Grade 5 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 3, Lesson 3

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
America Will Be

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 3, Lesson 3: Why Study History? (pp. 70-73)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Continuity Studying history helps us feel empathy with people of the past and understand our world history.

Begin by asking students to tell what they learn by studying history. List students' responses and have them give examples for each answer they give.

Display a picture of and talk about a historical person in the past such as Daniel Boone, Christopher Columbus, or Harriet Tubman. Discuss what that person was like and how that person is like people they know today. Then ask them how knowing about famous people in the past can help us. Conclude the discussion by pointing out that we can understand people today by studying and understanding people in the past.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Ask students to write a paragraph that tells why it is important for us to understand things that happened in the past.
Have students think of an event that happened in the past and draw a picture of it. Then have them draw a picture of something that has happened lately that reminds them of that event.

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