LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

1st Grade Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 3 Unit Plan

THEME: Culture, Dignity, and Identity CONCEPT: Lessons from Africa: African and African American Families, Traditions and Lifestyles A Rich Tradition: Appreciating the role of family and cultural traditions CONTENT TOPIC: Exploring African American family structures and traditions through fiction and nonfiction texts UNIT TITLE: Families Around the World Unit Topic: African and African American Family traditions Unit Description: Students will be able to explore the history and contributions of African American families with African origins to appreciate the role of family and cultural traditions. By the end of the unit Students will know how to: Compare and contrast family unit in a diverse African, African American, and Caribbean families. Students will gain knowledge, skills and experience to understand how belonging to a family group is important for people. Understand and explore the differences among African and African American families interaction with cultural and environmental impact on them as an individual and in the family unit with focus on language, music, religion, clothing, region (desert, rainforest etc.) area (rural, urban city, suburbs etc.) and food. Length: 5 weeks
Enduring Understandings

Essential Questions

Student will understand that How the ideas and actions of families of the past have had a significant impact on people lives today. Family cultural interaction impacts on cultures and societies. Acquires a distinct sensitivity about major social (family) problems, surrounding families both from an urban perspective and with global vision How do culture and identity influence who we are? How do time, culture and history influence works of art and/or the advancement of science and technology? What can I do to positively impact my community? How does ones family experience affect the way we respond to one another? What factors have shaped Africans and African American, Caribbean families and cultures? How does cultural affect daily family life? What connections do African families and Africa nations have with the United States and the world?

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Common Core State Standards Primary Secondary

1st Grade Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 3 Unit Plan
Primary: Standards Assessed RL./RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. RI.1.4 Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text. W.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed. SL.1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Secondary: Standards Addressed RI.1.10, RL.1.9, RF.1.3, RF.1.4, W.1.2, W.1., SL.1.1, SL.1.4, SL.1.6 Reading, Writing, and Citing Textual Evidence Search for and use information from words and pictures in the text to solve words and gain meaning. Make and confirm predictions Draw conclusions based on information presented to them in many forms, viewpoints and perspectives. Analyze information, classify, and sort it into meaningful categories. Speaking, Listening, and Writing Use conventional symbols to write words. Say words by breaking them into syllables to spell them. Attempt unknown words through sound analysis. Say words slowly to hear sounds and write letters that represent them. Use resources to check spelling (word walls). Write ideas in a logical sequence. Building Knowledge through Texts Relevant academic vocabulary: Cultural diversity of West Africa, Kinship, Nuclear Family, extended family, lineage, Clan, Grot Describing the importance of family ties to Africans. How urbanization has changed the lives of African families. How extended families help to develop a sense of community in African countries. African American, African, and Caribbean family life. Diagnostic (Pre-Assessment) Students will complete a web with four to six legs describing what family means to them. Students may use words to/and picture to explain what family means. Student will label a map of Africa and list three question/comments they would want an African family coming to live with them in United States of America to know before they arrive.

Cognitive Skills

Content

Assessments (D) Diagnostic (F) Formative (S) Summative

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LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

1st Grade Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 3 Unit Plan
A family from an African country has come to stay at your home for six weeks. You and your family are sharing your first dinner with the visitor. Write/Dictate three-six questions in which you would ask your visitor about African culture and families.

Formative Assessments On chart paper students in small groups will create a chart by describing one or more key features of the cultures and families of each region. Regions: North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Central Africa Culture: Music, clothing, Language, Holidays, special foods, religion etc. Type of family: traditional, non-traditional (i.e. multiple wives), extended family, nuclear family. Students will give examples (minimum of 3-4) on how do people outside their immediate family help to raise you? Summative Performance Assessment Africa in Art: Teacher and students will prepare a mini-museum of traditional and urban African cultures and families styles from Africa. By creating drawing, painting, collages, photographs, mosaic art, and a short paragraph explaining their mini-museum. Students will present their museum to grade level classes and respond to questions posed from students (with support). Anchor Texts: Read Aloud by the teacher My First Trip To Africa Atlantis Tie Browder Somewhere in Africa Ingrid Mennen and Niki Daly Afro-Bets First Book about Africa Veronica Freeman Elis Africa is Not a Country Margy Burnsknight and Mark Melnicove Texts for Guided Reading Groups: Sunday Synthia Sanit James OH, NO, TOTO! Katrin Hyman/ Louise Tebana Pami Me and my Family Tree Carole Boston Weatherford Audio It takes a Village Jane Cowen Fletcher I Love My Family Wade Hudson The Hunter Who was King: And Other African Tales Bernette Ford At the Crossroads Rachel Isadora The Market Lady and the Mango Tree Pete and Mary Watson Freedoms Gift: A Juneteenth Story - Valerie Wilson, Wesley Juneteenth Jamboree Carole Boston Weatherford We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey through Tanzania Laurie Krebs

