Katherine Lemley
EDI 418
12/7/05
Social Studies Lesson plan
Urban and Rural Communities
Grade level: 3rd grade
Rationale: My SBTE has asked me to do a lesson on comparing and contrasting urban and rural communities. Understanding
the basic similarities and differences between Urban and Rural communities is a basic understanding we all must have. I also
noticed that this is an area that my students struggle with and I really wanted to try to help them understand.
Objectives:
1. A student will be able
to define rural and urban by writing it in a complete sentence.
1. A student
will be able to accurately use a Venn diagram to categorize the characteristics of urban and rural communities.
Standards: Standard 3: Geography. Key Idea 2: Geography requires the development and application of the skills of
asking and answering geographic questions; analyzing theories of geography; and acquiring, organizing, and analyzing geographic
information.
Content understandings: Where do people settle and live? Why?
The physical, human and cultural characteristics of different regions
and people throughout the world are different.
English Language Arts: Standards
1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
Preparation: Prior to this lesson, I need to collect the book Bernelly
and Harriet: The Country Mouse and the City Mouse by Elizabeth Dahlie. I will also use an overhead sheet, overhead marker,
and sheet with a two-circled Venn diagram on it.
Introduction: To introduce the lesson I will have the students sit over at the minilesson corner and I will tell
them that today we will be learning about cities, countries, and towns. Then I
will read the story Bernelly and Harriet: The Country Mouse and the City Mouse by Elizabeth Dahlie aloud to them. Throughout
the reading, I will stop and ask them questions in order to check their comprehension.
Activity:
1. I will then ask the students to return to their seats and ask them to tell me what kind of characteristics
they noticed between the city and the country. I will then explain to the students that the term urban is just another word
for city and rural is just another word for country.
2. I will then use the overhead
to show them the terms.
3. Then I will pass out Venn
diagrams to the class and I will use one either on the overhead to create my own Venn diagram to show the students. As a class,
we will fill out the Venn diagram.
4. I will then handout a
handout with pictures of urban and rural communities. Then students will work on them independently and hand them in at the
end of class.
Individual Exploration: The students will label a handout a sheet of pictures of different pictures of urban and
rural communities.
Group Exploration: Together, the class will discuss the differences between urban and rural communities. They
will also correctly label a Venn diagram of rural and urban communities.
Modifications: For the student suspected to have ADHD, I will closely monitor her behavior throughout the lesson
to make sure she is keeping focus and comprehending well.
Discussion: After reading the story to the class, the class will have a discussion on the differences between
rural and urban communities.
Assessment/Further Discussion: For the final assessment, I will handout a handout of pictures of rural and urban
communities. Students will work independently and hand them in at the end of class.
