Shelley Yergler Lower, Elementary Teacher, John M. Morehead Elementary School
Abstract(PDF)
Unit(PDF)
Abstract
The Past and the Present Meet is a unit intended for use at the beginning of the year. The unit will take students to the beginning of their city and community and guide them to present day Charlotte. Students will be given the opportunity to find out more about their own families and their history. The unit begins with students researching their personal history. They will interview their parents and family members and ask them about their own childhood and the rules they had as children. The unit then moves the children to the beginning of Charlotte after the Civil War. How is their history apart of this? How was their personal history affected? What does it mean to be a citizen in a community? Through literature, students will begin a journey through history and the lives of other children. They will visit a slave who finds freedom through cunning and bravery on a ship; visit with a child whose mother gives him freedom and a quilt to guide him; a child looking for a place of their own in a garden and a girl growing up in a prairie. Students will also be shown videos of various types of racism, community leaders and pictures of the past to present day Charlotte. With this the students will learn a respect for the past, leaders and rules and procedures.
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