Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject:
Central Focus:
rd
3 Grade/ Social Studies
Historical perspectives
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
Date submitted: 3/11/15
3. H.2.2 Explain how multiple perspectives are portrayed
Date taught:
3/13/15
through historical narratives.
Daily Lesson Objective:
The students will know that historical events have multiple perspectives and will be able to
explain why it is important in their own words and provide examples.
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
Communication and Collaboration,
Vocabulary):
Critical Thinking and Problem
Language Demand:
Solving
Language Function:
Vocabulary: Perspective, multiple perspective, point of
view, traditions, historical events.
Prior Knowledge: Students have been working on historical perspectives for few days know they
have a general knowledge about historical perspectives, multiple perspectives and what it
means. They have also an understanding that historical events will have more than one
perspective.
Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

During this time the teacher will ask questions that will relate
back the students prior knowledge of multiple perspectives
learned during the week. The teacher will be asking questions
such as; What is a perspective? What does the word multiple
perspectives mean? How can seeing multiple perspective help
us? Why is it important to have multiple perspectives to look
at? The teacher will also have the students relate back to
their Readers Theater plays by asking them questions in
correlation to the other ones; Can someone tell me the
multiple perspectives they had in their plays? Why was it
important that we saw both perspectives?
Today we are going to learn about multiple perspectives by
reading the book, Encounter By Jane Yolen and watching a
Brain Pop video. After reading the book we are going to fill
out a Venn diagram and explain why its important to know
multiple perspectives.
Teacher says, As I am reading the book, I want everyone to
be thinking about perspectives and see if you can find other
points of views that the story could come from.
Teacher reads the book Encounter By Jane Yolen aloud to the
students.
Teacher says, Now that we read the story can someone tell

Time

3
minutes

1
minute

25
Minutes

4. Guided Practice

me whose perspective the story is from? (a childs, a young

boys, first person) Well how do you know that? (talks in first
person using words like MY, shows a picture of a boy, the book
says so by saying you are just a child) What was the story
about? (How strangers came to the Native Americans land
and took young children when they left, a boys dream that
bad things would happen when those people came, etc...)
Does anyone know who the strangers are or could be? What
about the chief of them? (captain, someone military)
Now we are going to watch a short Brain Pop video about
Christopher Columbus
Students watch Brain Pop video.
Teacher says, Why do you think I showed you this video? Do
you think that the book Encounter and this Christopher
Columbus video have anything in common? (yes, they both
have Native Americans and the Native Americans are taken in
both) Do you think that Christopher Columbus could be that
Chief that the young boy talks about? (maybe, they kind of
have the same outfit on) Now I am going to tell you a secret,
that man in the story is Christopher Columbus. The book
Encounter tells another perspective of what happens when
Christopher Columbus discovers the land that the Native
Americans live on. What do you think about these two
stories?
Teacher will then say, This book is an excellent example of
how multiple perspectives are portrayed through historical
narratives. It allows us to see Christopher Columbus
exploration from the perspective of young Indian boy. I think
many of us have only heard Christopher Columbus exploration
told from Christopher Columbus perspective. Now we are able
to see how the Native Americans felt about his exploration
and taking over the see. This is one of the reasons why its
important to study historical events through multiple
perspectives. When we study historical events through
multiple perspectives, we get the full understanding of what
happened. Do you think its important to get know the whole
story?
Teacher says, Now I want you to work with a partner and fill
out a Venn-diagram comparing and contrasting the
differences of the two perspectives you learned about today.
You are to title one section Native Americans and the other
section Christopher Columbus when you receive your paper.
I want you and your partner to come up with at least 5 points.
Before you begin lets do the first one as a class. I want you

10
minutes

5. Independent
Practice

6. Assessment
Methods of
all
objectives/skills:

7. Closure

to think how does the Encounter book point of view affect how
you think about the characters? Do they affect you the same
way or differently? (students answer) Okay well I noticed that
both perspectives show that Native Americans are being
taken, so I think I could but that in the similarities part. What
do you think? Does anyone have any questions? Okay, lets
get started!
While the students are working in partners filling out their
Venn diagrams the teacher will be walking about scaffolding
with students. If students are stuck the teacher will help
guide students to figuring out points. She will ask questions
like, how was Christopher Columbus seen in the book? Did his
character seen the same in the video? She will also be
making sure students are staying on task and understand
what they are to do.
Teacher says, Now that you have learned about the
perspective from both sides of the stories you are to answer
the following questions by yourself. The first questions asks
you to give an example of an event and give two different
10
perspectives from it. The second question asks you to answer
minutes
why is it important for us to learn about multiple perspectives
of historical events? You are to write at least 3 sentences
explaining your reasoning for each question. Does anyone
have any questions? Alright, you may begin.
Students learning will be assessed by both formative and summative
assessments. Throughout the lesson I will be taking a formative
assessment by asking students questions during the teacher input and
guided practice sections of the lesson. During the guided practice, I will
also be referring to the Venn diagram as a formative assessment. I will
use the question from the independent practice as a summative
assessment. Student will individually answer the questions. Students
are to have answered the questions with at least 3 sentences that are on
topic, to gain full mastery which would be a 3 out of 3. Partial mastery
would be having 2 sentences which would be a 2 out of 2. Anything less
would lead to the mini lesson with struggling students.
Once everyone has finished their work, the teacher will ask
students to chair their answer from the independent practice
section. As a class the students will discuss the importance of
learning about multiple perspectives. The teacher will wrap up
3-5
the discussion by saying that Multiple perspectives are
minutes
important because they allow us to see more than one point
of view. If we only saw one perspective of a story we would
not be able to fully understand what was happening.

