Year Plan

Grade 8 School Year September- December January - March April - June

Theme Chosen to Integrate Disciplines

Contact and Change Cause and Effect Movement and Change

Social Studies 8: 7th Century to 1750

Growth & Development Collisions and Impact Contact and colonization

Science 8: Education for the 21st Century Kinetic Molecular Theory and

Atomic Energy and Light Plate Tectonics Cells

Numeracy- Integrated throughout the year (will scaffold

new skills as necessary)

• Data enable us to draw conclusions and make predictions in an unstable world• Patterns allow us to see relationships and develop generalizations

Literacy- integrated throughout the year

(will scaffold new skills as necessary)

• Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to theworld

• Texts are socially, culturally, and historically constructed• People understand text differently depending on their worldviews and perspectives

Rationale for Year Plan

This year in Social Studies 8, our goals are to look at the following big ideas:

● Contacts and conflicts between peoples stimulated significant cultural, social, politicalchange.

● Human and environmental factors shape changes in population and living standards● Exploration, expansion, and colonization had varying consequences for different

groups.● Changing ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt new

ideas and those wanting to preserve established traditions.

Along with the above mentioned social studies goals we have been collaborating with the Science 8 teacher, and even though she is not planning a UDL curriculum she shared with us her curricular timeline, which we then incorporated into our big ideas for socials 8.

● Life processes are performed at the cellular level.● The behavior of matter can be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic

theory● Energy can be transferred as both a particle and a wave.● The theory of plate tectonics is the unifying theory that explains Earth’s geological

processes

We then took the 4 big ideas from each subject and organized them together in the following ways. In developing units, we thought about how we could connect the multitude of inventions across this time period and investigate the impacts of new developments over time created across social, political and cultural domains of humanity.

Term 1: Theme: Contact and Change - Growth and Development Essential Questions: To what extent does contact result in change? To what extent does change result in conflict?

Big Ideas: • Human environmental factors shaped changes in population and living standards• Changing Ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt new

ideas and those wanting to preserve established traditions• The behavior of matter can be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic

theory.

We organized the term this way because we saw cross curricular connections with how scientific developments created great change within society across social, political and cultural landscapes. Humanity saw so much growth and change not only with regards to demographics but also with inventions and discoveries. The realization that the earth is not flat lead to travels which lead to more connection between cultures. The invention of the printed word allows for the spread of knowledge and better documentation of information. The Greeks’ discovery of atoms, Sir Isaac Newton’s announcement the laws of gravity, and others lead to a greater understanding of the world and inventions to improve general life.

Term 2 Theme: Cause and Effect – Collisions and Impact Big Ideas:

• Exploration, expansion, and colonization had varying consequences for differentgroups.

• Plate Tectonics

This term we have connected the ideas that exploration and expansion happened as a result of geography and that geology, volcanology, and other natural events played a role in the movement of people. Local content would include Aboriginal Stories of Earthquakes and Tsunami’s.

Term 3 Theme: Movement and Change Big Ideas:

• Contact and Colonization• Cells

This term we are connections the human factors that affect change. Famine, illness (Black Plague and its spread across Europe) and other social (Feudal System, Land Ownership, etc.) and political reasons for colonization. Robert Hook discovered plant cells in 1665 in cork. Leonardo Da Vinci’s human body and other inventions and discoveries that cause movement and change.

Term 1 Unit Planner: Growth and Development Big Ideas

• Contacts and conflicts between peoples stimulated significant cultural, social, politicalchange

• Changing ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt newideas and those wanting to preserve established tradition

Key Questions: To what extent does contact result in change? To what extent does change result in conflict?

MI Activities

Core Competencies: Communication (C)

Thinking (T) Personal & Social (PS)

MI Activity Curricular Competencies

C T

PS VL

Whole Class: • Newspaper/ multimedia exploration of current and past

events.

