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Laying the Foundation for the States

from Jordan Cotten

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At a Glance:

Grades:	4
Subject:	Social Studies
Topic:	Establishment of the State
Lesson Length:	45 mins

Standards / Framework:

What will students learn in this activity?

Students will identify significant figures and understand why their state was founded and established.

What should students know before this activity?

Students should understand reasons why people migrate and/or emigrate to a new place.

How can teachers introduce this lesson?

Read and discuss the sample comic.
Have students discuss and share reasons people move to new places. Ask leading questions to find out how much they know about why people settled in their state.
Based on what they know about their own area or region in the state, have students describe why they believe people settled there.

What will students do?

Introduce the following vocabulary:
- migrate
- immigrate
- emigrate
- foundation
- establish
Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a three-panel comic showing:
- Panel 1: Significant figures or founders in the establishment of the state.
- Panel 2: Cultural background of the founding group(s) and reasons they settled in the area.
- Panel 3: Values and beliefs of the founding group(s).

How can teachers wrap up the lesson?

Create a gallery walk to display the finished comics.
Discuss the reasons people settled in new areas.

How can teachers differentiate this activity?

Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.
Provide sentence frames as needed.
Print out the sample comic for reference.

Related Resources:

Comic to print or display: Comic.
Give students a KWL Chart.
- K - what they already know and can lead to the “Hook” discussion.
- W - questions they need answered to help guide them through the research.
- L - take notes on the new information while researching to help them create their comic

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