For Sale: Minnesota

1. For Sale: Minnesota Lesson Notes: This lesson is designed to build on students' understanding of Minnesota, including facts, culture, and folklore. Students will be split up into two groups and asked to take part in a simulation of a purchase negotiation between a realtor and a buyer. The property to be sold will be the state of Minnesota. Sellers will highlight all of the positive aspects of Minnesota life and the buyers will counter with the not so positive aspects of Minnesota life. Each student will be required to write a short persuasive paper from their assigned perspective. Resources: - Chapters 1- 3 of our Minnesota History textbook - http://www.exploreminnesota.com - http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/index.html - http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/home.do?agency=NorthStar Teacher Notes: Subject: Minnesota History Topic: Facts about Minnesota Grade: 6 Prior knowledge: Preconceived notions about Minnesota Cross-Links: Literary development - Summarizing Lesson Objectives: 1. Upon completing this lesson, students will have a better understanding of the State of Minnesota. 2. Additonally, they will be trained in the literary skill of summarizing.

2. Minnesota Redneck by Gino Ruberto The attached intro is intended to get the attention of the students through humor. The song includes many widely held stereotypes of a Minnesotan. Tab

3. Examples of Good: Lakes, snowmobiling, hunting, fishing, Mayo Clinic, Target Field, Sports, BWCA, boating, 3M, General Mills, etc. Minnesota is: Good Not so Great. Great! Examples of Bad: Mosquitos, windchill, freezing temperatures, the futility of the Vikings organization, taxes, etc. Bad In this exercise, students will be asked to share things they know about Minnesota. We will list them in the appropriate box. Rationale

4. http://maps.google.com/ Interactive map of Minnesota We will bring up Google maps and enter Minnesota. We will select photos from the more menu. Students will then navigate around the map and look at the photos and descriptions to get a deep understanding of the state of Minnesota. Interactive Activity

5. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/janfeb05/mpcold.html Is it really that cold? In this exercise, the art of summerizing will be modeled. A website with an article on Minnesota weather will be opened. On that article, the teacher will underline key words from the article. Then, on the smartboard underneath, the teacher will write a paragraph summerizing the article. Rationale After the summarizing exercise, the students will be asked to pick one aspect of the group they were in..."seller" or "buyer". Then they will be asked to find an article concerning that aspect. They will get 20 minutes to locate an article on one of the classroom computers. The will then go back to their desks and write a half page summary on the article. Buyers' papers will need to persuade the sellers to drop the price while sellers will try to get the sale for the asking price. The paper is due at the end of class. Assignment Article on Minnesota weather extremes. Click here http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/janfeb05/mpcold.html

6. We will wrap up the day with five minutes on all of interesting things that are native to Minnesota. The goal is to instill a sense of pride in the students as they continue to build on their own budding self-identities. Rationale

7. Attachments Minnesota Redneck by Gino Ruberto.mp3