Implementing District Standards
This unit will include several standards which are required for students to achieve mastery in specific subject areas according to the Common Core State Standards (corestandards.org).
Standard 3RL1 requires students to ask and answer questions that show understanding of a text, referring just to the text for the answers.
Standard 3RL6 requires students to distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. Students will support their point of view using information from the text (3W1.A).
Standard 3W3.B allows students to write a narrative to develop an imagined experience using descriptive details and a clear event sequence using dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to show the response of characters to situations.
Standard 3W7 requires students to conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.
Standard 3W10 requires students to write routinely (extended or short time frames) for a range of disciplines-specific tasks, purpose, and audiences.
Standard 3SL1 requires students to engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly; (b) follow agreed-upon rules for discussion (gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and text under discussion)
Standard 3SL3 requires students to ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.
Standard 3SL4 requires students to report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details. They should speak clearly at an understandable pace, and speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification (3SL6).
Standard 3L1 requires students to demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking; capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing (3L2).
Student Resources
The resources listed for students are a range of reading material from easy readers to advanced level. This will provide information that can be presented to a variety of learners, allowing for differentiation. Students are given an overview of what it means to be a good citizen in
Good
Citizenship Counts
.
The American Revolution
is a little more advanced, providing students with information about the founding of the United States. It discusses wars that were fought and the reasoning behind them. It explains the difficult choices made by black men and Native Americans when choosing which side to fight for, the British or the Americans. There is a great deal of history involved here, but the information will lead to rich discussions for students who want to gain a deeper understanding of the actual events.
The use of video clips at this age has proven to be a strategy to hook the students prior to a lesson. The video clips used from
SchoolHouse Rock
provide a quick summary of the book,
Can’t we make them behave, King George?,
which tells about a young boy coming of age to be king and how he handled the decisions that led to the creation of what is now the United States.
When speaking about who is and is not a citizen,
The path to citizenship
will provide the students with information on becoming a citizen. It offers personal accounts of families who have undergone the process and what it has meant to them. This provides students with information on what it is like to be an immigrant. Students can read first-hand accounts from school aged student interviews with people who actually took part in historical events in
Oh, Freedom! Kids talk about the Civil Rights Movement with the people who made it happen.
The interviews are from people of different cultural backgrounds who tell their stories of what it was like during segregation. In
Civil rights movement of kids
, the text includes a plethora of video and book resources on a myriad of civil rights events that are appropriate for young children. The events covered are paired with activities that will deepen the understanding of the event and make it more memorable. For instance, history is presented for discussion and the activity which follows may be a reenactment or further discussion where students are required to take a stance and voice their opinion.
Teacher Resources
The resources listed for the teacher provide in depth information about the topics covered in the unit.
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
explains how the same historical document can be viewed differently depending on life experiences
. The Jury Expert: How jury service makes us into better citizens
is based on a study conducted which ultimately shows an increase in voter participation in citizens who served as jurors when they had to deliberate in order to reach a verdict.
Democracy in America
gives thoughts on how people interact with each other based on social status and obligation. In the text,
So what is citizenship anyway
?, the rights and duties of citizens are broken down and discussed as they relate to individuals as well as groups living in a community.
Student Resources
Bender, Marie,
Good citizenship counts,
Edina, Minn.; Abdo Pub., c2003.
Collier, Christopher and James Lincoln,
The American Revolution,
New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1998.
Fritz, Jean,
Can’t we make them behave, King George?
New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, c1977.
Howell, Sara,
The path to citizenship,
New York: Powerkids Press, 2015.
King, Casey,
Oh, Freedom! Kids talk about the Civil Rights Movement with the people who made it happen,
New York: A.A.Knopf, c1997
Mayer, Cassie, (
Citizenship) Being a leader,
Chicago, Ill.: Heinemann, Library, c2008.
Turck, Mary,
Civil rights movement for kids: a history with 21 activities,
Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, c2000.
Teacher Resources
Allen, Danielle,
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
, New York, NY, Liveright Publishing Corp, c2014
Deess, Perry and Gastil, John,
The Jury Expert: How jury service makes us into better citizens,
2009, 21(3), 51-69.
De Tocqueville, Alexis,
Democracy in America.
Trans. By George Lawrence, ed. by J.P. Mayer. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/ Anchor, 1969.
Luthringer, Chelsea,
So what is citizenship anyway
? New York: Rosen Pub. Group/Rosen Central, c2001.