Group: • Poetry• Debate

Assess the significance of people, places, events, and developments at particular times and places

Explain different perspectives on past or present people, places, issues, and events, and compare the values, worldviews, and beliefs of human cultures and societies in different times and places

Assess the credibility of multiple sources and the adequacy of evidence used to justify conclusions

Make ethical judgments about past events, decisions, and actions, and assess the limitations of drawing direct lessons from the past

C T

PS LM

Group: • Look through Census records

• Calculate percentages (death/birth rates,immigrants/emigrants)

• Graphs comparing populations• Timeline (How do we organize all the events in a logical

way?)• Cause and effect (use statistics to find if certain changes

results in change of population)

Use social studies inquiry processes and skills to: ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; communicate findings and decisions

Assess the significance of people, places, events, and developments at particular times and places

Assess the credibility of multiple sources and the adequacy of evidence used to justify conclusions

Questioning and predicting (science)

C T

PS EX

Whole Class: • Discuss why should we care about the lives of people around

the world?

Individual: • Present your view on this question using one of the MIs.

Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to: ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions

Core Competencies: Communication (C)

Thinking (T) Personal & Social (PS)

MI Activity Curricular Competencies

C T

PS IA

Whole Class: • Teacher writes directions on the board in another language

and discuss feelings and strategies for

Group: • Create a triple Venn Diagram to compare your life today to

the life of a 13 year old peasant in Feudal Europe and that ofa 13 year old noble in Feudal Europe

Make ethical judgments about past events, decisions, and actions, and assess the limitations of drawing direct lessons from the past.

C T

PS

B.K.

Group: • Role Play about the different roles played by people in the

Feudal system- social hierarchy

Characterize different time periods in history, including periods of progress and decline, and identify key turning points that mark periods of change

C T

PS IE

Whole Class: • Guest Speaker• Field trip: Museum of Anthropology

Group • Conversation between European and Indigenous group

Determine what factors led to particular decisions, actions, and events, and assess their short-and long-term consequences

C T

PS MR

Whole Class: • Explore music during this time period (7th century - 1750)

Group: • Compose a song written from the perspective of a historical

figure.

Explain different perspectives on past or present people, places, issues, and events, and compare the values, worldviews, and beliefs of human cultures and societies in different times and places

Determine what is significant in an account, narrative, map, and text

C T

PS N

Whole Class: • Indigenous Plant walk, identifying local indigenous plants

and predicting and researching their uses. Individual/group:

• Compare and contrast human-plant relationships in differentparts of the world in a given time period (e.g. early 1700s),including worldviews and values reflected in different plantuses

Explain different perspectives on past or present people, places, issues, and events, and compare the values, worldviews, and beliefs of human cultures and societies in different times and places

C T

PS VS

Whole Class: • Look at artistic representations of ‘the New World’ and

make meaning and connections

Assess the credibility of multiple sources and the adequacy of evidence used to justify conclusions

Term 1 - Growth and Development / Homeostasis and Transformation Rubrics

DISCIPLINES Beginning to Develop Approaching Expectations Fully Meeting Expectations Exceeding Expectations

Social Studies

Essential Understanding

1

Recognize and list cultural and societal changes that arose from contact.

Able to explain why conflict arose from contact and identify the resulting cultural, social, and political implications.

Able to analyze how contacts and conflicts between peoples stimulated significant cultural, social, political change with supporting examples.

Is able to formulate and justify multiple perspectives on the pros and cons of contact.

Social Studies

Essential Understanding

2

Can list human and environmental factors that shape changes in population.

Describes human and environmental factors that shape changes in population and living standards.

Can analyze how human and environmental factors shape changes in population and living standards with supporting examples.

Infers and gives opinions about the effects of human actions on population and living standards and the interdependence of humans and the environment.

Social Studies

Essential Understanding

3

Can define exploration, expansion, and colonization.

Can state examples of ways in which expansion and colonization had consequences for different groups

Can explain how exploration, expansion and colonization had varying consequences for different groups with supporting examples.

Investigates or infers a new and /or different aspect of exploration, expansion and colonization. Expresses an understanding of the concept of decolonization and/or indigenization, Using different MI’s to connect and explain these ideas.

Social Studies

Essential Understanding

4

Can recognize that people around the world have different traditions.

Can identify and give examples of established traditions and new ideas around the world.

Can explain how changing ideas about the world created tension between people wanting to adopt new ideas and those wanting to preserve established traditions with supporting examples.

Can compare and contrast between established traditions and new traditions, and justify the value of each.

DISCIPLINES Beginning to Develop Approaching Expectations Fully Meeting Expectations Exceeding Expectations

Science

Essential Understanding

1

State the cell theory and use it to sort living and nonliving things.

