Primary Source Exemplar: Life on the Move


Learning Objectives

Literacy knowledge tasks

Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical text including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

Reading tasks

From sources designated for this lesson, students will read reference materials (primary and secondary sources) to research a specific topic (as pairs, whole class, and individually)

Explain what the text says explicitly by referring to details and examples in a text

Explain what the text infers by referring to details and examples in a text

Writing task

Write or speak about the subject knowledgeably using the information from two texts on the same topic.

Vocabulary task

Add vocabulary to word wall with definition from the dictionary, definition in their own words, and a picture/drawing to support its meaning


Social Studies (C3) tasks

Form questions, research those questions, discuss implications, and organize research to report on the development of transportation over time and its impact on society and the environment (as pairs, whole class, and individually)

Create and use a chronological sequence of related events to compare developments in transportation that happened at the same time (as a class)

Compare different forms of transportation over time and relate them to the forms of transportation available today (as pairs, whole class, and individually)

Explain how societal problems (e.g., food shortages, lack of space for farming, homesteading) and human interaction (e.g., with Native Americans and among themselves) influenced the invention of different forms of transportation (as pairs, whole class, and individually)

Standards Addressed


CCSS ELA

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.


College, Career & Civic Life C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards

Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries

D1.3.3-5. Identify the disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a supporting question that are open to interpretation.

Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts & Tools

History: Change, Continuity, and Context

D2.His.1.3-5. Create and use a chronological sequence of related events to compare developments that happened at the same time.

D2.His.2.3-5. Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.

History: Historical Sources and Evidence

D2.His.10.3-5. Compare information provided by different historical sources about the past

Geography: Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions and Culture

D2.Geo.4.3-5. Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.


Essential Question Connection

This lesson will tie directly with the essential question: How do our available forms of transportation affect the way we live, where we live, and how we exchange goods and services?

Guiding Questions

  • How did/does the automobile change the landscape?
  • Did it change it for the better? [Pros/Cons]
  • What disappeared when the automobile became popular?
  • What impact did/does the automobile have on our landscape?


Planning and Pre-Assessment

NOTE: This is a short lesson as part of the larger ‘transportation’ unit. It encompasses 3 hours of class time used within the scope of several days as planned with other parts of the larger unit.

Prior Concepts and Skills

Practice in-class discussion with give/take from all students

Practice in “talk with your neighbor” discussion

Ability to work together to put concepts “in order”

Source Set

Our Buggy image

Covered wagon with jackrabbit

Automobile helped through sandy wash

The Eighth Avenue Trolley

Arial view of a complex of Long Island highways

The Changing Face of America

Massed traffic in Herald Square

Timelines

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarm2.htm

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/87524

http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/timeline.htm

http://www.tcrr.com/

Other Materials

Teacher will copy each picture onto paper and laminate or paste them to individual pieces of handle-able cardboard.

Procedure

1.  Introduce the lesson

Discuss the word “change."  Ask students to create sentences using the word. Write these on chart paper or board.  Relate their sentences to previous lessons, including science/history/ their own lives as they grow and change from being a baby into a big kid.


2. Student Tasks

       Lesson 2, Task 1:
       Create a list/graph of what ‘change’ looks like in 4 venues: social, emotional, physical, and worldview.

     Discuss transportation and place student points about themselves on the graph in relation to the four venues [social=Now I go to visit friends by myself; emotional = I can choose my response to feelings; physical = I grow taller each day; worldview= before I only knew my house, now I know my town.]

       Lesson 2, Task 2

     For this task, the class will unpack a primary source document and work with the vocabulary: image, analyze, reflect, and change. The theme is “change." Procedures:

          Put students into groups of 3-5.

          Use the Analysis Tool and the 'Our Buggy' image

          Observe - Ask students: What do you see? What do you notice first? What words are there? What is the setting?  Share out onto a white/chalk board or an easel page.

          Reflect – Ask students: Why do you think this image was made? When do you think it was made? What can you learn from looking at this image? Who do you think was the audience for this image? What’s missing? If this image were made today, what would be different? What would be the same?

