LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

THEME: Culture, Dignity, and Identity CONCEPT: Lessons from Africa - Living, Learning and Working Together: Connecting people, places, and cultures to develop pride and dignity in who you are CONTENT TOPIC: Exploring literary and historical themes: respect for oneself and others and appreciating ones personal and cultural identity through fiction and nonfiction texts UNIT TITLE: People Working Together To Make Their Community Work Unit Topic: What is in my neighborhood? & Where am I in the world? Unit Description: During this unit, students will explore different neighborhoods in Chicago and Africa and examine buildings, outdoor places, and people. Students will explore the idea that they are part of several concentrically larger communities. In a series of mini lessons U1

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

and activities, students take on specific roles to design a neighborhood park or school.
Key Themes: Community Length: 5 weeks Enduring Understandings

Individuals can make a difference in their communities

through service. All communities have important resources. Culture is a way of life here and around the world.

Essential Questions

How do culture and identity influence who we are? How do neighborhood/community and identity
influence who we are?

How do time, community and history influence works of

art and/or the advancement of science and technology?

What can I do to positively impact my community?

Common Core State Standards Primary Secondary Primary RL.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. RL.K.10 Actively engages in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. W.K.3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

U2

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

SL.K.4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail. Secondary RI.K.2 With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text. RI.K.5/RL.K.5 Identify the front cover, back cover, and the title page of a book. SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood. RI.K.10 Actively engages in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. Skills Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Solving Words Recognize high frequency words Segment sounds Searching for & Using Information Read left to right with return sweep Search for and use information in pictures and print Use language patterns to help with reading a text Comprehension Classifying Predicting Drawing conclusions Making connections across texts Questioning Oral and Written Communication Taking turns speaking with partners Asking and responding to questions Building on ideas of others Write ideas sequentially Introduce ideas and follow with details and/or examples Use words to create interesting descriptions Say words slowly to hear sounds and write letters that represent them Use conventional symbols to write words Communicating through writing and the reading of

U3

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

writing

Content

Building Knowledge through Texts Chicago and African neighborhood/communities Culture Diagnostic (Pre-Assessment) Individual Response: A piece of paper will be given to students to draw what neighborhood/community means to them. Teacher will explain to students to include messages and pictures to answer the following: What is a community? Whos in your neighborhood/community? Anything else they know about neighborhood/community. Class: A class KWL chart will be created. This chart will be on large poster board and filled out prior to first lesson. The teacher will ask the students what they know about neighborhood/community. Next the students will generate questions they want to learn about neighborhood/community and additional lessons. Students will be introduced to a community web and students will add on after each additional lesson. The web will be on giant poster with room to add additional information to show growth during unit.
Formative Assessments:

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

Teacher Observations/Anecdotal Notes The KWL chart Community Web Discussions Writing samples using rubrics Post-it notes
Summative Performance Assessment

Final Product/Culminating Project: Students will complete a service-learning project as a class. This will be discussed throughout the course of the unit as part of

U4

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

family school connections and through lessons 3-4 in depth. As a class, the students will brainstorm different ideas for service learning projects and ways that they can help the neighborhood/community. The students will identify areas interest and then form small groups based on these interests. The groups will be responsible for participating in the project inside and outside of class with family support. This will be assessed using a rubric designed specifically for their project by the students with collaboration of the teacher.

Texts/Resources

Suggested Text:

It Takes A Village, by Jane Cowan My Rows and Piles of Coins, by Tololwa M. Mollel Families by Ann Morris Houses and Homes (Around the World Series) by Ann Morris Homes in many cultures by Heather Adamson Families around the family the world, One Kid at a time by Sophie Furland A life like mine: How children live around the world by DK Publishing Off to class: Incredible and unusual schools around the world by Susan Hughes Angel City by Johnston, Tony Do Something in Your Community by Rondeau, Amanda. Be My Neighbor by Ajmera, Maya Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street by Spanyol, Jessica Only One Neighborhood by Harshman, Marc Franklins Neighborhood by Paulette Bougeois On the Town: A Community Adventures by Judith Caseley Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney Mapping Pennys World by Loreen Leedy
Online Resources:

http://www.motherlandnigeria.com/proverbs.html#Coope ration (Motherland Nigeria) http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnesafrica/aindex.htm U5

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

(Utah State University) http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/resources/Rsrc_0 01133.pdf (Art Institute of Chicago Collection on Self, Family and Community)

