Our Journey Through Italy (A Thematic Unit)

1. Michael Ward (Walter Reed) ECI-595 Elementary Methods December 7, 2002 Our Journey Through Italy (A Thematic Unit)

2. GOALS • Students: • Engage in high levels of thinking and meaningful learning. • Increase their motivation to learn through individualand cooperative efforts. • Are able to visualize connections between classroom subject matter and “the real world.” • Develop a broad appreciation for Italian influences to American culture.

3. Overview & Framework • Theme: Travel (Journey Through Italy) -- 6th Grade • Type of Thematic Unit: Interdisciplinary (Language Arts, Science, Geography, Computers, Art, Music, and Math) • Start Date: Either during or soon after students study the Roman Empire (Social Studies) • Duration: Conducted over a 3-week period (3 days per group x 5 groups); one or two classes per day. • Procedure: My class of 31 students is already divided into 4 groups of 6 and one of 7. I am the class tour guide and begin the unit by describing how we will conduct the unit, organize the groups and assign roles & functions for the members of each group. Each group is headed by an assistant tour guide, responsible for providing the entire class with information about the city/location we are going to and how we will get there. At each city/location, we will accomplish our thematic unit objectives designated for that place.

4. Overview & Framework (Continued) • Procedure (cont): As the homeroom teacher for the 6th Grade at my school, I teach Language Arts, Science, and Math. For this unit, I have prepared the lesson plans for those subjects and Geography. In addition, I have coordinated with the Computer, Art, and Music teachers to build lesson plans for those subjects they will teach. All objectives stem from curriculum guidelines from my school (Nativity Catholic School, Burke, VA). Prior to accomplishing the first two objectives, I will present information and lead a class discussion about Italy. Before accomplishing the objectives assigned under each group, the group and I will present information and lead a class discussion about the group’s assigned city/place. For these events, I will use audio-visual aids at my disposal, such as a travel video and slides I have accumulated over the years.

5. Overview & Framework (Continued) • Assigned Cities/Respective Lessons/Schedule: • Entire Class – Travel to Italy • Introduction - Process • Objective 1 - Italy • Objective 2 – Research/ Travel Brochures • Group I – Rome • Objective 3 - Roman Numerals • Objective 4 - Daily Journal • Objective 5 - Distances

6. Overview & Framework (Continued) • Assigned Cities/Respective Lessons/Schedule (cont): • Group II – Pompeii, Mts. Vesuvius and Etna • Objective 6 - Volcanoes • Group III – Florence • Objective 7 – Renaissance & da Vinci • Objective 8 – Italian/English Words • Group IV – Venice • Objective 9 – Concertos & Vivaldi • Objective 10 – Personal Letter • Group V – Verona & the Alps • Objective 11 – Plate Tectonics & Mountain-Building • Entire Class – Wrap-Up

7. Geography Earth Science Math • Map of Italy: Familiarization with Cities & Terrain • Volcanoes • Plate Tectonics (Mountain Building) • Roman Numerals • Calculating Distances (Miles vs. Kilometers) Journey Through ITALY Language Arts – Spelling/Vocab Language Arts – Writing • Daily Journal • Personal Letter • Italian … English Words • Groups Prepare Travel Brochures of Assigned Cities ART MUSIC Computers (Research) • Concertos (Vivaldi) • The Renaissance & Leonardo da Vinci

8. OBJECTIVES • Students will familiarize themselves with the map of Italy and be able to locate Italy’s major cities & places. • Using the internet, books, and magazines from the library, students will prepare travel brochures for their assigned cities/places. • Students will be able to read and write Roman Numerals, be able to convert them into Arabic numerals, and use them to solve problems. • Students will start and maintain a daily journal. • Students will be able to find the distances (in kilometers) between locations on a map of Italy and convert these distances into miles. • Students will learn how and why volcanoes form, where they occur, and what their effects are..

9. OBJECTIVES (CONTINUED) • Students will familiarize themselves with the Renaissance in Florence and Leonardo da Vinci. • Students will recognize, know the meaning of, and spell correctly Italian words that have been adopted into the English language. • Students will familiarize themselves with Venetian Baroque Composer Vivaldi and his Four Seasons. • Students will write a personal letter, describing their trip, to their relatives. • Students will learn about how plate tectonics changes the surface of Earth and how mountains are formed.

