Adapted
By:
Danielle Taylor & Rebecca Sacra P.S. 261
New York, NY
Principal: Zipporiah
Mills
Danielle Taylor is in her fourth
year of teaching as a fourth grade teacher. She has
a Masters degree in elementary education. Rebecca Sacra
graduated in 2004 from NYU with a Masters in Childhood Special
Education. Rebecca is a fourth grade CTT teachers at
PS 261.
Modifications
We
created worksheets for this unit. There was a lot of reading
involved. We also used primary documents including maps and
pictures for students to look at. We also used read-aloud during
the unit including Remember Patience Whipple by
Karyn Lasky. We wanted students to get a better feel about
what life was like on a ship.
Instructional
Objectives
Students will:
Incorporate technology
Understand what life on a ship was like
Introduce Columbus and focus on instruments of navigation
Technology Integration
Technology
played a major role but was balanced with read-aloud, primary
documents and homework. This was a three week study. Laptops
were used twice a week for about one hour.
Assessment
Students
were assessed through in-class observations, homework and partnership
work. We also created class charts including a KWL chart which
demonstrated what they had learned.
Tips
for Teachers
We wanted students to focus on life aboard a ship, what ships looked
like and important instruments used for navigations. For step 1,
students mostly read about Columbus. Step 2, we created the
ship worksheets. For step 3, students wrote journal entries and the
map worksheet to look at the map of Columbus’s first landing.
When reading about Columbus and celestial we gave them the Astrolabe
and compass worksheets.