Characteristics of My Community



|Lesson Synopsis: |

Students learn about characteristics of a community by focusing on the local community, the reasons people form communities, and the ways people meet their needs in communities. Students learn differences in communities including variations in the physical environment of a community and the ways people plan or design the community. They learn about Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who designed the original plan for Washington, D.C., greatly influencing the shape of the community, and research to learn about people who helped shape the local community. This lesson forms the basis for deeper study of physical and human (including cultural) characteristics of communities in later units, allowing students to compare the local community to other communities.

TEKS:

|3.1 |History. The student understands how individuals, events, and ideas have influenced the history of various communities. The |

| |student is expected to: |

|3.1B |Identify individuals including: Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, Benjamin Banneker and Benjamin Franklin who have helped to shape |

| |communities. |

|3.2 |History. The student understands common characteristics of communities, past and present. The student is expected to: |

|3.2A |Identify reasons people have formed communities, including a need for security, religious freedom, law, and material |

| |well-being. |

|3.2B |Identify ways in which people in the local community and other communities meet their needs for government, education, |

| |communication, transportation, and recreation. |

|3.4 |Geography. The student understands how humans adapt to variations in the physical environment. The student is expected to: |

|3.4A |Describe and explain variations in the physical environment, including climate, landforms, natural resources, and natural |

| |hazards. |

|3.5 |Geography. The student understands the concepts of location, distance, and direction on maps and globes. The student is |

| |expected to: |

|3.5C |Identify and use the compass rose, grid system, and symbols to locate places on maps and globes. |

|3.11 |Citizenship. The student understands characteristics of good citizenship as exemplified by historical and contemporary |

| |figures. The student is expected to: |

|3.11A |Identify characteristics of good citizenship including truthfulness, justice, equality, respect for oneself and others, |

| |responsibility in daily life, and participation in government by educating oneself about the issues, respectfully holding |

| |public officials to their word, and voting. |

|3.11B |Identify historical figures such as, Helen Keller, and Clara Barton, and contemporary figures such as Ruby Bridges and |

| |military and first responders who exemplify good citizenship. |

|3.11C |Identify and explain the importance of individual acts of civic responsibility, including obeying laws, serving the |

| |community, serving on a jury, and voting. |

Social Studies Skills TEKS:

|3.17 |Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety |

| |of valid sources, including electronic technology. The student is expected to: |

|3.17E |Interpret and create visuals, including graphs, charts, tables, timelines, illustrations, and maps. |

|3.18 |Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to: |

|3.18A |Express ideas orally based on knowledge and experiences. |

|Getting Ready for Instruction |

|Performance Indicator(s): |

• Create a booklet with pages showing a map of the local community, drawings of the local community and its people, and a graphic organizer categorizing characteristics of the community to explain what the local community is like. (3.1B; 3.2A, 3.2B; 3.4A; 3.5C; 3.11A, 3.11B; 3.17E; 3.18A) [pic] 5B

|Key Understandings and Guiding Questions: |

• Las características físicas de un lugar ayudan a definir una comunidad.

— ¿Cómo ayudaron las personas, los acontecimientos y las ideas a darle forma a las comunidades?

— ¿Por qué las personas forman comunidades?

— ¿Cómo las personas en las comunidades satisfacen sus necesidades de gobierno, educación, comunicación, transporte y recreación?

— ¿En qué se diferencian los medios ambientes físicos?

— ¿Cuáles son las características del buen civismo?

— ¿Cómo las personas dan ejemplo de buen civismo?

— ¿Por qué son importantes los actos individuales de responsabilidad pública?

|Vocabulary of Instruction: |

• comunidad

• responsabilidad

• características

• seguridad

• cívico

• civismo

|Materials: |

• Refer to the Notes for Teacher section for materials.

