Social Studies Unit 4: Cultural Connections
Background Knowledge/Prior learning: First grade learners have minimal to no experience
researching or using online sources (images, etc.). This social studies project marks their first
exposure to researching, taking notes and using images and facts from an age-appropriate article
in order to create a poster to present and "teach" the class about their topic (holidays). For this
assignment, students will be broken into heterogeneous groups and assigned roles based on their
strengths, reading and writing levels and language levels. Each group will be assigned a reader,
and a note-taker, with the rest serving as listeners. After reading their assigned article on their
holiday (Christmas, New Years, Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), students will fill
out a graphic organizer containing key facts. They will then cut and paste each section along
with photos and hand-drawn images onto a poster.
This lesson draws on each students unique cultural background, as well as exposing them to
celebrations of other cultures. The following mini just-in-time lesson will be taught prior to
beginning the project and will serve as an introduction to the issue of copyright, fair use and
plagiarism that is age-appropriate for 1st graders by showing them how to:
1. Restate facts in their own words
2. Write the name of the article and author at the bottom of the poster.
Standard(s):
1. Knowledge Constructor-Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital
tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning
experiences for themselves and others.
3b: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of
information, media, data or other resources (ISTE Standards for Students, 2017).
2. Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of
living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in
ways that are safe, legal and ethical (ISTE Standards for Students, 2017).
3. Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves
creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital
media appropriate to their goals.
6b: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital
resources into new creations (ISTE Standards for Students, 2017).
4. Colorado Social Studies Academic Standard: 1.2 Compare and contrast family and
cultural traditions (Social Studies Academic Standards, 2015).
5. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.7
Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of "how-to"
books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions) (Common Core
State Standards Initiative, 2012).
Unit Essential Question: How do people/families/cultures celebrate traditions?
Learning Targets:
I can identify cultural and family traditions and describe how they are similar or
different to my own traditions.
Unit Focus Questions:
1. What are some holidays/traditions you celebrate?
2. How do people celebrate traditions?
3. Why do we have holidays/traditions?
4. How are the holidays/traditions you celebrate similar or different to others?
Vocabulary: holiday, tradition, belief, celebration, culture
Session 1: I can use my own ideas and give credit to where I found my information.
Focus question of todays session/mini lesson: Why is it important to use your own words &
ideas in a project?
Approximate time: 10 minutes for mini-lesson; 20 minutes of independent work time; 5-10
minute summary/wrap-up discussion
Introduction: (After introducing project)
1. Before sending students off to work: Have you ever had someone take something of
yours? How did it make you feel? What would a good citizen do?(Have students turn-
and-talk, then call on several students to share their thoughts.)
2. Just like we wouldnt take something that belongs to someone else, we also need to be
careful about not taking someone elses ideas.
3. Part of being a good (digital) citizen when researching a topic is to remember to use your
own wordswhen you and your group find an important fact about your holiday, I want
you to stop and think: How can I say this in a different way?
4. Practice together using teacher demonstration for Halloween:
5. In this third section it says: People around the world celebrate this day. It is sometimes
thought of as more of kid's holiday, but many adults enjoy it as well (Nelson, 2017,
para. 3). I could just copy this down, because I really like this idea. BUT when I went to
write it down look what showed up:
Read more at: http://www.ducksters.com/holidays/halloween.php
This text is Copyright Ducksters. Do not use without permission.
6. This means that I cannot use this quote as my own without asking or writing down who
said it. So, I am going to say it in a different way, then write down the name and author
of this article.
7. Help me outhow else could I say this? (Restate fact as needed, then have students turn
and talk to brainstorm ways to restate fact.)
8. Great ideas! So I could write: Halloween is celebrated by people all around the world.
Even though, its more for kids, adults can have fun too!
9. Now after I write down all the important facts, I need to say where I found my
information, so Ill write the title and author here (show citation section at the bottom of
the graphic organizer). This is called a citation, and its one way I can ensure that I am
not stealing someone elses idea and am being a good digital citizen by engaging in
legal behavior(ISTE Standards for Students, 2017).
Task: Send students off to begin reading, listening, and taking notes. Rove and support students
in rephrasing as needed.
Summary/wrap-up: Share several examples of how students rephrased information.
1. Closing: Turn and talk- Why is it important to use your own words in a project?
