Transcript

The Social Studies unit that we look at this year is the age of exploration, so we're looking at explorers and we're focusing on the time from 1450-1650. So how do you get sixth graders to be interested in exploration? First of all I put collections of books on the desk, and have students look through these great books with vivid pictures, generate a little bit of interest. I also write all of the explorers' names on the board and I give them little tidbits about them: Henry Hudson, something horrible happened to him, but I'll let you guys find out what it is. I also allow the kids choose their own explorers, their first second and third choice so I have the explorer names on the board and I go through and give the information that as I'm talking about them I ask the students to write down the ones their most interested in studying and presenting information on. They have some input into which explorer they're going to study. 

It's quite a large unit, it takes four of five weeks to get through it and there's a lot of reading and writing and research involved in it. The first thing is generate interest, the second thing is to have the students pick the explorer. The third thing is to send home a letter, and this is an information letter so that parents know what the expectations are for the unit and the different assignments and when they're due. The fourth thing is to begin research, so we go to the library, we learn how to use an online encyclopaedia, we learn how to find books in the library, and we learn how to search on the internet for more information. We also create a timeline entry card and we have them posted in the class so we know there is a chronological order for exploration and different countries get involved at different times. 

The next thing is a writing activity, so the students have to use their own captain's voice and pretend to write a log as if they were that person. They write two, one as the early life and one as the late life. Then they do a trading card, and the idea behind a trading card is that it's based on a baseball card, so they're just the basic facts, and on the front is a picture of their explorer, and then they can trade them and they'll have the knowledge about each other's explorers. Another aspect of this that I really like is the pseudo-artifact, the pseudo-artifact gets them to think about what item, what object would represent their explorer best. So for Marco Polo, somebody brings in silk; lots of kids build boats. For Vikings they bring in shields, they have to think conceptually and they write a short report about why it's significant for their explorer. Then we do PowerPoint presentations, so we teach them how to do slides. And finally, the last, is for the student to reflect upon their learning and think about three things that they've learned and write a paper about it.