represent other cultures are listed below: · Bud, Not Buddy. By: Christopher Paul Curtis. This book is about an orphan living during the Great Depression who goes out in search of his father. · Pickle Song. By: Barthe DeClements. This book is about the difficult times of unemployed families during the Great Depression. · Nowhere to Call Home. By: Cynthia DeFelice. This book is about a child who lives the life of a hobo during the Great Depression and shows the conditions of being homeless. · Esperanza Rising. By: Pam Munoz Ryan. This book is about a girl and her mom who are forced to leave their wealthy lives in Mexico to work in a labor camps in Southern California on the eve of the Great Depression. They have to adapt to the harsh conditions of Mexican farm workers. · Uncle Jed’s Barbershop. By: Margaree King Mitchell. In this book, Sara Jean discovers the difficulties that her Uncle Jed encounters in his dream to open a barbershop during the Great Depression as a black man. This book discusses his difficulties of doing this and how he finally makes his dream come true through hard work and dedication. (There are many others, this list is just a sample of some that I would use.) c. For this unit on the Great Depression, I would use the following projects to incorporate multicultural art, music, and drama. · One activity that we would do would be to listen to the different types of music during this era and discuss the similarities and differences in the lyrics. · We would also do an activity called “Coalescing Across Town” in which students would be given a pen pal from a neighboring school or class. From this activity, students would learn about their pen pal’s home life, ethnicity, and interests. · As an icebreaker to this unit, our class would participate in an activity called “Me & We: We are all similar & different”. Through this icebreaker activity we would discuss the similarities and differences in our class and then how children during the Great Depression had to discover similarities and differences of socio-economic status and race and eventually how these similarities and differences changed. We would then view pictures and video clips of this era to see these similarities and differences. · “Family Ties & Fabric Tales” would be an activity where students would interview their family members and research what their ancestors were doing and what they experienced during The Great Depression based upon where they were located geographically. We would reveal our discoveries to the class by marking on a map where each child’s ancestors came from and by creating a paper quilt block which represented their research findings. 2. Based upon the descriptions of my class as detailed in the U1 chart, I would make the following accommodations and modifications to the lesson activities to take into account these learner exceptionalities. a. I would have my gifted learners help create an independent project activity. If these learners finish their regular classroom work ahead of other students, they would be given an opportunity to use this time to develop their creativity by allowing them to explore a special area of interest related to the topic being studied. Based upon their interests, I would recommend some sources that could be used to aid in their project. I would also team up with a Middle or High school classroom, to obtain a tutor from a higher learning level to come visit with my gifted learners 1-2 times per week to enrich the activities being completed. I would not want to provide busy work. The work being performed would be valuable to the student by giving them the choice of the extension activity to be completed. b. Some general adaptations I will make for my learners with disabilities includes the following: o I would provide oral instruction for students with reading disabilities. I would also present tests and reading materials in an oral format so the assessment is not affected by the student’s lack of reading ability. o I would provide learning-disabled students with frequent progress checks. By doing so, this would allow me to let them know how well they are progressing toward an individual or class goal. o I would give immediate feedback to learning disabled students. This would help to show the relationship between what was taught and what was learned in the lesson. o I would make activities concise and short, whenever possible. o If possible, I would provide them with concrete objects and events—items they can touch, hear, smell, etc. o I would provide very specific praise for their work and avoid general praise such as “Good Job!” o If necessary, I would plan to repeat instructions or offer information in both written and verbal form. o I would encourage cooperative learning activities when possible. I would pair students of varying abilities to work together on a specific project or toward a common goal. This, in turn, would help to create an atmosphere of community inside the classroom regardless of our differences. o If needed, I could provide assignments or instructions in my ELL’s native language or I could provide for a fellow classmate to translate the instructions for them in their native language. o Also if needed, I would allow my ELL’s to write in their native language and then work with a peer to translate their work into the English written language. o I would collaborate my lessons with the Special Education Teacher’s lessons to ensure that content being taught is common and in-line with each other. (http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/new-teacher/48460.html?detoured=1#ixzz1D6vOzTpZ)
a. Discuss the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, the Dust Bowl, and soup kitchens.
b. Analyze the main features of the New Deal; include the significance of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
c. Discuss important cultural elements of the 1930s; include Duke Ellington, Margaret Mitchell, and Jesse Owens.
