At Home: 1700: Sideby Lesson Plan

Side By Side Lesson Plan

Grades:	3 - 12
Subjects:	Social Studies and Language Arts
Concepts:	Understanding cultural diversity
Can Use With:	Voices and Choices, Maps, and Objects

Learning Objectives

After completing this activity, students will be able to:

Categorize information about their own lives
Recognize cultural diversity within their own class and community
Utilize social science tools for analyzing their community

(To see overall Social Studies Learning Objectives click here)

Activity

Students use Side by Side as a model for categorizing information about themselves, their classmates, and their community.

Procedure

For Level 1 students: Categories are based on the individual

Assign this activity for pairs of two or as an individual assignment. Have students make a Side by Side book about themselves. For population, students could make a pie chart of their family showing how many females and how many males are in their immediate family. Encourage students to make their own graphics for each entry. Under food, students could draw a picture of their favorite meal and next to it list the types of food they eat.

For Level 2 students: Categories are based on the class

Help students organize themselves into groups to research the class by population, housing, clothing, food, family life, and religion. Students will have to interview each other to find out about each other's background while gathering information on the class. Each group will be responsible for summarizing the information that it gathers, as well as producing a graphic image for its category. Have each group present to the class. All final products can be gathered together into a book about the class or a multimedia presentation in Hyper Studio or a presentation software like Powerpoint.

For Level 3 students: Categories are based on the community

Let the students define what community means to them--does it mean the city, town, or neighborhood they live in? Then let students organize themselves into groups to research the class by population, housing, clothing, food, family life, and religion. Student groups will need to go out in to the area they have defined as community to gather information on the people living in the community. Students may also find resources they need at the local library, for instance census records for defining population by race, housing, and income. Students may want to conduct oral interviews with people living in the area they have defined as their community to find out about people's lifestyles and beliefs. Students may arrive at new categories of information that have not been included in Side by Side. All final products can be gathered into a book or a multimedia presentation in Hyper Studio® or a presentation software like Powerpoint®.

Going Deeper

Have students compare their Side by Side projects with the French Period Side by Side.

| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |