Self Study of

Instruction and
Student Learning
Nathan Chrastil

Final review and report of instruction and learning of Social Studies Grade 5 Unit 1,
Donald D. Sherrill Education Center. Supervised by Ashley Dotson.

Fast Track Program Fall 2016

Classroom Context
I am student teaching at the Donald D. Sherrill Education Center in Lincoln Nebraska. The
Donald D. Sherrill Education Center(DDSEC) is a success school that has students from all over
the Lincoln Public Schools District. As the DDSEC is a small portion of children from all over the
district the socioeconomic status and cultural identities are extremely diverse. It is also
important to note that many of these students are given supports at school but sometimes
unstable or toxic home lives. All of the students in class have a IEP. In the social studies block
of there are a total of eight students consisting of; one African American, two of two or more
races, one Hispanic, and four white students. Two students require accommodations as they
are struggling readers. I ensured that by looking at the demographics to be respectful and
cognizant of all peoples. I made sure to give strategies and materials to those students that
required accommodations from their IEP. A small portion of the students are identified as
ADHD.

The unit for fifth grade social studies that I have designed and taught is Unit 1 of the
social studies curriculum which is about the First Peoples; the complex organizations of their
regions resources and geography and how they impacted themselves and others. To fully
develop a thorough understanding of the cross curricular concepts that occur in social studies a
good deal of background knowledge is needed. To make such large connections requires
knowledge in; geography, history, perspective, and higher level conceptualizing.
LPS Objectives:
5.1.1 Early civilization impacted later civilizations.
5.1.2 Indigenous peoples were organized into unique civilizations, cultural regions, and nations based on resources
and geography.

Instructional Planning
As each aspect of this unit built upon the one before it was important to set up the
unit in a way that was easy for students to connect to. Since many of the students I work
with have IEPs for reading comprehension I had to find creative ways of getting around
and fostering the development of the key concepts the social studies curriculum
requires. Conceptually I began the unit with the U.S. Interactive Map Activity to spur
students to recognize the states and regions of the United States. By having students
connect states regions and the landforms that shape them the students are able to make
personal connections to the content; thereby also giving a activity to make personal
connections with the students. For the activity the students will walk up to the board and
identify states in a game type format. This challenge will keep students engaged and
also give students the opportunity to move in class. The students with ADHD will benefit
from some movement breaks.
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Directly following the U.S. Interactive Map Activity I thought it best to make a
connection that is not readily apparent the concept of time. By switching gears
towards Chronology Vocab Worksheet: I will be able to bring up the concept of the
Bering Strait and jogg students minds about how people came to inhabit the Americas.
By posing questions and small group-out brainstorming activities the students will be
engaged from the beginning of the unit. With my students having behavior goals this is a
golden opportunity to have students practice social skills and be experts of their own
right. Having the brainstorming activities also will allow students that typically flounder in
general classrooms the confidence to participate and feel success. Building the stamina
for students to feel successful is critical in students with behaviors as sometimes the
function of the behavior is to escape tasks that are determined to difficult. To set the
precedence early in Social Studies the students feel safe to participate and learn. The
Chronology worksheet is very basic in order to enable students that struggle with writing
large amounts due to their struggling reading abilities. The slides are visually stimulating
coupled with connections for the students to retain the concepts discussed.
With the revealing of the critical question of, Where did the first Americans come
from?, we will brainstorm theories through a recent documentary. In the brainstorming
students will use a graphic organizer to gather their thoughts on this subject to determine
who the first peoples were. This strategy is helpful to my students as it isnt a particularly
stressful activity for struggling writers as we are working together discussing and drawing
conclusions from the video. Having the graphic organizer increases students ability of
retaining the objective and keeps the students engaged and learning. By having a video
discussionary format the students are tricked into the content and shown many theories.
From this activity the students then can connect the fact that the First People were
the original settlers and a society existed before the current society. Which activates
students thoughts about how European Society met First People societies. Coincidently I
found a perfect documentary that illustrates how the societies developed and clashed.
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For the First Peoples vs. Europeans Resources T Chart activity however a different
format of engagement would have to exist. I decided to go with a T chart as I believe it
to be a most successful way to compare and contrast the societies and what caused
successes and failures. The T chart should quell the students from feeling
overwhelmed and therefore prevent behaviors. I also allowed students the ability to
draw pictures of the key resources each society had thereby adding another learning
style to the mix.
Seemingly straying from the topic of cultures we then went back to landforms to
keep students interested and engaged and to give more background for the next stage
of the unit. Students have development of resources effect of civilizations yet they still
havent fully connected the concept of the earths effect on civilizations. Identifying the
key resources for the culture was important to identify how landforms affect and form
cultures. For this activity I had another type of video that went over various landforms
identified all over the world to give the students a base knowledge of what types of
landforms and climates exist the world over. I thought this to be an important aspect due
to the growing global culture we live in as well. For the Climate & Landforms activity the
students were to draw 6 pictures of landforms and label them and share out their work, if
they feel comfortable to, at the end of the period.
As the students then understand how climate and landforms affect civilizations
then the next stage is to learn how humans thrive with the resources that surround them.
For Traditional Dwellings and Using Resources particular activity I had the students view
several primitive technology videos via Youtube. I then had the students team up with
elbow partners to watch these videos and read small snippets about various dwellings of
Native Cultures. The students then came together and shared information about the
dwellings with the group. This allowed the students the ability to teach collaboratively.
Putting learning in their hands and making them experts in their knowledge.

