BC Education - Social Studies K to 7

Sample 1: Grades K to 1

Topic:

Home and School Connections

Prescribed Learning Outcomes:

Applications of Social Studies

It is expected that students will:

collect information from a variety of sources and experiences
present information using oral, visual, or written representation

Economy and Technology

It is expected that students will:

identify different occupations in their community
describe the role of technology in their lives

Environment

It is expected that students will:

use picture maps to identify home and school within the community

Overview

The teacher developed a series of activities as part of an integrated theme called "Home and School Connections." The teacher sent a letter to families at the beginning of the unit explaining its purpose, outlining the activities involved, and describing some ways they could assist their children. During the unit, children researched occupations and responsibilities related to family, school, and community. Students also created a 3-D map of their community, connecting their homes with the school. The teacher provided background information during the unit by reading to the children stories about families, occupations, and the rights of the child. Evaluation was based on teacher observations of children's work and teacher and student evaluations of collage presentations showing connections among children and their community, homes, and school.

Planning for Assessment and Evaluation

During the first month of the school year, the teacher developed a "Home and School Connections" theme to build connections between home and school. The teacher began the unit by asking students to think about themselves, where they lived, their responsibilities in the classroom, their jobs at home and at school, and the ways they used technology in their lives. Students recorded information about themselves using web charts. They presented their information to partners and exchanged thoughts and experiences.
The teacher then explained to the children that they were going to go on a school tour to find out about people's jobs in the school, the technologies they used, the responsibilities they had, and where they worked. She asked them to be "school researchers" and to gather information and record their findings, through drawing or writing, on data collection sheets.
The teacher provided children with data collection sheets that included five columns for responses to the following prompts:
- Who is this person?
- Where does he or she work?
- What is her or his job?
- What are his or her responsibilities in our school?
- What technology does she or he use in the job?
The teacher asked students to each interview five members of the school personnel on the school tour and to write or draw their responses on the data sheets.
During the tour, the children collected information about school personnel in various locations, including the general office, the nurse's room, the maintenance area, and the library. For each, students predicted these individuals' jobs, their daily responsibilities, and their use of technology. They asked school personnel questions to confirm or alter their predictions, and they recorded their findings on data collection sheets.
When the children returned to the classroom, the teacher created a classroom chart with four columns: Jobs of School Personnel, Daily Responsibilities, Location in the School, and Technology Used. Together with the teacher, they sorted and categorized the information from their data collection sheets.
The teacher then asked students to become "community researchers" and to gather the same information about their own or other families. The children were provided with the same frame for their data collection sheets:
- Where does my family/friend live?
- Who is this person in my/his/her family?
- What kind of work does he or she do?
- What are her or his daily responsibilities in the family?
- What technology does he or she use at home or at work?
The teacher led a discussion about people's jobs in the home as well as out of the home. She also sent home cover letters explaining what students were doing and why.
After their community interviews, students shared information with the rest of the class. The teacher recorded the information on another chart using the same four columns: Where Families Live, Jobs in Families, Daily Responsibilities, and Technology Used. The teacher used a Venn diagram to visually represent the similarities and differences between families and the school. She then asked the children to refer to their original web charts and notice and discuss the connections among themselves, their homes, and their school.
Using the information from their data collection sheets (from home, community, and school) and a variety of resources, students created a 3-D classroom map depicting the school, the surrounding environment, and all the streets where students lived. Students used recycled materials (e.g., milk cartons) to create buildings, and they used other materials (e.g., lego, blocks, unifix cubes, straws, popsicle sticks, paper drawings, recycled cardboard, playdough) to create other features on the map. Then they used string and tacks to map out their routes from home to school. Each student labelled her or his route.
When the map was completed, the teacher invited a buddy class of older students to join the class. The teacher asked the children to show the older students their routes to school. As they retraced their routes, the teacher noticed the extent to which students were able to use the map to identify their homes and the school.
As a final activity near the end of the unit, the teacher asked the class to work in small groups to develop collages representing connections among home, school, and themselves. Each group focussed on a different category: jobs, technology, location, and responsibilities. The children used recycled materials (including magazines and newspapers) to create their collages, then they presented them to the class. The teacher used ongoing observations and the collage presentations to develop a cumulative record of children's developing understanding over time.

Defining the Criteria

Collage Presentation

To what extent does the group:

communicate a message that is clear and understandable
collect information from a variety of sources
present information logically using oral, visual, and written representations
make logical connections between self, families, and school
provide accurate information about the assigned topic (technology, jobs, responsibilities, location)

Assessing and Evaluating Student Performance

The teacher developed a rating scale to evaluate student performance. The children used the same rating scale for self-evaluation. The teacher read out the criteria, and students evaluated themselves by drawing a happy face for "outstanding," a face with no expression for "okay," and a sad face for "not yet, but I am working on it." As part of the rating scale, the children represented themselves participating in their favourite jobs at home and at school. The teacher added the evaluations to the children's portfolios for student-led conferences.

Collage Presentation

Criteria	Rating	Comments and Suggestions
communicates a clear, easy-to-understand message
uses information from a variety of sources
uses different forms of representing to share ideas (oral, written, visual)
makes logical connections between self, families, and school
provides accurate information
This is me doing my favourite job at school:
This is me doing my favourite job at home:

Key: 4

Revised: January 28, 1999

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