          Share out

          Wonder (question) – Ask: What questions do you have about this image?  Make a list of the WONDER questions - they’ll make good research topics.

          Add in the covered wagon with jackrabbit image and using the tool: Observe as above; Reflect – Ask this question: Is there anything about “change” that adding this picture helps us think about? Wonder - Are there any questions we may have answered from before by using this image? What new questions does this bring up?

         List questions in notebook and add new vocabulary to the word wall. 

      Closing for Lesson 2, Tasks 1 & 2

      In groups, give students access to the timelines listed under “materials needed”

     For each invention they add to the timeline [in a particular color]... they must add one historical or other identifying event - to help them later determine change.  

     Using the timelines, find all references to buggy and car transportation. Add them to the timeline around the room.

     LAST: after all the forms of transportation are on the timeline, ask:

          What can we infer about change?

          How did the 3 kinds of transportation change through time?

          Did they change at the same time, in the same way?

     Finally, bring them back to the essential question for this entire unit, “How do our available forms of transportation affect the way we live, where we live, and how we exchange goods and services?”

     Hand them the picture of the automobile being helped through sandy wash

     Do a quick “unpack

     OBSERVE: state what you see.

     REFLECT: why does the car [is it a truck] have a covered wagon on it? Why do you think the horses are pulling the car? What is missing in that landscape that could help the car drive better? [a paved road, bigger tires, is it strange that the ‘old’ technology is used to help the ‘new’ technology? ]. What does this tell us about change?  Head to the conclusion: that change comes in bumps and relies on previous activities & technologies to help the transition.  

     WONDER: How did roads begin? How did they grow and change?

     Lesson 2, Task 3- Geography of automobile transportation

          PROCEDURES:

          Review the timeline about automobiles

          Review dates and have students place automobile data on the timeline.

          Move to the Eisenhower map – "The Changing Face of America"

          Explain how the highway system grew out of change from a big world war and how quickly it grew into what it is today.

          Unpack these maps as a whole group: OBSERVE that they grew over time;  REFLECT on why - you will have to give them the answer to this unless you want to take this into another history activity; WONDER: Why might we want to have roads across the whole United States? [to help in war time, to bring the coasts ‘closer’ together so we can visit, etc]. How does this affect me today?  

          Conclude: that what we see today is a result of many years of building and changing the highway and other road systems; and it affects us because we can travel further than in the past.

          Use the image: Highways in Long Island: Aerial view of a complex of Long Island highway

          Do a quick Unpack - just discussion.  

          Then show them the traffic jam: Massed Traffic in Herald Square

          Quick unpack - Ask: does change always lead to smooth lives? Is change always good? How do we deal with change?

          Activity: Using cameras, assign some students to take photos of the local environment. Have them email them to you. OR you take some pictures. Show them to students via the overhead projector or other projection means.

          Discuss the roads that need work, roads that take them to places they go every day and how they use them. Do they see changes in transportation even today in their own town?

          Have them take notes in their notebook about the pros/cons of the roads in their neighborhoods - should there be more? Less? Imagine if they could change something about the transportation in their town, what would they change?

          Brainstorm together, then have them write their opinions in their notebook. [this prepares them for their final presentation].

          Remind them that change happens every day and affects how we do things and how cultures grow because of these changes.  

          Activity: Print out the final map of the Eisenhower Highway system http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/densitymap.htm#face ]

          Unpack the document as a class: OBSERVE: What do you see? [lots of lines, it says it’s a map, etc]; REFLECT: What do you think it means when it says it’s a ‘defense’ map? What do you think the lines mean? What does this photo make you think about? WONDER: What questions do you have about this map?

         Explain that President Eisenhower was a General in World War II and he [and others] was concerned that the U.S. be ready to move equipment and other things across the U.S. if needed.


Assessment

  • Have students reflect on the unit’s essential question again, and write a short paragraph using the knowledge and understanding they have gained thus far in this unit.
  • Essential question: How do our available forms of transportation affect the way we live, where we live, and how we exchange goods and services?
  • Remind them to refer back to the different sources they have used to support their answers.


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