Planning Guide
Creating Learner-Focused Schools
| LU Title: The Iditarod, One’s Will to Survive | Author(s): Kathy Welch/Vicky Johnson |
| Grade Level: Sixth | School Address: Richfield Springs Central School PO Box 631 Richfield Springs, New York 13439 |
| Subject Area: English Language Arts/Technology/Social Studies/Math/ Physical Education | School Phone/Fax: 315-858-0610/315-858-2440 |
Written Overview: This unit fits into a sixth grade English Language Arts curriculum, in February and March, when covering reading and writing for information, critical analysis, literary response, and social interaction. It also incorporates the Social Studies curriculum of having students demonstrating their understanding of the geography of the world including the elements of the environment.
This unit can be adapted for students at any learning level. Students with disabilities will receive modifications as per their IEP’s.
With that, let us grab our gear and hit the trail. The first checkpoint is the computer lab. Here the students will learn how to access and save to a file, dedicated to each one of them individually, on a file server. This knowledge will be used throughout the unit to complete the activities.
Checkpoint number two is where the students will listen to the story entitled The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford. The story will give them a background on the Iditarod. Then the students will be introduced to Gary Paulsen’s book Woodsong. This is Paulsen’s autobiographical account of his experiences in participating in the Iditarod. The students will read and then reflect on Paulsen’s trials and tribulations of man vs. nature. Electronic journal writing will also begin as well as class discussions and teacher generated activities and tests. When the novel is completed the comparison paper will be underway.
The third stop on the trail will be for the students to learn how to access and save information from the internet to their files on a file server. Students will follow and log a musher’s progress throughout the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. They will also engage in other activities that revolve around the race. The majority of their work will be done electronically.
When nearing the end to the trail, the students will take part in a survival course at a local gym. Here they will see what their physical limitations are and how strong their will is to "survive."
The students will cross the finish line when they have finished writing their autobiographical paper on their survival experience.
Unit Schedule/Time Plan: This unit will take 6-8 weeks depending on the reading level of the students.
Starting in February, introduce the students to the technology part of the unit that deals with their files and saving to a file server. This way when you start the novel they will be already to write in their electronic journals.
The Iditarod Race for the year 2000 starts on March 4, so it would be best to start the novel, at least, by the middle part of February. This way the student will have some knowledge about the race. Electronic journal writing begins.
When the novel is completed the comparison paper is underway. It’s the age of technology; drafts, as well as final copies, are done on a word processor and work is saved to their files. This part of the unit will take place at the end of February beginning of March.
Throughout the month of March students can be engaged in the Iditarod activities via the internet.
The novel is finished, the comparison paper is in, the Iditarod has ended and all activities are filed electronically in the students files, and now its time for students to see what their physical limitations are. To the gym we go to take part in an outward bound survival course. After a day at the gym, the students are back at their terminals drafting their autobiographical paper about their survival experience.
CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
| Declarative | Procedural |
| *reading | *accessing and saving to ones own file on a file server |
| *writing | *accessing information from the internet |
| *journal writing | *accessing information from the internet and saving to a file on a file server |
| *word processing | *write a comparison paper |
| *history of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race | *write an autobiographical paper |
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
*How strong is the will to survive?
*What are one’s physical limitations?
*What is an autobiography? Why are they important?
INITIATING ACTIVITY
Students will listen to The Bravest Dog Ever: the True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford. Have a discussion about the history of the Iditarod - why it came to be. Discuss the survival factors the people and animals faced.
LEARNING EXPERIENCES
The students will:*read Woodsong by Gary Paulsen
*keep a journal /word processor
*write a comparison paper/word processor
*write an autobiographical paper/word processor
*create a map of Alaska showing geographical features and the Iditarod route
*access information from the internet
*participate in an outward bound activity
CULMINATING PERFORMANCE
The students will take part in an outward bound survival experience at a local gym. Clark Gym, in Cooperstown, New York, is the gym that our students will go to and participate in survival activities. They will then reflect on this experience by writing an autobiographical paper.
