LEARNING UNIT
LU Title: My Family

Authors: Debi Popovich, Mary Alyce Brinkman, Jean Jackson

Grade Level: 2nd

Subject Area: Social Studies

School: New York State School for the Deaf

 

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Declarative

  • Define "family"
  • Be able to explain titles attached to family member – i.e. parent, sibling, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew
  • Identify members of their extended family
  • Explain how their family has changed over time

Procedural

  • Record data
  • Select 3 criteria they will use to make a comparison
  • Use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast data
  • Use data to make generalizations or draw conclusions
  • Generate their own family timeline
  • Compose an e-mail message
  • Send and e-mail message

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

  1. What is a family?
  2. Who are the members of an extended family?
  3. How is my family the same or different from other families?
  4. What makes my family special?

CONNECTION TO STANDARDS

FRAMEWORK

STANDARD

PERFORMANCE

INDICATOR

Social Studies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Studies con’t.

Students will demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in history.

 

 

 

 

Students will demonstrate their understanding of geography – local, national, and global – including the distribution of people and places.

  • Gather and organize information about the traditions transmitted by various groups
  • Distinguish between near and distant past and interpret simple timelines.

 

 

  • Ask/answer geographic questions about where people are located; why they are located where they are; what is important about their locations; and how their locations are related to the location of other people and places.

English Language Arts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English Language Arts con’t.

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.
  • Gather and interpret information from media presentations, charts, and maps.
  • Present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms such as summaries, brief reports, stories, posters, and charts.
  • Use a few traditional structures for conveying information such as chronological order, cause and effect, and similarity and difference.
  • Use the process of pre-writing, drafting, revising, and proofreading to produce well-constructed informational texts
  • Observe basic writing conventions such as correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization as well as sentence and paragraph structures appropriate to written forms.

 

  • Exchange friendly notes, cards, and letters with friends, relatives, and pen pals to keep in touch and to commemorate special occasions.
  • Adjust their vocabulary and style based on the nature of the relationship and the knowledge and interests of the person receiving the message.

Math, Science, and Technology

Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to evaluate products and systems to satisfy human needs
  • Understand the importance of cost, ease of use and availability in selecting tools and resources for a specific purpose.
  • Use the computer as a tool for communicating ideas.

 

INITIATING ACTIVITY

The students will attend to the video "My Family, Myself". Following the video students will engage in a short discussion about the term "family". Students will be given paper and instructed to draw a picture representing their ideas about a family. The students will be given time to explain their drawing to the other students in class. The student pictures will be posted on our family bulletin board.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

EXPERIENCE

TEACHER

STUDENT

Experience #1

Objective: Students will be introduced to the topic of family by using models and Venn diagrams.
  • Provide a model of her family using pictures or a drawing
  • Identify members of her family by title and by name
  • Use a Venn diagrams to chart information provided by students regarding the similarities and differences between families

 

  • Provide materials, patterns and directions for finger puppets.
  • Using a photograph or drawing identify family members by title and name.

 

  • Use the photographs or drawings to compare and contrast various family groups.
  • Share their observations with teacher and other students.
  • Make a finger puppet to represent members of their family.

Experience #2

Objective: Students will share the goal and focus of study.
  • Review the Venn diagrams from the previous experience.
  • Explain that there are other ways to chart information.
  • Explain that they are going to look at the family pictures and drawings again to gather more information about each student’s family.
  • Provide a list of data to be collected.
  • Collect, organize and graph data.
  • Use the graph to draw conclusions about the various family groups.

Experience #3

Objective: Students will be introduced to the concept of timelines and generate their own timelines.
  • Provide a model of a timeline
  • Explain how timelines are used to record important events in history
  • Post a model of the teacher’s family timeline
  • Explain that each student will generate a timeline of their family recording important family events
  • Gather data from home regarding birth dates of family members, weddings, and other special events in the lives of their family.
  • Use the model to design a timeline recording their own families history
  • Include photos or drawings of family members affected by each event.
  • Write a paragraph on how their family has changed over time. Describe how these changes affected the family.( Use ELA Rubric to assess their compositions)
  • Share with their classmates their timeline and the events that have impacted or changed their family.

Experience #4

Objective: Students will be introduced to the concept of extended family.

  • Define the concept of "extended family"
  • Use the teacher’s original model of family. Add the extended family members
  • Locate the teacher’s family on a map of the United States to show where different members of the teacher’s extend family live.
  • Gather data from home regarding their extended family members.
  • Draw a picture or label a photograph of their extended family.
  • Locate their extended family on the classroom map of the United States.
  • Engage in a discussion with their class regarding the members of their family and where each member lives.

