Schools in My
Community 100 Years Ago
Heather Davis
AHTC Summer Institute 2009
To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.
This lesson is meant to take
place in a primary school classroom (grades K-2) during a unit on our community
and may be taught in conjunction with a 100th day of school celebration. It could be followed up with further
lessons about what a typical day was like in a one-room school and/or a trip to
the one-room schoolhouse at the Early American Museum in Mahomet, IL.
Abstract
Students will use photographs and a Venn diagram to compare and contrast their present school with area one-room schoolhouses that existed about 100 years ago.
Essential
Questions/Enduring Understandings
This lesson emphasizes the concepts of past/present and compare/contrast.
How are schools in our community in the present the same as those from 100 years ago? How are they different?
Assessment
The teacher will assess student understanding through listening to studentsŐ verbal analysis of the photographs of one-room schoolhouses. Are the students able to name significant similarities and differences between their school and the ones in the pictures?
The teacher will also assess student understanding through looking at completed student Venn diagrams.
Setting the Purpose
The teacher will ask questions requiring the students to recall the difference between the terms past and present. He or she will then ask the students to imagine what schools might have been like 100 years in the past. The teacher will let the students know that they will get to compare their school to schools from 100 years ago that stood in Illinois by looking at real photographs. The teacher will then begin by displaying a photograph of the Yankee Ridge one-room schoolhouse.
Analysis of Local
Primary Sources
Photographs of Illinois one-room schoolhouses that were in use about 100 years ago will be displayed on an overhead projector or a SMART board for all students to see at once. The teacher will model thinking aloud about the first picture. The teacher will be pointing out significant similarities and differences between the school in the photo and the present school. The teacher will then give students time to think on their own about further similarities and differences before sharing ideas aloud with a partner. Several students will be asked to share their ideas with the entire class. The process will be repeated with further photographs of Illinois one-room schoolhouses. During the lesson, some photographs shown will display an outside view of schools and some will show inside layouts. Some photographs allow students to see students, while others simply show the building. The teacher will model recording the similarities and differences on a large class Venn diagram. Toward the end of the lesson, the class will decide on three or four of the most significant similarities and differences to record on their individual Venn diagrams.
Ties to National
Primary Sources
One-room schoolhouses existed across the United States. Further photos could be shown of a few schoolhouses across the country to show that not only have schools in our community changed over the years, but also schools across our country.
Annotated List of
Materials for the Lesson
This photograph shows the outside view of a brick one-room schoolhouse along with two wooden outhouses in the background.
This photograph shows the outside view of a white-paneled one-room schoolhouse labeled Cedar Grove.
This photograph shows the outside view of a white-paneled one-room school house labeled Davis School Dist. 75. Students and a teacher are posed in front of the school.
This photograph shows students and their teacher inside their one-room schoolhouse. Students are seated at their desks and there are several large maps in the background.
This photograph shows students seated at their desks in a one-room schoolhouse weaving baskets. Their teacher stands in the background in front of a large chalkboard.
This photograph shows the outside of a white-paneled one-room schoolhouse with outhouses in the background.
This photograph shows the outside of Love School with an outhouse in the background.
This photograph, taken from the front of the classroom in Love School, shows desks in rows, a book case, and maps on the walls.
This photograph, taken from the back of the classroom in Love School, shows rows of desks facing a teacherŐs desk.
This photograph shows a white-paneled one-room schoolhouse with a period automobile in front.
This photograph shows the outside of a one-room schoolhouse with boys lined up on one side, girls lined up on the other side, and a teacher standing at the door.
This newspaper article shows a photograph of the one-room Yankee Ridge schoolhouse as it stood in 1975. The article gives a brief history and description of the schoolhouse that was built in 1875 on the corner of a local farm.
Other materials needed:
