Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and though I thought I would have great activities planned to teach this already, this website proved me wrong. This website has many useful resources which allow a teacher to go above and beyond when teaching a lesson on Thanksgiving.
This website has much strength as it is geared toward all types of learning styles. The crafts and printable activities are more hands-on, while the readings can be more of an auditory style as they read the text aloud. The website informs the viewers what Thanksgiving is all about, and when it is celebrated each year. Also, this website provides tons of activities which the students and teacher would both enjoy. It also leaves room for higher order thinking; the website shows pictures of two different turkeys, and asks the viewer to find the differences between each turkey. On the other hand, this website has some limitations which could be improved. The website would be more useful if it had some more visuals on the website. This would definitely be more useful to EELs. For example, the website could have some videos and games. These interactive activities would be helpful to the students learning.
The resources provided would be great to use in the classroom and at home. One activity mentioned on the website is the “Thankful Paper Chain” activity. In this activity, the students make a regular paper chain, however they write something they are thankful for on each piece of the chain. This paper chain could be a decoration for the Thanksgiving party in the classroom. Also, another activity mentioned is the Thanksgiving tree. In this activity, the children make hand cut-outs, write something or someone they are thankful for, and then place it as a leaf on the big class tree. If the class had a Thanksgiving party, the students could cook some of the foods listed on the website at home. The class could have a potluck party. Also, the students could read the story listed on the website with their family at home.
Evaluated by: Shaheen Lakhani
The Thanksgiving holidays are times for us to reflect and be thankful for the food nature has provided us with. This website is for kids in grades K-6, and it is also very beneficial for the teacher. This website enables kids to explore the history of Thanksgiving, and it also has many games available. However, I don’t think I would use these games in class because they are kind of difficult to get to. With this website, I would put the history section up on the projector and read it out loud using the popcorn method with my students. Then I would have the kids write a summary of what they believe Thanksgiving is and draw a picture, if appropriate for their age level. Obviously if they are younger I might have them draw a picture of the Pilgrims and Indians feasting and tell me what they drew. I like that this website has a list of books teachers can purchase depending on the children’s age level. This makes the teacher’s task really easy if he/she were looking to find an appropriate level book. However, I feel like there are many limitations to this website. The first thing that really bothered me was this annoying ad that pops up every time you click on the page or go into another part of the site. Because of this, I would not have the kids searching the site on their own. The site is also not very appealing to the eye. I don’t think children would really want to read the information, which is why I would choose to do an interactive activity. I think that this website would be good for ELL’s if the activity is interactive because it helps the kids to have a thorough understanding of the reading material before they try and do the lesson part. Overall, I think that this website is okay, but I am sure there are better ones out there.
This website is an amazing resource for teachers who are working on a Thanksgiving unit and moves beyond the pilgrim and Indians that is typical of most Thanksgiving units. From the main page the teacher is able to direct students to different navigation tabs, including a home tab, voyage of the mayflower, daily life and a teacher resource tab. This website is best for older elementary students, probably grades 3-5.
One thing that is very impressive about this website is that it uses many different modes to display information. Each text also has a speaker, so that the student can listen to the text if they are not able to read or are not proficient in reading. Hearing the information orally might help the student to better process the academic content of the lesson rather than focusing on the correctly reading the text. This will also help ELL students complete homework assignments because they can listen to the text when looking for information. This website is a great resource for the classroom and for homework assignments because they are follow good principles of effective teaching methods. The website displays the information in a variety of ways, including videos, interactive maps and diagrams and photos.
One of the things this website does that is very interesting is allow the students to take a virtual field trip to historic Plymouth. This is a great way to allow the students to feel more connected with the academic content and help them imagine what life was really like for the Pilgrims. These videos will also help scaffold or provide some background knowledge for students who are not used to the American Thanksgiving traditions.
If I were using this resource in my classroom, I would probably start with the link to the voyage of the mayflower. I think I would take the time to also have the students work on a personal narrative where they researched where their family came from and allow them to explore their own immigrant story. I think this would be a great exercise because it would allow students to explore their family past and would allow recently immigrant students to wire about their personal immigration story. This exercise would help the class realize they have something in common with each other.
