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1. Title: Cinco De Mayo Shoebox Dioramas

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2. Name: Megan Ross

Date: 11/2/16

 

3. Grade level/Subject/Context:
This lesson is intended for 2nd graders who are studying the history of different regions and communities. This lesson will fit in at the end of the year and the end of our unit on historical knowledge. In previous lessons, students learn to identify individuals who had a historical impact on their community, how their past actions now affect the present, and how founding settlers changed the community. Once students have a context for how historical figures influence their communities, they will be asked to end the unit with a mini-research project on the history of Cinco De Mayo. This lesson will last one week (five school days) beginning on May 1st and ending on May 5th, in celebration of Cinco De Mayo. Every day, our class has 35 minutes to work on Science, Social Studies, or Health. On each of the five days, our class will utilize their 35 minutes to work on this Social Studies project. The first four days will be spent learning about Cinco De Mayo and creating a shoebox diorama to showcase their new found knowledge about the holiday. On the fifth day, Cinco De Mayo, students will be allowed the chance to showcase their dioramas to classmates. Since there won’t be enough time for each student to present their projects individually, the class will be split in half to view each others projects in two groups. While one group walks around the room viewing the dioramas, the other group will stay stationed at their diorama to explain their projects and what they have learned. Each group will have 15 minutes to view the other groups dioramas, and then they will switch. The remaining 5 minutes will be spent doing a brief class reflection.

 

4. TIP Critical Question:

How do different students model their understanding of the history of Cinco De Mayo?

 

5. Standards:

• Oregon Social Studies CCSS 2.3.Identify and describe community celebrations, symbols and traditions and explain why they are important to some people and 2.6 Identify important school days, holidays, and community events on a calendar.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.3 Describe the connection between a series of historical events,

  scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read

  a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information

  from provided sources to answer a question.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.4 Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

• ELP 2-3.1 construct meaning from oral presentations and literary and informational text through grade appropriate listening, reading, and viewing.

 

6. Learning Targets: (Student Perspective)

• I will research the topic of Cinco De Mayo using multiple resources in order to produce a comprehensive report on the subject.

• I will be able to describe the celebrations, symbols and traditions of Cinco De Mayo, and why they are important to some people.

• I will be able to describe the historical events that lead to the Cinco De Mayo holiday.

• I will model my understanding of Cinco De Mayo through a visual representation (diorama)

  with image and text elements.

• I will recount my research through an oral presentation to my peers.

• I will recount key ideas and details about Cinco De Mayo in a class discussion after

  presentations

• I will be able to write a journal entry that summarizes what I have learned and relate it to

  something familiar

   

7. Content Objectives:

• By the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of Cinco De Mayo through diorama representation of the holiday’s history, traditions, and importance.

• By the end of this lesson students will have an understanding of how historical events have an impact on present communities, traditions, and holidays.

• By the end of this lesson students will be able to summarize a learned topic through 3-Dimensional representation of various materials, images, and text.

 

8. Language objectives:

• By the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of Cinco De Mayo through oral presentation and accompanying diorama text.

• By the end of this lesson, students will be able to construct meaning from oral presentations and literary and informational text through grade appropriate listening, reading, and viewing.

• By the end of this lesson, students will be able to read grade appropriate text on the subject of Cinco De Mayo, and produce brief written statements that summarize their findings to be incorporated in their diorama presentations.

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9. Student Assessment:

Formatively, I will observe student research time to assure that students are utilizing resources for the purpose of learning about the history of Cinco De Mayo. The facts they are gathering should correlate to the four main points they are trying to answer in their research. Students will be able to demonstrate their overall learning through the use of diorama presentation. They will be able to expand upon their visual representation with short written statements, and oral presentation to a rotating audience. To assess student achievement, I will grade their dioramas based on content. I will be looking for information on the Battle of Puebla, people and countries involved, the importance that May 5th holds for the people of Mexico, and what influence this day has on present traditions and celebrations in the U.S.

