Artifact # 1: Social studies unit plan "7(a) The teacher individually and collaboratively selects and creates learning experiences that are appropriate for curriculum goals and content standards, and are relevant to learners."
This artifact demonstrates how I have designed lessons that meet curriculum goals and content standards that are meaningful to students. This unit exposes students to other cultures and allows students to investigate how cultures change over time, following the curriculum of Hahaione Elementary, where I completed my student teaching. In addition to meeting the school’s curriculum, this unit also met the HCPS III Social studies benchmarks. The benchmarks addressed in this unit were:
SS.3.6.1: Explain that different cultures have unique values, beliefs, and practices. SS.3.6.3: Explain how cultural elements (e.g., language, art, music, stories, legends, and traditions) can change over time and explain possible reasons for that change. SS3.7.1: Use geographic representations (e.g. maps, globes, graphs, charts, models) to organize and analyze geographic information. SS.3.7.2: Compare the physical and human characteristics that make different regions unique.
In accordance with both the school’s 3rd grade curriculum and the HCPS III social studies benchmarks, students explored geography, learned about different cultures, and examined how people and places change over time. This unit was relevant to students, because in addition to learning how other countries changed over time, they also learned how their local community changed over time, therefore investigating a subject that they could relate to and which effected their lives.