Evaluated by: Sarah Roddy
You are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving
This is a great website for teaching children about the first Thanksgiving. The student becomes a historian and investigates the first Thanksgiving. The website features two children that walk the student through the investigation. One is a descendant of the Wampanoag people and the other is a descendant of an English colonist. They both have a relative in their family that was at the First Thanksgiving Feast in 1621. The children direct the student through six steps to investigate the First Thanksgiving. There is also a glossary and “Visit the Expert” feature the student can go to at any time to help them with words they do not understand or historical references that are unfamiliar to them. These two resources would be helpful for ELLs who may not be familiar with the Thanksgiving celebration. The resources will give them the support they need for vocabulary and background knowledge they do not know.
The first step is determining which information are facts and which are myths about the first Thanksgiving. The next step shows a letter written by Edward Winslow, a Plymouth colonist who was at the feast, describing the first Thanksgiving. It is written in Old English, but the student can click on a magnifying glass that will translate each line into Modern English for him to read. The website will also read the letter to the student. This feature would be helpful for ELLs.
The next two steps teach the student about the Wampanoag people and then the English Colonists. It teaches the student about the importance of knowing the different cultures and their perspective on a historical event. It also points out the Wampanoag people use Oral History passed down through the generations. A teacher could discuss the differences between the two cultures and what they each brought to the Thanksgiving feast.
The next step is “The Path to 1621” which highlights the events leading up to the first Thanksgiving celebration. It asks the student to be a historian and explore how the Wampanoag and the colonists felt about each other in 1621 by listening to several accounts given by colonists and Wampanoag people. The student learns that history should not be told from the historian’s perspective, but from the perspectives of the people who were part of the event.
The final step is to “Share What You’ve Discovered”. It shows the students different ways that historians share what they have discovered through books, movies, exhibits and demonstrations. It then directs the students to make a presentation of what they have discovered about the First Thanksgiving through their investigation. There are options for the presentations so ELLs can choose the option that they feel most comfortable with.
There is a teacher guide on the website which gives great ideas for classroom activities. It suggests a previewing activity of making a large chart about Thanksgiving with three columns, “What I Think I Know”, “What I Want to Know”, “What I Have Learned”. The students can work in groups to come up with the first two columns. The class then gets together and adds their ideas to one large class chart. The same thing can be done to fill in the “What I Have Learned” column after they have completed the website activities.
This website brings history alive! It allows the student to feel like they are at the first Thanksgiving celebration. The student explores the facts to draw their own conclusions by viewing the event from both the perspective of the Wampanoag people and the English colonists.
Evaluated by: Angie Jones
This website was designed to help teachers prepare lesson plans and receives tips on teaching English Language Learners in a classroom. This website was started by Dr. Debbie Zacarian who also has a book on teaching ELLs. She has many lessons for different topics that would help aide an ELL in content-based learning.
The website breaks the lesson plan down to the main points like what the lesson topic is, the proficiency/grade level, the content concepts and skills, the vocabulary needed, and the instructional sequence for different level of ESL students. Although there are different instructional sequences for the two levels, they both start off with reading a book with pictures of the pilgrims and the mayflower. The website even gives suggestions on which book you should read to help with the lesson. The website gives an arts and craft activity that can go along with the Thanksgiving lesson about the Mayflower. For older students and students that are more advanced in English there is a downloadable mini booklet where students can fill in blank spaces about the Mayflower as they are learning the information. There are many different downloadable links to different crafts ideas.
I think this website is very helpful in general not just for the topic of Thanksgiving, but for various topics as well. The website is really helpful in which is not only gives you the instructional sequence for grades 1-4 beginners, but also for advanced ESL students. There are instructions for differentiating instruction for different students, which is highly probable in a general education classroom. I also caught onto the fact that many of the activities in the lesson plan dealt with arts and crafts which is helpful to ELLs. English Language Learners seem to learn best with working with pictures and images along with the content. I think this lesson plan illustrates principles of good teaching because it is pertaining to all students as it gives different ideas you can do for ELLs. The content that is being learned is the same, just the way it is being taught differs.
Evaluated by: Diana Chong
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