B. Sample Topic
    3.3.3 Why their community was established, how individuals and families contributed to its founding and development, and how the community has changed overtime, drawing upon primary sources (e.g., maps, photographs, oral histories, letters, newspapers)

Examples of the types of work students should be able to do:
The students work in cooperative groups to recreate an environment, a map or- “Paint a Picture”- of their community as seen overtime (1850’s, 1900’s, 1950’s, Present time). Students use of photos, paintings, overhead transparencies, and other primary sources to explain and chart comparisons of population, businesses, housing, entertainment/events, and transportation during the different time periods.

The purpose of this project is to empower students to “bring history to life!” It provides a more comprehensible understanding of the history and geography of their city by recreating four different perspectives of the Bell community overtime (1850’s, 1900’s, 1950’s, Present time). Researching, investigating, and “building” their community, past and present, offer an opportunity for them to analyze how things change, why things change, and the effects of change on a community. Students also see how population, businesses, housing, entertainment/events, and transportation shaped their community during the different time periods.

The unit enriches their communicative skills through engaging in meaningful activities such as role playing, readers’ theater, and interviewing. The project’s overall goal is to to help foster community pride and to motivate students to become geographically literate and historically knowledgeable citizens.

B. Focus Questions

1. What is a community?
2. How has our community of Bell changed or stayed the same overtime?
3. How have individuals help contribute with the development of Bell?
 

    • Future topics this unit will springboard into:
- Students understand the role of rules and laws and the stories behind important local and national landmarks and the essential documents that create a sense of community among the citizens.

D. Ties to the Framework
Teachers should introduce children to the great legacy of local and regional traditions that provide common memories and a shared sense of peoplehood for all of us.
Strands: Historical Literacy - Geographic Literacy - Cultural Literacy
- Construct a history of the place where they live today.
- Impact of settlers and the economy they established
- People who have continued to come to the area and the rich legacy of cultural traditions that newcomers brought with them
- Observe how the community has changed overtime and note why some things stay the same (transportation, work, families, land usage)
- Study the natural landscape to establish familiarity with major feature sand landforms of region

B. Writing and Reading
• Creates a single paragraph that develops a topic sentence and includes simple supporting facts and details.
• Uses and understands the structure and organization of various reference materials
• Writes narratives that provide a context within which an incident occurs
• Writes descriptions that uses concrete sensory details to present and support unified impressions of people, places, things or experiences.
• Writes personal and formal letters, thank you notes and invitations that consider the audience, purpose and context
• Be able to ask questions and support their own answers by connecting prior knowledge with literal and inferential information found in text (written transcripts of oral histories/interviews)
• Extract appropriate and significant information from text, including problems and solutions
• Use sentence and word context to find meaning of unknown words
• Capitalize geographical names and holidays, historical periods, and special events correctly