Teacher: Amanda Burgess Subject: Social Studies

Unit: The 3 Rs (Reduce, Resuse, Recycle) and Grade: 4

connections to Native American Stewardship of the
Land

Time allotted: 40 minutes

This is the 5th lesson in an 8-lesson unit connecting the 3 Rs
(reduce, reuse, and recycle) to Native American stewardship of the
land. The previous lesson included a school clean-up and students
Prior Assessment sorted garbage into recycling, compost, and landfill bins. The previous
social studies unit focused on California Native American tribes (Miwok,
Hupa, Cahuilla, and Chumash) and their beliefs about nature and
treatment of their land.

ELA: W.4.1.A. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and

create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to
support the writer’s purpose.
Common Core Standards ELD: 4.2.C.6. Connecting Ideas.
History/SS: 4.2.1. Discuss the major nations of California Indians,
including their geographic distribution, economic activities, legends, and
religious beliefs; and describe how they depended on, adapted to, and
modified the physical environment by cultivation of land and use of sea
resources.

Lesson Objective: Students will be able to create a t-chart organizing their connections
between how people practice the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle)
today and Native American stewardship of the land.

Essential literacy strategy = making connections (world/text to

world)
Formative Assessment Teacher will engage students in small group and whole class
discussions about the connections between the 3 Rs and Native
American stewardship of the land. The teacher will check for
understanding by asking questions and probing student thinking.

Students will turn in their organizational t-charts to be graded

Summative Assessment according to a 4-point rubric.

Materials/resources needed White board and dry erase marker

Notes from previous unit about Native American stewardship of the
land
Writing notebooks and pencils
 Accommodations For ELLs and struggling writers, give the option of creating an idea
web with pictures to make connections between the 3 Rs and Native
American stewardship of the land. Provide a template for what the idea
web should look like. Allow for a second option – to conference in a
small group with the teacher and discuss the connections.

Targeted language supports include: reviewing previously learned

Academic Language terms and material (reduce, reuse, recycle) identifying and defining
unknown vocabulary words (connections, connect), conducting
comprehension checks throughout group discussion (“How does
that help the earth?”),and use of visual aids (t-chart on whiteboard ).

Students’ use of language to develop content understanding is

analyzed through targeted questions (“How does that help the earth?
What practices do we do today to help the planet? How can that
example connect to how Native Americans felt about and treated their
land?”) and monitoring of group discussions (check in with each
table to see what connections they have made and elicit more
engagement through targeted questions).

What the teacher is doing What the students are

doing

Activate Review previous lessons from this Answering questions

Prior unit quickly to remind students about the about what they remember
Knowledge 3 Rs and their importance. Also review from previous lessons.
notes from the previous unit about Native
~10% American beliefs about nature and how
they treated the land. Ask questions
about what they remember from these
lessons.

Tell the students that today’s lesson

I Do will be focused on making connections
(Modeling) between what we have learned about the
3 Rs (especially our school clean-up)
~ 10% and how Native Americans felt about and
treated their land. Explain that we will be
 making some connections as a class and
that they can make further connections
in small groups and on their own. (Let
students know that we will be using
these connections as the evidence for an
opinion piece answering the question, “In
your opinion, what are the connections
between how Native Americans treated
their land and how people today care for
the land by practicing the 3 Rs?” in a
future lesson).

Create a comparison t-chart (How

Native American’s felt about/treated their
land and how people care for the land
today by practicing the 3 Rs) on the
white board, ask students to do the same
in their writing notebooks, and write one
example for the class on the board.
Example: Native Americans believed
that we all must do our part to treat the
Earth with kindness ~~ today, many
people do their part by sorting their trash
at home into landfill and recycling to be
picked up each week.

We Do Ask students to spend 1 minute in Thinking silently about

(Guided Practice) silence thinking of other connections. what connections they can
make.
~ 15%
Ask students to spend 3 minutes at Sharing connections
their tables discussing other connections with tablemates.
with tablemates.

Use equity sticks to call on students Answering, when called

to share the connections that they upon, and sharing
discussed at their tables and write each connections with the class.
connection on t-chart on the board. Tell Writing connections in
students to copy these in their own notebook.
notebooks.
 You All Do After students have written down the Finishing t-chart in
(Collaborative connections the whole class made, let notebooks
Learning) them practice on their own.
~ 60%
Tell students to continue
Note: The majority of the collaborating in groups and writing in
lesson should involve collaborative their notebooks until they have at least 3- Writing rough draft of
learning or independent practice. 4 connections written down. Give 10 opinion piece quietly at their
You Do additional minutes for this. desks
(Independent Practice)
Go around to each table to clarify
any questions and check for
understanding/help make connections.

Project the opinion piece question,

Closure “In your opinion, what are the
connections between how Native
Americans treated their land and how
people today care for the land by
practicing the 3 Rs?”

Let students know that we will be

using this question and our opinion piece
outlines to construct a 5 paragraph
opinion piece about the connections we
just came up with as a class/in
groups/individually.