5th grade social studies lesson plan

Settling the Colonies
A WebQuest Activity for 5th Grade

Standards:
History-Social Science
5.3 Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and between the Indian nations and the new settlers.
5.4 Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era.
Listening and Speaking
1.0 Students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the background and interests of the audience. They evaluate the content of oral communication.

Big Idea/Essential Question:
People move to improve their lives or because they are forced and in doing so, they adapt to the geography of their environment and establish systems of government for order and group survival.

Instructional Objective:
Students will be able to describe the similarities and difference of the various colonies by completing a WebQuest activity which involves researching information pertaining to: geographical characteristics, availability of natural resources, the role of religion, native people, slavery, and economic conditions.

Instructional Materials:
Computer and internet access
Student research worksheets
Construction Paper and Crayons
Grading rubric for class debate (available on WebQuest teacher page)
WebQuest Link:
http://questgarden.com/author/preview.php?u=56025&l=56025-071012094251&a=&p=introduction&pt=student

Student Materials:
Research Worksheet
Pencil/Paper for debate notes

Instructional Input/Guided Practice:

1. Introduce students to the 13 colonies by showing the map provided on the WebQuest.
2. Explain to students that they are going to be divided into three groups (New England, Middle, Southern colony cluster) and they will each represent a single state in their colony cluster.
3. Explain that they have the opportunity to rewrite history because they will prepare for a debate about where to place the capital. Through their research, they will compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of their colonies and prepare to defend their state at The Great Debate.
4. Bring the WebQuest up and walk the students through the introduction, process, and task portions which will explain in detail what the students need to accomplish.
5. Hand out the research worksheet and point out that there are relevant websites linked to each state under the process page that will help them find useful information.
6. Depending on the amount of computers in your class, allow groups of students 15 minute time increments to research their individual states. (This may be spread out over a few days depending on the resources available)
7. Remind students that they need to be preparing for The Great Debate and need to collect as much information to support their state as they can.
8. Have students meet with their Colony Cluster and using a pro/con list, decide which state they will be supporting during The Great Debate.
9. Give students time to write down potential debate questions and defenses.
10. Check in with each of the three groups and make sure they are prepared for the debate.
11. Once the Colony Clusters have decided on a state, have groups create the flag representing their chosen state out of construction paper and crayons.
12. For the debate, have one colony cluster stand at the front of the room with their flag, and field questions from the other two colony clusters. Rotate until all colony clusters have presented their reasoning for being the best location for the capital.
13. The winning state can be selected in two ways: 1) classroom vote or 2) based on the presented material, the teacher decides which colony cluster presented the best case. A grading rubric for research findings and debate criteria are available under the Teacher Page on the WebQuest.

Closure:
Help students connect the trials and tribulations of the settlement of the 13 colonies to the process they experienced by preparing for the class debate.

Assessment:
A grading rubric for individual research findings and debate criteria are available under the Teacher Page on the WebQuest.

Katie McIntosh- ESA

ESA - Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky maintained that children follow adults’ examples and gradually develop the ability to do certain tasks without help or assistance. He called the difference between what a child can do with help and what he or she can do without guidance, the “Zone of Proximal Development.” According to Vygotsky, a classroom that makes the best use of all of its students’ ZPDs includes a teacher that acts as a scaffold.
The concept of scaffolding is the assistance that helps children complete tasks they cannot complete independently. The idea is to assist without denying the student’s need to build his or her own foundation. The challenge for the teacher is to find the optimal balance between supporting the student and pushing the student to act independently.
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development can be applied to third grade instruction. For example, to effectively scaffold a student, the teacher should stay one step ahead of the student, always challenging him or her to reach beyond his or her current ability level. If third graders were asked to write a three-paragraph story about a personal experience, the teacher could model how to begin the first paragraph with a topic sentence. To effectively scaffold students within their ZPDs, a teacher should also have an awareness of the different roles students and teachers assume throughout the collaborative process. For example, students could be asked to write a cinquin poem about winter on the computer. The teacher might allow the students to put any kind of computer graphics on their paper, but the teacher would assist the students enhancing the vivid vocabulary in the poem. In addition, the classroom should be set up in such a way to foster group work and student collaboration in order to allow students to take on the role of instructor with their peers as they master the skills at hand.

Erikson's Theory Applied to Middle Grades

According to Erikson’s theory, through age 11, children are in the Industry versus Inferiority stage where children try to establish a sense of self-worth. Beginning in adolescence, Erikson believed that children are in the Identity versus Identity Confusion stage where they are trying to figure out who they are and how they can act as many different roles (child, student, friend, brother). Therefore, students in sixth grade and middle school are transitioning from the Industry versus Inferiority stage to Identity versus Identity Confusion stage. They will be struggling with developing a sense of self worth so they need lots of positive reinforcement and they need to feel successful and accomplished. Peers are also becoming more important in students’ lives as they figure out who they are. Students may feel more self-conscious so group or paired work will help relieve some of that anxiety.
An example of an activity that Erikson would say would be appropriate for this age group would be conducting a poll on who the students want for president and then grouping them by who they voted for. Each group will research their candidate and their candidate’s position on various topics. Then they will form an argument about why everyone else should vote for their candidate and present it to the class. In another lesson, students studying Ancient Greece were given a chance to go back in time and live in either Sparta or Athens. Students then had to get into their city-state groups and list the pros and cons of their city-state. As a group they could come up with changes they would like to make to their cities to improve the quality of life for citizens. In both of these activities, students are working together so they are given a chance to feel successful as a part of a group.