Attachments:

• Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Maps of Communities

• Handout: Pierre-Charles L’Enfant (1 per student and 1 for teacher)

• Handout: Community Research Questions (1 per student)

• Teacher Resource: Community Characteristics Sort

|Resources and References: |

• Background information on the Original Plan of Washington, D.C. by Pierre Charles L‘Enfant

• Information on the L’Enfant plan:

• First map of Washington D.C. by Pierre Charles L’Enfant

• Local community maps and information

• Information on Washington D.C., such as a map of the city and the landmarks

|Advance Preparation: |

1. Become familiar with content and procedures for the lesson, including researching your own community to become familiar with general physical features such as landmarks and land forms, as well as the history, leadership, and celebrations of the community.

2. Become familiar with Washington, D.C., the map of the city, and the landmarks.

3. Invite a person knowledgeable about the local community to come to class on Day 3 to talk about the community (including individuals, events, and ideas that helped shape the community) and to answer student questions (see also Handout: Community Research Questions).

4. Refer to the Instructional Focus Document for specific content to include in the lesson.

5. Select appropriate sections of the textbook and other classroom materials that support the learning for this lesson.

6. Preview available resources and websites according to district guidelines.

7. Prepare materials and handouts as needed.

|Background Information: |

Teacher will need a strong background of information about the local community, as well as an understanding of the characteristics of community and why people form communities.

Students have gained basic map skills in earlier grades and in Lesson 1, but in this unit, students apply the map skills at a higher cognitive level.

|Getting Ready for Instruction Supplemental Planning Document |

Instructors are encouraged to supplement and substitute resources, materials, and activities to differentiate instruction to address the needs of learners. The Exemplar Lessons are one approach to teaching and reaching the Performance Indicators and Specificity in the Instructional Focus Document for this unit. Instructors are encouraged to create original lessons using the Content Creator in the Tools Tab located at the top of the page. All originally authored lessons can be saved in the “My CSCOPE” Tab within the “My Content” area.

|Instructional Procedures |

|Instructional Procedures |Notes for Teacher |

|ENGAGE – Communities |NOTE: 1 Day = 15 minutes |

| |Suggested Day 1 – 15 minutes |

|Introduce discussion of communities (people with common interests living in a particular area). Continue |Materials: |

|the discussion by asking why people form communities (need for security, religious freedom, law, and |Maps of several communities |

|material well-being). | |

| |Attachments: |

|Distribute or display maps of several communities. (See optional Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Maps of |Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Maps of Communities |

|Communities: Chicago; Petersburg, Virginia; Midland, Texas; Richmond, Virginia; New York; Washington, |(optional) |

|D.C.) | |

| |Instructional Note: |

|Students study the maps to identify things communities have in common (ways to meet needs for government,|An internet search for maps will provide interactive |

|education, communication, transportation, and recreation) |maps of nearly all communities. |

| |Use both historical maps and current maps to look at |

|Students study the maps to identify things that are different between communities (location, landforms, |change over time. |

|size, arrangement of streets) | |

| | |

|When considering how and why communities are alike and different, use words such as (explanation will | |

|vary depending on which communities are used as examples – including the local community): | |

|No two communities are exactly alike. Some communities were built around the county courthouse; some were| |

|built along a railroad or river. The town’s water well or a church was the center of other communities. | |

|Surrounding landforms dictated the arrangement of still other communities. | |

|Our community is different from any other community as well. | |

|Each community is planned differently by different people, but all communities must think about things | |

|such as water, waste, and transportation. | |

|EXPLORE – Washington, D.C. |Suggested Day 1 – 20 minutes |

|Present/display visuals of Washington, D.C. |Materials: |

| |Information on attractions in Washington, D.C. |

|Introduce the city and encourage students to share things they know about Washington, D.C. |Current map of Washington D.C. |

|Washington, D.C. is like many communities in many ways. The people have needs that the city is designed |Map of Washington D.C. by Pierre Charles L’Enfant |

|to meet. |Pierre-Charles L’Enfant |

|What needs do people in this city have that are like needs of people in other communities (need for | |

|security, religious freedom, law, and material well-being, water, waste management, jobs) |Attachments: |

|Washington, D.C., was designed by a good citizen and famous architect named Pierre-Charles L’Enfant. |Handout: Pierre Charles L’Enfant (1 per student and 1 |