Identify eukaryotes and prokaryotes

Describe photosynthesis and cellular respiration

Demonstrate how organelles’ functions contribute to life processes.

Relate microorganisms (e.g. bacteria) to humans (good and bad interactions and interventions)

Science

Essential Understanding

2

Recognizes and sorts different states of matter and reproduces the basic structure of an atom

Describes bonding forces within an atom (nuclear vs. electromagnetic)

Is able to explain the behavior of matter using the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory with supporting examples.

Demonstrates that behavior of matter can be explained by KMT and Atomic theory.

Connect atomic theory to macroscopic world (environment, industry, lifestyle)

Science

Essential Understanding

3

Recognize that light is a type of energy and that it, like all types of energy, can be transferred

Identify the different types of electromagnetic energy found on the electromagnetic spectrum

Can explain that electromagnetic energy can be transferred as both a particle and a wave with supporting examples.

Can apply electromagnetic energy to everyday life, industrial operations, medical institutions, etc.

Science

Essential Understanding

4

Can recognize geological processes and formations (earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, tectonic plates, continents formed from Pangaea, etc.)

Can identify and the layers of the earth and demonstrate how different plate boundaries form.

Can compare plate boundaries to geological formations and recognize that one causes the other.

Can relate plate tectonic activity to major geological events and discuss their implications to different cultures (e.g. Aboriginal).

Assessment Rationale

Assessment necessitates that students understand that the goal is to show their thinking. The focus on assessment is on process-oriented learning. When planning for assessment, it is important to make students aware of the big ideas and essential questions that they will be exploring. The responsibility of the teacher is to create well-defined assessment tools and expectations which help guide students’ learning processes.

Another important part of assessment, in accordance with our teaching philosophy, is that the goals of the unit encompass the learning goals for all students as much as possible. All students will be assessed in a way that builds and maintains their self-worth, within a trusting, safe and caring environment. To ensure that we as teachers act within our teaching philosophy, student self-assessment will play a key role in our holistic assessment approach.

Summative assessment will be ongoing throughout learning units. As students work through the centers, the teacher will be circulating throughout the classroom assessing the learning that is taking place. It is important for students to understand the learning expectations; thus, having clearly defined rubrics is important. Further, the ability of students to work cooperatively and collaboratively as a group and the ability to take responsibility for their learning will also play a role in this assessment. Summative assessment will not only involve informal observations of learning but will also include group work presentations, student participation during whole group presentations and one-to-one conversations.

Formative Assessment will involve a variety of opportunities for students to show what they have learned over course of the unit. Formative assessment will occur during the learning process to inform teaching practice and areas for whole class learning or the development of mini lessons during a unit. For many of our unit activities, students should explore their knowledge of multiple intelligences to create products to show their thinking.

Musical-Rhythmic Activity

Instructions:

Compose a song written from the perspective of a historical figure selected from the time period of the 7th Century to 1750. You can compose a new song or change the lyrics to a popular song.

Example:

“…We had a hundred years of war. This girl had to do something! So I did it like a dude, cut my hair. Gave up wearing dresses, bought a pair. Of trousers, no blouses. Said I wanna fight Angleterre.

Charles let me join the army, army, army. Know that might sound barmy, barmy, barmy. I proved impressive, Hit by an arrow a-a-and lived…”

-Joan of Arc Song by “Horrible Histories”

Bodily-Kinesthetic Activity

Instructions:

Create a role play that includes characters from all of the feudal system social classes and reflects the dynamics, interactions and activities from that time period.

Intrapersonal Intelligence Activity Instructions:

Create a triple Venn diagram to compare and contrast your life today to that of a 13 year old peasant in Feudal Europe as well as that of a 13 year old noble in Feudal Europe

Interpersonal Intelligence Activity Instructions:

The first interactions between Europeans and other parts of the world probably lead to interesting conversations.

PPick one of the interactions below (cross out your choice) and create a script involving at least one person from each side.

A. 1488: Vasco da Gama (Portugal) and his crew went to India

B. 1451: Christopher Columbus and his Spanish crews went to the Bahamas and met the“Indians”

C. 1519: Hernando Cortéz (Spain) went to Mexico and met the Aztecs in Mexico

D. 1534: Jacques Cartier (France) met the Mi’kmaq people by the St. Lawrence River

E. 1497: John Cabot (English) met the Beothuk people of Newfoundland