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Lesson Plan : A Trip Through the Colonies

Teacher Name:
 Mike Sweet
Grade:
 Grade 7-8
Subject:
 Social Studies

Topic:
 Life in the American colonies before the Revolution.
Content:
 Students read descriptions of colonial life, which cover 18 different topics from religion to contact with Native Americans. They will then make notes on the various categories, then use that information to write a "London News" story about colonial life from the perspective of a British observer. Lincoln Public Schools 8th Grade Social Studies Standards 8.2.2 Describe the critical events leading up to the revolutionary period.
Goals:
 Students will gain an understanding of life in colonial America through summarizing information, choosing a theme, selecting evidence supporting the theme, finally creating a news story on the theme.
Objectives:
 Acting as English reporters, students will read descriptions of colonial life and summarize that information. Students will then choose a general theme of colonial life, e.g. family, and choose multiple categories from there notes that connect to describe that theme. Students will finally write a "London News" story, from the perspective of an English person. The story will show evidence of a minimum of three categories of information.
Materials:
 18 placards and descriptive passages on colonial life topics, Instruction sheets, "reporters" notes worksheets, "London News" worksheet. Kitchen timer.
Introduction:
 Day 1 "What do you like to read about in the newspaper?" A short discussion with the class. Students will discuss that people like to read about what goes on in daily life. Day 2 "Define perspective" Class will discuss the meaning of perspective and viewpoint.
Development:
 Explanation of the lesson will be both written and verbal. A short instruction sheet will be handed out at the start of the lesson, and instructions on how to move around the room to take notes will be posted on the board. The teacher will guide students through the process of selecting a topic and deciding if they have information on enough topics to complete the story.
Practice:
 Explanation of the lesson will be both verbal and written. At the start of day 1, the teacher will walk through the short instruction sheet. The students will move either singly or in pairs through the 18 stations, and the instructions for this process will be on the whiteboard. Students will have a set amount of time at each station, from 3 to 6 minutes, monitored by a kitchen timer. At the start of day 2, the teacher will explain that students will need to choose a theme to write their story about. The teacher will write the student ideas on the whiteboard. Once a student chooses a theme, the teacher will explain that students will need from 3 to 5 topics written into the story. Students will have approximately 8-10 topics completed. Once a them is chosen, students will have an additional 15 minutes to go to stations to "do more research" on their topic. At this point, students will begin writing their story.
Accommodations:
 In writing the story, students can choose the number of topics they use to develop their story. The amount of notes a student will take on the particular topic can reflect the student's processing abilities, and the amount of time allotted to each station can be adjusted for differing abilities.
Checking For Understanding:
 Students will be assessed by the teacher during the note taking phase of the lesson. This is easily done by making sure the students are filling out the worksheet. The teacher can stop the lesson if students have common questions and re-explain the instructions. Assessment of the story portion of the lesson will be centered on 3 areas. 1. Students will be graded based on the number of topics used to support the theme.(3-C, 4-B, 5-A) 2. Students will be graded based on including the basic article parts, who, what, when, where, and how.(3-C, 4-B, 5-A) 3. Evidence of perspective. Students will demonstrate through description the perspective of a British reporter.
Closure:
 After grading, students will have the opportunity to read their stories out loud to the class. Students will also have opportunity to rewrite their story, and must do so if it receives a grade lower then a C.
Evaluation:
 
Teacher Reflections:
 

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