Milwaukee Timeline: Interdisciplinary Lesson

Lesson Title
Milwaukee History
Unit Title

Date
4th Grade
Subject/Grade Level/Lesson Duration

Section A. Lesson Preparation

Rationale Why is it important for students to learn the content of the lesson?
It is important for students to learn about the city that they live, because it will give them
a stronger connection with their home city. Milwaukee has a strong and important history
that will help students understand how and why Milwaukee came to be. Through learning
Milwaukees history, students will create an appreciation for the city and develop ideas
about how to improve the city. It is important for students to know that Milwaukee has
not always been how it is today.
Description of Learners What factors must be considered in order to accommodate the
diversity of learners in your class?
1. What are your students developmental assets? (Cognitive? Physical? Social?
Emotional? Motivational?)
There are 23 students in my classroom at Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning.
All of the students are African American and from a low socio-economic status. All of the
students are proficient in English, but are at low reading levels.
2. How can the personal/cultural/community assets of your students can be
utilized in this lesson?
This unit is about Milwaukee history; students are able to use their personal knowledge
about their experience living in Milwaukee. Students will be able to use their knowledge
of United States history to help support their understanding during this lesson. Students
live in Milwaukee which help support their understanding of this lesson.
3. What prior knowledge, skills, and understanding must students have in
order to successfully engage in this lesson?
Students must be able to conduct research online to support their understanding of this
lesson. Students will also have to work cooperatively in groups. This unit incorporates
several 21st century skills, including creativity, critical thinking, communication skills and
collaboration skills. All of these skills are essential for success in this lesson.
4. What preconceptions/misconceptions/misunderstandings/errors might
students have about the concepts in this lesson?

Students may have misconceptions about timelines and how they work. They also may
not understand how to create a visual representation of a historical time period.
5. What are individual learning needs in this class? What supports/
modifications/ accommodations to instruction or assessment may need to be
made? (Content? Process? Product?)
There are three students with exceptional needs. Two students are diagnosed with ADHD.
One student has anger management issues. There are several resources for these students
with exceptional needs in order to give them equal opportunities such their individualized
education programs and teacher aids. These particular students remain in the classroom as
much as possible, however they occasionally leave the classroom to work with their aids
if they need extra help on a specific topic or are behind. There is also a school social
worker as well a school counselor to support the all of the students in the classroom.
Objectives/Learner Outcomes and Assessments (formal and informal)
1.

List the measurable learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, dispositions) that

students are expected to demonstrate as a result of the lesson?

Students will understand the timeline of Milwaukee history.

Students will use their historical time period to create a room to represent the
technological advances, fashion, food, architecture, and people of their time.
Students will understand how all of the rooms fit together to tell one story of
Milwaukee history.

For each of the above outcomes, what ASSESSMENTS will you use to evaluate each of
your learning outcomes? (Give a brief description).
I will assess these objectives by observing if students work provides a visual
understanding of the historical time period in Milwaukee, and it represented in their
room. Students will be assessed on if they explain the significance of each object in their
room and why it is important to the historical time period and essential to their room.
Standards Addressed What Core State Standards (English/Language Arts, Math,
Disciplinary Literacy) or Wisconsin model academic standards (Science, Social Studies,
Foreign Language) are specifically addressed in the lesson? Please list the number and
text of the standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the
relevant part(s).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas
and expressing their own clearly.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1
Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and
information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1.B
Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
B.4.10 Explain the history, culture, tribal sovereignty, and current status of the American
Indian tribes and bands in Wisconsin
Art Standard:
Anchor Standard #6. Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
(http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/national-core-arts-standards-anchorstandards#creating)
Materials/Resources/Technology List all materials/resources/technology needed to
support instructional procedures in this lesson.
Making of Milwaukee Timeline
iPads for research
Clay
Paint
Paint brushes
Colored pencils
Tape
Glue
Scissors
Cardboard box
Fabric
Toothpicks
Toothpicks
Cotton balls
Q-tip
Construction paper
Section B: Introduction to Lesson
Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?

