Kansas Settlers Unit

Prior to Unit: Order traveling trunk from Kauffman Museum in Newton; collect literature books (Turkey Red by Ester Vogt Loewen, “Kansas Kaleidoscope”, Cottonwood Grove)

Week one:

During Read Aloud time:

• Connect prior knowledge of Immigration to the United States studied earlier in the school year to groups of people coming to Kansas.
• Start read aloud: Turkey Red ( a story about Russian Mennonites in Kansas)
• Start reflective journals. Journals would reflect on hardships and everyday life endured by Kansas’s settler and their families.

During Communications time:

• Using the Magazine source “Kansas Kaleidoscope”, students will work on various articles to gain information. Use guided reading structure “Scavenger Hunt” and cooperative structure “Jigsaw” to teach others in their desk groups the information they learned in their guided reading group. (“Scavenger Hunt”, “Connections” and other activities to be determined after I have received the magazines).

During Social Studies time:

• Use Scrambled Timeline Activity to introduce settlers coming to Kansas. Using scrambled bits of information about settlers coming to Kansas, students would use a Kagan cooperative structure - “Round Table” - to create Kansas Immigration timelines. These timelines would be large enough to display in the hallway for others to view.
• Use Kansas Settlers Map Activity to show students where immigrants settled in Kansas. Students would make a color coded map of Kansas showing where immigrants settled in Kansas.
• Students would read various “Kansas Too!” articles and “More Contributions” worksheet. Students would complete a guided reading structure – “Fix the Fiction” to find out what contributions have been made by immigrant groups to Kansas.

Week 2:

During Read Aloud time:

• Finish reading: Turkey Red; read Cottonwood Grove
• Finish reflective journals.

During Social Studies time:

• View historical traveling trunks: “Immigrants in Kansas” and “Mexican-American experience in Kansas” from Kauffman museum in Newton. As we view primary sources (letters, diaries, and other primary sources) students would complete “Scavenger Hunt” (to be created by teacher when trunks arrive).
• Students create a detailed diagram about one artifact in the historical trunk. Students would write a written description including diagram labels, diagram title, and use correct social studies vocabulary.
• Collect and score journals using scoring table (see scoring guided for journal).

During Communications time:

• Continuing to use the Magazine source “Kansas Kaleidoscope”, students will work on various articles to gain information. Use guided reading structure “Scavenger Hunt” and cooperative structure “Jigsaw” to teach others in their desk groups the information they learned in their guided reading group. (“Scavenger Hunt”, “Connections” and other activities to be determined after I have received the magazines).

Week 3:

During Social Studies time:

• Assign final assessment project. Students choose one of the groups of people we learned about in class. Students create an informational table that will be combined with other groups to compare and contrast the reasons for each group settling in Kansas. Tables include the following information (we did they come from and why they came). Students write an expository paragraph that compares reasons that brought settlers to Kansas. Projects are to be titled and include at least one graphic, and cite all sources used for research.
• Students work in groups to research using articles, magazines, and the Internet.
• Score final assessment (see Kansas Settlers rubric)

During Writing Time:

• Students would create a Venn diagram and write an expository paragraph that comparing and contrasting reasons people immigrated to the United States (studied in 3^rd grade) versus reasons people immigrated to Kansas.

Later by Laurie Thisius:

Various parts of the learning activities (timeline, maps, Venn diagrams, and expository writing) will be combined along with the final assessment to create a Web quest on the Internet.