| |for teacher) |

|Teacher tells or reads the story of Pierre-Charles L’Enfant (Handout: Pierre Charles L’Enfant), who | |

|designed the city of Washington, D.C., while students follow along. If possible, project the map of D.C. |Instructional Note: |

|as planned by L’Enfant (see Library of Congress site or a map is included as slide 7 on the Teacher |Locate tourist maps of Washington D.C. Project maps |

|Resource: PowerPoint: Maps of Communities). Also see National Park Service site for a picture, primary |onto an Interactive Whiteboard if possible. |

|sources, and other background information. | |

| | |

|Guide students to be familiar with the design L’Enfant established for the nation’s capital city (a grid | |

|with spokes and many landmarks) and that L’Enfant designed both the Capitol building and the White House.| |

| | |

| | |

|This is an opportunity to reinforce century designations by asking questions such as: | |

|If the city was designed in 1791, in what century was the city designed? (the 18th) | |

| | |

|Distribute or display maps of Washington, D.C. to aid discussion and build knowledge of Washington, D.C. | |

|Allow students the time to explore the maps in groups. Remind the students to look for the map elements | |

|to aid their discoveries. Encourage students to use the grid to describe where a place or monument is | |

|located. | |

| | |

|Offer students an opportunity to practice their geography skills by working in pairs to locate, identify,| |

|and describe the locations of landmarks in Washington, D.C. | |

|Many more monuments and landmarks have been added since L’Enfant designed the city (change over time.). | |

|We will work together to name a few places and monuments and to name some physical and human | |

|characteristics of Washington, D.C. For example: D.C. is 10 miles square, located on the Potomac River; | |

|the Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments have been added, as have monuments for Viet Nam, Korea, | |

|WWI, and WWII. (People and communities celebrate and honor what is important to them.) | |

| | |

|Lead students to notice that several monuments are named after people. Students think about why someone | |

|would have a statue or monument named in their honor. | |

|EXPLAIN |Suggested Day 1 – 15 minutes |

|Students fold a paper into 4 sections and illustrate characteristics of Washington, D.C. that they found |Materials |

|interesting. Provide a caption for each illustration. |Drawing paper |

|EXPLORE – Characteristics of local community |Suggested Day 2 – 15 minutes |

|Students begin an investigation of the local community. They think about the local community, beginning |Materials |

|with what visitors see when they come to the community. |Map of local community |

| |Chart paper |

|Create a T-Chart list of characteristics of the local community, both physical characteristics | |

|(landforms, natural resources, etc.) and human characteristics (roads, buildings, “things” humans have |Instructional Note: |

|created to solve problems). Use words such as the following, but adjust according to local |The list of characteristics will vary for each |

|characteristics. |community and will vary by what each child has seen in |

|Think about our community. What do people see when they visit our community? Visualize (see in your mind)|the community. Examples: bridges; landforms such as |

|some of the places or things that make it special. Is our community located by an ocean or river, |mountains, or water sources such as rivers; a famous |

|airport, or highway? What are some of the things that make it unique or different from other communities?|place, or libraries, theaters, statues, etc. |

|Are there streets named after certain people? Do you know why? Are there any statues or fountains? | |

|Anything unusual? What is our community like? How do people earn a living? What is the weather year | |

|round? What plants grow here naturally? What animals (not house pets) live around here? | |

| | |

|Students discuss a few examples. | |

|EXPLAIN |Suggested Day 2– 15 minutes |

|Students fold a paper into 4 sections and illustrate characteristics of the local community that |Materials: |

|exemplify how the community meets the needs of the town’s citizens. Write a caption for each |Drawing paper |

|illustration. | |

| | |

|On the back of the paper, write a sentence that compares Washington, D.C. with the local community. | |

|EXPLORE – Research the local community |Suggested Day 2 (cont’d) – 15 minutes |

|Students prepare to investigate more information about the local community by interviewing people in the |Materials: |

