Melissa Kinkade

Unit: Cultural Change

Context: This unit will be an integrated unit in an 8 th grade class. Since
subjects are split up in middle school, there would have to be collaboration between
the four teachers of the different subjects for this unit. The two teachers that would
have the most collaboration would be the English and Social Studies teachers. In the
middle school I would hope to be the Social Studies teacher.
Students will learn about a specific tribe called the Seneca. We will read the
White Seneca book, by William W. Canfield, that will be the focus of the integrated
unit. To help students get a sense of the time period and the area the first few days
will build context. In Science students will research the area of New York. They will
look at what plants and animals lived there at the time. Each student or pair of
students will pick a different plant or animal to research. During their research they
will learn about the habitat, whether a plant was edible, was the animal prey or
predator. At the end of the discovery students will work on creating the area
together as a class. Each student or student pair would draw their plant and animal
and they would create a landscape for the time period. Since there will be four
different classes doing the same thing, each class could decorate a different room.
During Social Studies time they will learn about the context within which the
book takes place 1774, just before the American Revolution. We will also look into
what a culture is. We will define culture clash by discussing what differences white
settlers and the Seneca tribe had during that time period. We will also connect this
with the current culture class that is going on in current events. During this time we
are going to be looking at different aspects from many different points of view. We
will have small group discussions that will look at each aspect in a different point of
view. For example, if we are talking about why it was important for the settlers to
break away from British control we would have one group work on the economic
viewpoint, political viewpoint, social viewpoint, etc. During that time each group
would do a fish bowl about their viewpoint and discuss with the class watching. This
could be a time for peers to give feedback to each other about oral speaking,
creating an argument, etc.
Students will read a book called the White Seneca in English class. Students
will keep a journal to write their responses of different prompts. These prompts will
help students gather their thoughts about how they look at culture and cultural
differences.
Once they have gotten deeper into the book in English the students will start
shifting from the historic context and slowly move into their project on cultural
change. We will introduce the final project for Social Studies which will be an
investigation about a culture and how it has changed over time. During that time we
will give students examples of cultural change by looking at the Seneca culture and

how it has changed over time. I would like to get a speaker in to speak about the
Seneca or another Native American tribe. They would be an example of living
history. We can talk about what we can learn about the past through peoples
personal experiences. We would also look at Archelogy and how we can learn from
the past by what people leave behind. This will tie into a Math and a Science lesson
about carbon dating and how artifacts are preserved.
STAGE 1 DESIRED RESULTS
Goal(s):
Social Studies

B.8.7 Identify significant events and people in the major eras of United States and world history
B.8.10 Analyze examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, or
nations
E.8.4 Describe and explain the means by which individuals, groups, and institutions may contribute to
social continuity and change within a community
Science
MS-LS2-5 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
English:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.6
Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader
(e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
Understandings:

Students will understand that

People can adjust to the culture around them.

Cultural elements can change over time.

Essential Questions:
What is culture?

How can culture change?

What were the conflicts between New York
settlers and the Seneca tribe in 1977?
What material and animals were around during
the time period? How were they used?

Students will know:

Students will be able to:

Each culture has different elements that are more or less

important. Each element of a culture plays a part in the whole
culture and is influenced by different parts of culture.

Discuss cultural difference

Analyze cultural conflict
Research and present about different elements of culture and
how cultures change over time.

Direct Evidence:

STAGE 2 EVIDENCE
Indirect Evidence:

Final Project: In the final project I want students to have

some freedom to explore a culture that interests them, or

Classroom Discussions: Through classroom discussions

(both whole group and small group) we would see how

is their own culture. I want them to research how the

culture has changed over time. Students can pick the
culture and which elements that they want to look at for
change. They can present this in a few different ways.
They can create a slide show to show at least 3 different
elements that have changed. They can interview
someone who has experienced cultural change. After the
interview there would be a reflective piece about what
changes the individual saw and if those experiences are
common within the researched culture. The third would
be to write an essay about how a culture has changed.
Each will be graded on a one point rubric.

students would are taking to the book: what elements

they understand, what elements we will still have to go
over again. Also we can see where discussions lead with
connections to cultural conflict in the world today.

Reading Logs: The reading logs will be a place for

students to think about ideas that they will be working
through when reading the book. These logs will be done
every other day in English class. The logs will not be
graded as right or wrong but more about the depth of the
entry. So if a student writes an entry that only answers
part of the question then they would not get credit for the
entry.

STAGE 3 ACTION PLAN

Day 1
Social Studies:
Define Culture
Science: Research
the Biodiversity of
the New York State
during the time
period

Day 2
Social Studies:
Historical context of
1774 Economic
Political
investigation
English: Start
reading White
Seneca
Science: Create
drawings of animals,
plants and
structures for the
classroom

Day 3
Social Studies:
Historical context
continued (Social
investigation)
English: Continue
reading. Response
Journal 1: How
would you feel away
from your home and
family? Or What
would you do if you
were taken from
your home?
Science: Combine
each students work
to create the
landscape of the
time period (might
have each class
design one room)

Day 4
Social Studies:
Fish bowl about
what are the
different viewpoints
about why the
Seneca want to join
the British in the
Revolution. Or Why
did the settlers want
independence.
English: Discussion

Day 5
Social Studies:
Talk about tools and
what their benefits
were.
English: Book,
Journal: What is
cultural conflict?
How can you see it
so far?

Day 6
Social Studies: A
look into Archeology
how we know about
the past. Introduce
presentation

Day 7
Social Studies:
Look into how the
Seneca culture has
changed.

Day 8
Social Studies:
Presenter about
changes in Seneca

Day 9
English Finish Book

Day 10
Social Studies:
Work on
presentations

expectations
Science:
Preservation of
Artifacts
English:
Investigation: What
type of cultural clash
can you see in
world? Who is it
between? What is
going on? Present
to whole group.
Math: Carbon
dating formula
Day 11
Social Studies:
Work time for
Presentations

Day 12
Social Studies:
Presentations

Day 13
Social Studies:
Presentations

Day 14
Social Studies:
Presentations