1 Dylan Scharf National University April 25, 2011 Annotated Lesson Plan Lesson Description April 25, 2011

U.S History The American Revolution Grade 11 Goals and Objectives Students will demonstrate a thorough understanding of how and why America entered into a revolution with England, and why the Declaration of Independence became such an important aspect of the war. Learning Objectives 1. Students will understand how the delegates came to believe that their freedoms were more important than their allegiance to the crown by participating in a mock Continental Congress. 2. Students will understand why did some of the delegations continued to side with the crown when their own countrymen were being killed by viewing and discussing the video John Adams. 3. Students will understand how allegiance to freedom finally became unanimous by researching the state delegation their group is assigned. Social Science Content Standard-

2 #2. Analyze the ideological origins of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers philosophy of divinely bestowed unalienable natural rights, the debates on the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights. Materials and Tools Textbook, various primary documents, power point lecture, video, and computer

based research. Procedure Day 1Learning Objective Students recall the events leading up to the American Revolution by reviewing previous information through a power point lecture and discussion. Begin with bridging to previous lesson plan regarding issues with England such as

the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party using power point, lecture and class discussion. (15 min) Preview vocabulary and review previously learned information that may be used

within the lesson using the white board and/or overhead projector. (10 min) The students will view scenes from the Continental Congress in the HBO movie

series John Adams so they can get a feeling of the Congress format, and the basic tenor of the meeting itself. The students will also have a more thorough understanding as to the reasons why some felt that revolution was not only inevitable but also greatly needed. (20 min) Day 2Learning Objective

3 Students will understand the climate in America during the time of the revolution, and have a better understanding of the events at the Continental Congress by watching John Adams and filling out the accompanying worksheet. Learning Activities Continue to show the video and discuss the Continental Congress so the students

have a greater understanding of what the convention was about. Students will complete a handout during the video that focuses on the arguments and discussions dealing with American Independence and Revolution. (20 min) The teacher will ask and answer questions to make sure that all the students

understand climate of America during the time of the revolution. (10 min) Explain group project (10 Min) Break students into 8-12 groups based on the 12 delegations at the Continental

Congress so there are groups no larger than 4. Be sure to mix groups based on different levels so any ELD students are with language proficient students, and any lower-level students are grouped with higher-level students. Groups should pick a leader who can delegate research roles to other group members such as: a member to research the delegations position, the background history of that state, a student to be in charge of the pamphlet, a student to lead the discussion, and help keep momentum of research process. (10 min) Day 3 & 4 Learning Objective Students will learn about the various differences that existed among the states regarding war, diplomacy and freedom, while at the same time getting more practice at the research

4 process. Learning Activity Spend time in library and/or computer lab so groups can research their delegations

point of view for the meeting of Congress. The teacher will make himself or herself available to answer any questions and point students in the right direction to gather information regarding their state and delegation. During the research process the groups will each create a pamphlet regarding information for that states specific point of view and reasons behind them. One pamphlet should be available for each group and the teacher during the mock meeting of Congress. (45 min) Day 5Learning Objective Students will understand how a unanimous decision was made to go to war with England for the freedom of the colonies by holding a mock Continental Congress. They will also learn how to use primary documents as evidence to support their assertions and point of view. Learning Activities Have a mock Continental Congress. Students will break up into their delegations

and discuss in a convention format the reasons as to why or why not the nation should separate from the crown of England. They must support their reasons and use primary documentation to show the historical basis of their state delegates point of view. (55 min) Reflective Assessment and Evaluation The mock convention will be assessed for a variety of factors:

1. Is the information regarding their state and delegation accurate?

5 2. Is the pamphlet information accurate and informative? 3. Did all group members have an equal part in the research and presentation? 4. Did the students show proficiency in the subject matter? 5. Are the students able to connect the matters of the Continental Congress with the American Revolution? Analysis Part I. In this 5 day lesson plan, I intend on focusing on the standards that focus on the build up to the American Revolution and the many decisions that had to be made by the Continental Congress on whether to sever ties with England. I have chosen a variety of ways in which to deliver this unit and information to the students. First and foremost would be a review of prior information so that the new lesson makes sense and they understand the events that lead up to the ensuing revolution. Aside from the review and introduction to the unit I wanted the lesson to be as hands on as possible, so I put a lot of emphasis on having the students gather the information that they need to get to the end result. Through the process of preparing for their mock Continental Congress they will have an opportunity to get better at the research process, finding credible evidence, and learn to use primary documents as a valuable resource. The role of the students is to work together to find out the truth behind the state delegation that they were assigned for the meeting of Congress, and the role of the teacher for the lesson is to first review previous material, introduce new material and then guide the students along as they prepare for the final activity.

