Low Bridge, Everybody Down

Author: Robin House
Grade Level: 4
School: McConnellsville
Subject Area: ELA
Phone: 315-245-3412

Unit Type: Literacy-Knowledge Based

Written Overview:

Students will learn about the history of the Erie Canal, including its development, use, importance, and effect on the development of New York State. This unit incorporates literature, ELA components, technology, cooperative skills, Social Studies, Art, and Music. Time Frame: approximately 16-20 days

****Additional resources used are available upon request.****

Content Knowledge:

Declarative

• Know/define related vocabulary
• List parts of a map, need for canal, reasons canal helped NY grow
• Locate relevant geographical locations
• Know steps for sequencing, comparing, analyzing perspectives, peer editing
• Know cooperative grouping roles perspective

Procedural

• Create a map
• Sequence events
• Write journal entry
• Compare & Contrast
• Analyze
• Work cooperatively
• Peer edit

Essential Questions:

• How do transportation systems affect the lives of people?
• How might the settlement of New York State have developed if the Erie Canal was not built?

Connection to State Learning Standards:

English Language Arts

• 1 Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
• 2 Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
• 3 Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
• 4 Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

Math, Science, and Technology

• 2 Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.
• 5 Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to design, construct, use, and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and environmental needs.
• 6 Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas.

Social Studies:

• 1 Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
• 3 Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live-local, national, and global-including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth's surface.

Initiating Activity:

Anticipatory Set: The students will enter the classroom through a decorated door-"Low Bridge, Everybody Down".

1. Using the KWL chart, the students will brainstorm what they "know" and "wonder" about the Erie Canal. (Large chart paper works well for a class activity.)
2. Read aloud: The Erie Canal, by Jack Reber

Learning Experiences:

1. Cooperative Roles/Rules

• Review possible roles and responsibilities while brainstorming: recording, reporter, reader, cheerleader, supervisor, organizer.
• Also in brainstorming situation, review group rules: one person speaks at a time, respect and support each other, work together to solve problems, evaluate and self-evaluate.
• Cooperative groups will participate in a "Group-Building" activity: Each group must be a machine. Each person is one part. All parts must work together for the machine to work properly. Other groups will watch and try to guess what each group is. Each group will complete the Cooperative Learning Pledge at the onset.
• Assessment: Self Evaluation, Teacher Evaluation

1. Vocabulary

• Using the "3-minute pause" technique, pg. 164-166 (Silver Burdett and Ginn) New York Yesterday and Today will be read aloud. Related vocabulary will be addressed: canal, canal lock, packet boat, trade, Clinton's Ditch, transportation.
• Encarta '97 will be used to research related vocabulary (text and illustrations), after teacher models.
• This activity will continue throughout the unit as students' knowledge expands.
• Using the Internet Website: www.puzzelmaker.com, students can work in the same cooperative groups to create a word puzzle of choice, using the selected vocabulary. These can then be shared with other classmates.
• Assessment: Individual pictographs, group word puzzles.

1. Maps

• Using a large wall map as a model, relevant geographical locations will be located and discussed: Erie Canal, Hudson River, Albany, Great Lakes, Atlantic Ocean, Buffalo.
• A review of map vocabulary will also follow: key, symbols, compass rose, scale.
• A discussion of the need for the Erie Canal and reasons for the growth of New York, as a result, will accompany this activity.
• In groups of 3, the students will choose to complete and label a provided map including the above locations, map key, and compass rose or using an Internet site such as www.shell.rmi.net/-smcgi/mapmakin.html students can create a computer generated map with the same expectations.
• Assessment: group maps

1. Analyze Perspective

• Using the "Analyzing Perspective" poster by McRel, the teacher will model by thinking aloud.
• Class activity: brainstorm areas that create different points of view. Both points of view may be illustrated as per the poster.
• Group activity: Groups of 4 will cooperatively create and illustrate a "point of view" situation.
• Assessment: group illustrations

1. Video/Journal Entry (Life on a Canal)

• Show BOCES video (22207) "Children of the Erie Canal"-offer advance organizer question-"If you were a child, what would be your point of view?"
• Activity-children will respond to the video in their journals, from an (Erie Canal) child's point of view. A topic will be given: day 1-"Today we…". Activities such as this will continue daily throughout the unit.
• Students will record journal entries using Microsoft Work 3.0. Each entry will be saved in proper sequence. At the conclusion of this unit, students can create a cover for their journals using Children's Writing and Publishing, Canon Creative: Crayola Art, or Windows 95: Paint. After lamination, the printed journal entries and cover can be bound.
• Assessment: individual journal entries

1. Sequencing

• Begin with a quick review in sequential order and the key words used.
• Show BOCES video (22131) "The Erie Canal", first offering advance organizer question-"What were the major events in building the Erie Canal?". Using a graphic organizer (web), students will engage in note-taking during the video.
• Following the video, the class will brainstorm a list of these major events and discuss.
• In pairs, students will use available resources (notes, Encarta, text, encyclopedias) to check for accuracy and create a graphic organizer depiction and text that sequences the events of the creation of the Erie Canal.
• Assessment: sequential depictions

1. Compare and Contrast

• Review steps in compare/contrast using McRel handout. Extend with a brief class activity of comparing two students. A Venn diagram can be used to demonstrate and explain.
• In groups of 2-4, a students will brainstorm a list of present day transportation systems and their major uses. Lists will be reported to the class.
• Teacher will model comparison of one type to the Erie Canal using a Venn diagram and the following categories: type, speed, cost, capacity. Any available resources may be used to check for accuracy.
• Cooperative groups will complete one Venn diagram for each type of transportation assigned and the Erie Canal.
• Assessment: group Venn diagrams

