Lesson Plans:
Family and Household Structure
Lesson Content
Essential Questions
What is a Family and Who is in it?
Overview
Before students take on roles as members of 1830s families, they will explore what makes a family and the mutual responsibilities of family members. As historians, students will learn techniques that will allow them to gather and analyze information, as well as compare and contrast families of today with families of the past.
Skills
Students will utilize the following skills:
Grade Level
Upper Elementary, Middle
Goals
Students will explore the many varieties of families today and in the past. By investigating their own families and taking a closer look at the roles, functions, how and where we spend our time, students will develop the skills necessary to investigate, compare and contrast families in another time and culture.
Objectives
1. Students will define “family” today; what families provide for their members, how and where they spend their time, and the roles of family members.
2. Students will identify a variety of cultural traditions and celebrations that are common in the United States today.
3. Students will demonstrate knowledge of how advice is passed from generation to generation.
4. Students will be introduced to two primary source documents and learn how to interpret them.
Assessment
1. Mapping activities produced by students showing basic understanding of the function of families today, family roles, use of space inside and outside the home, and how family members spend their time.
2. Brainstormed list of cultural traditions and celebrations common today.
3. Writing assignment describing advice passed down from generation to generation.
4. Journal entries written by students.
Lesson Keywords
National Standards
What is a Family and Who is in it?
Overview
Before students take on roles as members of 1830s families, they will explore what makes a family and the mutual responsibilities of family members. As historians, students will learn techniques that will allow them to gather and analyze information, as well as compare and contrast families of today with families of the past.
Skills
Students will utilize the following skills:
- Collect and analyze data.
- Read and interpret primary source documents.
Grade Level
Upper Elementary, Middle
Goals
Students will explore the many varieties of families today and in the past. By investigating their own families and taking a closer look at the roles, functions, how and where we spend our time, students will develop the skills necessary to investigate, compare and contrast families in another time and culture.
Objectives
1. Students will define “family” today; what families provide for their members, how and where they spend their time, and the roles of family members.
2. Students will identify a variety of cultural traditions and celebrations that are common in the United States today.
3. Students will demonstrate knowledge of how advice is passed from generation to generation.
4. Students will be introduced to two primary source documents and learn how to interpret them.
Assessment
1. Mapping activities produced by students showing basic understanding of the function of families today, family roles, use of space inside and outside the home, and how family members spend their time.
2. Brainstormed list of cultural traditions and celebrations common today.
3. Writing assignment describing advice passed down from generation to generation.
4. Journal entries written by students.
Lesson Keywords
- Role
- 1. function performed.
2. a character assigned for a part. - Primary Source
- Original records that have survived from the past, such as written documents, pictures, physical objects, oral histories or memories created at or near the time of the event.
- Nuclear Family
- A group consisting of a mother, father and their children (biological, adopted, or “step.”) Members include those who have grown up and moved away, or are living elsewhere.
- Household
- (Co-resident domestic group) A group of people living together in a single dwelling unit and sharing eating and living space.
- Family Ties
- Factors that hold families together (or pull them apart). Family ties are influenced by such things as:
- Love and Affection
- Values: Personal and Societal
- Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage
- Economic Factors
- Mobility
- Love and Affection
- Family Structure
- The make-up of a family including the size, relationships, and others living in a household.
- Family Demographics
- Statistical information about families. Answers to questions such as:
- At what age do people marry?
- How many children do they have?
- How often do they get divorced?
- How likely are children to die? How long will children live?
- How likely are parents or grandparents to die? How long will adults live?
- At what age do people marry?
- Family
- We often use the word “family” to include far more than the nuclear family—grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews. In some cultural traditions, people who are not related by biology or marriage can be considered family members.
National Standards
- NSS-USH.K-4.1
- Living and Working Together in Families and Communities, Now and Long Ago
- Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago.
- Understands the history of the local community and how communities in North America varied long ago.
- NSS-USH.5-12.4
- Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
- Understands United States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861, and how it affected relations with external powers and Native Americans.
- Understands how the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions.
- Understands the extension, restriction, and reorganization of political democracy after 1800.
- Understands the sources and character of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period.
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