Banking Activity

Our assignment for this activity was to come up with an assessment for third graders in Banking. This activity was a way to introduce economics to the third graders. 

I was in group 5, and we had to think of ways to assess students that are learning English as a second language.  What we did was create a quiz with short response, true/false, multiple choice, and an essay.  When mt group and I were working on the quiz we found it difficult to think of questions because we felt they were too in depth for third graders.  We had to think about the questions and connect them to real life situations. When we thought of the questions Maria translated the quiz into Spanish  for the students who are ELL students.  I created a rubric for the essay. When I was creating it I tried my best to think not just for social studies but also thinking about the ELA test. I put sections on the rubric that dealt with sentence structure, grammar, punctuation.  The rubric is also available in Spanish for the ELL students. 

We got together to work on the ending of the activity.  For the Parent Teacher Conference section of the activity we had to think of three different things to show parents how their child had grown throughout the unit. For the Knowledge part we thought of creating a KWL chart. This would be given at the beginning of the unit. The student would fill out their own chart with what they know and what they would like to know. The learning part of the chart would be filled out at the end of the unit. For the Values part of the unit we thought of creating a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts the values of America vs. the values of Japan. 

This was the activity we were given in class:

The social studies unit you have been teaching with your third-graders is on banks and banking by asking the question: What is the role of banks in our community? Your principal was a little skeptical of the ability of the students to learn such things, but has been willing to let you try this topic. He is very interested in finding out just what the students have learned. Your task is to convince him that your third-graders have indeed learned about banks and banking. Prepare an evaluation to measure the success of the unit and the student’s knowledge.
You have taught that banks are places where people save money, and also institutions that help people by performing services for individuals, governments, and businesses in the community. During the unit, students have visited a branch bank in the neighborhood and have interacted with a guest speaker from the main bank. They have learned about the large number of jobs of various types in the bank and have observed some of these jobs being carried out. Students have learned the concepts of savings, investment, security, and loans and how these are related (Study these concepts yourself first!). Plan a formal written test for this unit. Write various types of questions short answer, multiple choice, matching, true or false. Add an essay item assignment and criteria. Be certain that you include at least six questions from at least three of the types of questions listed above. Content should be appropriate so that you can measure student understanding of:
1. Savings and its relationship to the other concepts
2. Investment and its relationship to interest and security
3. Loans and their relationship to savings and interest
4. The jobs of people who work in banks
5. How banks help the local community
6. How business is helped by banks
Provide for the special needs of the students described in the circled statement below:
Group 1 . How would you go about assessing the needs of a very shy, quiet, and withdrawn students and a student with a speech problem?
Groups 2. How would you go about assessing the needs of a student whose reading level is below
average and a blind student?
Groups 3. How would you go about assessing the needs of a hyperactive students and a student who is just beginning to learn English?
Group 4. How would you go about assessing the needs of a gifted student and a student with a partial hearing loss? Select one of the three listed below to answer:
1. You are going to have parent conferences with the parents of your first-graders. Identify three different pieces of data that you would want to have to illustrate to parents how their children are progressing in learning social studies knowledge, skills, and values. Give a rationale for each choice. The topic of study has been: How can we improve our environment?
2. You are going to have parent conferences with the parents of your third-graders. Identify three different pieces of data that you would want to have to illustrate to parents how their children are progressing in learning social studies knowledge, skills, and values. Give a rationale for each choice. The topic of study has been: What is it like to live in Japan?
3. You are going to have parent conferences with the parents of your fifth-graders. Identify three different pieces of data that you would want to have to illustrate to parents how their children are progressing in learning social studies knowledge, skills, and values. Give a rationale for each choice. The topic of study has been: What can people do to help endangered species?
Using the social studies approaches presented in this textbook means that there will be few drill sheets sent home for parents to see and to use in determining what their children are studying in social studies. In today’s world, many parents are working while their children are in class and so they cannot visit the class and observe learning taking place. Try to think of ways that inform parents about the social studies lessons their children are performing. How can such information be worked into the closure of a lesson?
Can you include such information in a homework assignment? Apply the following additional criteria to your final choices on how to inform the parents:
1 a. Will the procedure contribute to students’ learning or review of knowledge and/or skills?
b. Keep the amount of time required by the students and the teacher as low as possible.
c. Keep the expense of the materials involved to a minimum, especially if the assignment is given as homework.
Write the description of your parent contact decisions. Share ideas in the group and with class.

On This Day In History- September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001, started out as a normal Tuesday in the 5th grade.  We went through our daily activities like any other day, but something strange was going on. The kids in my class were getting picked up one by one; in fact all the kids in my elementary school were getting picked up. 


