Planning Guide

Creating Learner-Focused
Schools

* Madison-Oneida BOCES- This document may not be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the District Superintendent or his designee.

 

LU Title: The ABC Book of Boonville's Businesses, Organizations, and Services

Author(s): Pamela S. Pfendler

Grade Level: 5th

School Address: 110 Ford Street, Boonville, NY 13309

Subject Area: ELA

School Phone/Fax: 315-942-9220

 

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Declarative

Procedural

  • List the parts of a book
  • Create a book cover
  • Write questions asking for specific information
  • Create informational pages about specific businesses, organizations, and services
  • Write a business letter
  • Practice interview skills
  • Write a survey
  • Create title, acknowledgement, copyright, and about the author pages.
  • Write a thank you letter

 

  • Address envelopes

 

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

 

INITIATING ACTIVITY

  1. 1st day activity - Guest speaker - Mrs. Kay Skjellerup of the West Leyden Elementary building will introduce her collection of ABC books to the class.
  2. She will then leave the books in order for students to have a chance to look at and work with the books. (i.e. categories, compare/contrast, enjoyment of reading, etc.)
  3. Mrs. Skjellerup will then return after one week to discuss the class findings. At this time she will introduce the process of writing an ABC book on their won. Examples of past books will be presented.
  4. After Mrs. Skjellerup leaves, discuss with the class the possibility of writing their own book.
  5. Suggest to the class that they work together to create a class book.
  6. Introduce to the class the idea of writing a book on the businesses, organizations, and services of Boonville.

 

Connection to State Learning Standards 

Content Area: English Language Arts

Level: 5th grade

Benchmarks: 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.

  • Students will use the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofreading (the "writing process") 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.

 

Benchmarks: Written communication for social interaction requires using written messages to establish, maintain, and enhance personal relationships with others.

  • Write social letters, cards, and electronic messages to friends, relatives, community acquaintances, and other electronic network users.
  • Use appropriate language and style for situations and the audience and take into account the ideas and interests expressed by the person receiving the message.

 

Standard: ELA#1Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

 

Standard:ELA# 4Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

 

Unit Theme: Businesses, Organizations, and Services

Standard: 1 Career Development

Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.

 

Standard: Integrated Learning

Students will identify academic knowledge and skills that are required in specific occupations.

 

Benchmarks: Students will:

  • Know the value of work to the individual and society in general

 

Benchmarks: Students will:

  • identify academic knowledge and skills that are required in specific occupations.

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

Categorize ABC books

Compare and contrast ABC books

Share reading ABC books for enjoyment

Analyze books looking for specific information

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

 

Guest speaker

A variety of ABC books

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

 

Graphic organizers

Note taking strategies

Describe what will be done.

Students will be divided into groups. Each group is given a set of eleven books.

The first time the students will be asked to read the books for enjoyment and discussion with their groups.

The second time the groups used the books they will be asked to analyze the books and look for rhyming, alliteration, style, etc.

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

Gather information by research

List the information in a clear, concise form

 What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

Newspapers

Phone books

Internet

www.cybervillage.com

Chamber of Commerce list

Database program to type in a list of businesses, organizations and services.

 What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

 

Graphic organizers

 Describe what will be done.

 

 

 

Divide the class into five groups. Assign each group specific letters of the alphabet. Each group will then generate a list of Boonville's businesses, organizations, and services.

 

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

Correct form of a business letter

Appropriate language to use in a business letter

Basic writing techniques

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

 

Class brainstorming activity

Activities from Everyday Reading and Writing, pp. 142-127

Macmillian English, pp. 102 - 105

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

 

Oral discussion

Graphic organizer

Describe what will be done.

 

 

 

Read handout (pp. 142-145) on how to write a business letter.

Check for understanding by completing pp. 146-147.

Read pp. 102-103 in Macmillian English.

Check for understanding by completing pp. 104-105 as a class activity.

 

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

List ideas that are appropriate for their letters.

Correctly write a business letter for the purpose of explaining the enclosed survey.

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

Write a draft of a business letter as a class.

Use a word processing program to type letter.

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

Class discussion

Guidelines for purpose

Graphic organizer

Brainstorming

Describe what will be done.

 

Working in their assigned groups students will brain -storm ideas that could possibly fit in the business letter.

As a class, construct a business letter that states the purpose of the enclosed survey or project.

Make this letter a form letter. This will allow the student to need only write the inside address as well as signing the letter.

 

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

 What a survey is

How to write survey questions

Decide appropriate survey questions

List possibilities for the type of book to be written.

Describe what will be done.

 

 Read pp. 212-213 in the English book.

 Check for understanding by doing the exercise on p. 213.

List possibilities for the type of book on the board.

As a class, decide what type of book is to be written.

List possible survey questions on the board.

As a class, choose the questions to be place in the survey.

Write the survey together on the overhead.

Have volunteers type the survey.

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

 

 

Macmillian English, pp. 212-213

Class discussion to decide what type of book to write.

Word processing program

Overhead projector

Oral discussion
Graphic organizer

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

 

 

Oral discussion

Graphic organizer

 

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

Address envelopes

 

 

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

Overhead

Teacher made hand out on addressing envelopes

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

Modeling

Check for understanding

Describe what will be done.

