Title – What Current Events Can Teach

By – Brandy McClellan

Subject – Social Studies

Grade Level – 5th

Lesson Plan for a Fifth Grade Unit on Diversity

Lesson: What current events can teach

I. HEADING

Brandy McClellan

Social Studies

5th Grade- 24 Students

Instruction Time- One hour

II. RATIONAL AND BACKGROUND

The purpose of this lesson is for students to get acquainted with other towns and countries around the world by using the local newspaper. History is being made everyday, but many students do not read the paper to find out what things did happen. The students will be able to look through the local paper and find articles that they feel show a country that they never heard of before or know a lot about.

III. LESSON OBJECTIVES

1. TLW write a report on a country using a newspaper article.

PI: Each student will look through a newspaper finding an article about another country other than his or her own. The student will take that article and write a report about the country. They may find other articles on that same country. They will then present their report to the class.

2. TLW will examine their local newspaper for diversity.

PI: The students will first examine their local newspaper. They will look for articles dealing with other countries or towns. The teacher will then lead a class discussion on what the students found when they examined the paper.

IV. LIST OF MATERIALS

— Local newspapers for the whole class

— Paper

— Pencils

— Maps

— A couple other newspapers

V. CONCEPTS

The students will learn how to locate places on a map.

The students will learn how to write a report and present it to the class.

Students will bet a better understanding of diversity.

VI. PROCEDURES

A. Introduction and Motivation

The teacher will begin class by asking the students if they know any events that are happening in the news, either locally or around the world. The teacher will then tell the class how important it is for them to know current events. The teacher will then review what diversity is to the students. Students should understand the concept of diversity before they start doing their work.

B. Lesson Body

Diversity in the Local Newspaper

          The students will look through the newspaper skimming over the articles.
As they are looking through the paper they should be looking for articles
that have to do with other countries or towns other than the one they are
in. They should then count the total number of articles in the paper and
then the number of articles about other places. Then the teacher should
start a 10-minute discussion on whether their local paper is diverse or not.

Gathering Information from the Newspaper

          The students then should look through the newspaper looking for an
article that has to deal with another country. The teacher should try to
make sure that all the students have a different article or that no more than
two people have the same article. The students should then cut out the
article that they found.

          The students then should find the place that they have on a map. The
student then should go to another newspaper and try to find an article
about the same place that they have. An example would be the same
place and subject in another paper but the article written a little differently.

          The students will then write a paper about the article that they have. There
will be a format that they will have to follow when they write their paper
and present it to the class. The students may also go to the library to find
information on their place.

C. CLOSURE

The teacher will bring all the topics that were discussed today together as one. The students will talk about what they learned from examining their local paper for diversity. The will discuss if their local paper covered a lot of other countries or not.

VII. EVALUATION

A. Student Assessment

          The teacher will evaluate how well the student participated in the class
discussion. The teacher will then grade the student on how well he or she
presented his or her report. The guidelines are clearly stated and that is
what the teacher will follow for grading the reports and write up.

Format that should be followed for the write up and presentation:

Questions to think about:

Where is the country located?

What was the major point of the article?

How did the event happen?

When did this occur? (Yesterday, last week, etc.)

Who was involved?

Was there a way that this could have been prevented?

What could have been done differently?

Presentation:

— Should be 5-10 minutes long.

— Should be able to point the country or town out on a map.

— Be able to state some of the things that were found in the article.

I will be looking to see how well the presentation was prepared. Try not to read directly off of the paper. Some reading off the paper is allowed.

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Brandy McClellan

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