As for the final aspect of the unit the students were to research their First People
tribe. The First Peoples Culminating Project was intended to be the keypoint activity as
it heralded the objective of, the First Peoples; the complex organizations of their
regions resources and geography and how they impacted themselves and others.
Using google slides I created a template with various key aspects the students must
have in their presentations such as: region, climate, food resources, art/craft, dwellings,
citations. I linked resources to a google classroom and shared the template with the
students as they selected their culture from a set list of tribes. I also sourced for the
classroom were books on several of the tribes on the list to give students various
resources to complete the task. The final project was to be shared with the class in a
celebration of learning wrapping up the unit and being the final summative assessment.
All of the assignments leading up to this final culminating project are formative and
scaffolded to yield the necessary knowledge to succeed. Students were given a rubric
so they were aware of the requirements to meet the standards.

ACTIVITY

LEARNING STYLES GROUPINGS

OBJECTIVE

Kinesthetic, Visual,

WE WILL IDENTIFY AND CLASSIFY

1. U.S. Interactive

Auditory, Verbal,

THE UNITED STATES AND ITS

Map Activity

Interpersonal

Whole Group

REGIONS

Visual, Logical,

2. Chronology Vocab

Spatial, Verbal,

Worksheet

Interpersonal

WE WILL DISTINGUISH HOW WE

Solo, Whole Group MEASURE TIME

Visual, Logical,

WE WILL PREDICT AND

3.Who were the first

Auditory, Verbal,

Elbow Partners,

DETERMINE WHO THE FIRST

Americans?

Interpersonal

Whole Group

AMERICANS ARE.

Visual, Auditory,
Verbal,

WE WILL RECOGNIZE AND

4. First Peoples vs.

Bodily-Kinesthetic,

IDENTIFY THE RESOURCES OF

Europeans

Interpersonal,

Whole Group, Solo, THE FIRST PEOPLES AND

Resources T Chart

Intrapersonal

Elbow Partners

EUROPEANS

Visual, Auditory,
Verbal,
Bodily-Kinesthetic,

WE WILL CLASSIFY LANDFORMS

5. Climate &

Interpersonal,

AND CONNECT THEIR EFFECT ON

Landforms

Intrapersonal

Solo, Whole Group CULTURES

Dwellings and Using

Visual, Auditory,

Whole Group, Solo, WE WILL RELATE HOW CLIMATES

Resources

Verbal, Interpersonal

Elbow partners

6. Traditional
AFFECT RESOURCES

Visual, Auditory,
Verbal, Spatial,
Interpersonal,

WE WILL SHOW HOW FIRST

7. First Peoples

Intrapersonal, Bodily

Whole Group, Solo, PEOPLES USED THEIR

Culminating Project

Kinesthetic

Elbow partners

ENVIRONMENT TO SUCCEED

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First Peoples Culminating Project-Template

First Peoples Culminating Project-Final

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Assessment Analysis, Summary,

Interpretation Conclusion, and
Impact on Student Learning
After each class period I would review the learning in some way. The students
especially responded well to throwing a soft foam ball around stating; something they
had learned from the day, a quick quiz question, or a question they still had about the
topic. The formative assessments above (worksheets, T-charts, graphic organizers)
were quite evident if the student was grasping the concept. Throughout all instruction I
would have group questioning to see if the students were engaged and grasping the
concepts. I would ask often for students to, tell their belly button their level of
understanding 5 being the most and 1 being I have no clue, which was fairly effective
for a quick check. The students were engaged and active participants in the activities
and all grasped the concepts. There was only one student who was unable to complete
the summative First Peoples Culminating Project due to behaviors. When given more
time the student will be able to complete the project.

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As per and modifications for teaching this unit next time I would spend more time
on quotations and citation formatting. Locating acceptable sources would also be a
subject that I would like to focus on as well. I would further front load all of these skills
before the project so that students fully grasp the guidelines of quotations. Also more
support in researching by scaffolding the students to get a certain amount of facts per
day on a organizer would be more beneficial. It seemed as though there was a lot of
time wasted finding good information as well as how to properly record information.
Starting out with a encyclopedia then go to a book and then a website would be the
formatting I would suggest as it teaches students to use all mediums. The days the
students worked on their slides, they were far from independent; I was exhausted by the
end of the period running around helping them.

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