A Lesson Plans Page Social Studies Lesson Plan, Thematic Unit, Activity, Worksheet, or Teaching Idea in Civics, American History, Geography, or Government

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Donna Lewis Title: And the News Is... [A lesson plan for incorporating Social Studies (current events) and Language Arts (main theme of a story)] Grade Level: 3-4 Length: 45 minutes Performance Expectation: The students will create a news collage of 3-5 articles and decide what is the common theme. Each group will then display their collage. Materials: several issues of newspapers and magazines; glue scissors markers or crayons posterboard or large sheets of construction paper Procedures: (Introduction) The teacher will relate several news stories he/she heard on the morning news. Students will then discuss, as a class, ideas all the news stories share. (Example: The teacher may state she heard on the radio that morning that stamps have been issued depicting Princess Diana, she also heard Whoopi Goldberg has made a new movie and this is the anniversary of Amelia Erhardts famous flight. Through classroom suggestions the students might suggest common themes such as: people, women, women most people know, etc.) The teacher will write all the common themes suggested by the students on the board. (development) Students will work in small groups, examining articles in newspapers and magazines. Each group will select 3-5 stories, and decide upon a common theme for all the selections. Students will then create a collage of their selections and write their names and the central theme on the back of the poster. Posters will be displayed in the room. (closure) Each student will then move about the room, studying posters and deciding on their idea of a central theme for each poster, recording their thoughts in a journal. Assessment: Each student will be evaluated on their individual interpretations of collages. Assessment will be based on the following criteria (per collage): 3 pts. Student will be able to relate 3 common themes 2 pts. Student will be able to relate 2 common themes 1 pt. Student will be able to relate 1 common theme Students will be given 5 points for working in their group to create a collage and may earn 10 additional points for their individual interpretations of collages. The rationale behind this assessment is the 5 points for working in a group, searching through current events selections would be a social studies grade and the 10 points for interpretations of main theme correlation would be a language arts grade. Adaptations/considerations: * due to time, students could select only 1 or 2 posters to reflect upon in their journals. * students who have difficulty writing, could explain their thoughts verbally to the teacher * classrooms could use headlines only for this activity * if students in the class have difficulty reading, the teacher could assign a "reader" in each group. * might only use the first 4 paragraphs of each story so students don't get overwhelmed * a numbering off system or choosing a color card may be used to divide the class into groups * each group could make an oral presentation of their poster and explain their choice of common theme * television or radio articles could be taped and replayed for students Reference: Donna Lewis, (1997)

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