Donna Holinga

Lincoln School

Springfield, Illinois

Overview:

Our third quarter theme in sixth grade at Lincoln School is entitled "Renaissance: Rebirth to Revolution." Social Studies is the anchor subject for this theme. The students will compile research gathered in Math, Science, and Social Studies and use this information to present a Renaissance Faire in which they will portray the characters and events from the Middles Ages and Renaissance period. Students will conduct this research in stations which include such resources as: Internet sites, Reference CD-ROMs, Printed Materials, LaserDiscs, Videos and Film Strips. Students will be expected to gather information on specific topics, make costumes and create scenery to reflect the time period

Throughout the quarter, we incorporate language arts into our thematic unit by reading various novels from this time period. Also, at the end of the unit, students will be creating scripts for the Faire in language arts to present the information they have gathered during their research.

The Faire presentations will also become the focus of a student-created Internet site which will display a summary of the research, as well as, pictures from the Faire. This site will also be used as a source of information for future research.

Objectives for the Unit:

• Students will find important facts about the time period
• Students will find important facts about their topic
• Students will explain the importance of their topic
• Students will explain the causes of changes in society associated with their topic
• Students will create costumes and scenery appropriate to their topic

Time Frame:

Regularly scheduled Social Studies classes are 50 minutes long. During week five Social Studies and Language Arts are blocked together into 2 hour periods.

Procedure:

Weeks one and two:

Time will be spent building general background knowledge of this time period using the material in the sixth grade social studies book, and the videos, "Castle" and "Cathedral" by David Macauley and "Reading Rainbow: A Medieval Feast" featuring Lavar Burton. I will also use the CD-Rom "Leonardo the Inventor" by Interactive Publishing Corporation to illustrate the meaning of the term "Renaissance Man."

Week 3:

Day 1: Introduce and explain the research grids students are to use. This grid is a Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? chart. Students are to find 3 to 5 facts in each category. Students will be assessed as to the number of facts found and the importance of these facts.

Day 2: Assign topics which students are to research. Each team will be assigned a broad general topic and each student within the team will research one component of that topic. For example: Broad Topic-Vikings; Subtopics- 1. Who were they and what did they do? 2. Daily life of men and women 3. Government 4. Types of weapons

Days 3-5: Students will began rotating through research stations gathering information for their research grid. The stations included Internet sites, Reference CD-ROMs, Printed Materials, LaserDiscs, Videos and Film Strips.

Week 4:

Days 1-4: Students continue rotating through the research stations.

Day 5: Catch-up day--students may return to any station they have visited previously to finish gathering missing information.

Week 5:

We began a block schedule in which the Language Arts and Social Studies periods are put together. Teachers meet to decide which students will be mathematicians, which will be scientist, and which students will be characters from social studies. At this point students from both sixth grade teams are divided into groups according to their topics.

Day 1 & 2: Students will work with their team members to write a script to present the information they have researched. This script will be 5-8 minutes long.

Day 3: Students will revise scripts and have them approve by the teacher. When the scripts are approved students will then began work on a scenery proposal which will also be submitted for teacher approval.

Day 4: Costumes of the time period will be modeled and an explanation of how to put costumes together will be given. As homework students are to draw a sketch of the costume to be worn the night of the Faire.

Day 5: Students will practice their scripts and complete their backdrop proposals which will be submitted for approval.

Week 6:

Day 1-3: Students will practice their scripts and work on creating their backdrop.

Day 4: Students will perform their script in front of their backdrops for evaluation.

Day 5: Students will move their backdrops to the gym and perform a dress rehearsal for the fifth grades. A evening performances of the Renaissance Faire will be performed for parents.

Week 7:

We will return to regular scheduling--Social Studies--50 minutes.

Day 1: Mini-lesson on Claris Home Page--procedures necessary to put information into a Home Page. The teacher will model the steps that are to be followed to put text and graphics into the web page.

Day 2: Creation of a Web page. Using a template which teachers have created and a set of instructions, students will add a picture of their Renaissance Faire scene and the summary of their script to a web page. An expert group of students will add several panoramas to this web page. This activity will be evaluated using a checklist which we are in the process of composing.

 

 

 

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