|community. |Chart paper |

| |list of questions |

|Create a class K-W-L chart listing information students know about their community and things they would |pencil |

|like to know about their community. (When creating the chart, think about categories of information to be|index cards (optional) |

|gained, including the large categories of physical characteristics and human characteristics and then the| |

|sub-categories such as government, education, communication, transportation, and recreation. Writing the |Attachments: |

|characteristics on index cards could contribute to the later card sort activity.) |Handout: Community Research Questions (1 per student or|

| |pair) |

|After students have contributed to the creation of the K-W-L, distribute the Handout: Community Research | |

|Questions. Students look over the handout and the questions on their K-W-L chart and adjust the |Instructional Note: |

|questions to reflect the local community. |Inviting a person knowledgeable about the local |

| |community will give all students a way to practice |

|Students, in pairs, practice interviewing each other: introducing themselves, asking questions politely, |interviewing. |

|listening, taking notes on important pieces of information, saying thank you, and shaking hands when |It may be necessary to adjust the questions on the |

|finished. |handout before distributing it, to change them as |

| |needed or narrow the list to fewer questions. |

|Switch partners and practice again. | |

| | |

|Teacher adjusts the Handout: Community Research Questions as per the class discussion, and copies the | |

|Revised Handout: Community Research Questions for use on Day 3. | |

|EXPLAIN – |Suggested Day 2 – 5 minutes |

|Students write: | |

|3 things they already know about the community | |

|2 things they want to ask about the local community | |

|1 thing they will remember to do when they interview a community member | |

|EXPLORE - Interview a community member |Suggested Day 3 – 20 minutes |

|Welcome the community member visiting the class and introduce him/her to the class. |Materials |

| |Revised Handout: Community Research Questions from Day |

|Community member visits the classroom and discusses the local community with students, including |2 |

|individuals, events, and ideas that helped shape the community. |K-W-L chart created on Day 2 |

| |Person knowledgeable about the community |

|Students interview the visitor, asking questions that include those from the (revised) Handout: Community| |

|Research Questions. |Instructional Note |

| |It could be helpful to provide the visitor with |

|Students thank the visitor. |questions students could ask (Revised Handout: |

| |Community Research Questions from Day 2) before the |

|Facilitate a discussion where students add information to the K-W-L Chart, including answers to the |session begins. |

|questions from the (revised) Handout: Community Research Questions. | |

| | |

|For homework, students interview another community member (family member, neighbor, etc.) to gather more | |

|information. | |

|EXPLAIN |Suggested Day 3 – 10 minutes |

|Students write a thank you to the visitor. | |

| | |

|Students write: | |

|3 things they learned | |

|2 things they still want to know | |

|1 thing they will do better when they interview another community member tonight as homework | |

|EXPLORE |Suggested Day 4 – 25 minutes |

|Students share the information they gained, adding it to the K-W-L chart. |Materials |

| |K-W-L chart from Day 2 |

|Facilitate a discussion where students use academic language to discuss the characteristics of the | |

|community, including |Attachments |

|the physical characteristics (landforms, bodies of water, climate, natural resources) and how they affect|Teacher Resource: Community Characteristics Sort |

|the community (the economic activities of the community, the recreational activities, etc.) | |

|the human characteristics and how they affect the community | |

| | |

|As students discuss, begin creating a Community Characteristics Sort such as the one shown on the Teacher| |

|Resource: Community Characteristics Sort using the words/characteristics students provide during the | |

|discussion and those they have already contributed on the K-W-L (index cards can help make this process | |

|more visible for students, but a chart drawn on chart paper or made using a document camera work as | |

|well). For example, under Education, the students could place the words schools and public library; under| |

|Recreation, parks and theater. | |

| | |

|Enlist student help in creating the chart to build a picture of the local community. | |

|EXPLAIN – 1-2-3 |Suggested Day 3 – 10 minutes |

|Students: | |

|Draw 1 physical characteristic of the community (including climate, landforms, natural resources, and | |

|natural hazards) | |

|Draw 2 human characteristics of the community related to the physical characteristic (tornado shelters, | |