Carly Wilson
ECED 3500
U3 Classroom Culture
b. For my unit on The Great Depression, I will use the following resources to incorporate emotional safety indirectly in my classroom:
1. http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/curriculum.html
Books that will be read include:
· Stewart, Sarah. The Gardener. ISBN 0374325170
· Adler, David A. The Babe and I. ISBN 0152013784
· Bud, Not Buddy
· Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
· Along with other books about characters during the Depression. Theses books represent all types of people: abled/disabled, different cultures, and different types of boys and girls. They also mention people of different socio-economic classes.
· During the readings of these books, I will encourage children to make text-to-self connections with the characters, incorporating background knowledge or life experiences. One of the lessons will incorporate comparisons between life during the Depression for children and what life is like now for the students in my class.
· Another activity could incorporate an interview that students would make to interview people who lived during the Great Depression. The class would work in small groups of 3-4 students developing 10 questions that they would want to ask someone from the Great Depression. Volunteers from the class could then role-play with one student being the interviewee and the other being the interviewer. This exercise would help students discuss how people living during The Great Depression had to overcome many difficulties and how they did it.
2. http://educationworld.com/tools_templates/
· Using the above website, I would utilize the behavior chart for students to track their behavior. In conjunction with the chart, students would be given the opportunity to earn “decision dollars”. Because our unit is about the Great Depression, The dollars earned could be used as a reward system during the unit. Students would have the opportunity to earn “Decision Dollars” but also could lose their dollars based on their behavior choices. The dollars they earn will be used to purchase necessities, which would have been important during this era, such as food, clothing, rent, etc…The students would be responsible for keeping track of their money. If they run out of money, then they are out of the game and they have to perform classroom duties/jobs or jobs for others to earn more money. This would help students to set goals, monitor their progress, and celebrate their accomplishments.
· I would also utilize this website for KWL charts if needed, graphic organizers, and for the “Who am I?” riddle book in which students have to create a riddle book of important people during this time for other students to figure their character out.
3. For activities done in class:
· Students would create a scrapblog page for Eleanor Roosevelt or Franklin D. Roosevelt similar to the one we did in class. For this page, students would use information from biographies available in the classroom and on the computer to list a difficulty that this person had to overcome and also how they did it. Students would then create a scrapblog page of themselves listing the same information. This would indirectly help students realize their accomplishments as well as learn about others who have overcome difficult circumstances and talk about it.
c. Because my unit is about the Great Depression, which is also around the time of WWII, I would take this opportunity to talk about conflict resolution and ways to avoid conflict or solve conflict peacefully. We would discuss why conflicts occur and brainstorm ways to resolve it. Our class would work on a behavior rewards system, which allows them to earn or lose “decision dollars”. These dollars would be used for different classroom activities or to purchase rewards from the treasure chest. Our class would also have a “bad day” box and a “good day” box in which students could leave anonymous notes about problems that they encountered throughout the week or things that they really enjoyed. These would be discussed in class as a whole on Friday afternoons. As a class, we would come up with ways to avoid situations that appeared on notes in the “bad day” box.
d. For a direct lesson related to The Great Depression we would discuss what it means to be responsible and respectful. We would go into an in depth study about President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First Lady and discuss ways in which they showed these different character traits. Along with this, we would talk about character traits that the students each have and how they display these traits. This activity would be turned into a self-portrait art assignment, where the students would draw themselves displaying their positive trait as either the President or as the First Lady. We would display these along with collages made through wordle on a classroom bulletin board.
