Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Unit

OVERVIEW

What is an American? What does an American want? What do Americans believe in? All Americans need to explore these questions. This unit on the Declaration of Independence helps 7^th graders understand that much of what Americans are and believe in comes from the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence. This unit can be easily adapted to elementary and Senior High levels also.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1. What ideas, beliefs and values expressed in the Declaration of Independence have become American traditions?

 CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING STANDARDS
List Standard # and Key Idea #: Write out related Performance Indicator(s) or Benchmark(s)

 NYS Social Studies Standard # 1 - History of the U.S. and NY (Intermediate Level)

Key Indicators #1 and #3

 PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

1. Students interpret the ideas, values and beliefs contained in the Declaration of Independence.
2. Students describe how ordinary and famous people in the local community, state and U.S. have advanced the fundamental democratic values, beliefs and traditions expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

INITIATING ACTIVITY

  MAKE YOUR OWN BIRTH CERTIFICATE! Students will make their own birth certificate with information they think would be important and describes them. After students have made their own, discussion questions revolve around the need for and importance of a birth certificate and then advance to the Dec. of Ind. stage. Why is the Dec. of Ind. America's birth certificate? How does it compare with yours? Why was it needed? Who wrote it? What was its purpose? What was the impact of the Declaration of Independence on the Rev. War?

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
In chronological order including acquisition experiences and extending/refining
experiences for all stated declarative and procedural knowledge.

Days 2 and 3 - All students need a copy of the Declaration of Independence and a teacher-generated graphic organizer. The teacher goes over the four parts of the Declaration (purpose, role of government, complaints against the King and formal declaration of independence from Great Britain). Parts one and two are broken down by phrase and discussed for meaning . Students interpret the Declaration on the graphic organizer and the discussion centers around the ideas, values, beliefs and traditions that have become uniquely "American" from those words.

EXAMPLE

WORDS FROM THE DECLARATION / WHAT THEY MEAN/ IDEAS / AM.TRADITION

…THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL…/ ALL PEOPLE ARE BORN AS EQUALS / EQUALITY

This phrase for instance, leads to a number of interesting discussion points. Did they believe this? All people or men are created equal? How about women back then? Are people treated equally today in America?

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT - From the list of complaints against the King in the Declaration of Independence, write down 10 that you understand for discussion.

After parts one and two have been interpreted, the discussion goes to part three, the complaints against the King. After students give a response the teacher leads them "back" to the causes of the American Revolution and shows the connection between the complaints and the causes of the Rev. Be sure to mention this American tradition from part 3 - the idea of criticizing government and voicing your opinion!

DAY 4 - Read the play " 1776 ", which explains the process, the people and the issues involved in writing and passing the Declaration of Independence. Show the A&E video (15 minutes) on the writing and signing of the Declaration.

DAYS 5-7 - Assign groups based on abilities - put students in "four corners" -- leaders, computer experts, artists, and recorders. Assign one from each corner to be in a group. Hand out the Collage Project sheet .

TASK - PRODUCT - Your group will" adopt" one of the ideas from the Declaration of Independence that has become an American tradition (equality, belief in human rights, voicing opinions, democracy, freedom, opportunity, etc.) The group will produce a collage on poster-board, which illustrates your American tradition through visuals (pictures, words, names, drawings, news articles, cartoons, etc.) After discussing your topic thoroughly with your group, look for pictures and articles that relate to your topic on the internet, newspapers and magazines. At the top of the poster should be the actual words from the Declaration and below it the American tradition you are illustrating with the poster. The collage should convey visually the meaning of the tradition. Your group will explain the collage and its meaning to the class. You will have three days (including today) to complete this collage. On the fourth day you will present your collage to the class. All students will speak!

DAY 8 - Group presentations of collages to the class! Students present their group collage and then discussion is held on each collage.

DAYS 9 &10 - Classes go to the Media Center. The library media specialist will teach students how to access commercial databases in school and at home (1/2 period). The students will have 1 and1/2 periods to access topics in the media center for their culminating performance.

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE
Include rubric(s)

• TASK - Using your knowledge and understanding of the Declaration of Independence, complete the following assignment.

Find an article from the commercial data bases available to Clinton students that tells about a contemporary person (one who is alive at this time) who exemplifies one of the American traditions we have studied that come from the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Think about people you admire and look up to in different fields (sports, music, politics, etc.). What is it you admire about that person? There is a good chance that the qualities they embody are related to the traditions that come from the Declaration of Independence!