Learning Activities

Week 1 Preview: Engage reader in establishing good reading habits by modeling the following:

Differentiated Strategies for Varied Learning Profiles

Utilize adult or peer modeling for small group interaction Provide positive behavior supports across all small groups and environments Provide verbal models for social interactions with peers and adults Provide multi-sensory strategies when working with read aloud and identification tasks skills and strategies Provide a visual for multi-step tasks in the classroom Provide visual supports for on task engagement

Making predictions Taking picture walks Visualizing Reading the front cover of texts (title, author, illustrator) Questioning Examining text features

Introduce the concept of neighborhood/ community Teacher will encourage students to interact with the read aloud texts by prompting them to look at the pictures carefully throughout this lesson. Students will then locate their neighborhood on a city map. Students will identify three key characteristics of a neighborhood/community. Brainstorm and list neighborhood buildings, people who work in the community. Students will then practice reading texts and pictures in print and digitally about neighborhoods/communities and list other buildings and workers independently. Instructional Approach: Instructional Read Aloud-focus on retelling, asking and answering questions and details Close Reading and Shared Writing (Pictures and Texts)focus on asking and answering questions and details Collaborative Conversations-focus on sustaining conversations through questioning and sharing details with partners and small groups. Partner Reading-focus on asking questions and sharing details with partners based on reading texts/pictures. Week 2 Teacher will encourage students to interact with the read aloud

U6

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

texts by prompting them to look at the pictures carefully throughout this lesson. Students will then locate African communities. Students will identify three key characteristics of a neighborhood/community. Brainstorm and list buildings, people who work in the community. Students will then practice reading texts and pictures in print and digitally about neighborhoods/communities in Africa and list other buildings and workers independently. Instructional Approach: Instructional Read Aloud-focus on retelling about key details. Close Reading and Shared Writing (Pictures and Texts)focus on main topic Collaborative Conversations-focus on sustaining conversations through questioning and sharing details with partners and small groups and engaging in active listening. Partner Reading-focus on asking questions and sharing details with partners based on reading texts/pictures. Week 3 Student will begin to create three-dimensional models of homes by working with partners to design buildings from an African or Chicago neighborhood. Locate the country, city or state on a map. Continue to work in small groups or partners using texts read in guided reading groups to determine how to put together their chosen neighborhood. Instructional Approach: Guided Reading Groups and Shared Writing-focus on reading texts to support fluency and to determine key information about homes in Chicago or Africa. Close Reading (Pictures and Texts)-focus on asking and answering questions and details Collaborative Conversations-focus on sustaining conversations through questioning and sharing details with partners and small groups. Partner Reading-focus on asking questions and sharing details with partners based on reading texts/pictures. Week 4

U7

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

Teacher will begin to elicit information from the students on service project for neighborhood/ community. Create threedimensional self-portrait on how they view themselves in their neighborhood. Locate their state on a U.S. map. Review the main characteristics of a neighborhood/community and begin to summarize what theyve learned by writing informational texts about where they live. The teacher can choose the instructional approach based on the formative data from weeks 1-3 that best suits the needs of students. Week 5 Teacher will finalize the service project as a home school connection for the students and their families. Learn about the physical features of the world through hands on games and manipulatives. Student will finalize their informational texts about their three dimensional neighborhood/community. Teacher will poll the class to determine the Chicago neighborhood they would like to take a field trip to visit. The teacher can choose the instructional approach based on the formative data from weeks 1-3 that best suits the needs of students.

Professional Resources to Support Instructional Methods

Textbooks Boyd, C.D., Gay, G., et al (2003). Social Studies: Communities. Glenview, IL: Pearson Education. Student Internet Resources http://questgarden.com/43/80/9/061207044532/i ndex.htm http://www.planning.org/kidsandcommunity/more _planning/default.htm http://www.usda.gov/oc/photo/ruraltowns.htm http://www.usda.gov/oc/photo/countryroads.htm http://www.planning.org/kidsandcommunity/ http://www.pbs.org/klru/forgottenamericans/build comm/intro.html http://www.mobot.org/education/02programsreso urces/mappingenvironment/mynaturalcommunity/ front.htm http://www.inspire.net

U8

LITERACY & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Kindergarten Interdisciplinary African and African American Studies Quarter 4 Unit

Teacher Internet Resources http://www.learnandserve.org http://earth.google.com http://www.thinkingmaps.com http://www.inspire.net

U9