Carly Wilson
ECED 3500
U4
1. My unit is on the Great Depression. We will use many books, both fiction and non-fiction, which depicts the lives of many different races and ethnicities/social-classes during this era. The books used will be listed under part b of this paper. We will also explore pictures from this decade using the following websites:
· http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=great+depression+pictures&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=gIBNTc6bKcL98AbDueCiDg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQsAQwAA&biw=1271&bih=816
· http://history1900s.about.com/od/photographs/tp/greatdepressionpictures.htm
We will use the following sites to view video clips regarding this era:
· http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos#the-great-depression
· http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos#fdr-a-voice-of-hope
Along with the above, we will explore music from this era and the lyrics that make up these songs to help us discover what life was like during this particular era. As an extension activity, students will write their own lyrics about the Great Depression in small groups to go along with their favorite modern day melody.
· http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/cherries.html
· http://www.voicesacrosstime.org/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/07LLLGreatDepression.html
a. Utilizing ideas from the following websites, I would include the following considerations to draw upon everyone’s learning styles and experiences. I would use authentic materials in the classroom, which would provide for hands-on learning experiences for every student. When choosing my authentic materials I would consider the following:
“For the authentic materials to be effective, the questions must be well constructed to (a) give the students the opportunity to practice English, (b) help the students gain confidence in their English ability, (c) expose the students to cultural differences and customs, and (d) help the students develop their ability to find pertinent information quickly.” ( http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.html)
I would also pair up my students based on their abilities and languages spoken. I would partner English-speaking students with my ELLs, and academically gifted students with those that are struggling. By providing this peer connection I would ensure that the students are learning from each other in a safe social environment. It would also provide for a different teaching approach in which students learn from each other rather than just from the teacher alone. When creating assignments and handouts, I would incorporate elements that are relative not only to my English-speaking learners, but also to my other, non-traditional students. For this unit, I would make sure that all types of ethnicities are represented in any visuals or books that are shown. We would also take a small session to see what was going on in other parts of the world while the United States were experiencing the Great Depression. I would specifically explore geographical areas from which some of my students came from.
b. Some books that I would include during this unit to represent other cultures are listed below:
· Bud, Not Buddy. By: Christopher Paul Curtis.
This book is about an orphan living during the Great Depression who goes out in search of his father.
· Pickle Song. By: Barthe DeClements.
This book is about the difficult times of unemployed families during the Great Depression.
· Nowhere to Call Home. By: Cynthia DeFelice.
This book is about a child who lives the life of a hobo during the Great Depression and shows the conditions of being homeless.
· Esperanza Rising. By: Pam Munoz Ryan.
This book is about a girl and her mom who are forced to leave their wealthy lives in Mexico to work in a labor camps in Southern California on the eve of the Great Depression. They have to adapt to the harsh conditions of Mexican farm workers.
· Uncle Jed’s Barbershop. By: Margaree King Mitchell.
In this book, Sara Jean discovers the difficulties that her Uncle Jed encounters in his dream to open a barbershop during the Great Depression as a black man. This book discusses his difficulties of doing this and how he finally makes his dream come true through hard work and dedication.
(There are many others, this list is just a sample of some that I would use.)
c. For this unit on the Great Depression, I would use the following projects to incorporate multicultural art, music, and drama.
· One activity that we would do would be to listen to the different types of music during this era and discuss the similarities and differences in the lyrics.
· We would also do an activity called “Coalescing Across Town” in which students would be given a pen pal from a neighboring school or class. From this activity, students would learn about their pen pal’s home life, ethnicity, and interests.
· As an icebreaker to this unit, our class would participate in an activity called “Me & We: We are all similar & different”. Through this icebreaker activity we would discuss the similarities and differences in our class and then how children during the Great Depression had to discover similarities and differences of socio-economic status and race and eventually how these similarities and differences changed. We would then view pictures and video clips of this era to see these similarities and differences.
· “Family Ties & Fabric Tales” would be an activity where students would interview their family members and research what their ancestors were doing and what they experienced during The Great Depression based upon where they were located geographically. We would reveal our discoveries to the class by marking on a map where each child’s ancestors came from and by creating a paper quilt block which represented their research findings.
