Third graders in Michigan today are expected to measure chronological time; compare the past and present; describe the concept of a region, and how people in that region have been influenced by and modified the environment around them through activity, especially economic; and interpret specific core democratic values and organize social studies information in order to take a stand on an issue by explaining how an issue became a problem, why people disagree about it, and what should be done about it.
This unit seeks to marry the somewhat dry, pedantic expectations of state social studies standards (from a third grader’s point of view) with activities that are anything but dry and pedantic. Ideally, “dry and pedantic” should be transparent while “engaging and fun” should be noticed.
Conducting inquiry, drawing on core values, conducting guided reading lessons, and deal with concepts should all be terms the teacher knows explicitly, and the students get implicitly, in the structure of lessons.
A middle school teacher was once overheard telling students that school was the students’ “job;” that school and learning wasn’t supposed to be “fun, but hard work.” This unit plan is targeted to be the antithesis of that attitude. Learning about the Great Lakes region we live in is an exciting and absorbing process.
School and learning are lifelong experiences which thread throughout human life, and they can be and should be fun and engaging, not toil and drudgery.