|fields or oil wells, marina, state park) | |

|Write 3 ways the physical characteristic affects the people of the community (provides jobs, provides | |

|opportunities for recreation, affects the way people dress or the houses they live in) | |

|EXPLORE – Characteristics of Good Citizenship |Suggested Day 4 and 5 – 30 minutes |

|Students recall characteristics of good citizenship that they learned in earlier grades (truthfulness, |Materials: |

|justice, equality, respect for oneself and others, responsibility in daily life, and participation in |Map of the community |

|government by educating oneself about the issues, respectfully holding public officials to their word, | |

|and voting) and people they have studied who exemplified good citizenship. |Instructional Note: |

| |From Grade 2, good citizens studied include: Thurgood |

|Students also recall information gained about the local community and people who helped shape the local |Marshall, Irma Rangel, John Hancock, Theodore |

|community (people with streets or other places named in their honor, people they know who exhibit |Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, W. E. B. DuBois, Robert |

|characteristics of good citizenship, etc.). Questions to encourage discussion could include: |Fulton, George Washington Carver, Paul Revere, Abigail |

|What makes a good citizen in a community? |Adams, World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots |

|Why were they honored in this way? Is it because they tell the truth? Or show respect for others? |(WASPs), Navajo Code Talkers, and Sojourner Truth. |

|How do citizens show good citizenship? |From Grade 1, good citizens studied include: Sam |

|How have they helped shape the community? |Houston, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin |

| |Luther King Jr., Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, |

|Make a class list of the characteristics and the good citizens. |Garrett Morgan, Richard Allen, Benjamin Franklin, |

| |Francis Scott Key, and Eleanor Roosevelt. |

|Distribute maps of the local community. |As homework, students could continue to practice |

| |geography skills using this activity. |

|Locate on the map the locations of places named for good citizens (a school named after a former teacher,| |

|a street named for Martin Luther King, Jr., the library named for a good citizen, a statue of a hero to | |

|the community, etc.) and practice describing their relative location using geography skills learned in | |

|Lesson 1. | |

| | |

|Extend the practice by naming various physical and human characteristics of the community and providing | |

|students an opportunity to describe the location and directions from one location to another (head north | |

|on Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd. for one mile and turn east on Sam Houston Avenue to locate the George | |

|Washington Library, which is next to Glenn Raymond School. Continue east on Sam Houston Avenue to come to| |

|the monument to the Navajo Code Talkers). | |

| | |

|At each location, discuss the importance of the individual’s acts of civic responsibility, including | |

|obeying laws, serving the community, serving on a jury, and voting. | |

|EXPLAIN – Characteristics of Good Citizenship |Suggested Day 5 (cont’d) – 15 minutes |

|Draw a picture of 3 different people who helped shape the local community. In the caption for each |Materials: |

|drawing, explain what they did that helped shape the community. |Drawing paper |

|ELABORATE – Bringing it all together |Suggested Day 6 – 20 minutes |

|Facilitate a discussion where students use what they have learned to answer the guiding questions and | |

|support the Key Understanding. | |

|Physical characteristics of a place help define a community. | |

|How do physical characteristics of a place help define the community? | |

|How have individuals, events, and ideas helped shape communities? | |

|Why do people form communities? | |

|How do people in communities meet their needs for government, education, communication, transportation, | |

|and recreation? | |

|How do physical environments differ? | |

|What are the characteristics of good citizenship? | |

|How do people exemplify good citizenship? | |

|Why are individual acts of civic responsibility important? | |

|. | |

|ELABORATE – Exploring the new land |Suggested Day 6 (cont’d) – 50 minutes |

|Create a booklet with pages showing a map of the local community, drawings of the local community and its|Materials: |

|people, and a graphic organizer categorizing characteristics of the community to explain what the local |Paper for creating a booklet |

|community is like. (3.1B; 3.2A, 3.2B; 3.4A; 3.5C; 3.11A, 3.11B; 3.17E; 3.18A) [pic] 5B | |

| | |

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