2. Based upon the descriptions of my class as detailed in the U1 chart, I would make the following accommodations and modifications to the lesson activities to take into account these learner exceptionalities.
a. I would have my gifted learners help create an independent project activity. If these learners finish their regular classroom work ahead of other students, they would be given an opportunity to use this time to develop their creativity by allowing them to explore a special area of interest related to the topic being studied. Based upon their interests, I would recommend some sources that could be used to aid in their project. I would also team up with a Middle or High school classroom, to obtain a tutor from a higher learning level to come visit with my gifted learners 1-2 times per week to enrich the activities being completed. I would not want to provide busy work. The work being performed would be valuable to the student by giving them the choice of the extension activity to be completed.
b. Some general adaptations I will make for my learners with disabilities includes the following:
o I would provide oral instruction for students with reading disabilities. I would also present tests and reading materials in an oral format so the assessment is not affected by the student’s lack of reading ability.
o I would provide learning-disabled students with frequent progress checks. By doing so, this would allow me to let them know how well they are progressing toward an individual or class goal.
o I would give immediate feedback to learning disabled students. This would help to show the relationship between what was taught and what was learned in the lesson.
o I would make activities concise and short, whenever possible.
o If possible, I would provide them with concrete objects and events—items they can touch, hear, smell, etc.
o I would provide very specific praise for their work and avoid general praise such as “Good Job!”
o If necessary, I would plan to repeat instructions or offer information in both written and verbal form.
o I would encourage cooperative learning activities when possible. I would pair students of varying abilities to work together on a specific project or toward a common goal. This, in turn, would help to create an atmosphere of community inside the classroom regardless of our differences.
o If needed, I could provide assignments or instructions in my ELL’s native language or I could provide for a fellow classmate to translate the instructions for them in their native language.
o Also if needed, I would allow my ELL’s to write in their native language and then work with a peer to translate their work into the English written language.
o I would collaborate my lessons with the Special Education Teacher’s lessons to ensure that content being taught is common and in-line with each other.
(http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/new-teacher/48460.html?detoured=1#ixzz1D6vOzTpZ)
Carly Wilson
ECED 3500
U4
1. My unit is on the Great Depression. We will use many books, both fiction and non-fiction, which depicts the lives of many different races and ethnicities/social-classes during this era. The books used will be listed under part b of this paper. We will also explore pictures from this decade using the following websites:
· http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=great+depression+pictures&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=gIBNTc6bKcL98AbDueCiDg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQsAQwAA&biw=1271&bih=816
· http://history1900s.about.com/od/photographs/tp/greatdepressionpictures.htm
We will use the following sites to view video clips regarding this era:
· http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos#the-great-depression
· http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos#fdr-a-voice-of-hope
Along with the above, we will explore music from this era and the lyrics that make up these songs to help us discover what life was like during this particular era. As an extension activity, students will write their own lyrics about the Great Depression in small groups to go along with their favorite modern day melody.
· http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/cherries.html
· http://www.voicesacrosstime.org/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/07LLLGreatDepression.html
a. Utilizing ideas from the following websites, I would include the following considerations to draw upon everyone’s learning styles and experiences. I would use authentic materials in the classroom, which would provide for hands-on learning experiences for every student. When choosing my authentic materials I would consider the following:
“For the authentic materials to be effective, the questions must be well constructed to (a) give the students the opportunity to practice English, (b) help the students gain confidence in their English ability, (c) expose the students to cultural differences and customs, and (d) help the students develop their ability to find pertinent information quickly.” ( http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.html)
I would also pair up my students based on their abilities and languages spoken. I would partner English-speaking students with my ELLs, and academically gifted students with those that are struggling. By providing this peer connection I would ensure that the students are learning from each other in a safe social environment. It would also provide for a different teaching approach in which students learn from each other rather than just from the teacher alone. When creating assignments and handouts, I would incorporate elements that are relative not only to my English-speaking learners, but also to my other, non-traditional students. For this unit, I would make sure that all types of ethnicities are represented in any visuals or books that are shown. We would also take a small session to see what was going on in other parts of the world while the United States were experiencing the Great Depression. I would specifically explore geographical areas from which some of my students came from.
b. Some books that I would include during this unit to represent other cultures are listed below:
· Bud, Not Buddy. By: Christopher Paul Curtis.