CONNECTIONS TO STANDARDS
Content Area: English Language Arts Standard 1:Language for Information and Understanding.
Level: Elementary
Benchmarks: *gather and interpret information.
*select information appropriate to the purpose of their investigation and related ideas from one text to another.
Content Area: English Language Arts Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression.
Level: Elementary
Benchmarks: *recognizes some features that distinguish the genres and use those features to aid comprehension.
*understand the literary elements of setting, character, plot, theme and point of view and compare those features to other works and to their own life.
*present personal responses to literature that make reference to the plot, characters, ideas, vocabulary, and appropriate text structures.
*explains the meaning of literary works with some attention to meanings beyond the literal levels.
*create their own stories using the elements of the literature they have read and appropriate vocabulary.
*observe the conventions of grammar and usage, spelling, and punctuation.
Content Area: English Language Arts Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation.
Level: Elementary
Benchmarks: *monitor and adjust their own oral and written presentations to meet criteria for competent performance.
Content Area: English Language Arts Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction.
Level: Elementary
Benchmarks: *listens attentively and recognize when it is appropriate for them to speak.
*takes turns speaking and respond to others’ ideas in conversations on familiar topics.
*recognizes the kind of interaction appropriate for different circumstances.
LEARNING EXPERIENCES/Declarative Knowledge
What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of the unit, the students will know or understand...
*history of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race.
What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge?
*The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto by Nancy Standiford
What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store knowledge?
*class discussion
Describe what will be done.
Students will listen to The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford. After listening, the student will take part in a class discussion. How did the Iditarod Dog Sled Race come to be? Who had to face the will to survive? How are medications related to survival?
What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of the unit, the students will know or understand...
*how strong one’s will is to survive and what are ones physical limitations.
What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge?
*read Woodsong by Gary Paulsen
*guided questions
What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store knowledge?
*class discussion
*journal writing
Describe what will be done.
Students will be provided with the book Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. As a class and independently they will read the book. Chapters will be assigned daily and after reading discussion and writing activities will take place. Electronic journals will be kept daily tracing Paulsen’s adventures. Students will focus on writing about Paulsen’s will to survive and his physical limitations. They will also incorporate their own feelings along the way, how they might have reacted if in Paulsen’s shoes. Teacher generated vocabulary test and comprehension test can also be included.
A good source for ideas to enhance the book is a teaching guide published by Scholastic. The guide is entitled Innovations: Experiencing Literature in the Classroom,Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. The ISBN is 0-590-26009-X.
What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of the unit, the students will know or understand...
*how to read a map.
What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire and integrate this knowledge?
*While reading Woodsong, students will graph the different incidents Paulsen encounters during the race.
What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store knowledge?
*maps
*class discussion
*journals
Describe what will be done.
While reading Woodsong, students will graph the different incidents Paulsen encounters during the race. This will be done on their map which they will have to make a map legend for each incident.
LEARNING EXPERIENCES/Procedural Knowledge
What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to :
*write a comparison paper.
What will be done to help students construct models, shape and internalize the knowledge?
*model the writing of a comparison paper
*graphic organizer (Venn Diagram)
Describe what will be done.
After reading the novel Woodsong, they will write a comparison to another survival novel that they have previously read. Our students read Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.
What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to:
*access and save to file on a file server.
What will be done to help students construct models, shape and internalize the knowledge?
*demonstration using a projection screen
*graphic organizers
Describe what will be done.
Students will learn how to access a file, that is designated to each one of them, on a file server. A demonstration, using a projection screen, will be given to show the procedures. The students will follow along at their terminals. At the end of the demonstration they will stop and reflect on the procedures. The students will then fill in a graphic organizer so as to have a visual to help them construct meaning to the procedure so they can store this knowledge for later use. The students will access their files daily to write in their journals, complete daily assignments, and write their comparison and autobiographical paper.
