November/December Social Studies

Unit Overview

This unit focuses on slavery in the United States of America.  Students will use what they know of  life in colonial and early America focusing specifically on the the geography and economy of the three different regions with a particular emphasis on the southern region.   

This unit is designed to give students an overview of life in Africa in the 1500s,  examine the causes of slavery and discuss the dilemmas Africans faced regarding slavery. Students will be given an overview of the conditions of the Middle Passage and life in the colonies and will gain a deeper understanding of the harsh conditions of slave life.

Essential Questions:

∙      What happened in the past?

∙      How am I connected to those in the past?

∙      How does our personal sense of relatedness to the past change?

∙      How were slaves’ family and personal lives different than those of other Americans?

∙      What sort of conditions did Africans endure on their voyage to the New World?

∙      What was the impact of the slave trade on Africans?

∙      How did the slave system develop in the Americas?

∙      How was daily life viewed by different socio-economic groups in the same colonial community   

    (slaves and slave owners)?

∙      How did colonial slavery impact the life of Africans?

Learning Objectives:

∙      Students will be able to summarize the lives of African slaves.

∙      Students will be able to discuss the dilemmas of the slave trade (trading slaves for guns, surviving the middle passage, surviving life in the colonies) and predict/describe the actions that were taken.

∙      Students will be able to think critically about the dilemmas Africans faced during slavery.

∙      Students will be able to describe and discuss a slave auction.

∙      Students will be able to describe ways in which African slaves carried their traditions to the Americas.

October/November Social Studies

What Are Your Rights?

In this unit, students will be making judgments about texts and writing to explain and support those judgments.  They will also be engaging in conversation (small group and whole class) about their thinking.  As they write about their thinking, they will be reminded of the importance of supporting their claims with evidence and explaining their thinking as clearly as possible. 

Students will read the Bill of Student Rights and other topics that pertain to issues relevant to their lives.  During class discussions, students discuss the following:

❖ How do these rights and responsibilities affect you?

❖ How are these rights and responsibilities similar and different from those stated in the Bill of Rights?

❖ Should this conflict exist?  Why or why not?

NOVEMBER 

Read Aloud

In Read Aloud this month, we are reading FLush by Carl Hiaasen.  We have only just started, but we're already hooked!!  For information about the book, click here.  As we read, we will discuss the big ideas or themes in the book, just like we did in Eggs.  We are working to improve our skills in:

·                Determining the lesson/moral/theme/central message

·                Making inferences about the characters as well as tone and mood

·                Drawing conclusions and predicting what's to come

·                Thinking about the author's craft and purpose

·                Monitoring for meaning by using context to determine word meaning and interpreting                 figurative language

In addition, this new read aloud book will make us think about Social Issues.  These are serious issues that affect our daily lives like family relationships, family struggles, caring for our environment, and what it means to do the right thing.

Below you will find our new vocabulary words that we are learning to improve our Read Aloud conversation.  These words will help us articulate our thinking as we discuss the book Flush.  Click the link below to find a copy of our Vocabulary Packet with the 14 words, definitions, and synonyms.  Students will be quizzed weekly on these words.  The purpose of this is to ensure that the students have a deep understanding of the words because they will be used all year.  They should become a part of your child's permanent vocabulary.  They have been provided a list of "Ways to Study Vocabulary Words".  A copy of this list is below.  Please encourage your child to find a method that works best for them.  There are plenty of study options for active students, music lovers, and artists.

Note:  Although we have new words for Flush, students are still expected to know and use the vocabulary we learned in Eggs.  Students should continue to incorporate those words in conversation and in their writing.  They may also see one or two of those words pop up on a quiz!

Flush Conversation Words:  

1.              impulsive

2.              keen

3.              volatile

4.              murky

5.              vicious

6.              sincere

7.              erratic

8.              salvage

9.              expedition

 Vocabulary Homework Schedule

Day 1: In your own words- Write the vocabulary words and definitions in your own words.

Day 2:  Visual Representation- Draw a picture representing the vocabulary words (or find an illustration). Write a caption explaining your picture.

Day 3: Meaningful Sentences- Write each vocabulary word in a sentence. Your sentences must contain the words when or because (see example below).

            Vocabulary Word:  Compassionate

            The boy was compassionate when he offered to share his snack with the new girl at                    school.

            The boy was compassionate because he understood how it felt to be made fun of.

Day 4:  Study Night- Create a synonym tree or web for each word or choose 1 option from the menu to help you study all the vocab words.

Flush Conversation Words Vocabulary Packet:  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9xCI4aHAVlqRDdwUkhob2hNclE/view?usp=sharing

Ways To Study Vocabulary Words: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3-CCyb5iLkAci1jSjJRd2Z6eEE/view?usp=sharing

November 2015 Writing Workshop Unit

This unit focuses on teaching students to craft arguments based on research. In this writing unit, students will learn to develop an argument and support it with multiple resources. This unit aims to give fifth graders additional practice producing texts that are written as arguments. Students will be reading collections of texts on a topic. This work with text sets will provide an opportunity for students to come to see that different authors who all write about a particular topic often do so by providing different opinions. Students will learn to develop an opinion based on their topics, select evidence that supports their opinion, and show how their supports relate to their opinion.