The purpose of this lesson is to integrate art and history. Students will be learning about
the history of Milwaukee through creating visual representation of a historical time
period. Students will understand how each piece of Milwaukee history is essential to tell
the story of Milwaukee.
Prior learning What do students know? What can they do? What are they
learning to do? How will you make connections to prior learning?
Students have already learned about the timeline of Milwaukee history, through a direct
instruction lesson. I will connect that lesson to this one by revisiting the Milwaukee
timeline that we created as a class.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make
connections to your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in
the learning activities you have planned? (HOOKS)
I will begin this lesson by introducing students to the artist, Narcissa Niblack Thorne. I
will show them her work and we will discuss her artwork. I will then have students get
out their Milwaukee history timelines that we previously created. Students will be
motivated because they will be actively creating a visual representation of Milwaukee
history.
Section C: Content/Procedures/Sequence (Include estimated time for each activity)

Content outline

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/sequence of

activities (include what you and the students will be
doing that supports diverse student needs)

Introduction to Narcissa
Niblack Thorne

I will ask students if they have any of you heard of

the artist Narcissa Niblack Thorne? (Allow for
student response). Have any of you been to the
Chicago Art Institute? (Allow for student response)
If you have, did you ever go to the bottom floor and
walk through the exhibit that displays many
miniature rooms? (Allow for student response) If
yes, what are they like? They are tiny little rooms
with great detail. These rooms represent a time
period throughout history and a specific place.
Narcissa Thorne focused on creating rooms that
represented America, Europe and Asia from the 13th
Century to the 1940s.
(Pull up PowerPoint on artist and examples of her
work)
Narcissa Niblack Thorne also went by Mrs. James
Ward Thorne. She was born in Indiana in 1882 and
passed away in Chicago in 1966. When she was a
child her uncle sent her trinket toys, which was
inspiration for her miniature rooms. Up on the
screen are a few examples of her rooms that are on
display at the Chicago Art Institute.
I will then ask students questions about the
examples on the screen:
What do you notice is about this room? What is in
this room? What colors do you see, furniture,
lighting, etc? Make a guess about what room in a
house this could be and from what year it could
possibly represent. Is it modern or does it look
older? Pay attention to all of the detail.
What do you think about this room? Lets get some
ideas up on the board! (Allow students to share
their ideas, then based upon their answers, asking
probing questions before telling them what room it
is) This room represents a kitchen from 1752 in
Pennsylvania.

Review of Timeline/Intro to
project

I will then ask students to get out their Milwaukee

timelines that we have previously created. Students
will be working in groups to create a room similar
to the work of Narcissa Niblack Thorne. Each
group will be assigned a historical time period from

the timeline. Each group gets a box, a set of colored

pencils, markers, fabric, glue, scissors, tape, clay,
paint, paintbrushes, toothpicks, cotton balls, Q-tips,
construction paper.
Visual Art Project

Students will then get into their groups and based

upon the timeline they will decide what they need
to represent in their rooms. Each group will receive
a sheet with ideas of what they could put in their
box to represent the time period. I will assist
students with this if they need help deciding what is
most important.

Room Presentations

Each group will then present their rooms, and

explain why they included each thing in their room.
Now, I will ask the class to work together to
arrange the boxes in an order that would make
sense to tell the story of Milwaukee history. Student
will understand how each of these boxes tells a
little bit of the story of Milwaukee history.

Discussion

Next, students will be engaged in a Think-PairShare. Based upon their rooms do you think that
Milwaukee is a city on the rise or decline? We will
discuss this question as a class.

Section D: Closure
Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One-two
statements that you will say at the end of the lesson)
At the end of the lesson, I will ask students to recap what we did today. I will ask about
the challenges and successes of this lesson.

Assignment What independent work will be assigned?

Students will be assigned to reflect on the room they created, and if there is anything they
would want to change or add to their room and why. What would they do differently
during this project?
Next, students will write about what is necessary for a city to be successful.
Section E: Self-Assessment and Reflection (To be completed only if and after you teach
the lesson)
1. Was the lesson successful? What DATA or EVIDENCE support your
conclusions?
I will use evidence from each groups room and research to support the success of the
lesson. I will also asses students presentations and independent assignment to conclude if
the lesson was successful.
2. Based on your conclusion above about what your students know and are able to
do (individually and collectively), what next steps in instruction are you planning?
The next thing that we will work on is based upon our rooms that represent Milwaukee
history, what is essential for a city? How does a city work?