11. OBJECTIVE 1 Students will familiarize themselves with the map of Italy and be able to locate Italy’s major cities & places. • Activity: Students will color a map of Italy by following written directions. • Materials: Maps of Italy with instructions: (www.enchantedlearning.com/europe/italy/italyactivity.shtml) , coloring pencils, overhead projector, and transparency of Map of Italy. • Procedure: After working #1 together, students will pair up to complete this activity. • Evaluation: Quiz (www.enchantedlearning.com/europe/italy/italybwquiz.shtml)

12. OBJECTIVE 2 Using the internet, books, and magazines from the library, students will prepare travel brochures for their assigned cities/places. • Activity: Create a travel brochure of an Italian city/place by writing, drawing, and using materials from reference sources. • Materials: Computer/internet, books & magazines from the library, blank sheets of paper, folded for draft brochures,construction paper, scissors, glue, markers, maps of Italy. • Procedure: Provide directions for making brochures. Show examples of travel brochures. Pass around the first handout and as a group, read the directions together and brainstorm a few possible ideas.Hand out a sheet folded exactly the way the final brochure should be so that students can do their rough draft on the blank sheet. • Evaluation: Brochures will be assessed according to the level of work produced by the student by looking at the quality of handwriting, the effort put in, neatness, and details provided.

13. OBJECTIVE 3 Students will be able to read and write Roman Numerals, be able to convert them into Arabic numerals, and use them to solve problems. • Activity: Introduce Roman Numerals through class discussion and use of the chalkboard, students use manipulatives to create Roman Numerals, and class works conversion problems together. • Materials: Different forms of dry pasta. • Procedure: After a good introduction to Roman Numerals, students use dry pasta to create Roman Numerals. Together, practice converting from Arabic Numeral to Roman and vice versa; practice adding and subtracting Roman Numerals. • Evaluation: Hand out “Doing Math the Roman Way” at: (www.education-world.com/a_lesson/TM/WS_lp276-03.shtml). Students solve 8/10 correctly.

14. OBJECTIVE 4 Students will start and maintain a daily journal. • Activity: Introduce journal-writing; ask students to write their first journal entry together in class. For the remainder of the trip, as homework, students will make entries in their journals concerningtrip related activities they participated in each day. • Materials: Composition books. • Procedure: Students are asked to include, as a minimum, the following topics in their daily write-ups: (1) What they experienced, (2)What they enjoyed or did not enjoy about the day’s activity(ies) and why; (3) How they can apply what they experienced; and (4) Ideas they might have for follow-on activities related to what they just experienced. • Evaluation: On a weekly basis, assess journal writing based on creativity, correct use of grammar, sentence structure, and spelling.

15. OBJECTIVE 5 Students will be able to find the distances (in kilometers) between locations on a map of Italy and convert these distances into miles. • Activity: Introduce the metric system with respect to measuring distances. Using worksheets, students will plot distances (in kilometers) between major cities/places in Italy; practice converting kilometers into miles and vice versa. • Materials: Paper copies of map of Italy (slide 10); worksheet with distances between key cities/places; ruler. • Procedure: Following a class discussion on the metric system and the formula for converting kilometers to miles (and vice versa), practice converting distances; students will practice converting and labeling distances, in kilometers, on their maps. • Evaluation: Using another copy of the same map of Italy, students will correctly convert distances in kilometers to distances in miles. A minimum of 8/10 distances should be converted and labeled on the map correctly.

16. OBJECTIVE 6 Students will learn how and why volcanoes form, where they occur, and their effects. • Activity: Explain how and why volcanoes form, where they can be found, types of volcanoes and their effects. Relate this information to Mt. Vesuvius and Mt. Etna. Students then color and label the parts of a volcano on a worksheet and conduct a cloze activity. • Materials: Worksheets at www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/volcano/activities.shtml, overhead projector, transparency of the inside of a composite volcano. • Procedure: Provide information to students concerning volcanoes. Using the overhead projector describe the parts of a composite volcano; then, leaving the projector with transparency on, ask students to label and color their worksheet. Following this activity, do the Cloze Activity together. • Evaluation: Quiz at www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/volcano/activities.shtml; students should correctly answer 80% of the questions.

17. OBJECTIVE 7 Students will familiarize themselves with Leonardo da Vinci & the Renaissance. • Activity: Introduce the Renaissance period in Florence and Leonardo da Vinci’s contributions. Conduct an activity on “perspective” in drawing a scene. • Materials: Picture of the Mona Lisa, worksheets, sheets of acetate, masking tape, bandanas. • Procedure: After introducing the subject matter, students will conduct the activity described at www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/UsingLeosWindow.html to gain an appreciation for perspective when drawing. • Evaluation: Students willcolor in the Mona Lisa outline provided at www.enchantedlearning.com/artists/davinci/coloring/monalisa.shtml. Students will be assessed according to the quality of their work.

