American Heroes

1
American Heroes
Shelly Chin Trisha Murai Yuri Yoshida Third
Grade March 12, 2003
2
Social Studies Content Standards

• 3.4.6 Describe the lives of American Heroes who
  took risks to secure our freedoms (e.g., Anne
  Hutchinson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,
  Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Harriet
  Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr.).
• 3.4.1 Determine the reasons for rules, laws, and
  the U.S. Constitution the role of citizenship in
  the promotion of rules and laws and the
  consequences for people who violate rules and
  laws.
• 3.4.2 Discuss the importance of public virtue and
  the role of citizens, including how to
  participate in a classroom, the community, and in
  civic life.

3

• 3.3.1 Research the explorers who visited here,
  the newcomers who settled here, and the people
  who continue to come to the region, including
  their cultural and religious traditions and
  contributions.
• 3.5.2 Understand the some goods are made locally,
  some elsewhere in the United States, and some
  abroad.
• 3.5.4 Discuss the relationship of students
  work in school and their personal human
  capital.
• 3.4.3 Know the histories of important local and
  national landmarks, symbols, and essential
  documents that create a sense of community among
  citizens and exemplify cherished ideals (e.g.,
  the U.S. flag, the bald eagle, the Statue of
  Liberty, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration
  of Independence, the U.S. Capitol).

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• Core Concept
• Students will learn about American
• heroes who took risks to secure our rights,
  freedoms and privileges in American society.

5

• Supporting Concepts
• Qualities of a hero
• Significance of heroes
• Contributions of heroes
• Politics surrounding heroes (including who
  decides our heroes)
• Hardships of heroes
• Diversity/Culture of heroes

• American rights, freedoms and privileges
• Historical events and time periods including
  social, political and economic conditions
• Past heroes
• Modern heroes
• Personal stories of heroes

6
Environment and Background Knowledge

• Photos/posters
• Concepts/question board
• Class collage/artwork of their own heroes
• Student and teacher designed rubric of the unit
• Graded work on the walls
• Work in progress on the walls
• Realia that the children bring in about their
  representation of the heroes who fought for
  freedom.
• Heroes learning center will be located in the
  corner of the classroom near the library with
  various activities including books, audio tapes,
  writing journals
• At least 20 books about heroes and artifacts
• Replica of speeches by heroic figures

7
Questioning and Organizing

• Teacher will do whole class reading activities,
  brainstorming and minilessons on heroes.
• Students will work in small groups to create
  skits on a hero and for the Kidpix activity.
• Students will work individually on writing
  assignments.

Civil Rights Activist Yuri Kochiyama
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Resources

• National Womens History Project
  http//www.nwhp.org/
• The American Experience http//www.pbs.org/wgbh
  /amex/kids/civilrights/
• Adler, David A. (1997). A Picture Book of
  Thurgood Marshall. New York Holiday House.
• Collins, David R. (1996). Farmworkers Friend
  the Story of Cesar Chavez. Minneapolis,
  Minnesota Carolrhoda Books.
• Speaker from NAACP
• Parents of students
• California African American Museum (Los Angeles)
• Latino Museum of History, Art, Culture (Los
  Angeles)

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Evaluation

• The students will be able to see if a resource is
  relevant to answering their questions about a
  specific hero.
• The students will understand whether a resource
  has accurate, up to date information. They
  should be able to confirm the information they
  find with other sources.
• Students should be able to recognize the author
  of the resource and his/her background or
  affiliation. Students should only include
  information from those with authority.
• Students will understand the
• point of view of the author
• and the purpose of the text.

10
Sensemaking

• After each mini-lesson on specific heroes,
  students will work in pairs to create a semantic
  web of the information they learned about that
  hero.
• K-W-L chart on books about specific heroes
  teacher reads to class.
• Venn-Diagram comparing two heroes students have
  learned about.
• Brainstorming on heroes with whole class
• Quickwrite on students chosen hero
• Role-play and skits in small groups
• Kidpix for government symbols
• Timeline project
• Final project is a classroom quilt

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Presenting

• Students will perform role-plays and skits on the
  hardships their chosen hero faced in his/her
  life.
• Students will present their creative
  representation of the time period and social
  conditions of their chosen heros life.
• Each student will create a square on the
  classroom quilt containing the following
  information about their hero a drawing, the
  name, at least three major contributions and the
  students personal connection to the hero. The
  quilt will be displayed in the school auditorium.