Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Experience

 

LE Title: Logical Conclusion/Early Explorers

Author(s):Dawes, Mathlin, Evolo, Jenkins, Keuerlaber, Elsenbeck

 

Grade Level:5

School Address:934 Armory Dr.

Topic/Subject Area: Social Studies

School Phone/Fax (315)735-9417

 

Email:DDawes@aol.com

 

LEARNING CONTEXT

The purpose of this learning experience is to form a logical conclusion.  A conclusion is a decision or idea reached by thoughtful study.  A logical conclusion is one that is thought out carefully, based on the evidence.

Connection to Standards

ELA- Standard #1 – Language for Information and Understanding

Benchmark #1- Listening and reading to acquire information and understanding involves collecting data facts, and ideas; discovering relationships, concepts and generalizations; and using knowledge from oral, written and electronic sources.

Benchmark #2- Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one’s own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely and comprehensibly.

Standard#3 – Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Benchmark#1 – Listening and reading to analyze and evaluate experiences, ideas, information, and issues requires using evaluative criteria from a variety of perspectives and recognizing the difference in evaluations based on different sets of criteria.

Social StudiesStandard #1 – Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives. 

Benchmark #1 - How early European exploration and colonization resulted in cultural and ecological interactions among previously unconnected peoples.

  Benchmark #2- Evaluate the significance of Columbus’ voyages and his interactions with indigenous peoples. (Assess the importance of the individual in history.)

Essential Question

How does forming a logical conclusion, based on research, help us support or refute a belief?

Content Knowledge

                                             Declarative

      Procedural

Students will know that in order to form logical conclusion they must be able to separate fact from opinion.

Students will know that a fact is a statement that can be proved true.

Students will know that an opinion is a statement that tells what a person thinks or believes. An opinion cannot be proved true.

Students will know that in order to form logical conclusions you must be able to put new facts together with those you already know.

Practice drawing logical conclusions based on the 4-step method – form a question, state evidence known already, gather new evidence, form a logical conclusion.

PROCEDURE

Class Discussion: Ask the students to remember a time they “jumped to a wrong conclusion.”  What was the conclusion you made? What information did you have when you formed that conclusion?  Was your conclusion right or wrong and why?

Read orally or listen to page119 text (America’s Story).

Work through and model the 4-Step Method with the students using the overhead or board. 

4 – Step Method

Form a question about the subject or the situation.

Think about evidence you already have that might help you answer the question.

Gather new evidence to help answer the question.

Form a conclusion based on the strongest evidence.

Read information on Columbus and Vespucci. Answer the following questions and record the answers on a chart or the board:

                 Why did Columbus form the conclusion that he had landed in Asia?

           What evidence did Vespucci have that supported Columbus’s conclusion?

           What evidence did Vespucci have that did not support Columbus’s

             conclusions?

            How did Vespucci get his new information?

            What conclusion did Vespucci form about where Columbus had landed?

     Orally discuss which answers are based on fact or opinion.

Practice forming a logical conclusion by:

Have each student make a list of clues that would lead to a certain place in the school. Choose a partner and read the clues one by one.  Discussion questions - Is your partner able to form a conclusion about where the mystery place is, based on only one or two clues?  Why is it important to have as many facts as possible before reaching a conclusion?

Workbook – Activity page 19 – additional practice – fact / opinion

Assessment activity – Use the 4 step method to form a logical conclusion:

Based on information obtained on the internet (www.explorers.com) on one of the following explorers: Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, Balboa, or Cortez, students will form a logical conclusion proving that lands found were not China.

INSTRUCTIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATIONS

Time extended              Questions and Material Read

Answers recorded        Audio Cassette Tape for ESL and Resource Students

Activities could be completed in small group instruction.

TIME REQUIRED

3 days – 45 minutes per day

RESOURCES

Text – America’s Story, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1997.

Activity Workbook, America’s Story, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1997.

Tape Recorder

Audio Tapes, America’s Story, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1997.

Internet information on Columbus and Vespucci – www.explorers.com (biographies, history), or any appropriate site your building set-up allows access to

CD Rom – World Book Encyclopedia, Encarta, Explorers of the New World (SoftKey Multimedia, Inc.)

ASSESSMENT  PLAN

Teacher observation

4 – Step Check List

4 – STEP CHECKLIST



Learning  Experience

1.  Did the student form a question about the subject or the situation?  ____yes   ____no

2.  Did the student refer to evidence they already had that might help

     answer the question?                                                                           ____yes    ____no

3.  Did the student gather new evidence that might help them answer the

question?                                                                                              ­­­____yes    ____no

4.  Did the student form a conclusion based on the strongest evidence? ____yes    ____no

COMMENTS:

STUDENT WORK

See Attachments

REFLECTION



Students need practice distinguishing between fact and opinion.