Lesson Title: 
César E. Chávez Time Line

Grade Level: 
Grade One Lesson 2

Unit of Study: 
A Child’s Place in Time and Space

History-Social Science Standard: 
1.4   Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and things change over time while others stay the same.

Correlation to K-8 California Adopted Textbooks: 
Harcourt Brace: A Child’s Place.  Unit 1: School Days.  Lesson Introduction; Lesson 4.  Unit 2: At Home with My Family.  Lesson 4.  Unit 3: Living in a community.  Unit 5: My Country, My Heroes.  Introduction

McGraw-Hill: My World.  Unit 5: It Happened in America.

Setting the Context: 
Throughout the lifespan of César E. Chávez, many changes happened for farm workers and other people of Hispanic backgrounds.  Though there were many changes, some things have stayed the same, like the fact that people are still fighting for the rights of others, we are still working towards the Golden Rule, people are still being treated unfairly and we need leaders to evoke change.

Focus Question: 
What happens in the world in the span of César E. Chávez’s lifetime?  How can a person’s life change the world they live in?  How is his life the same or different from yours?

Expected Learning Outcomes: 
Students will be able to put a time line in order.  They will identify factors of change and similarities and differences between the life of Chávez and their own.  Students will be able to understand how Chávez helped to change the world he lived in.

Assessment: 
Students will, as a class, create a time line by picking out important dates and events they hear in a biography read aloud by the teacher.  Teacher observes that students pick out relevant events and can explain the changes that take place on the time line.  Teacher also looks for order in the time line and correct use of dates. 

Key Concepts: 
Change occurs over time
There are similarities and differences in all types of people, past and present, to their own lives

Essential Vocabulary:  
time line
date
event
lifetime
order
year
change

Primary Sources: 
K-2 Biography of César E. Chávez 
Storybook that chronicles the life of a person real or made up

Visuals: 
Pictures of César E. Chávez and his family during various times in their lives, picture 1, picture 2, picture 3

Procedure

Motivation:  
Teacher reads a book that tells the story of the life of a person beginning at birth.  Teacher reads the book and leads a discussion on time lines.  What is a time line?  What is a life span?  What kinds of events would one put on a time line?  Why would we want to do time lines?  What can we tell by looking at a time line of a person?

Making Connections:  
Teacher reviews the life of César E. Chávez.  Students discuss the similarities and differences between his life then and their lives now.

Vocabulary Activities:
Teacher goes over the vocabulary words and gives an explanation or allows the students to provide an explanation of each word.

Password:  Teacher gives the class clues to what vocabulary word they are looking at.  Class tries to guess what word it is.  When they determine the word, the teacher places it on the board under the title “Word Bank” for student’s use later.

Guided Instruction:  
The class works together with the teacher to build a time line of César Chávez’s life.  They go over the story of his life and pull out important events.  Teacher writes these events on the board or on a large piece of paper.  The teacher asks the students to make their own time lines of their lives.  These time lines can be posted around the large one of César E. Chávez.