Go For the Gold! For Grades 3-5

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The focus for students in this age group is to gain an understanding of the Olympic Games and focus on the current events aspect of the games. Students will be writing and presenting their material.

OBJECTIVE

Students will:

1. Use Web technology to learn about ancient Greece and the Olympic Games
2. Build vocabulary skills
3. Explore the history of the Olympic Games
4. Make connections between Greek and English
5. Make and record a persuasive speech
6. Write a newspaper article on the 2004 Olympics

 

MATERIALS

1. Go for the Gold Activities
2. Organizer Pattern Timeline (PDF)
3. 5 Ws (PDF)
4. Study List (PDF)

SET UP AND PREPARE

1. As you plan your lessons, you may wish to print out any reading assignment pages and staple them into a book for individual students.
2. Depending on time available, the grade level, and maturity level of each class, activities can be facilitated as independent work, collaborative group work, or whole class instruction. Teachers may use the guide to teach a complete unit or break the content into smaller learning components. Some suggestions are:
• Create a class Olympic Committee to listen and judge individual speeches.
• Create small groups of students to research the Olympics in different decades or different Olympic sports and present their findings to the class.
3. If a computer is available for each student, they can work on their own. Hand out the URLs or write them on the board so students will have a guide through the activity.
4. If you are working in a lab, set up the computers to be on the desired Web site as students walk into class. If there are fewer computers than students, group the students by reading level. Assign each student a role: a "driver" who navigates the web, a timer who keeps the group on task, and a note taker. If there are more than three students per computer, you can add roles like a team leader, a team reporter, etc.
5. If you are working in a learning station in your classroom, break out your class into different groups. Have rotating groups working on the computer(s), reading printed background information, prewriting their speech or newspaper article, researching and writing about the Olympics.

REPRODUCIBLES

1. Organizer Pattern: Timeline (PDF)
   
2. 5 w's (PDF)
   
3. Study List (PDF)
   

DIRECTIONS

Background (1 day)
Hold a class discussion on the upcoming Olympic Games. Ask students if they remember the last Olympics. Prompt students to talk about why the games are held, and the spirit of international cooperation that the games are meant to foster. At the end of the discussion, tell students that they are going to look at the history of the Olympics in order to know more about the present day Olympics especially when they watch them on TV in August.

Discussion questions may include:

• What do you see as some of the differences between the theme and spirit of the Ancient Olympics and the modern Olympics?
• Why are the Olympics important to the world?
• Are the Olympics important to you?
• If you were on the International Olympic Committee, what arguments would persuade you to choose a specific location for the next Olympics?
• What are some of the themes you see in current events stories about the Olympics today? 

History of the Games
Either hand out printouts of the background article on the Olympic Games or direct students, in groups of two or three, to the computers where the article is already loaded. Once they have read through the articles, students should raise their hands in order to receive the Organizer Pattern: Timeline (PDF). Once they have the handout, students should go through the Olympics in Photos activity. As they click through the photos, students should fill out their timelines with appropriate details.

If there is time at the end of the class, have students return to talk about what they learned. Did they find any facts that surprised them? What were they and why were they surprised. Looking at their filled out timelines, do students want to make any guesses as to what kind of historic events could happen in this upcoming Olympics?

Have students hand in their filled out timelines for teacher assessment.

Note
Depending on the time available, you may want to choose either the "In My Backyard" or the "Olympics in the News" activity. Alternately, you can have students choose one of these activities to complete. If different groups of students complete different activities, you may want to set up some time

In My Backyard (1-3 days)
Print out the article "How Olympic Locations are Chosen" for students to read as homework. The next day, hold a class discussion. Now that students have an idea of what past Olympic Games were like, ask students if it makes sense for a city to host the Olympics. On the board, write the pros and cons to hosting the Olympics. Then, ask students if they would want the Olympics to come to their hometown. What would they like about it? How could it help their city or town? Add these comments to the board.

Direct students to the Writing with Writers: Speechwriting activity and tell them that they will be writing and presenting persuasive speeches that will convince the International Olympic Committee to bring the Olympics to their hometown. If there is more class time for the project, have students complete the activity the following day. Or, these final steps should be done as homework. Some class time should be devoted for practice with one another before recording their speech. Check back within a month to see if your speeches were published online!

Extend This Lesson
Ask for volunteer students to present their speech to the class. As each student presents their speech, tell the rest of the class that they are acting as the International Olympic Committee. The Committee members should judge each speech on clarity and whether it addresses each of the important needs pointed out in the "How Olympic Locations are Chosen" article.

