3rd Grade

Unit 2: How we express ourselves

September 27th - November

Central Idea: Discovering how the cultures, beliefs, and values of our society affect the way we express ourselves through creative outlets.

By the end of the unit my student will:

Students will demonstrate an elevated sense of self-awareness in their personal expression styles. Students will draft poems expressing themselves creatively and sharing the contributions of their heroes/heroines to the community/society.

Student Agency:

Voice: Identifying what self-expression is. Students will communicate their observations about their own self-expression. Students understand the many commonalities they share with their classmates and communities, and how this connects to their heroes and the people they admire.
Choice: Students will decide how they most positively and creatively express themselves. Students will choose the hero they think is most valuable to their own community.
Ownership: Students will hold themselves accountable for their preferred methods of self-expression and where they can improve. Students will share with their class in order for others to learn from what they have learned as well. Students will work on self-regulation.

Student Action:

Choose: Choose: Choose a hero that has made a positive impact on your own community.
Act: Create a work of poetry to share with the community about this individual.
Reflect: Listen to the perspective/feedback from the community about their hero.

Key Concepts

Function: The understanding that everything has a purpose, a role or way of behaving that can be investigated.
- Why do people use poetry to express themselves?
- What are some kinds of figurative language we can use to show our creativity?
- What way can I express myself creatively?
- How can we turn our own energy into creativity?
Connection: The understanding that we live in a world of interacting systems in which the actions of any individual element affect others.
- How are you different now from when you were in kindergarten, first grade and second grade?
- What do you think has caused you to change?
- What are some ways energy exists?
Perspective: The understanding that knowledge is moderated by perspectives; different perspectives lead to different interpretations, understandings and findings; perspectives may be individual, group, cultural or disciplinary.
- How do you usually express yourself at school?
- How do you express yourself at home?
- How do you think others perceive you?
- Are you more prone to positive or negative self-expression?

Related Concepts

Reading: Generate Questions, Making Inferences, Understanding the Structure of Poetry, Exploring Elements of Drama, determining Central Idea, Utilizing Text Features, Understanding Figurative Language
Math: Multiplication & Fractions
Science: Scientific investigation and reasoning; classroom and outdoor investigations, critical thinking, problem solving, and using a variety of tools to conduct scientific inquiry; The contribution of scientific discoveries to make final decisions
Social Studies: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Community as a place, Using cardinal and intermediate directions, using map scales, celebrate freedoms, contributions to communities

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