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10. Materials/Preparation:

Students will be able to rotate between technology, encyclopedia, and historical text stations. I will have a list of pre approved primary source websites available at the technology station, where students can access the internet on classroom laptops and copy/paste information relevant to their research. I will allow each student to print up to one page of images and one page of text to support their report. I will have student encyclopedias (pre-screened for content on Cinco De Mayo) set up at another station for students to read, converse, and write down key facts about Cinco De Mayo. At another station I will have grade appropriate historical non-fiction books available for students to read, converse, and write down key facts about Cinco De Mayo. I will provide writing materials and printed materials mentioned above. For their dioramas, I will provide colored construction paper, markers, scissors, glue, and decorations. Students will be required to provide their own shoebox and any additional decorative materials.

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11. Differentiation Strategies:

I will rotate between stations during research time and assist any children who have difficulty with reading and comprehension. If I notice any students struggling to work alone or with others, I will arrange for special independent or accommodated group work. For my low-ability students that have difficulty reading on their own, I can offer a read- aloud station where I read information to the students instead of requiring them to read on their own. For those who have trouble writing their thoughts, I can ask for a verbal explanation of their research findings and either write it down for them or work with them on creative ways to include their thoughts in their diorama. For my high-ability students, I can offer a list of optional add-on projects: Research another holiday that interests you, write a story about Cinco De Mayo to accompany your diorama, create a second diorama to showcase your favorite thing about Cinco De Mayo or another holiday, etc. For any ESL students or students with disabilities, I can offer a visual-only or verbal-only representation of what they learned - which I will assess on comprehension of the objectives more so than the content.

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12. Lesson Introduction: (10 minutes on Day 1)
I will begin the class with a video of children celebrating Cinco De Mayo in Mexico. After the video, I will ask the class if any of them have ever celebrated Cinco De Mayo (show of hands). In their table groups, I will ask students to share what they know about the holiday or what they think it is about (think-pair-share). A question I will pose to the students is “What happened in history to make Cinco De Mayo a holiday?”

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13. Communication of Learning Targets: (5-10 minutes on Day 1)
I plan to explain the targets of this lesson to my students. I will explain their use of resource stations and who will be working where each day. I will provide visual examples of what a shoebox diorama looks like. I will provide a handout of three main parts their dioramas should include: visual, textual, and speech. I will also include on the handout a list of required points they must address in their diorama: Battle of Puebla, people/countries involved, the importance that May 5th holds for the people of Mexico, and what influence this day has on present traditions and celebrations. To assure everyone understands the targets, I will allow time for questions and personal check-ins during the remaining SS time on day 1.

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14. Learning Activities: 35 minutes per day for 5 days (May 1-5)

a. Lesson Introduction – Day 1 (10 minutes)
Now that you have watched a video about Cinco De Mayo, I want to see a show of hands who has celebrated Cinco De Mayo before. Who celebrates other holidays like this? Lets discuss why we celebrate holidays and what things we know have happened in history to create these holidays. Now, I would like you to discuss in your table groups what you know about Cinco De Mayo and why you think it is celebrated. Lets discuss what you think might have happened in history to make Cinco De Mayo a holiday. When we are done discussing I want each group to contribute one idea they agreed upon to the class.
Call attention to students who have celebrated this holiday before and compare to the number of students who celebrate other holidays, pointing out that this is a common theme in all our lives. Walk around the room and observe group discussions. Offer insight, reiteration, or prompts when students have valid ideas to share, or seem to be struggling to contribute. After the discussion I will call on each table group to share one main idea they agreed upon which signifies the holiday’s importance or origin. I will record their ideas on a poster board to post in class throughout the week’s lesson.

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b. Communicate Learning Targets – Day 1 (5-10 minutes)
See 13. Students will receive a handout on the project, and will follow along while instructions and layout are explained.
See 13. I will pass out handout and go over all it’s contents with students. Station introduction will be given and shown to students so they get a feel for where they will be working and what is expected of them at each station. Objectives and requirements will be explained to the students in detail.

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c. Question/Answer Session – Day 1 (5 minutes)
To ensure that everyone understands this project, I would like to open up the next few minutes to answer any questions you may have about what we just covered.
I plan on answering any questions students may have about this project. I will let students know that they can talk to me about this at any time, in case anyone is hesitant to seek clarification in front of their peers. I will disclose that they may be confused by the objectives at first because they haven’t started researching yet, but that the project will begin to make more sense and flow once they begin.

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d. Brainstorm – Day 1 (10-15 minutes)
You may use this time to confer with classmates about the project, explore the example diorama I have provided, or begin brainstorming ideas for your diorama.
I will be walking around the room and conducting individual check-ins with each student during this time, scaffolding instruction and research ideas for those who seem intimidated of bored with the idea of this project.