 When you find an article you enjoy and understand you are going to write two paragraphs about the article. PARAGRAPH # 1 will be a summary of the article telling the reader what the article is about.

PARAGRAPH # 2 will tell how the person in this article, whether he/she is ordinary or famous, has advanced or benefited from the ideas and traditions that were expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Be sure to describe the person, the tradition, and tell specifically WHAT WORDS FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDPENDENCE EXPRESS THAT IDEA AND HAS BECOME AN AMERICAN TRADITION. DON'T FORGET TO PUT QUOTES AROUND THOSE WORDS FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE!

• Attached is the 25 point rubric. You will grade yourself and I will grade you. We will double those to grades to come up with your overall grade. GOOD LUCK!

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE RUBRIC

1. The article chosen tells about a person who has advanced/benefited from an idea, value, belief or tradition contained in the Declaration of Independence. 4 3 2 1 0
2. The first paragraph summarized the article. 4 3 2 1 0
3. The second paragraph told how the article/person advanced/benefited from a specific idea, value, belief or tradition contained in the Declaration of Independence. 4 3 2 1 0
4. The student referred to the specific words in the Declaration of Independence that reflect the idea, belief, value and/or tradition cited in paragraph # 2. 4 3 2 1 0
5. The student demonstrates an understanding of the impact of the Declaration of Independence and American culture by using this topic/person and writing about him/her! 4 3 2 1 0
6. The student completed all of the requirements on time (including the graphic organizer). 5 4 3 2 1

PRE-REQUISITE SKILLS

1. Knowledge of the Causes of the American Revolution.
2. Knowledge of the opening year of the American Revolution (events leading up to the writing of the Declaration of Independence).
3. Some computer skills - accessing the internet and commercial databases.
4. Writing skills - summarizing, picking and explaining key ideas, relating the present to the past.

MODIFICATIONS

1. Group roles assigned based on abilities.
2. Students find articles on people who interest them personally, no requirement to find a "politician" or someone they find "boring."
3. Writing assignment can be modified/adapted to skill level.
4. Voluntary extension activity available to all for extra credit. 25 Students chose to work further on their collage, enhancing and refining it. They then explained the ideas and traditions visually with their collages to an assembly of the 4^th graders who were studying the Declaration of Independence one week later!

UNIT SCHEDULE/TIME PLAN

 10 full periods, 39 minutes each

TECHNOLOGY USE

1. Use of the internet for collages.
2. Instruction in accessing commercial data bases in the Media Center by the LMS.
3. Individual accessing of commercial databases to find an appropriate article for each student.

REFLECTION/DEBRIEFING - Two weeks after the unit was completed I asked my students to write a homework assignment. The assignment said, "Looking back on all the activities and class time we spent on the Declaration of Independence, tell me why it is such an important document to Americans today, just as it was in 1776!"

SCORING CRITERIA FOR CULMINATING TASK RUBRIC

EXCELLENT - 4 PTS.

COMPLETELY ANSWERS THE TASK

STAYS ON THE TOPIC VERY WELL

USES MANY DETAILS

VERY DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICALLY ACCURATE

MAKES VERY FEW GRAMMAR AND SPELLING ERRORS

DEMONSTRATES HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS

VERY GOOD - 3 PTS.

GENERALLY ANSWERS THE TASK

STAYS ON THE TOPIC PRETTY WELL

USES SOME DETAILS

SOME DESCRIPTION AND GENERALLY HISTORICALLY ACCURATE

WRITING IS SOMEWHAT CREATIVE, PURPOSEFUL, DEVELOPED

DEMONSTRATES SOME THIING SKILLS

FAIR - 2 PTS

HAS TROUBLE ANSWERING THE TASK

DOES NOT STAY ON TOPIC

USES FEW DETAILS

LITTLE DESCRIPTION - NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE

WRITING IS NOT VERY CREATIVE, PURPOSEFUL OR VERY DEVELOPED

MAKES MANY GRAMMAR AND SPELLING ERRORS

DEMONSTRATES FEW THINKING SKILLS

POOR 1 PT

DOES NOT ADDRESS THE TASK

DOES NOT STAY ON THE TOPIC/DOES NOT TRY TO

USES NO DETAILS

NO DESCRIPTION/NOT ACCURATE

WRITING IS VERY SKETCHY, NOT CREATIVE OR DEVELOPED

MANY GRAMMAR ERRORS/DIFFICULT TO READ

DEMONSTRATES NO THINKING SKILLS

NONE - 0 PTS.

DOES NOTHING, GETS NOTHING!