A North American Flag

Teacher: Ima Sample
Date: 7 July 200x
Grade Level: Third
NCSS Strands: I and IX

Materials

Purpose

• To help students understand the importance of flags to a community as well as the symbolism of a flag

Objectives

• TLW demonstrate their knowledge of the cultures of North America by accurately representing at least the culture they studied in previous lessons in group discussions.
• TLW demonstrate creativity by designing and creating a North American flag.
• TLW demonstrate their knowledge of flag symbolism by explaining the meaning of all symbols in their flags.
• TLW demonstrate cooperative learning skills by using appropriate conflict resolution skills when disagreements arise in their groups.

Introduction

1. Gather the students at the front of the room. Tell them that we are going to read a short book. While they listen, they should look carefully at every picture and be prepared to tell what they see.
2. Read the book The Star-Spangled Banner through the end of the first verse of the National Anthem
3. Discuss what they saw in all of the pictures. The teacher should help direct special attention to the flag. Discuss how the students or the people around them act or feel when they see the flag. Ask them why they think people feel or act this way.
4. Ask the students to close their eyes and pretend that they are a citizen of one of the two countries that we have been studying. How do you feel about your country's flag? How do you act when you see it? Have them open their eyes and discuss. Tell them that we are going to talk about what flags mean and then create one for our North American Community.

Procedure

1. Flags Have Meaning
   1. Show the students the large picture(s) of flags from all over the world. Ask them what they notice. How are the flags different? How are they the same? Why do they think the countries chose those colors and/or pictures? Let's look at our local examples.
   2. Divide the class back into their research groups from the previous lessons. Have each group plan how to research the flag from their country (2 groups per country ¡V Canada, United States, and Mexico).
   3. Allow the students to use library resources to find the information. One useful book for each country is listed with this lesson.
   4. After they complete their research, have the students collaborate with the other group who researched the same country and decide together what to present to the class. Each group chooses someone to write their findings on the poster for their country.
   5. Discuss how everything in every flag has meaning. Ask the students to each spend some time thinking about what kinds of symbols could represent the North American community and its similarities and differences.
2. Create a North American Flag
   1. Show the students the UN flag. Discuss how some times groups of countries decide to form an official community and they create a flag to represent their group. How is North America an official community? How is North America an unofficial community? Does North America have a flag?
   2. Break the students into groups of three, each group should have one person 'from' (has researched) each of the three countries.
   3. Display the country information and similarities and differences charts on the board. Have each student take their notes from their research with them to their new groups. Have the students in each group discuss how they will create a flag, what symbols they will use, and what materials they will need. Each group submits the materials list to the teacher.
   4. Provide the materials to the students and instruct the groups to work cooperatively to create a flag for North America. Each group will also write a brief (2-3 sentence) explanation of the symbols in their flag and attach it to their flag.

Closure

1. Each group gives a brief presentation on their flag to the class. Display all flags in the classroom.
2. Discuss the students' reasons for picking the symbols they chose. How were the groups' reasons the same? How were they different? Ask the students to think back to what they knew before the unit started, what things do they know now that they did not know before? What things did they include, or think of, that they might not have before they learned about all of the countries of North America?
3. Have the students write in their journals about what they think of the community of North America and the flag they created for it.

Assessment

• The teacher will guide the discussions, perform a visual inspection of, and listen carefully to students group work, provide suggestions and feedback during flag creation, and read the students' journal entries to check for understanding.

How have I considered diversity?

• Throughout this unit, each student has become an expert on a country. By allowing the students to work in groups where each student represents a country, students who are either low or high achievers are not at any advantage or disadvantage, but instead able to work toward group goals.
• This lesson is based on a need to understand both culture and global connections; both are components of diversity.
• Cooperative learning groups will be created in a way to balance individual student's strengths and weaknesses.
• This lesson includes components to meet the needs of students who learn through several of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences including linguistic, spatial, and interpersonal.

Teacher Reflection

• How well were the objectives met?
• How well do students understand the changes in their thinking?
• What parts of the lesson were too easy or too difficult for the students?
• What parts should be changed to make the lesson better in the future?

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