Context

The "Social Studies Lessons" assignment was created for CI 3110, Social Studies in the Elementary School, during the fall 2007 semester. It was created under the advisement of Dr. Claire Mammola.

The lessons were created to be taught together through a unit on "Citizenship". The third lesson of the three, "That's a Litter Bit Better," was implemented in Mrs. Jessica Baker's Second Grade Classroom at Mountain View Elementary.

Impact on Student Learning

The "Social Studies Lessons" were created to allow students to demonstrate responsible citizenship by experiencing recycling, service learning, and creating a mural and a classroom pledge (Social Studies Competency Goal 1). Students learned how to evaluate how we, as a community have a relationship between our school, our home, our town, and our country. I used different kinds of assessments to assess my students' learning by having them write letters to soldiers in Iraq, creating a mural and classroom pledge, creating a skit, and a poster about recycling.

Alignment

The following NCDPI Standards for Elementary Teachers were met:

NCDPI Standard 4, Indicator 11 was met by promoting the basic principles of being a citizen. All three of my lessons were based on the topics of Citizenship, Respect, Integrity, Responsibility.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 1 was met by aligning the lesson with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study goals and objectives.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 2 was met by integrating language arts, art, and social studies together through the lesson plans. I incorporated language arts into the lessons by reading books aloud to the class that related to the topic of Citizenship, having students make and write posters, and by modeling Standard English on the White Board. To incorporate art, students worked collaboratively together to create a poster for Recycling. And last but not least, all of the lessons were based on the Second grade curriculum.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 3 was met by promoting new learning by using student's prior knowledge of recycling. I knew that students had been exposed to recycling by the school-wide program of Recycling; and that students knew a little about the topic. I took what I knew and made a lesson concerning how to recycle and why we recycle.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 4 was met by implementing a variety of instructional and communication strategies. I used several different communication strategies by through raising my hand, turning lights off, to the repeat-after me method. Students were introduced to all of the strategies before we began the lesson, and were tested on their memory skills. I also implented a variety of instructional strategies through journal writing, letter writing, skits, making posters, to reading books aloud to working in groups.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 7 was met by encouraging students to be responsible with civic activities. The teacher encouraged students to be responsible in their schools, their communities, and at home by recycling for our environment.

NCDPI Standard 8, Indicator 6 was met by modeling Standard English on the White Board. The teacher wrote directions on the White Board for students to follow while working collaboratively in their groups.

NCDPI Standard 11, Indicator 1 was met by having students work together in a four-person group to complete a poster. Students shared ideas, and discussed what they should create together. Students will also discuss as a whole what a respectable citizen is. Students will collectively make a classroom pledge.

NCDPI Standard 11, Indicator 2 was met by having students understand "Citizenship" through books read dramatically in class, and by showing students historical examples of 'Good Citizens' such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and a multitude of others. In lesson 2, students will talk about "Our Town" and create a mural using geography of different places within the town.

NCDPI Standard 11, Indicator 3 was met by incorporating technology into the lesson plan through the use of the website, StarFall, a reading site that allows students to see ideas about recycling through Earth Day.

NCDPI Standard 11, Indicator 4 was met by incorporating mathematics into my social studies lessons. Students will count the letters in their name to group themselves up. Students who have five letters in their first name only will be together and so on. In lesson 2, students could use measurement to measure the distance of one place to another within their town.

NCDPI Standard 11, Indicator 5 was met by having students collect each other's opinions of what should be within their town. Students will decide together what their town needs; however, must make their decision based on the whole group learning that data can be displayed through bar graphs, circle graphs, and other types of graphs.

NCDPI Standard 12 was met by having students complete several arts projects. Students will create an illustration for the soldiers in lesson 1, create a mural of their town in lesson 2, and a poster about recycling for lesson 3.

NCDPI Standard 13 was met by incorporating health within the lesson. Students learned about recycling and how if they recycle, it will help the Earth and themselves.