Lesson Plan
Mystery Box: Statue of Liberty
Situating the Lesson:
At the start of the unit, after students have seen or heard of the Statue of Liberty in at least one other context, such as from a storybook, but before they have studied it in depth
Methods of Inquiry:
Students ask questions
Instructional Goals: Students should be able to recognize and identify the image of the Statue of Liberty and be able to describe its location.
Essential Questions:
What is the Statue of Liberty? Where is the Statue of Liberty? What does it represent?
State and/or Content Standards (indicate source):
2.5. Students describe the human characteristics of familiar places and varied backgrounds of U.S. citizens and residents in those places.
4. Understand the significance of the Statue of Liberty and how many people have come to the U.S., and continue to come here, from all around the world. (I, P, S)
Instructional Materials:
Miniature of Statue of Liberty, Chart Paper, Blackboard or Whiteboard and appropriate writing tool
Set Induction:
Tell students you have an on object in the mystery box that you want them figure out what it is. Review how the mystery box activity works, but it should be review as this works best if they have already played mystery box before.
Procedures: Students take turns asking descriptive yes or no questions, which the teacher in turn answers. When a question warrants a positive response, the teacher writes the descriptive feature of the mystery object on the board. After several descriptions are collected the teacher reviews them with the class and asks students to think silently about what the object might be. If some students feel that they know what it is, the teacher then asks them to ask three more questions that would help them and classmates narrow down the possibilities of what it is. In the end, after it seems that majority of students have figured it out, students are asked to write what they think it is on a piece of paper. Then the teacher records these responses on the board and finally announces the mystery object by showing the small representation of the Statue of Liberty. Then the teacher once again reviews what they have as a class deduced about it.
Assessment/Closure:
Authentic assessment can be done by taking notes on student behavior and questions throughout the activity. The end of the activity can become the beginning of the new unit by starting a KWL chart, with the descriptions students have garnered during the mystery box becoming the what they know section. Then open the discussion up to filling out the what students wonder about the Statue of Liberty (and Ellis Island). Throughout the rest of the unit go back to the chart to record information learned.
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This is a fun introduction to familar backgrounds and significance of the Statue of Liberty. For the mystery box are the students going to be individual on this or will the students be able to work in groups to put their ideas all together.
ReplyDeleteYou may also want to give the students an example, pyramids in Egypt for a frame of reference. Unless you plan to use this as a clue.
Over all it looks great and fun!!
I liked the idea of using a mystery box as an introduction for your unit. The statue of liberty as an item grants itself to a lot of guesses and students would enjoy this activity. I think that it would be good as an assessment strategy to have the children write down one fact or something that they learned about the Statue of Liberty. This can be used in combination with the notes that you take during the mystery box activity and the KWL exercise. I think that the written piece should be included because some students may be to shy or less inclined to participate in the activities so it will give you a chance to see what they know.
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