Joyce+McShane

=[|National Symbols Lesson Plan]=

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 * The objective of this lesson is to teach students about symbols and to acquaint students with important national symbols of the United States of America. Students will brainstorm their ideas about what symbols are and what some symbols of the United States might be. Then, the teacher will introduce the symbols focused on in this lesson, which are the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, "The Star-Spangled Banner," the American flag, the bald eagle, the United States capitol, the White House and Mount Rushmore. After the teacher introduces the symbols, the students will get coloring pages depicting all of these symbols to color and glue onto a black piece of paper that will be folded to become their “[|American Symbols] ” folder. **======

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EDST 220 Home **
 * Students will focus on each symbol for two days. On the first day, they will read and summarize information about the symbol and then brainstorm facts about the symbol as a class. The students will also complete an art project in small groups to visually represent the symbol on the first day. On the second day, students will review the facts they came up with and consider whether there should be any additions to the class list. Once the class list is complete, students will write down five of the facts on a piece of paper. That paper and the art project will go in their “American Symbols” folder. The teacher will assess students based on their participation in reading and class brainstorming activities. In addition, the teacher will assess the creativity and accuracy in depiction in art projects as well as whether students completed their sentences. **======
 *  @PLN 6 Main Page

__Molly's Summary__: This lesson plan is very thorough and seems very fun. What I really liked is having the kids read on their own and think of facts by themselves first and then come together as a class and write the facts together. What I would have the kids add is what the symbol means to them as well, and not just five short fact sentences. I think that this then makes them relate the symbol to themselves and requires a higher level of thinking. Another thing that I liked is all the art that goes along with the writing and reading. At the end of the lesson I would add having the kids make their own symbol that represents them and have the kids bring in any more art supplies that they wanted to use and display them all around the classroom.

=== __Virginia's Summary__: This lesson plan is very well planned out. It is a good idea to have the students think of what they know already before starting the lesson. This lesson has a nice balance between individual and group work as well as a chance for the students to be creative with the art project portion. I would make a change to the writing portion of this lesson. Our chosen age group is third grade and I think that third graders could benefit from more than just 5 fact sentences. So I would add a question to the writing portion of the lesson like: Which is your favorite symbol and why? ===

=== __Lyttia's Response__: This lesson plan is extremely time intensive, taking a total of 16 days. It does include a song but for mainly focusing on one part of one standard I think it takes too long. I suggest the lesson be shortened to one week. The teacher could take Monday and Tuesday to read one book on each symbol and display a brainstormed list created by the class immediately following each book reading. The teacher would read 4 books about 4 symbols and create 4 fact lists to be displayed around the class on Monday, and the last 4 on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday give the students all of their symbol coloring pages and symbol folder to be completed that day. On Thursday the students will write 5 sentences on the back of 4 of their symbol coloring pages, chosen from the brainstormed lists hanging around the class. They will finish their 5 sentences for each of the remaining 4 symbols on Friday. === === __Angela's Response:__ I really liked this lesson plan as I think that it gives students a good overview of the important symbols of our nation. However, I do feel that this is a lesson that can be condensed into one week of time. Monday through thursday they could take each day to focus on one symbol and read about it. Then on friday they can make there complete symbol folder and reflect on everything they have learned over the course of the week. I think it would also be interesting if on friday each student also designed their own symbol and presented it to the class to help show their understanding of what a symbol represents. I think it would be really beneficial to incorporate the students creativity into this lesson. ===