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Teach PA History
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One-Room Schoolhouse in Pennsylvania
Equipment & Supplies
  • Projector (from computer or slides) to project images of students at class in one-room schoolhouse
Procedures

Day One



Preparation: You are going to create three stations for your students to explore different aspects of one-room schools. Before class begins print out the Student Worksheets and Student Handouts 1-3. On the back of Student Worksheet 1 and Student Worksheet 3 attach the corresponding handouts. This will give students a chance to interpret the object themselves and then learn a bit more about the object by turning the worksheet over. To save time, you may wish to set up the stations prior to class as well.

1. Have students close their eyes and ask them to describe their classroom. To prompt description, ask the following questions:

Ø What objects are in the classroom?
Ø Who is in the classroom (grade level, number of people, teacher, etc.)?
Ø What is being learned? (subject matter)

Now have students open their eyes and see if they would like to add any further observations.

2. Next, ask your students what schoolrooms might have been like one hundred or more years ago. Project Daggett One-Room Schoolhouse. This is an exterior view of Daggett Historic One-Room School founded in 1868. This school is located in the village of Daggett, Pennsylvania (Jackson Township, Tioga County). Find this on a map for students to see. Ask students what they notice about the size and location of this place. Point out that most one-room schoolhouses were located in the country or small villages/towns. Ask students to imagine and allow them to speculate about the same questions they answered about their classroom:

Ø What objects are in this schoolhouse?
Ø Who is in this classroom (grade level, number of people, teacher, etc.)?
Ø What is being learned? (subject matter)


3. "Now, let's go inside the schoolhouse." Show Interior view of Daggett Schoolhouse and Another Interior view of Daggett Schoolhouse. From viewing the interior of the school students can begin to answer the question of what classrooms where like one hundred years or more ago. Ask the class what they notice about the interior, and pull out specific items to mention. For instance:

Ø What objects are in the schoolhouse?
(1) One of the interior pictures has a visible American flag. Point out the flag and mention that students pledged allegiance to the flag (as they do), but that the flag was different - the number of stars was less than fifty.
(2) Can they guess whose portrait is at the front of the classroom? [George Washington]
(3) Blackboard
(4) Desks with readers on them.
(5) A map is posted on the wall.

Ø Who is in the classroom? [This cannot be answered strictly from looking at the images. Explain to students that at this school, there was one teacher that taught first through eighth grades. There were approximately twenty or thirty students attending depending on the year. There was also a music teacher that travelled and taught at several schools.]

Ø What is being learned?
(1) The room has a piano in it, so this school was fortunate enough to have a traveling music teacher!
(2) Geography (Map on wall/globe.)
(3) Reading (Readers on desk)

4. Students have looked at one example of a one-room schoolhouse from Pennsylvania. Schoolhouses, however, were prevalent all the country in the 19th and early 20th century. Using material artifacts and primary sources from different schools, students are going to explore the objects, the people, and the subjects of learning of a one-room schoolhouse. Divide the class into three stations.

Station One: This station will look at the question of objects in one-room schoolhouses.
Materials include: Student Handout 1-Objects of the One-Room Schoolhouse and Student Worksheet 1-Objects of the One-Room Schoolhouse.

Station Two: Students at this station will explore the people who attend one-room schoolhouses.
Materials: Student Handout 2-People of the One-Room Schoolhouse and Student Worksheet 2-People of the One-Room Schoolhouse

Station Three: This group will uncover what students learned at school.
Materials: Student Handout 3-Learning at the One-Room Schoolhouse and Student Worksheet 3-Learning at the One-Room Schoolhouse.

4. Have students visit each station, rotating each group approximately every ten minutes. You can use the accompanying teacher guides as a resource during this exercise and later for assessment.

5. Conclude the day asking students to think about the similarities and differences of the one-room schoolhouse to their school today. Tomorrow they are going to writing about these comparisons.

Day Two



1. Place students in groups of three and pass out Student Worksheet 4-Comparing Schools. Direct students to work on listing differences and similarities between the one-room schoolhouses and their own. For possible responses see Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 4-Comparing Schools.

2. Move one student from each group to the group next to his/hers, and then have each group complete Student Worksheet 5-Venn Diagram. This is a graphic organizer demonstrating similarities and differences in one-room schools of the past and schools today. The corresponding teacher guide, Teacher Guide to Student Worksheet 5-Venn Diagram, offers some suggested responses in a chart.

3. Share information in a large-group discussion. Draw some conclusions as a class.

4. For their final assignment, students will write an essay describing three similarities and three different of one-room school houses of yesterday and their schools today. Distribute Student Worksheet 6-Prewriting Activity. This will help students organize their thoughts for the assignment. Have students begin working on their prewriting sheets with remaining class time, and begin to write their first draft. If they have not finished during class, assign as homework for completion
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