Grade 1 Fall History — Then and Now, Family Histories, and How We Know What Happened
Lesson 5 30 min hist.g1.f.lesson_05

Generation - what does it mean? Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey

Skills targeted
Objectives
  • Students can define 'generation' as ~25-30 years.
  • Students can place 3 generation tiers (child, parent, grandparent) on the Living-Memory Timeline.
Vocabulary
generationdecade25 yearssteptierchildparentgrandparentgreat-grandparent

Lesson plan

Warm-up

4 min

Morning Meeting Group Activity - children sit in a 'generation line' from youngest sibling to oldest grandparent (using volunteer-shared family info from yesterday's homework). Teacher: 'Each STEP we just took is about 25 YEARS. We call each step a GENERATION.'

Teacher moves
  • Form a 4-step generation line in the classroom
  • Each step ~25 years apart - mark with floor tape
  • Affirm 'YOU are in the youngest generation in this room'

Direct instruction

13 min

A GENERATION is a STEP in family time. Each generation is about 25-30 years - the time between when a parent is born and when their child is born. Listen to Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say. It is the story of THREE GENERATIONS of one family - the grandfather, the father, and Allen Say himself. The family moved between Japan and America. Notice how each generation lives in a different time AND a different place.

Key examples
  • Notice - each generation has its OWN story but also CONNECTS to the others.
    model Pause after each spread to ask 'which generation is this? grandfather, father, or Allen Say himself?'
    prompt Read Grandfather's Journey aloud - first 6 spreads
  • Notice - 25 years between each generation.
    model Grandfather born ~1900 (place on great-grandparent band); father ~1925 (great-grandparent band); Allen Say 1937 (grandparent band)
    prompt Place 3 generation tiles on the wall timeline (MG-2) using Say's family as the model
Checks for understanding
  • How many years are in a generation? (About 25-30.)
  • Name the 3 generations in Allen Say's family book.
Media
M-1-F-CHR-05-A Illustration
Reproduction of Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey cover (Houghton Mifflin 1993, Caldecott Medal) showing the grandfather

Reproduction of Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey cover (Houghton Mifflin 1993, Caldecott Medal) showing the grandfather in Western suit holding a hat at a steamship railing, ocean behind. Also a reproduction of the interior spread showing the three-generation parallel: grandfather young in Japan / father / Allen Say in America. Used to model 3-generation family-history.

Guided practice

8 min
Tasks
  • Stack 4 generation-step blocks in order CHILD/PARENT/GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDPARENT
    scaffold Pre-color-coded blocks
  • Add own generation tiles (own + 1-2 above) to MG-2 wall timeline
    scaffold Adult helps with year placement
Media
M-1-F-CHR-05-B Manipulative Physical / non-image

Set of 4 wooden step-blocks color-coded: yellow CHILD (smallest, 3-inch), blue PARENT (4-inch), green GRANDPARENT (5-inch), sepia GREAT-GRANDPARENT (6-inch). Each block has the tier name printed on the face. Stack from largest at the back to smallest at the front to form a staircase.

Formative assessment

3 min
Exit ticket
  • Name the 4 generation tiers from youngest to oldest.
  • About how many YEARS is in one generation?
scoring Both correct = mastery; 1 correct = practicing; 0 = re-teach with blocks

Closure

2 min
Moves
  • Update wall timeline with new generation tiles
  • Preview: tomorrow - then-and-now in detail with artifacts

Homework

5 min
Tasks
  • Tonight, count how many generations are in your home or in your family that you can name. Bring the count tomorrow.

Exercises in this lesson

hist.g1.f.chr.generation_concept.ex_01
Stack the 4 generation blocks in order: ME, PARENT, GRANDPARENT, GREAT-GRANDPARENT.
 stack generation blocks · diff 1

Differentiation

Scaffolds
  • Block stack pre-arranged
  • Picture-cued generation cards
  • Sentence frame
Extensions
  • Calculate your great-grandparent's approximate birth year
  • Add a 5th tier 'great-great-grandparent'
English Learners
  • Bilingual generation cards (Japanese: ojiisan/otousan/boku from book)
  • Wait-time +5
Ieps 504s
  • 3-step block set instead of 4
  • Pre-stacked
  • Extended time

Teacher notes

Allen Say is Japanese-American - his memoir is a love-letter to two homelands and the generations that bridge them. This pairs intentionally with The Keeping Quilt (Russian-Jewish-American immigration, Lesson 4) to show that immigration family histories cross many traditions. CRITICAL math link: 25-30 years per generation is a useful estimate but not exact. Some students will have parents who are 20 or 45 - both are real generations. Don't enforce the average.