Caleb Kigar

Professor Christensen
Social Studies Methods
25 October 2016
Unit Plans
Unit Plan #1
Big Idea(s)
A region is a place that shares common characteristics with other
places

Regions experience change over time

Knowing about one place in regions can help us know about
other places in the same region.
Unit Essential Question(s)
What is a region?

Why is a region useful?

The best way to describe regions
What can maps tell us about regions?
What are the effects of human settlements of a region?
GLCEs and CC standards
H3.0.1 Michigan Regions
H3.0.7 Underground railroad
H3.0.8 Protecting natural resources
G1.0.1 Asking geographic questions
G1.0.5 climate/elevation
G2.0.1 Physical and human characteristics of the Great Lakes
Region
G2.0.2 Describe a region
G4.0.2 Impact of immigration
Important concept/skills/understandings
Concepts
o Regions and what makes them important
o How people interact with their environment
o Regions vary
Skills
o Identify key physical traits of various regions
o Recognize differences in regions and what makes them
regions
Understandings

o Unity in the US, except we are different

o Regions define where and how people live

Final Unit Assessment

In the final assessment, I would use the binders from the Region Tour
as an assessment so they can show their knowledge through the
postcards, maps, travel journals, and activities they did.
Day 1
Map Skills
o Cover the importance of having map skills
o Provide different maps and use a chart that shows the
similarities and differences among the different types of
maps
Day 2
Map Skills
o Use what we learned yesterday and create two different
maps of the school ground.
o Each map has a different purpose and the students should
be able to explain what the map is detailing
o Why do we need maps?
o What characteristics make maps useful?
Day 3
What Makes a Region a Region?
o Background information of regionsregions are areas that
share common characteristics
o Discuss the characteristics of regionslanguage, ethnic
groups, environments
Day 4
What Makes a Region a Region?
o Small group activity
The students have been hired to re divide the 50 states into only seven regions. Must
have rationale behind it.
Share results and discuss the activity and why it
relates to the unit
Show true regions of the US and discuss what they
think of this way of dividing the country
Day 5
Regional Changes over Time
o Start by presenting students with the question of how
humans have impacted their environments

o Students provide examples of the interaction of people and

their environments
Day 6
Regional Changes over Time
o Students will be assigned groups to complete one of six
tasks
Create a chart showing a citys population growth
since settlement
Why did people move to our city in the past and why
do they continue to do so
When was our city connected to other cities, through
what modes of transportation, and why? Newspaper
article
When did our city gain telephone and television
technology? Compare the city from before
technology and after/
What hazards existed in the past and continues to
exist today for people living in our city? What has
been done to lessen the hazards?
Day 7
Michigan as a region
o Discuss the regions and characteristics of Michigans
regions
o Present the economic, social, and political regions of
Michigan
o Ultimately tasked with writing a narrative about Michigans
natural resources affecting population growth.
o Students will read an informational magazine, look at a
chart, and watch a video clip. They will take notes on
these sources.
Day 8
Region Tour
o Set up nine different regions that encompass the regions
around the US.
Region tour stops show physical, economic, political,
and social regions.
Little case study of each region at each station
o Each student must visit each tour stop and do hands on
activities or celebration of the region.
o Students must complete travel journals for each tour
stop they visit with new information they learned or saw.
o Introduce the region tour binder. It is the combination of
travel journals all in one binder (which will be used to
assess each students work)

o Have the students create postcards from each stop they

visit with a key element of the tour stop they visit.
Day 9
Region Tour
o Formative Assessments to begin the region tour
o Continue with the tour.
Day 10
Final day of Region Tour
o Formative assessments to start out the tour
o Finish the tour
o Collect all the binders and travel journals.
o Reflect on the activity.
Likes and dislikes
What they learned.
Improvements
Unit Plan #2
Big Idea(s)
To appreciate and celebrate diversity
To learn how to interact with people who arent like you
Unit Essential Question(s)
How do you appreciate and interact with people who arent like
you?
GLCEs and CC standards
3-H3.0.4
3-H3.0.5
3-H3.0.6
3-H3.0.7
3-G4.0.2
3-G4.0.4
Important concept/skills/understandings
Knowledge
o Roles of society
o Belief and value systems of Native American cultures
o Related to nature
o Specifics
Tribes
European settlers/organizations
Skills
o Discussion/dialogue/listening

o Collaboration and communication

o Maps
Understanding
o Perspectives
o Appreciating cultures
Final Unit assessment (Description)
The final assessment will be a simulation and trial between a tribe of
Native Americans of Michigan and European settlers on. Also, there will
be a short quiz on whichever side the student wasnt on.
Day-by-Day lesson titles/topics
Day 1 Native Americans in the US and then Michigan
History of Native Americans and settlers in US and then in
Michigan
Bring in some artifacts from Native Americans from around the
US and then Michigan
Day 2 Native Americans in Michigan
Beliefs, values, and culture
Heritage
How they interacted with other tribes and with nature
Day 3 European settlers in Michigan
Why they came
o What kind of cash crops they came for
o What the majority of the economy was
Who came
o Create a map of the regions of what nationality settled
where

Day 4 Roles of Society for both settlers and Native Americans

Create a model of a Michigan Native American village
Day 5
Begin to explain the simulation
o The class will be divided into two groupsSettlers and
Native Americans
o They will have three days until the court meeting to come
up with a resolution of how the new settlers and Native
Americans living in Michigan will handle each other
o Both sides must come up with a social contract for the
other side based on their sides cultural beliefs and values.
o The students will have three days of research and
preparation until the trial with access to computers, books,
and a trip to a museum (If its possible to go to one)

o Students must record the other sides information to store

for their community.
o Conduct a survey before and after the simulation and
debrief after the simulation
Day 6
Preparation day one
o Computer and library time will be given
Day 7
Potential museum day (If possible) or preparation day
o More computer and library time
Librarian can help
Day 8
Final day of preparation
o Ideas are run by me to check to see if the groups are
properly prepared for the court meeting
Day 9
Court day
o Two groups send different representatives to discuss their
propositions from various issues trying to convince me, the
judge, of what to do.
o Students submit social contract of how to live with the
other culture.
o We will discuss:
Economy
Land
Nature
Equipment
Beliefs
Values
Traditions
Day 10
Results and Reflection day
o Today I reveal what will happen between the two groups
o Then we will have a time of reflection of the simulation
What went well
What didnt go well
Improvements?
What they learned
o Quiz over the other sides culture