December 2007
Dear Families of Room 206,
Although I have met many of you already, I wanted to formally introduce myself. My name is Sara Friend and I am a Master’s in Teaching student at Seattle University. I have been working with, and getting to know your children since the beginning of the school year. Starting in mid January, I will be doing my official Teacher internship where I will be teaching your children full time through the end of March under the guidance of Mr. Langley. I am really looking forward to this opportunity to work with and teach your children.
When we return from winter break, we will be embarking on a new and exciting social studies unit, Discovery. We will use the Interact curriculum that requires students to think and respond as early American colonists through a simulation experience. With an introduction to the background historical information on the topic, students will form groups of six and prepare to set sail to America. They will work collaboratively and practice making decisions, working, coping, and surviving and prospering in America. They will also study geography as part of the unit, practicing locating geographical features on maps and they will create a map of their own.
Our main goals for the unit are for students to understand:
- The hardships the colonists faced while making the journey and setting up the colonies
- The motivations that drove the colonists to set sail for America
We will explore the essential question of: What would life like to be a colonizer in America?
To assess students’ learning, we will do journal writing, map skills worksheets and a map quiz, and write a family letter at the end of the unit. Students will also participate in a General Attitude Survey at the beginning and end of the unit so I can evaluate their beliefs about Discovery, pre and post their learning about the topic. In addition, I will be assessing and giving feedback on how well students are contributing to their cooperative groups. Finally, students will do a self-evaluation at the end of the unit where they can reflect on how well they think they worked in their colony group.
For more information on the topic of Discovery, the following websites are excellant sources of primary and secondary information:
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm
http://www.teacheroz.com/colonies.htm
http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html
I am really looking forward to our upcoming unit on Discovery. Please call or email me with any questions or concerns you may have. You can reach me at 206-930-4482 and email me at hallals@seattleu.edu.
Sincerely,
Sara Friend (Teacher intern to Mr. Langley)