This book is about an orphan living during the Great Depression who goes out in search of his father.
· Pickle Song. By: Barthe DeClements.
This book is about the difficult times of unemployed families during the Great Depression.
· Nowhere to Call Home. By: Cynthia DeFelice.
This book is about a child who lives the life of a hobo during the Great Depression and shows the conditions of being homeless.
· Esperanza Rising. By: Pam Munoz Ryan.
This book is about a girl and her mom who are forced to leave their wealthy lives in Mexico to work in a labor camps in Southern California on the eve of the Great Depression. They have to adapt to the harsh conditions of Mexican farm workers.
· Uncle Jed’s Barbershop. By: Margaree King Mitchell.
In this book, Sara Jean discovers the difficulties that her Uncle Jed encounters in his dream to open a barbershop during the Great Depression as a black man. This book discusses his difficulties of doing this and how he finally makes his dream come true through hard work and dedication.
(There are many others, this list is just a sample of some that I would use.)
c. For this unit on the Great Depression, I would use the following projects to incorporate multicultural art, music, and drama.
· One activity that we would do would be to listen to the different types of music during this era and discuss the similarities and differences in the lyrics.
· We would also do an activity called “Coalescing Across Town” in which students would be given a pen pal from a neighboring school or class. From this activity, students would learn about their pen pal’s home life, ethnicity, and interests.
· As an icebreaker to this unit, our class would participate in an activity called “Me & We: We are all similar & different”. Through this icebreaker activity we would discuss the similarities and differences in our class and then how children during the Great Depression had to discover similarities and differences of socio-economic status and race and eventually how these similarities and differences changed. We would then view pictures and video clips of this era to see these similarities and differences.
· “Family Ties & Fabric Tales” would be an activity where students would interview their family members and research what their ancestors were doing and what they experienced during The Great Depression based upon where they were located geographically. We would reveal our discoveries to the class by marking on a map where each child’s ancestors came from and by creating a paper quilt block which represented their research findings.
2. Based upon the descriptions of my class as detailed in the U1 chart, I would make the following accommodations and modifications to the lesson activities to take into account these learner exceptionalities.
a. I would have my gifted learners help create an independent project activity. If these learners finish their regular classroom work ahead of other students, they would be given an opportunity to use this time to develop their creativity by allowing them to explore a special area of interest related to the topic being studied. Based upon their interests, I would recommend some sources that could be used to aid in their project. I would also team up with a Middle or High school classroom, to obtain a tutor from a higher learning level to come visit with my gifted learners 1-2 times per week to enrich the activities being completed. I would not want to provide busy work. The work being performed would be valuable to the student by giving them the choice of the extension activity to be completed.
b. Some general adaptations I will make for my learners with disabilities includes the following:
o I would provide oral instruction for students with reading disabilities. I would also present tests and reading materials in an oral format so the assessment is not affected by the student’s lack of reading ability.
o I would provide learning-disabled students with frequent progress checks. By doing so, this would allow me to let them know how well they are progressing toward an individual or class goal.
o I would give immediate feedback to learning disabled students. This would help to show the relationship between what was taught and what was learned in the lesson.
o I would make activities concise and short, whenever possible.
o If possible, I would provide them with concrete objects and events—items they can touch, hear, smell, etc.
o I would provide very specific praise for their work and avoid general praise such as “Good Job!”
o If necessary, I would plan to repeat instructions or offer information in both written and verbal form.
o I would encourage cooperative learning activities when possible. I would pair students of varying abilities to work together on a specific project or toward a common goal. This, in turn, would help to create an atmosphere of community inside the classroom regardless of our differences.
o If needed, I could provide assignments or instructions in my ELL’s native language or I could provide for a fellow classmate to translate the instructions for them in their native language.
o Also if needed, I would allow my ELL’s to write in their native language and then work with a peer to translate their work into the English written language.
o I would collaborate my lessons with the Special Education Teacher’s lessons to ensure that content being taught is common and in-line with each other.
(http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/new-teacher/48460.html?detoured=1#ixzz1D6vOzTpZ)