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e. Introduction Of Research Stations – Day 2 (10 minutes)
You will be working in 3 assigned groups (varied ability) for the next three days on this project. At station one (visual provided) you will be visiting a list of pre-selected website on Cinco De Mayo. You may pull up a Word document to copy and paste facts that you feel will be useful for your project. You should be looking for information that answers our question “What happened in history to make Cinco De Mayo a holiday?”, and the required points on your handout. You may also use this station to collect images for your dioramas. Please keep text content to one page and image content to one page. At station two you will be using encyclopedias to gather facts and ideas just like on the websites. Please bring a notebook and pencil to this station to write down any facts and ideas you find relevant to our project. At station three, you will be doing the same thing as at station two, except the resource materials will be different.
Remind students of their required points and show on the smart screen how to access the websites, word document, and how to copy and paste. I will show visual examples of each station on the smart board so they know what I am looking for. And at the end of each day I will assist the website group in printing off their two pages of diorama material.

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f. Student Research Time – Day 2 (25 minutes)
Please use this time to work at your assigned station. Each day you will get to work at a different station, until everyone has gathered resources from all three. Raise your hand if you have a question about what you are doing, talk to your group-mates about what you are finding and what they are finding, and have fun learning something!
I will be walking around the room to accommodate any struggling students with how to use their resource and answering questions they may have. I plan on scaffolding during this time to assist students in utilizing their resource for the purpose intended. If students seem bored or complete their task before time is up, I will use this as an opportunity to suggest differentiation ideas and additional work they can incorporate.

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g. Conclusion and Clean-Up – Day 2 (5 minutes)
Please make sure you save all of your collected material in a safe place to use on our dioramas later. If you still need assistance printing at the web station, please let me know and I will come assist you. If anyone found out something new today, please show me a hand up. If you would like to share something exciting that you learned today, now is the time to share.

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h. Rotate Research Stations. Each group works at a new station. – Day 3 (30 minutes) See f.

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i. Conclusion and Clean-Up – Day 3 (5 minutes) See g.

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j. Rotate Research Stations. Each group works at a new station. – Day 4 (30 minutes) See f.

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k. Conclusion and Clean-Up – Day 4 (5 minutes) See g.

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l. Presentations - Day 5 (29 minutes)
Students will be split into two groups (two halves of the room) and given time to set up their dioramas on their desks (5 minutes).

One group will rotate around the room looking at their peers dioramas while the other half stands by their dioramas and presents their findings orally. The goal is to touch on the main research points covered in our handout and explain why you chose the images and text you included in your diorama, why were they important? (12 minutes)

The two groups will switch tasks and rotate/present accordingly (12 minutes).
I will be walking around the room as students present their dioramas. I will be listening for students to touch on the Battle of Puebla, the people/countries involved in the event(s) that lead to Cinco De Mayo, the importance that May 5th holds for the people of Mexico, and what influence this day has on present traditions and celebrations. Between their oral and visual representations, I will assess students on whether or not they successfully met the objectives.

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15. Closure - Day 5 (6 minutes)
Afterwards, we will meet on the carpet for whole class discussion. Students will be given the opportunity to compliment other classmates on their work, answer the question “What happened in history to make Cindo De Mayo a holiday?”, and share any issues they faced or questions that remain. This is a time to reflect and make connections to other things we know. I will prompt students to relate this project back to previous unit work on historical knowledge, events in history, and the community and traditions, which originate from these events. Cinco De Mayo is not just a holiday because people wanted a reason to gather and celebrate Mexico, there is a deeper meaning behind it that can be traced back to history.

I plan to promote further reflection on this lesson during writing time on the day after Cinco De Mayo. I will ask students to write a brief statement about what they learned in their journals, including how their ideas about the holiday have changed (based on what they knew prior). I will also ask them to write about their favorite holiday, what they know about it’s origins, and hopefully spark some interest in the events or stories that have lead to the holidays and traditions we celebrate today. As a self-reflection piece, I will ask students to end their journal entry with a 1-5 rating of their work: Did they include visual, text, and speech elements? Did they answer our lesson question? Did they touch on all four points I required? Did they utilize all three resource stations to the best of their ability? Did they learn something new? (1 point each).

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