FORMAL LESSON ONE

Grade: 2nd/ Topic: Social Studies- A Walk through a community
Setting: PS 86
Date of Lesson: 10/7/2010

1. Purpose:

1. What is a community?
2. What neighborhoods make up your community?

1. Vocabulary:

1. Community: A community is a place made up of many neighborhoods.

1. Skills:

1. To think about the places that make up a students community.
2. Draw a picture of an important place in a students community.

1. Objectives:

1. The students will be able to recognize diversity in a community.
2. They will be able to identify places in a neighborhood.
3. The students will be able to explain an important place in their community.

1. New York City Performance Standards:

E1: Reading 

Reading is a process which includes demonstrating comprehension and showing evidence of a warranted and responsible interpretation of the text.“Comprehension” means getting the gist of a text. It is most frequently illustrated by demonstrating an understanding of the text as a whole; identifying complexities presented in the structure of the text; and extracting salient information from the text. In providing evidence of a responsible interpretation, students may make connections between parts of a text, among several texts, and between texts and other experiences; make extensions and applications of a text; and examine texts critically and evaluatively.

E2: Writing 

Writing is a process through which a writer shapes language to communicate effectively. Writing often develops through a series of initial plans and multiple drafts and through access to informed feedback and response. Purpose, audience, and context contribute to the form and substance of writing as well as to its style, tone, and stance.

E3: Speaking, Listening, and Viewing 

Speaking, listening, and viewing are fundamental processes which people use to express, explore, and learn about ideas. The functions of speaking, listening, and viewing include gathering and sharing information; persuading others; expressing and understanding ideas; coordinating activities with others; and selecting and critically analyzing messages. The contexts of these communication functions include one-to-one conferences, small group interactions, large audiences and meetings, and interactions with broadcast media.

1. Pre-Assessment:

1. Students have mastered the vocabulary and are aware of different places that make up a neighborhood.

1. Lesson Presentation:

a. Set induction:

• I am going to introduce the vocabulary word (community).  On a piece of chart paper, I am going to write the word neighborhood and draw a few squares and rectangles to represent places in a neighborhood.  I am going to have them name these squares and rectangles by giving them clues such as: People go to shop here, and they can buy things they want.  Children go here to learn. Children go here to play.  I will have children label each of them with a post-it (pre-made), and then I will draw a large circle around the labeled places to emphasize that all of the places in your neighborhood are what make up a community. I will explain that many neighborhoods make up a community.  Neighborhoods in a community can be alike, and they can be different. Lets find out how they can be alike and different.

1. Procedure:

1. Lets look at our big book together.
2. Today we are going to learn about a community.
3. First, what is this called? (point to the map on page 16, and 17) 
4. Yes, it is called a map. Joanna drew a map of all the neighborhoods in her community.
5. I will read aloud the places on the map.
6. Point to the little boy in the picture. Explain that this is Joanna’s friend, Mike, and that he is just visiting.
7. Lets read what Joanna wrote about when she took a walk through her community.
8. Ask the students why they think the neighborhoods are called Little Italy and China town?
9. Read Joanna’s passage on page 17.
10. This tells about one neighborhood in Joanna’s community.
11. What neighborhood is this journal entry about?
12. What can you learn about Little Italy from the pictures?
13. Now lets read another passage about a neighborhood Joanna and Mike visit.
14. Read the passage on page 18.
15. Ask the children why they think people like to live in Chinatown?
16. Ask the children if they have visited any museums, and what did they see?
17. Ask the students how chinatown is different from little Italy.
18. Ask: Do the buildings look like the ones in the other neighborhood? How are they different?
19. Now lets read another passage about a neighborhood Joanna and Mike visit.
20. Read the passage on page 19.
21. Where does Joanna go?
22. What are parks like in most communities?

1. Closure:

1. What did you learn?
2. What are two different neighborhoods that you learned about in Joanna’s community that she visited?
3. How are they different? 
4. Now that we have learned about all of the important places in Joanna’s community, we are going to talk about some of the important places in our community (NYC).
5. What are some important places in your community, New York City?
6. Make a list of the important places children name in their community.
7. Now that we have listed some important places in our community, we will do a worksheet to write about one of the important places in our community.
8. Send the children back to their seats.

1. Materials and Resources:

• Chart paper
• Markers to write not the chart paper
• #2 pencils
• Crayons or colored pencils
• Pre-made post-its to label the places of a neighborhood.

9. Follow-up activity or Assignment:

1. I will send the children back to their seats where they will complete a worksheet about communities.
2. We will do the first part of the worksheet together, and then they will draw a picture of an important place in their community.
3. They will share their answers with the class.

10. Evaluation/Assessment:

1. Students will be assessed based on their answers during the lesson.
2. They will also be assessed based on their knowledge of their own community, and by the answers they write on their worksheet.

11. Differentiated:

Visual/Linguistic: The students are going to be verbally answering questions, as well as answering questions on the worksheet.


Intrapersonal: The students will be working on their worksheet alone at their desks.


Visual/Spatial: The students are thinking in images and pictures, because they have to think of places in their community, as well as draw a picture of an important place in their community.


Bodily/Kinesthetic: Hands on learning will be applied because students will draw a picture of an important place in their community.


Interpersonal: Students will be cooperating with each other, and sharing some of their drawings.

1. Resources:

• Task Stream: New York City Performance Standards
• Foresman, Scott. Social Studies: People and Places. Pearson Education. 2008