Texts/Resources

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LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

1st Grade Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 3 Unit Plan
A True Book Africa David Petersen Rehemas Journey a visit in Tanzania Barbara A. Margolies Were Going on a Lion Hunt by David Axtell A Triangle for Adaora an African Book of Shapes Ifeoma Onyefulu Tommy Traveler in the World of History Tom Feelings Our People Angela Shelf Medearis Online Resources www.Charleswrightmuseum.net/history www.pbs.org/westsfrica Teacher Resources: Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Childrens Books by James P. Comer Africa Second edition by Teacher Created Resources African Americans classroom activities by Insight Africa is not a country Its a Continent by Dr. Arthur Lewin Thematic Unit: My World, Family, Friends, Egypt, A trip around the world by Teacher Created Resources

Learning Activities

Week 1 Students will explore the aspects of personal, world and African history in the text My First Trip to Africa. Students will listen to, discuss and write about informational texts read aloud that tell about the historical journey to the world second largest continent, Africa home of famous desert, great rivers, and magnificent ancient civilizations. Students will first explore the land itself and how families and cultures live differently along rivers, in desert and in the rainforest. The terrain on which in 1959 fossils of human who lived approximately 1,750,000 years ago were discovered. Week 2 Students will listen to informational texts during read alouds and engage in close readings (of artifacts) about the Nile River as a natural resource that people cant live without. Students will ask and answer questions in their exploration of the experience box and within texts (during guided reading groups):

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1st Grade Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 3 Unit Plan

http://harris.fieldmuseum.org/products/search_result.php?type%255b0%255d=Experie nce%20Box

Students will examine a shaduf model, fishing net, papyrus paper, and other objects in the experience box to identify common themes of life along the Nile. Students will discuss then write about whether life in Ancient Egypt could have existed without the Nile River. The Egyptians truly harnessed this resource for their survival and prosperity. Week 3 Students will read texts (during guided reading groups and independent reading) about families and family member roles to compare and contrast families around the world. Students will examine shoes in the experience box and explore what is unique to individuals as well as individual needs shared around the world. This box contains various shoes from diverse cultures. Students will use these artifacts to compare and contrast families across cultures. Students will also use the shoes to discuss measurement by analyzing and comparing different shoes and their sizes and practice classification and categorization by sorting the shoes into different groups. Using Van Goghs Three Pairs of Shoes painting, the teacher will model her interpretation on whose shoes they are, what kind of family members would wear that type of shoe, and their role in the family. Students will then create their own interpretation of his work. Week 4-5 Students will listen to texts and audio recordings to learn about how people everywhere must find food and shelter. We respond to this concern in different ways shaped by our environment, history, and human creativity. Students will use the experience box to infer the locations of shelters based on their size and the materials used to construct them. Students will be asked to create a shelter that meets specific environment and material requirements and design the

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1st Grade Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 3 Unit Plan
perfect shelter for your community. 1. Four Great Rivers of Africa: Groups of families and their cultures develop in Africa, usually in areas near river and river systems. Four great rivers helped shape families lives in various area of Africa. These rivers are the Nile, the Niger, the Congo (also called Zaire) and the Zambezi. Develop an Africa Interest Center. Display a large map of Africa with the River and three to four countries outlined. Display pictures of scenes of life in Africa. Also display pictures of items, which show the contributions of Egypt made to the modern world. Display books about Africa. Have students make oral reports on one of the museum experience boxes in the interest center. Have the students discuss (brainstorm) what they know about Africa and Egypt. Record the students responses on chart paper. Have the student use the classroom map or/and globe to locate the continent of Africa. Then have them locate Egypt of the map and/or globe. Give each student a copy of directions that have pictures and words on the five steps in making paper from papyrus. Model for students how to use symbols to write without words. Have the students create their own way to use symbols to write without words. Extension Plan a field trip to the Field Museum of Natural History, focusing on the exhibits from Africa and Egypt. Prepare the student for the trip by exposing them to the experience boxes from the Field Museum and/or pictures showing what Egypt and Africa gave to the modern world.

Professional Resources to Support Instructional Methods

Comparing Cultures: A cooperative Approach to a Multicultural World by John W. Pickering

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