What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to:
*access information on the internet.
*save information from the internet to a file on a file server.
What will be done to help students construct models, shape and internalize the knowledge?
*demonstration using a projection screen.
*graphic organizer.
Describe what will be done.
The instructor will demonstrate how to access the information from the internet. A projection screen will be used to show the procedures. Students will follow along at their own terminals. At the end of the demonstration students will stop and reflect on the procedure. Students will then fill in a graphic organizer so as to have a visual to help them construct meaning to the procedure so they can store this knowledge for later use. The actual activity will go as follows:
*type in the web site address http://www.iditarod.com
*click on Mushers
*click on Mushers Biographies
*click on the apple in the top left corner of the screen
*scroll down to Recent Server
*type in registered user Name and Password
*click on one’s own file
*go back to internet screen
*highlight the mushers
*click on File
*click on Save as...
*click on Open
*click on Save
When that is completed, close out of ones file. Now let’s go back and see that the information was saved. The student can use their graphic organizers from the previous class on accessing and saving to a file on a file server.
The students are required to read through the Mushers Biographies and pick out two of them that they will follow as they travel from Anchorage to Nome. This will be done during class time, Library/Media class, or during study hall.
The students will introduce their mushiers to the class by giving an oral presentation.
Now the students will put their knowledge to work everyday throughout this unit. They will be expected to access the above web site and track their musher everyday then plot where their musher is on a map. To do this they will have to go through the following procedures:
*type in the web site address http://www.iditarod.com (this is the web site all the activities are on)
*click on Race Updates
*click on Latest Results and find their musher and his/her location.
When they have their mushers location, they can now find out about the terrain their musher has encountered as well as how many miles it is to their next checkpoint. The students can then take this information and write in their journal about their mushers progress and their feelings on what the musher is facing. To get this information, access the same web site address, http://www.iditarod.com
*click on Map, Mileage & Weather
*click on mushers checkpoint on the map
Daily problems to be solved are accessed by clicking on Teachers and Students
*click on Problems of the Day
These are word problems that students will solve that revolve around the race. Questions can be saved from the internet to their file and then answered.
There is a daily language activity the students will partake in. They can access this information by clicking on Teachers and Students
*click on Daily Oral Language Sentences
This information can be saved to their file and then completed.
What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring and integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to:
*write an autobiographical paper.
What will be done to help students construct models, shape and internalize the knowledge?
*discussion of survival novels read.
*reflect on experiences that they encountered during the survival course at the gym.
Describe what will be done.
Students will write an autobiographical paper describing their survival experience. They will use the word processor for this activity.
RUBRIC
TECHNOLOGY
4
The student can access and use his/her file on the file server without referring to their graphic organizer or instruction from the teacher.
The student can access and use the project web site, on the internet, without referring to their graphic organizer or instruction from the teacher.
The student can save information from the internet to his/her file on the file server without referring to their graphic organizer or instruction from the teacher.
3
The student can access and use his/her file on the file server by using their graphic organizer but without help from the teacher.
The student can access and use the project web site, on the internet, by using their graphic organizer but without instruction from the teacher.
The student can save information from the internet to his/her file on the file server by using their graphic organizer but without instruction from teacher.
2
The student can access and use his/her file on the file server by using their graphic organizer and with instruction from the teacher.
The student can access and use the project web site, on the internet, by using their graphic organizer and with instruction from the teacher.
The student can save information from the internet to his/her file on the file server by using their graphic organizer and with instruction from the teacher.
1
The student can only access and use his/her file on the file server with constant instruction from the teacher.
The student can only access and use the project web site, on the internet, with constant instruction from the teacher.
The student can only save information from the internet to his/her file on the file server with constant instruction from the teacher.
COMPARISON PAPER
4
3
2
1
JOURNAL/DAILY ASSIGNMENTS
4
3
2
1
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PAPER
4
3
2
1