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The title of our unit is “Coming of Age: La Quinceañera & the Sweet 16.” 

Our big ideas are that we want the students to understand where the concept of a Quinceañera and a Sweet 16 celebration comes from, why it is celebrated as well as how. We also want the students to understand and practice how to plan one of these celebrations.

Rationale: Students in 4th grade are getting close to their 15th and 16th birthdays and they are starting to grow up. Each culture has its own type of “Coming of Age” ritual. We decided to use this unit as an opportunity for these students to learn more about and compare the “US” ritual of a Sweet 16 and the “Hispanic” ritual of a Quinceañera. Since the students are getting closer to their own 15th and 16th birthdays have likely attended a “coming of age” ritual as a guest, helped prepare for one, or are thinking about their own celebration in the near future. Comparing both of these celebrations and cultures relates to IL Social Science Standard 18 A compare characteristics of culture as reflected in language, literature, the arts, traditions and institutions. Additionally we will being using the IL Fine Arts Standard 26.b 2d Apply skills and knowledge necessary to create and perform in one or more of the arts, demonstrate knowledge and skills to create works of visual art using problem solving, observing, designing, sketching and constructing to guide our lessons as the students create their own coming of age celebrations, including an invitation. Our plans for this unit also include IL Math standard CC.4.NBT.4 use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic. Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. (Grade 4 expectations in this domain are limited to whole numbers less than or equal to 1,000,000. A range of algorithms may be used.). Using math as a part of the unit will help our students understand what a budget is, how important they are as well as allow them to explore ways to stay within a budget as they plan their celebrations. Since this will be a bilingual unit we will also use the following standards to help guide our students in becoming more proficient in English TESOL Goal 2 Standard 1** To use English to achieve academically in all content areas: Students will use English to interact in the classroom, IL ELP Standard 5 **English Language Learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Social Studies and WIDA (English) Standard 1 Speaking – Express connected ideas to relate personal information or opinions using picture prompts. The other standards that were used are as follows: Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science ** 16.E.1 (W) ** Compare depictions of the natural environment that are found in myths, legends, folklore and traditions and ** 17.A.1a ** Identify physical characteristics of places, both local and global (e.g., locations, roads, regions, bodies of water). There were also Illinois Fine Arts Standards ** 27.A.1b ** Identify how the arts contribute to communication, celebrations, occupations and recreation and ** 26.B.1d **Visual Arts: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create visual works of art using manipulation, eye-hand coordina­tion, building and imagination. Please use the navigation bar on the right to move through the rest of our unit!