Around 9:10 my class was sitting on the rug about to start our social studies lesson.  Mrs. Quinn another 5th grade teacher walks into the classroom and calls Mrs. Alipour (my 5th grade teacher), over. She whispered something in her ear and then left. Mrs. Alipour kind of just stood there and then looked at what was left of the class. She told us to pack our things up quickly and line up at the door; we were getting dismissed early because there was a major accident in New York City.  Now my class was kind of excited because this was something we never experienced before so we all buzzed about leaving school before 10:00. I was at the front of the line with my best friend Olivia and we were trying to guess what could have happened in the city. Olivia said a giant car pile up or a bridge fell. I thought about it and said "maybe a building fell, how scary would that be?" As I was saying that Mrs. Alipour gave me a look of shock and that's when I knew something terrible was wrong. Leaving school was like a war scene. Parents were at the front entrance grabbing their kids. I saw my neighbor and she told me to go with her and of course I went because she was my emergency pick up, plus her daughter, Kerry, was in my class. She ushered us into the car where she told us what happened. Kerry's dad was a firefighter down in the city and they were all freaking out. I got to Kerry's house just in time to see the first town fall.


Each school bus had a teacher on in to make sure that each child had an adult to pick them up. The bus circled my development a bunch of times to wait for the parents to get home. If the child was not picked up by the last round they were all brought to the high school where they had to wait for a parent or guardian to pick them up. I remember standing on the edge of Kerry's driveway as the bus was stopped there. My next door neighbors Ashley and Neil were hanging out the window talking about what they had heard. I ran up to their window and they asked me what was going on. I told them someone flew into the Twin Towers in the city and one of the towers had just fallen. That was the most I could say because the bus pulled away. I still remember Mrs. Fiscer was the teacher on my bus.


The whole day I was at Kerry's house. We were all in her living room watching the news. I saw the second tower fall and the other plane crash sites. I remember watching people jump out of the tower windows and I remember people screaming. A lot of things were burned in my head where I still have flashes of it. I had nightmares for awhile of the people jumping out of the windows as the towers fell. My dad was able to get in contact with Janet (Kerry's mom) to make sure I was okay.  Eventually my mom came in got me, her school was the only district that didn't get out early. Her principle came over the loud speaker and told them a play by play of what was happening. (I personally think looking back now that was a terrible idea scaring everyone and telling them they had to shut their blinds. My mom said because of those announcements her class freaked out and cried the whole day because all the adults were trying to watch the news.) My mom and Janet talked for awhile and my mom watched the news. We went back to my house where she was on the phone the rest of the night. She talked to my grandma who lives in Manhattan to make sure she was okay because she lives a few blocks away from where the towers once stood. My grandma saw the second plane hit the tower and everything after. I was glued to the TV. I remember my living room windows were open and I hear Ashley running from next door. She was screaming when she got to my front door. She ran inside screaming her uncle was on the 89th floor of the South Tower and no one had heard from him.We spent all night together watching the news. Ashley eventually got a phone call to my house saying her uncle made it out and was okay.


My mom talked about what had happened so I wouldn't be afraid. Going to school the next day was really rough because half the girls in my class had fathers who were cops or firemen. Their dads didn't make it. My town got hit hard with people who had died. School was really weird for the next two weeks because of all the funerals and arrangements that were going on. I remember passing an 8 year old boy in the hallway who had lost his father, he was screaming and crying and the teachers were trying to help him. My town built a memorial and the Girl Scouts, me included planted flowers all day. I've been to the memorial for services of 9/11 and looking at that memorial brings back all the images in my head. It brings the girls in my class who lost their fathers, and it brings that little boy in the hallway bac. I sometimes go and sit there just to think. It's a nice peaceful place. I always say my respect and I wonder how those children are doing.

Washingtonville 9/11 Memorial

I still don't believe it's been 10 years. When 9/11 comes around I feel like I'm still in the fifth grade and the day starts over. I think I remember almost every moment of that day. Sometimes when I see pictures I still get nightmares. After 9/11 my grade in itself became an even closer family an that bond stayed with us all the way to our graduation.  They say every generation has a moment of history that stays with them forever. 9/11 is our moment in history.

Bridging the Gap

       I chose the title Bridging the Gap, because, as an educator I want to connect the children I am teaching to the world of social studies and have them build a bridge of knowledge.
      The first question I ask is what is Social Studies?  According to the Social Studies textbook on page 3 "social studies is about our social world: It is about people, what they do, and how they interact with each other and with the world."  Even though I know social studies deals with things that have happened in the past I also believe social studies deals with our community.
    








     There are so many components to social studies like; economics, history, geography, anthropology, archaeology, law, philosophy, political science, religion, and sociology.  When people hear of social studies their minds usually go straight to history.  My hope with this blog is to enlighten people with all the different things social studies is.  I hope Bridging the Gap fulfils its name by putting new thoughts and ideas out there.