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ParkWise
> Teachers >
Culture > People
and Land
> Unit Outline
Activity
3:
Coming Together
Students will pretend
to look for a home in the Denali area in the early 1900's. Students
will develop criteria for their new homes. They will study Denali
histories and compare their criteria with actual historical criteria.
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Unit:
Denali People and
the Land
Guiding Questions: Why
did people begin living in communities in early times?
Critical Content: The
need for cooperation to maintain the common good.
Grades: 5-6
Duration: 45
- 60 minutes
Group size:
both entire class, and small groups
Setting: classroom
Materials: Histories:
Lake
Mincumina, Telida,
Slim
Carlson, Abbie
Joseph, and Denali
Area History, enough copies for each student to have at
least one history to read. Poster paper for making class compilation
of brainstorm lists.
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Procedures:
- Students are frontiers
people in the Denali area in the early 1900's. They are looking
for a place to settle down for the upcoming winter. They must
decide if they want to live as a group or separately. Students
who decide to live in a group will work together. Students who
decide to live individually will work in a second group for this
activity, but will think from the perspective of someone who is
living by themselves or with just their own family.
Have each group make a list of items they want to look for to
determine a place to spend the winter.
Are the items the same between those who want to live in a group
and those who want to live individually? Why or why not?
What might be another term for the above items? (Needs).
- Have students work
together to give a working definition of the term "need."
What needs do people have? Are there non-physical needs that people
have (emotional, psychological and social)? Give examples of needs.
(Examples - the need to feel safe, the need to interact with other
people, the need to feel valued, etc.)
- Working in pairs,
have students write down a list of these needs that the class
generated. Have the pairs do a word sort with their list. A word
sort consists of listing these words and sorting them into various
categories. You may want to have students write their list and
then cut the list up to be able to easily move the words around
when creating their sorts.
How many different ways can they categorize their list?
Students will look at many different ways to categorize, including
spelling. Guide the students to look more at the meaning of the
words rather than the spelling of the words. After students have
worked on this for awhile, come together as a group to discuss
the variety of ways the needs were sorted out. If a group or groups
did not come up with something similar to "things we absolutely
have to have in order to survive" and things that we'd like to
have but don't absolutely need to survive" guide the discussion
to lead them to this point.
What is the difference between "needs" and "wants"? Needs are
necessary for survival, "wants" are desired items that would make
life easier, but survival may not depend upon having these items.
Read the village
histories. (You may want to have students work in small groups
again and divide up the village histories.) Identify the clues
in the histories that give support as to why that village formed
where it did.
- Have students compare
their list for their village with the list they create from the
readings .
Discussion
Questions:
- Do you think the reasons for creating communities have changed
over time?
- Were they the same or different thousands of years ago compared
to the early 1900's ? Compared to today? Explain and support your
reasons.
- What is meant by the statement "to maintain the common good"
or "for the good of the common" as it relates to community?
- Beyond the physical needs of food, water, and shelter, what
other needs might be filled with the creation of a community?
Focus on both the physical and non-physical needs.
- Do we have different needs as individuals when we are part of
a community (ex.
I need my own shelter)? What are they? Have these
changed over time?
- Do we have needs as a whole community? In other words, because
we are a group of people living together, are there things we
need to help manage the group (ex. a community needs laws)? What
are they?
- What are the benefits of living in a community? Are there disadvantages
for living in a community? What are they if there are?
- Why did communities form in the Denali area?
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