18. OBJECTIVE 8 Students will recognize, know the meaning of, and spell correctly Italian words that have been adopted into the English language.. • Activity: Students are given a list of some common Italian/English words (next slide). The words are written on the chalkboard, defined and illustrated. Where possible, pictures of the items represented are shown or actual items are brought in and shown. Students then practice spelling the words and work two puzzles prepared from (puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com) and distributed to them: (1) word search, and (2) crossword puzzle. • Materials: Word Search and Crossword Puzzle; visual depictions of Italian/English words. • Procedure: Described above. • Evaluation: A two-part quiz is administered to check for spelling and vocabulary definitions. Students are expected to achieve a minimum score of 80%.

19. OBJECTIVE 8 Students will recognize, know the meaning of, and spell correctly Italian words that have been adopted into the English language.. (cont.) List of Some Italian Words Adopted Into the English Language: -- pizza -- spaghetti -- ravioli -- linguini -- pasta -- tortellini -- solo -- macaroni -- lasagna -- prosciutto -- salami -- gorgonzola -- cafe latte -- grotto -- antipasto -- gondola -- zucchini -- graffiti -- fiasco -- cappuccino -- espresso -- violin -- volcano -- design -- portico

20. OBJECTIVE 9 Students will familiarize themselves with Venetian Baroque Composer Vivaldi and his Four Seasons. • Activity: Introduce the Baroque period of music and discuss composer Vivaldi’s biography. Play excerpts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons; students draw or write their impressions of what they heard. • Materials: Audio recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons; art tablets; colored pencils. • Procedure: After introducing the subject matter, an audio tape recording of the Four Seasons is played. At key point during and after each season, the class will discuss their interpretation of the season. Students are asked to jot down notes concerning their impressions. • Evaluation: Students may choose to either draw or write their interpretation of the Four Seasons. Their must be a minimum of one scene for each season (if they choose to draw), or a minimum of one descriptive paragraph for each season.

21. OBJECTIVE 10 Students will write a social letter, describing their trip, to their relatives. • Activity: After a class discussion on the types and parts of social letters with an emphasis on the “friendly” letter, students are asked to pick one activity they enjoyed so far in the trip and write a brief thank-you letter to the tour guide, thanking him for the opportunity to participate in the activity. As students finish, their work is critiqued and they write their “friendly” letters to their relatives. • Materials: Unlined paper, pen. • Procedure: Students will write 2 social letters: first, a short “thank-you” letter (for practice) and then a 2-page minimum “friendly” letter to one of their relatives, describing their trip so far!). • Evaluation: Students will be assessed according to the level of work produced by the student by looking at the quality of handwriting, the effort put in, neatness, correct use of grammar, sentence structure, and spelling.

22. OBJECTIVE 11 Students will learn about how plate tectonics changes the surface of Earth and how mountains are formed. • Activity: After describing the chemical and physical layers of the Earth, introduce the historical development of the plate tectonic theory, describing the location and types of plate boundaries. Then, demonstrate plate tectonic theory. Students do a jigsaw puzzle and word search to reinforce their understanding. • Materials: Map of the world, cardboard box, tape, sheets of paper, scissors, worksheets. • Procedure: Following a class discussion on the layers of the Earth, plate tectonic theory, and the plate boundaries, demonstrate plate tectonic theory by conducting the activity at: volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/activities/p_number5.html; students will then do the 2 activities at: volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/activities/p_number6.html and (same site, but substitute the number 8 for 6). • Evaluation: Students correctly answer 80% of the questions at: volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/activities/p_number7.html.

23. WRAP-UP Final Project: Students prepare a report on the trip, using information already gained and assimilated from brochures, journals, letters, other activities and classroom discussions. Report will be a minimum of 3 pages in length and will contain the following topics (as a minimum): 1. Title and description of the Thematic Unit; 2. The Itinerary; 3. A paragraph of what you observed/learned at each Italian city/place; 4. What you thought of the Thematic Unit (What did you like, and what didn’t you like?; and 5. An answer to “Do you think you would like to take an actual trip to Italy? Why or why not?”