Experience #5

Objective: Students will list criteria, collect and compare information.
  • Review Venn diagrams from experience #2
  • List criteria the class used to compare their nuclear families including mother, father, and number of siblings). Engage students in identifying the criteria used.
  • Discuss other criteria that could be used to make comparisons. For example, hair color and eye color.
  • Divide students into collaborative pairs.
  • Inform students that they will be working together to compare their extended families.
  • Engage in discussion about the previous comparison task.
  • Use the data to identify criteria used to make comparisons
  • Work cooperatively in a collaborative group to compare own family with that of the other student’s
  • Identify criteria they will use to compare their two families
  • Complete the graphic organizer *( Comparison rubric will be used to assess content of the graphic organizer)

Experience #6

Objective: Students will be introduced to the concept of E-mail.
  • Collect e-mail addresses from each student
  • Discuss various ways we keep in touch with extended family who live far away.
  • Demonstrate how to write and send an e-mail. (Use students who know how to e-mail as teachers.)
  • Engage in the discussion about communicating with family members.
  • Observe the demonstration on e-mail.
  • Compose and send a short e-mail to a family member at home. (Students who don’t have e-mail at home can send an e-mail to a friend or to a family member of another student in the class.)

Experience #7

Objective: Students will be introduced to the concept of family trees and create their own family tree.
  • Provide a model of a family tree
  • Explain that a family tree shows how members of a family are related
  • Explain that they will be using the information about their extended family to create their own family tree
  • Use pictures, their finger puppets, or drawings to organize their information about their extended family
  • Use the information to design and complete their family tree.

*Resource for graphic organizers used to compare items. Park, Sandra & Black, Howard; Organizing Thinking: Book I; Critical Thinking Press, 1992.

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE

 

Students will be instructed to create a family photo album. They can use photos or they can draw pictures of family members. A blank album will be provided with a section labeled "immediate family" and a section labeled "extended family" The students must organize their family pictures according to immediate vs. extended family members. The students will be give two sets of labels. The first set will identify the family member’s relationship to the student – i.e. mom, dad, sister, brother, etc. The second set will have the names of each family member. The students will use the labels to identify their family members by title and by name.

Students will also write a short paragraph describing – "Why My Family is Special." The paragraph will include an opening, a body and a closing statement. This composition will be placed in the beginning of their albums. Students will be reminded to use information they learned about their family from the comparisons with other families, the timelines, and the family tree.

 

RUBRICS

Writing rubric

CRITERIA/SCALE

ORGANIZATION

USE OF DETAIL

LANGUAGE

MECHANICS

4

You did an outstanding job of planning your composition

You have a clear focus

Your composition has a beginning, middle, end

You use a lot of excellent details

You used many real life examples

You made connections to your knowledge

You used some advanced words

Your language is descriptive

You used a variety of sentences

Your composition is interesting to read

You remembered to use capital letters and periods all of the time.

You also use commas and question marks appropriately

3

You did a good job of planning you composition

You are focused through most of the composition

You attempted to organize the content

You used many good details

You have some examples from real life

You made some connections to your knowledge

Your used mostly basic words

Your used mostly simple sentences

Your composition is easy to read

You remembered to use capital letters and periods all of the time

2

Your plan is clear enough for a reader to understand the message

Your composition gets off track several times

You need to work on the organization of you thoughts

You used some details

You have very few examples from real life

You made no connections to your knowledge

You used very basic words

You used only simple sentences

Your composition is difficult to read

You remembered to use capital letters and periods appropriately most of the time

1

You need to work on your plan

Your composition is off track and confusing

Your composition is not organized

You have very few details

Your examples are not relevant

You used simple words

Some of your words are incorrect

Your sentences are incomplete

You repeat information

You used capital letters and periods appropriately only a few times

Comparison task rubric

Tasks

4

3

2

1

Identifies Criteria

All of the criteria selected are appropriate for the task.

Students show an in depth understanding of the task.

Most of the criteria selected are appropriate for the task.

Needs help in selecting some appropriate criteria for the task.

Few if any appropriate criteria are selected for the task even with help.

Identifies the Similarities and Differences

Accurately and fully compares all the similarities

Accurately compares most of the similarities and differences of the given items

Needs help in accurately comparing some of the similarities and differences of the given items.

Unable to accurately compare the similarities and differences of the given items even with help.

Rubric for assessing culminating performance

CRITERIA/SCALE

4

3

2

1

Organize photo album by immediate versus extended family.

All family members are placed in the correct section.

Most family members are placed in the correct section.

Some family members are placed in the correct section.

A few family members are placed in the correct section.

Label family members using titles.

Matched title labels correctly to all family members.

Matched title labels correctly to most family members.

Able to label other family members verbally. Had to be given printed label.

Matched title labels correctly to some family members.

Able to label some of the remaining family members verbally. Had to be given printed label.

Matched title labels correctly to only a few family members.

Able to label only a few of the remaining family members verbally.

Label family members by name.

Matched the names of all family members correctly.

Matched the names of most family members correctly.

Able to name other family members verbally. Had to be given printed label.

Matched the names of some family members correctly.

Able to name some of the remaining family members verbally. Had to be given printed label.

Matched the names of only a few family members correctly.

Able to name only a few of the remaining family members verbally.