6 The planning process was actually fun to do as it lends itself to creativity. The more creative I get with a lesson that I am planning hopefully the more interested the students will be in taking part in the activities. I first had to realize the content standard to which I was teaching, and then decide what my learning objectives were going to be. After that the creative aspect of creating the learning activities becomes the focal point. Throughout the process of creating the activities I try and also focus on how I am going to assess their knowledge throughout the unit using formative assessment, and what will be the summative assessment at the end of the unit. I need to focus more on assessment of objectives. As the teacher I worked with pointed out, I need to show how I am going to measure achievement of the learning objectives and I need to be more realistic of my time in class. I need to be sure that the lesson is going to be realistic and something that we can finish in the allotted time whether it be one day or one week. I think for my next lesson plan I would like to maybe focus on a more modern period in U.S History, or do a unit for World History as even planning the unit helps me to better reconnect with the information. Part II. Both of the educators who gave me feedback have been teaching for a very long time and had some very useful comments for me in regards to lesson planning. After reading through my lesson plan Jack Bauer, a U.S History teacher at Great Oak high School suggested that I make sure that my learning objectives are all measurable; that I can do formative assessment throughout the lesson. He said that schools generally want an objective to be met each and every day for the lesson. For

7 instance at Great Oak, they want a target written on the board for each day, and they want it to be specific. This is important because Objectives are also used to describe the sequence of learning events a teacher believes will help students achieve a given outcome. They also allow teachers to assess and chart group or individual progress (Eby, pg.53). He also said that I should refrain from using the words students will be able to because that puts it on the teacher that the students grasped the objective, when it is the student who is supposed to be learning; we just make the information available to them in the best way we can. Kurt Herbst thought that the lesson plan was pretty good and would probably make the kids pretty interested. He did suggest that I open each day with an attention getter, something that makes the kids excited to come to class. If you have a ritual each day like, what happened in history today, or music from a specific time period and they have to guess what it is and where it is from, then the kids will actually be excited to come to class and see what you are going to do. Once you have their attention it is much easier to move forward into a lesson. Mr. Herbst also suggested that I embed video into the power point if possible because it can break up the monotony of the slides and make the lecture more interesting for the students because, If our curriculum is going to keep pace with and prepare our students to thrive on the changes in our social and economic environment, it must go beyond the teaching of facts and concepts to involve students in problem solving and help them use multiple sources of information (Eby, pg. 233).I have observed Kurt a few times and he has great control of his classes attention by being very

8 animated, walking around the room as he talks, and making the kids responsible for what they are learning. Both Jack and Kurt thought that my lesson plan would be effective and that it was realistic enough to put into action. They both liked the idea of getting the students to gather the information that they need to succeed in their summative assessment and they thought the mock Congress would be a good activity to keep them interested in the lesson. Their feedback was very useful to me in that it did help me to make a few revisions. I made my revisions to the plan in red so I could see exactly what I changed without having to search for it. I added assessment to each learning objective and changed the time I allotted myself for each days lesson, as Jack pointed out to me that if I give 55 minutes of learning, I will have no time for announcements, taking role, or finalizing the class. I reduced my teaching time to either 45 or 50 minutes to allow for some leeway. Not much really surprised me as I expected to need to make some changes. I did think that the plan would need far more revising than suggested, but I felt like I did a pretty good job for my first 5-day plan. I was a little afraid that this plan would take to long for the kind of information covered, but both teachers assured me that this time period is very important and a week is fine to cover it. I thought their feedback was very useful, although it would have been nice had it been a bit more formal. Both teachers are very laid back and preferred talking with me about it than writing down their feedback. I realized that you can write a lesson plan for a day and sometimes create a unit plan out of it, much like I did for this class. I realized that I could cover a lot

9 more information, so I decided to go deeper into this subject and create my 5-day unit out of it. I also think that the students will get more out of the experience if they know that they will be working toward a greater end, and one that will need their active participation. As far as unit planning is concerned I like how I can spread the subject out over more time and really brainstorm different ideas to make it work better for the students. By doing this I am diving deeper into myself as an educator and exploring the things that I enjoy and turning them into things I can use to help make the students connect with the content and by developing a creative atmosphere at your school is vital to the students with creative potential; it also opens avenues of expression for all the students. Many of todays students have not had exposure to many forms of creative expression, and the school can open these doors for them (Eby, pg 190). It also helped to realize how much I really do want to teach, and not just stand in front of the class but also create a world of knowledge that I can share with my students. I think it is very important for students to realize that the world is far bigger than they are and History helps them to see this. It is my job to find the best way to help them connect with this fact. I think that student connection to the teacher, class and content is by far the most valuable aspect of learning. If we can hit the mark on all of these we can make a lasting impression on the students. When we make the students feel like they are important, and that their education matters to us, they are far more likely to follow suit. Learning how to connect these values with the activities in this course has been very helpful in creating a well-rounded understanding of what really needs to be done when I enter a classroom.

10 Works Cited Eby W. Judy, et al. Teaching in K-12 Schools 5th edition, Pearson Education, Boston, 2011.