Grade 2 Social Studies Unit Plan on Diverse Regions of Canada

UNIT PLANNING TEMPLATE

 Unit Topic / Guiding Question:  Social Studies – What diverse regions make up Canada?
 Rationale:  This unit will encourage students to learn about their local community/region and explore how different/similar it is to other areas of the country.  
 STAGE 1: Desired Results
 UNDERSTANDBig IdeasEssential Questions
Canada is made up of many diverse regions and communities.  What kinds of regions and communities make up Canada (landforms, bodies of water that are of local and national significance)?  How does our physical environment influence our activities?
 DOCore Competencies:
CommunicationThinkingPersonal & Social
Communicating Collaborating   Communication:   Reflect on their ability to acquire and present information – use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather ideas; and communicate findings   Thinking:   Reflect on their ability to generate ideas – explain the significance of personal or local events, objects, people, or places (significance)   Personal & Social:   Reflect on their ability to value similarities and differences (value diversity) – acknowledge different perspectives on people, places, issues, or events in their lives (perspective)  Creative ThinkingCritical & Reflective ThinkingPersonal Awareness & ResponsibilityPositive Personal & Cultural IdentitySocial Awareness & Responsibility  
 Learning Standards – Curricular Competencies:   Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas and communicate findings and decisions   Explain why people, events, or places are significant to various individuals and groups (significance)   Recognize the causes and consequences of events, decisions, or developments (cause and consequence)  
 KNOWLearning Standards – Content:   Relationships between people and the environment in different communities   Diverse features of the environment in other parts of Canada and the world  
 First Peoples Principles of Learning Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions. Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities. Learning recognizes the role of indigenous knowledge.Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.Learning involves patience and time. Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.Learning involves recognizing that some knowledge is sacred and only shared with permission and/or in certain situations.  Student learning happens at different rates.  Some students, due to a variety of contextual and experiential reasons, are able to meet proficiency levels very quickly and others take more time.  It is important that the students feel safe to share, support, and help each other through collaboration, communication, and connection.  Students all have different strengths and areas of opportunity.  It is important to foster empathy and understanding by sharing diverse perspectives, experiences, and contexts.  We all have individual, community, and global roles and responsibilities and it is important to acknowledge, recognize, and appreciate our interconnectedness and reciprocal relationships with each other and the land.
 STAGE 2: Assessment Plan
 Formative Assessment (Assessment as Learning and Assessment for Learning):
 Formative assessment will be conducted through observation, individual and group questioning, discussion, thumbs up thumbs down, think pair share, and exit tickets.          
 Summative Assessment (Assessment of Learning):
 Students will create a pamphlet/brochure which is intended to encourage others to move to a specific region of Canada that they believe would be a great place to live (what types of landforms and bodies of water are in the region, what specific activities would be available, what kind of job opportunities may be available in the region, what type of weather can be expected).
 Stage 3: Learning Plan
  Date/LessonLearning IntentionsInstructional Activities (brief description here – lesson plans will be used to flesh out each lesson)
Lesson 1, 2, and 3   Feb 27, Mar 1, 3, 2023Recognize and name major landforms and bodies of water locally and within BC.      Explicit vocabulary instruction – landforms, bodies of water.  Explore physical maps.  What types of things do we find on a map?  Looking at a map of Canada, where is BC located?  Looking at a map of BC, where is Terrace located?  What major landforms and bodies of water are around Terrace?  Are there other landforms and bodies of water throughout BC that are not present in Terrace?  What do students see and observe when looking at a physical map of BC?  Debrief after the lesson to gather information to inform teaching.
Lesson 4, 5, and 6   Mar 6, 7, and 8Recognize and name major landforms and bodies of water within Canada.  Introduction of seasonal rounds.Review vocabulary as well as major landforms and bodies of water in BC.  How do students think life (activities, jobs, vehicle choice, outdoor clothing choices) would be different in different parts of BC? – seasonal rounds.  Expand our observation grid to include all of Canada – physical map of Canada.  What other landforms and major bodies of water do students see across Canada?  Are any of these landforms or bodies of water different or similar to those we find in BC?  How and why?  Debrief following the lesson.
Lesson 7, 8, and 9   Mar 9, 10, and 13.Recognize and name the five major regions of Canada (similarities and differences).    Review major landforms and bodies of water across Canada.  How may life be different across our very large country depending on region?  What may be different or similar?  Explore the 5 major areas in Canada – West Coast (BC), Prairie (AB, SK, MB), central Canada (ON, QUE), Atlantic Canada (NS, NB, PEI, NFLD, LAB), Northern Canada (NWT, YN, Nunavut).  What kinds of resources (renewable and non-renewable – explicit vocabulary instruction) – note suffixes and prefixes for spiral learning.  Debrief following the lesson.            
Lesson 10, 11, and 12   March 14, 15 and 27Culmination of understanding and knowledge of landforms and bodies of water within Canada as well as the regions of Canada (differences and similarities).Review of the unit.  Students will be asked to create a pamphlet to encourage others to move to a specific region of Canada (citing landforms and bodies of water, fun activities, possible job opportunities) – summative assessment.  Pamphlets will be placed in a gallery format so students can see what other students have created.          
           
  ( insert more rows as needed)
 Resources needed:
 Computer, Smart TV, internet access, photocopied exit tickets, photocopied blank seasonal rounds wheels, photocopied pamphlet templates for the summative assessment, access to a white board, dry erase pens, coloured clay, magnetic map of Canada with removable provinces and territories, and photocopied physical maps of both BC and Canada.      
 Interdisciplinary connections: (e.g. How did you weave ELA, Social Studies, Science, Math, Fine Arts, and/or ADST together in this instructional sequence?)
 ELA is integrated into this lesson through explicit vocabulary instruction (understanding and comprehension of targeted specific vocabulary) as well as reading and writing; (1) through listening and speaking, we connect with others and share our world and (2) curiosity and wonder lead us to new discoveries about ourselves and the world around us.  Career Education will be woven into the unit – everything we learn helps us to develop skills.  Technological skills will be learned through play (interweaving of ADST into the unit by using online games and interactive activities through the Smart TV) – skills can be developed through play.  The culmination of learning through the creation of a pamphlet (summative assessment) weaves art education into the unit through: (1) creative expression develops our unique identity and voice and (2) inquiry through arts creates opportunities for risk-taking.  Science is also integrated into this social studies unit – living things have life cycles adapted to their environments (introduction of seasonal rounds).      
 Reflection
 How did the unit go? How do I know?   The unit went exceedingly well. The students have all been very engaged and interested which has been evident through active participation and thoughtful experiential contributions to group discussions.  There have been extensive opportunities to connect with the unit content through personal context as well as sharing personal stories.  The students did a fabulous job of completing their own seasonal rounds wheel, complete with pictures and words that directly related their personal context and experience to changes in the environment.  They also did an amazing job of constructing and accurately placing (with coloured clay) the two main mountain ranges (Coast and Rocky) as well as the Fraser and Skeena rivers on a paper map of British Columbia.  The culminating project (the pamphlet) are looking amazing.  I’m looking forward to the finished pamphlets.  The students are super excited about them.  
 Where to next?   I think it would be a great transition to segway from diverse features of the environment in other parts of Canada and the world to diverse characteristics of communities and cultures in Canada and the world.  Exploring the differences in communities and cultures will increase student exposure, build comprehension and understanding, as well as encourage empathy.