8. Assessment
Results of
all
objectives/skills:
Targeted Students
Modifications/Accommodations:

Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:

Materials/Technology:
Book: Encounter By Jane Yolen
Brain Pop Video on Christopher Columbushttps://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/christophercolumbus/preview.we
ml
Smart board or any technology that can show Brain pop video to whole class.
Venn Diagram Worksheet-1 for each pair of 2. Around 11 copies needed for this class.
Multiple Perspectives -Assessment worksheet-1 for each student. 22 copies needed for this class.

References: All ideas used in this lesson were all created by me with help from Encounter By Jane
Yolen and Christopher Columbus Bain pop video.
Reflection on lesson:
Overall, I think this lesson went really well considering it was my first lesson I taught during my
IMB.
I did have a few obstacles though that I had to adjust out on my original lesson plan though.
First thing I had to adjust to my lesson was that I had to realize that I would not be able to teach
it all at one time because even though there is an hour for social studies at the end of the day it
goes by really fast because the students need time to pack up and stuff at the end of the day. I
worked it out with my teacher that I would read the book Encounter during the classes
designated reading times which is if they had time after they got back from math and then after
recess and lunch. I was able to introduce my lesson and read the book during this time which
worked great because once they got back from specials the students were excited for me to keep
teaching them. During the actually social studies hour block I was able to do the rest of my
lesson as plan. This wasnt a hard adjustment for me because I had time to talk to my CT and
see how I could fit it in which she was more than willing to help. The second adjustment made
me a little worried at first. I was told day of teaching my lesson that it was technology day and
my teacher forgot all about it. She wanted me to make sure the use of technology could be done
as much as possible. I was already planning on using the smart board to play a brain pop video
which worked well, but she said I should add more. Well since the school is a STEM school, I had
a lot of resources available to me to make this adjustment possible because the students each
have a Chromebook. The teacher helped me turn on of the worksheets I had planned into a
google document that the students could type their responses in rather than hand write. This
worked great because the students answers turned into a spreadsheet format and I wouldnt
have to worry about collecting all the sheets from the students.
A few things happened during my lesson that I later realized I could learn from.
The first thing that happened was when I was reading the book to the class. I had all the
students sitting on the carpet in front of me so I could read the book Encounter to the whole

class. I would read a few pages and ask students comprehension questions to go along with the
book. On one page it talked about how the Native Americans were having a feast for the
unknown people (Christopher Columbus) and that they shared tobacco with them. Well after I
said that I had asked the students to talk to me about what was happening. I was hoping
students would respond with feedback like they were welcoming and sharing their stuff with the
new people, while the other people werent sharing anything. Instead I had one student raise
their hand and tell me that he thinks this book isnt appropriate for me to be sharing to the class.
I didnt know what to do, the teacher was sitting at her desk and stopped what she was doing to.
I was recommended to by another third grade to use this book at the school, so I didnt think
anything of saying the word tobacco. Well, before I could even do anything the students two
best friends raised their hand and told their friend a bunch of reasons why this book is
appropriate. One comeback that the student shared was that back then they didnt know
tobacco was bad for you. I was relived and so happy that these students understood that
learning about these things is a part of history. Later on the CT and I talked about it and
discussed how great of an experience I had been through. One last thing that happened during
my lesson is that I noticed that the students seemed to struggle when filling out their compare
and contrasting worksheets. Many of the students started to compare Christopher Columbus and
the Indians rather than compare their perspective of the whole event. I am not sure if they
completely understood the assignment. I now know that its important to make sure that
students really understand what they are being asked to do and I should have them restate it.
The independent assignment went a lot better. The students really seemed to understand what
perspectives mean and were able to give great examples using two different perspectives. When
it came to answering the question about why multiple perspectives are important in historical
events many students hand an understanding of why it is, while some did not.

Multiple Perspectives
Directions: Answer the following question using at least 3 sentences.
1. Give an example of an event and give two different perspectives.

2. Why its important for us to learn about multiple perspectives of historical

events.