Olympics in the News and Be a Reporter (1-3 days)
Tell students that they are going to be reporters on the scene at the Olympics. As reporters, they must read what other reporters are reporting on the games and then write their own newspaper article, and they will do this with Scholastic News online.

Direct students to the Scholastic News special report on the Olympics and hand each student a printed copy of the 5 Ws (PDF). Either pick a topic for them to explore (a specific event, an athlete, Greece, etc.) or have them pick a topic on their own. They should fill out the 5 Ws organizer as they explore and read different articles. Give them the rest of the class period, and have them hand the filled organizers for teacher assessment.

On the second day, have the Be a Reporter game loaded on the computer and hand back the completed 5 Ws graphic organizers. Instruct students to follow the steps in the activity, write the best newspaper article they can, and print out the results. Before printing the article, students should highlight the entire article, photo and caption, copy everything and paste into a word document. Save the World document, print the article and switch their article with a peer. For homework, students should read through their peer's printed article, writing notes on the printout.

On the third day, students should hand back their edited articles, and students should go through the steps of the Be a Reporter game, using their saved Word document and completing a final draft. This final version should be printed and handed in along with the original draft for a final grade.

Get in the Game (1-2 days)
As a wrap-up, cross-curricular activity for the Olympics, have students play the "It's Greek to Me" activity.

Regroup the students and ask them what clues they have gathered on how the ancient Greeks have influenced the Olympic Games and our modern society. Ask them about the themes of the games, the politics of the ancient Greeks, and the actual sports themselves.

Explain to the students that the Greeks also influenced the English language and they are going to find out through the "It's Greek to Me" activity. If a computer is available for each student, students should play the game individually. If students are paired to a computer, have one student as the driver and one student as the decision maker and reverse these roles halfway through the class. Alternately, if fewer computers are available, print a study list (PDF) for students to review as other students test their knowledge. Encourage students to play the game often enough to receive a medal which they can print out and put on a bulletin board.

SUPPORTING ALL LEARNERS

International Reading Association (IRA) & National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards:

Election 2004 helps students meet the following standards

• Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States.
• Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions.
• Students use a variety of technological informational resources (libraries, databases, computer networks) to gather and synthesize information to create and communicate knowledge.
• Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• Students use spoken, written, and visual language for learning, persuasion, and exchange of information.

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

Election 2004 meets the standards of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), which promote the development of students as good citizens in a culturally diverse, interdependent world. The content and activities of this project are especially appropriate for the themes of:

Power, Authority and Governance
Provide experiences for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance.

Individual Development and Identity
Students learn to ask questions such as "What influences how people learn, perceive, and grow?"

Culture
Students learn how to understand multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points.

Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Students learn about how institutions are formed, what controls and influences them, and how they can influence individuals and culture.

Civic Ideals and Practices
Students gain an understanding of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.

LESSON EXTENSION

Ask for volunteer students to present their speech to the class. As each student presents their speech, tell the rest of the class that they are acting as the International Olympic Committee. The Committee members should judge each speech on clarity and whether it addresses each of the important needs pointed out in the "How Olympic Locations are Chosen" article.

ASSESS STUDENTS

Formal Assessment 

For It's Greek to Me:
The "It's Greek to Me" activity can be graded based on scores and improvement. Students can track how many times they played the game and number the printouts for the games where they win a medal. Check for improvement and retention. You can create a multiple choice quiz of your own through the Teacher Toolkit to reinforce the vocabulary words and spelling.

For In My Backyard:
The persuasive speech should be graded on content as well as delivery. Students should write clearly organized, well through out speeches, and they should practice these speeches with peers or the teacher for evaluation on delivery. Make sure you listen to the speech at some point in case a speech is not selected for publication. See persuasive speech rubric below.

For: Newspaper Article
Students in grades 3-5 will be writing a newspaper article based on the current events of the Olympic Games. They will focus on one topic which should be graded based on the rubric below.

Informal Assessment

Assess students as they are involved with class discussions and from their filled out KWL and Timeline (PDF) organizers. Base your assessment on student participation and discussion. Has the student made connections through the activities and the discussions? Has the student filled out the timeline completely and the KWL chart with thoughtful questions with researched answers?

Newspaper Article Rubric

 

ARTICLE	Olympic Values in Gym Class Steve Sloan is the physical education teacher at Public School 102 in East Harlem, New York. He has been blind since birth. But the fact he can't see has never stopped Sloan, who works out seven days a week.
ONLINE ACTIVITY	Blogging the Olympics The city of Chicago is hosting the Olympic Media Summit April 13-16, and Scholastic News is covering the athletic extravaganza.