Project Title- What is a Subject- Grade 3 home?

Time Required: 4 Name- Leanne Kelly, Jeannette Piddington, Carrie Roode, Adriane Dueck, weeks Candice Shogren and Elayna Campbell Recall: Students have previously studied in detail the countries of Tunisia, Peru, India, and Ukraine. Step 1: Determine specific learning goals by using content standards and desired higher-order thinking skills. Rationale: We decided to base our unit around the essential question What is home?, as it is a universal theme that students of any age and culture can relate to. This theme will not only lend itself to the development of key curricular skills, but will also help students develop an understanding of the concept of home at a community and global level. Around this central idea, students will have the opportunity to implement skills from multiple areas, including social studies, math, English language arts, science, art and technology. Through practical, hands-on activities, students will engage in new and authentic learning experiences that will culminate in the creation of a home of their choice. Students will be asked to test their knowledge about their communities and to stretch their understanding to include many other communities, allowing them to gain a deep understanding of what it means to be citizens of the world. From your standards and your own high expectations, what is it that you want your students to be able to know, do, or understand? For specific learning goals as per the curriculum please see Appendix A Students will gain an understanding about how geographic, social, cultural and linguistic factors influence the idea about what a home is. Students will gain an understanding about the different aspects involved in building shelters through practical experiences. They will have the opportunity to construct a house using a variety of material, designs and techniques. Students will use direct and indirect measurement to solve problems around home building. Students will use various forms of communication to respect, support and collaborate with others. Students will have the opportunity to learn and use painting techniques to describe a community or landscape. Students will evaluate and analyze content to create a final project to illustrate their understanding and demonstrate practical skills.

What higher-order thinking skills do you want to target? What is the big idea in those targeted standards? Essential Questions Unit Questions focus attention on the important objectives of the project.

Step 2: Develop Curriculum-Framing Questions. The big idea relates to the many conceptions of home.

What does home mean to you? What is a home compared to a house or shelter? How do geographic, social, cultural and linguistic factors influence the idea of what a home is? How are they different around the world? What shelters different cultures use around the world?

Content Questions lead What are homes made of? to fundamental and How are they constructed? specific answers. How do climate and geography affect the choice of building materials and building styles? Step 3: Make an Assessment Plan. Explanation of final project Students will create a model house in small groups that will display their understanding of the essential question. This final project will culminate all aspects taught throughout the month, including math, science, social studies, English language arts, geography and art. Students will have demonstrated their understanding by building a home that meets the criteria determined by the student/teacher made rubric. Students and teacher will create a rubric to determine what attributes need to be included in their final project. The teacher would direct the rubric to include proper measurement tools, structure techniques, the look of the structure (depending on geography), implementing proper art techniques to demonstrate depth of understanding, and the ability to build with a variety of tools. Pre-assessment will take place at the beginning of the unit. The class will create a KWL (What they know, what they want to know, and what they learned) chart to determine what students define as a home, and what they want to learn about building a home, who lives in a home and what homes look like around the world. Students will be informally assessed throughout the unit. Formative assessment will be conducted by observing students' day-to-day participation in class and understanding of the topic that day. The teacher will evaluate misconceptions of the topic and whether or not they need further practice. This is where the lesson plan for each day should be revised accordingly. Summative assessment will take place by assessing students final achievements using a rubric, which will be created by the students and the teacher for the final project during the last week of the unit. The rubric will include technical aspects such as the techniques used to paint landscape, materials chosen, and the construction of the home. It will also contain aesthetic aspects such as symmetry. The house type, geographic setting and construction materials should be coordinated. The final aspect will be their reasoning as to what kind of people would live in this home and why this house would suit their needs. Also, students will do a self-assessment where they will rate themselves on several factors. These factors include them explaining their strengths, weaknesses and how they worked with their group members.

How will you know your students have met the learning goals? By what criteria will students be assessed?

What methods of assessment will you use throughout the project in order to inform you and your students about their learning process?

Step 4: Design Activities. What scenarios will you develop to provide rich learning opportunities to help students meet the learning goals? For detailed schedule of activities please refer to Appendix B. *What is a home - voicing students conceptions of a home from their experiences. *Walk in the community to see authentic examples. *On a global scale, looking at the homes within the countries we have studied. *Use of technology to research and compare students personal experiences versus what is present in their community, as well as globally. *Looking at the sizes of homes, rooms and buildings. *Using familiar shapes, play with the design of a home. *Guest speaker - How can Canadians help build homes for people in need living far away? *Exploration of the different building materials. *Examination of the effects geography and climate may have on house design and construction. *Analysis of how sound proofing and insulation work - creature comforts. *Ongoing comparison of what students are accustomed to and what occurs in other countries - development of perspective taking. *Paint cards for Valentines Day using techniques that help create depth (3D hearts). *Brainstorming scenarios that link types of homes to appropriate places, made of suitable materials. *Journal the creation of a home that interests them. *Creation of a rubric for final project *Share ideas from journaling with small designated group and collaborate to develop a plan for their final project. *Creation of a home, the accompanying landscape and short descriptive paragraph. *Re-assess using rubric and do any final changes from feedback. Students will be given the opportunity to establish connections to life outside the classroom through exploring relevant elements of their own home, including home decoration, location, and home-building materials. To broaden connections, students will also discuss international organizations that are involved in building homes in various communities around the world. Students will be involved in problem-solving by collectively thinking about questions linked to sound-proofing the home, safety around the home, as well as floor planning etc.

How can you involve students in problemsolving investigations that will help answer the CurriculumFraming Questions ?

Step 5: ELL Integration What scenarios will you develop to provide rich learning opportunities to help students meet the learning goals? Visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners will benefit from demonstrations, verbal explanations, visual cues and practical activities. Students will talk about all the different words for a home/house etc. in the different languages within the classroom community. They will also use a variety of visuals to explore what houses look like in different places due to geography, climate, use and available materials.

Step 6: Arts Integration What scenarios will you develop to provide rich learning opportunities to help students meet the learning goals? Students will build upon previous knowledge taught. They will learn specific painting techniques, as well as how to work with new materials. Students will also consider and discuss the design aspects of homes. Students will use these techniques to create a background using different paints, colors, and techniques that will display their understanding or view of a community.

Step 7: Technology Integration What scenarios will you develop to provide rich learning opportunities to help students meet the learning goals? Students will critically assess information accessed through the use of a variety of technologies in order to gain a broader understanding of the topic. They will compare and contrast information and visuals from similar types of electronic sources to gain a broader understanding of different types of homes. They will find and compare pictures from the internet, and/or scan their own pictures for additional comparison purposes.

Step 8: Parental Communication How will we ensure that parents are involved in their childs learning? Parents will have the opportunity to be involved in the unit. They will be able to visit the website www.whatisahome.weebly.com (see QR code on poster) to see the connections between the curriculum and what is happening in the classroom.