Unit Plan Topic and Theme Statement

    My Unit Plan for Mrs. S's fourth and fifth grade class will be covering a research project, for which students will be researching topics related to slavery and writing an essay on their findings. The primary objective of this unit are to guide students in their writing abilities and push them to tackle a new style of writing that incorporates real life facts, statistics, and relevance. Some of the big questions presented in this unit will be:

• How is a research paper written 

• What makes a good research question 

• How to intertwine personal beliefs with research

• Why is it important to do research 

• What it the best way to integrate research 

These questions will be addressed throughout the unit and be the driving force behind students investigating related topics/people of their choice. A potential problem or challenge could be that students will be required to analyze a massive topic that many adults can not even fully analyze, especially as we think about how our history of slavery affects people today. There is potential for the project to be frustrating initially as students want to convey their knowledge about the topic immediately before doing research or narrowing down their thinking to more specific components of slavery. 

    This unit will connect with student’s lives in several ways. Nearly 10 percent of students at this school come from various countries in Africa, and this unit will serve to not only educate them about America’s history as it does for all students, but will potentially be helping them to better understand their family’s history or culture as they learn about many Africans’ experience in the slave trade. Additionally, students will likely make their own connections to the material as they decide which influential person or sub-topic speaks to them. 

    Students will build upon their current writing unit, which also has a research component. Students have been practicing researching and organizing their thoughts into an essay format- both of which are crucial for the research paper. This unit will also serve as a catapult for the writing that will take place in middle school in which students will need to display competency in conveying their thoughts and findings in order to succeed academically. The unit ties into their simultaneous Social Studies unit, in which they are learning about American Slavery and the Civil War. The people and events they learn about in their Social Studies unit will serve as the focus of their research paper. 

    The benefit about teaching a writing assignment is that each student is able to work at a level that is optimal for them. Younger fourth grade students will be able to tackle the same ideas and begin to understand how to incorporate research with their knowledge. These students’ essays may be shorter in length and have less complex sentences/less vocabulary, but will be able to work towards the same objective as the fifth graders. The older students will, however, be able to delve more deeply into their ideas about the topic. They will have the resources necessary to support their learning and be given the opportunity to write an in depth analysis on a historical event. Additionally, while not completely free choice, students will be able to pick a specific facet of slavery that is interesting to them, allowing them to speak to their interests.