 

 

Practice addressing envelopes by correctly placing addresses where they belong.

Each of the five groups will write the business address on the letter, sign and place the letter and survey in envelope.

Place the envelope in the box to be mailed.

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand...

Gather information

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

 

 

Group activity

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

 

Graphic organizer

Describe what will be done.

 

As surveys are returned students will put information into appropriate categories on graphic organizer.

Learning Experiences

Procedural Knowledge

What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to:

Create return address labels

 

 

Create informational pages about specific businesses, organizations, and services.

 

 

Create a title page

Create a copyright page

Create a acknowledgments page

Create a dedication page

Create an about the authors page

Create a cover

What will be done to help students construct model, shape & internalize the knowledge?

Computer software program to make labels

Computer software such as : The Writing Center Print Shop Deluxe

Provided logo by businesses

Photocopier

Scanner

 

 

Class discussions

Small groups

Describe what will be done.

Using a software program, have students design return address labels. Hold a contest to choose the best design to represent the class.

Using word processing programs, choosing different fonts and styles, students will crate informational pages on the business, organizations, and services. This will be done on an individual basis to be evaluated by the rubric.

After a mini lesson on the different pages of a book students will work together to create the pages. A contest will be held for the best cover.

Learning Experiences

Procedural Knowledge

What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to: 

Practice interview skills

Know the value of work to the individual and participating business

Identify academic knowledge and skills that are needed for a particular business.

 

 

 What will be done to help students construct model, shape & internalize the knowledge?

 

Field trips to the following places within the community of Boonville, NY

3-B Timber

Angie's Family Restaurant

Bailey's Boonville Mill

Barrett Paving

Central Adirondack Textiles

CJ Logging

Dodge-Pratt Northam

Ethan Allen

Great American

Post Office

Shomaker's Drycleaners

Sunset Nursing Home

Valhaven Home

 Describe what will be done.

 

Student will be asked to ask interview questions that are appropriate to the business they are touring.

The interview process will consist of having the students formally introducing themselves to the person that they are addressing. They must look the person directly in the eye. While one student is asking their question the rest of the group must put there hands down and wait while the question is being asked.

These questions will be based on information gathered from their graphic organizers.

Questions should be based on the knowledge of skills students perceive are needed for that particular business.

 

Learning Experiences

Extending and Refining

What knowledge will students be extending and refining? Specifically they will be extending and refining their understanding of ...

The use of basic writing conventions to write letters of social correspondence (business and friendly)

Creating an informational page using gathered information appropriately.

The value of certain businesses within the community

What reasoning process will they be using?

  • Comparing
  • X Classifying
  • Inductive Reasoning
  • X Deductive Reasoning
  • Error Analysis
  • Analyzing Perspectives
  • Constructing Support
  • Abstracting
  • Other:

 Describe what will be done.

 

Students will take information that has been acquired throughout this unit to write letters to request help from businesses as well as thank you letters to businesses who shown outstanding support of this project.

Students will take gathered information and create effective pages as to what the businesses are, as well as available employment within the community.

Students will take field trips within the community to have first hand knowledge of participating businesses.

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

Once all the individual students have prepared the pages on the businesses, tell them that they are going to put them together in a book. The order of the book will be in alphabetical order. The pages themselves will also be alphabetized. (i.e. all the business beginning with Aa must be put in the correct order. The class will create their "own publishing company" and put together the book with title, copyright, and dedication pages. They are also to create a short biographical note about themselves to include on the about the authors page.

Once the book is completed the class will hold a book tea and invite people from the community to view the book. Copies of the book will be donated to the Chamber of Commerce, the Erwin Library, as well as the school library.

 

Rubric:

ASSESSMENT:

The following rubric will be used to assess an individual's ability to take the information from the survey and graphic organizer and design a pagefor the book.

 

All other assessment for this unit will be done on an informal basis as the students are working. The idea of this book is to have a finished product that has been done cooperatively. The teacher will informally assess cooperation, attitude, willingness to get the job done, listening skills, as well as group participation as a whole.

Element #1

CLARITY

Element #2

WRITING CONVENTIONS

Element #3

INFORMATION

Element #4

VISUAL ATTRACTIVE-NESS

4

 Provides a complete and accurate presentation of information

Completely correct

All information given on graphic organizer is included on page.

Extremely attractive

3

Provides a clear presentation of the information but less elaborate

Correct for the most part; minor errors

For the most part, all information on graphic organizer is included on page.

Very attractive

2

Provides some information with little detail

Partially correct; major errors

Some information on the graphic organizer is included on the page.

Somewhat attractive

1

Provides a very brief presentation of the information

Incorrect ; making understanding of information very difficult

There are many missing pieces of information from graphic organizer to page.

Totally unattractive

 

Unit Schedule/Time Plan:

This unit will take approximately eight to ten weeks depending on the response of the community.

Written Overview:

This unit is an ELA based unit in which my fifth graded class researched, wrote, and produced a book on Boonville's businesses, organizations, and services. The format we used was that of an ABC book.

The steps we followed to produce our book were as follows. First we researched the businesses, organizations, and services. We then wrote a survey and mailed it. As the surveys were returned we wrote the pages of our book based on the information we received.

During this time we went on many field trips into the community. We found the community very supportive of our project.