1. Murals

• Read Towpaths, Turnpikes, and Towns, BOCES
• Review steps for summarizing: shorter, main idea, supporting details, own words.
• As a teacher-led class activity, summarize the book previously read.
• To summarize the information assimilated to date: given two topics-Life on the Erie Canal and Geography of NY and the Erie Canal; The students will be divided into 2 groups and brainstorm a list of related ideas or details for each topic.
• With teacher guidance, a checklist or rubric for each topic will be constructed on chart paper. Rubrics will be reviewed, as a class, discussing holistic scoring (4, 3, 2, 1) and quality of work.
• Using butcher block paper, 2 groups (at teacher planned intervals) will work to sketch, label, title, and paint one mural for each topic. (Time will be given for group planning of project.)
• A banner may be created for titling purposes using: Print Shop.
• Assessment: group murals according to rubrics

1. Canal Songs

• With the assistance of the music teacher, the students will listen to, learn, and sing "Erie Canal".
• Once learned, the purpose of this type of song and the information gained from it will be discussed (workers, goods carried, travel, life).
• Students will then critique and respond to the song and the emotions it creates, with a journal entry.
• Students will use Microsoft 3.0 to record their journal entries, appropriately titled, to save and later add to their bound journals.
• Assessment: class discussion, journal entries

1. Culminating Activity

***Before the culminating activity is introduced, a brief review of the purpose of and rules for peer-editing will be discussed.

• Example activity to extend: On a prewritten sample (chart paper), the teacher and special services teacher may model a peer-editing session of a sample paragraph related to the Erie Canal. (Rubric or checklist used also prepared ahead)
• Read: The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, by C. Harnese

Students will choose one of the two following culminating experiences:

1. Erie Canal Story Picture Book

• Students will create a non-fiction story picture book about The Erie Canal.
• It will be presented to a group of first graders.
• The purpose is to entertain with the book and to introduce the history of the Erie Canal.
• A teacher-made rubric will be presented at the onset and used to evaluate at the conclusion of the activity.
• Students will peer-edit, which is also incorporated into the rubric.
• Time will be allotted for each or the 5 stages: creation, peer-editing, publishing, practice for presentation, and presentation.

**OR**

1. Erie Canal PowerPoint Presentation

• The students will create a non-fiction slide show focusing on The Erie Canal.
• Microsoft PowerPoint will be used.
• Students will work in groups of two.
• It will be presented to a group of third-fifth graders.
• The purpose is to entertain with the technology and to introduce the history of the Erie Canal.
• A teacher-made rubric will be presented at the onset and used to evaluate at the conclusion of the activity.
• Students will peer-edit, which is also incorporated into the rubric.
• Time will be allotted for each of the 5 stages: creation, peer-editing, publishing, practice for presentation, presentation.

Extending and Refining Learning Experience:

1. Classifying

• Using the vocabulary from the unit: following a multi-step format and a graphic organizer, the students will classify the vocabulary and create characteristic titles for each group of words.

1. Constructing Support

• Focusing on the need for the Erie Canal: using a graphic organizer, the students will develop support for the need for the Erie Canal. They will then write a paragraph summarizing their findings.

1. Analyzing Perspectives

• Focusing on the effect of growth of New York on its inhabitants: using the information about the growth of New York due to the Erie Canal and the Native American land issues, students will state the perspectives of the following groups: builders of the canal; traders, trappers, hunters; Native Americans.

Teacher-Made Rubrics

Mural Rubric-New York and the Erie Canal

1. Neat
2. Colorful
3. Accurate
4. Labels
5. Title/Banner

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

*Items 6-10 will be decided upon by class-in relation to specific mural theme.

40 pts.=A

30 pts.=B

20 pts.=C

10 pts.=D

0 pts.=F

Teacher-Made Rubrics, Con't.

Mural Rubric New York and the Erie Canal

Score Point 4 (A)

• Colorful
• Accurately illustrates Erie Canal includes many details
• Detailed labels
• Appropriately titled and sized proportionately

Score Point 3 (B)

• Colorful
• Accurately illustrates Erie Canal
• Labels most parts
• Appropriately

Score Point 2 (C )

• Limited color
• Missing several important features of Erie Canal
• Few labels and/or unclear
• Appropriately titled, but difficult to find

Score Point 1 (D)

• Black and white
• Bare minimum of features/illustrations of Erie Canal
• No labels
• No title

Rubric for Erie Canal Story-Picture Book:

1. Cover with title & illustration
2. Author & illustrator listed
3. Describes what it is
4. Discusses location
5. Discusses construction
6. Discusses its use
7. Discusses importance
8. Compares to transportation today
9. Accurate
10. Spelling
11. Punctuation
12. Capitalization
13. Neat, colorful, inviting
14. Appropriate for 1^st graders

• 4=Great!
• 3=Good
• 2=Needs Work
• 1=Unacceptable

Rubric Erie Canal PowerPoint Presentation

1. Title slide with author/presenter
2. Description/definition
3. Location
4. Importance/Need
5. Construction
6. Usage
7. Comparison to modern transportation
8. Accuracy
9. Creativity
10. Spelling
11. Punctuation
12. Capitalization
13. Grade appropriate