both parties.
ASESSING LEARNING:
What will your students do or say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your objectives? Rememberevery objective must be
assessed for every student!
Task
After reading the book Encounter by
Jane Yolen, we will discuss as a class
the reactions that the children think the
Native Americans may have had to
explorers arrival to their homeland.
Students will be given a writing
prompt asking them to pretend as if
they were a Native American and
write a letter to the explorers about
how they felt about their arrival.
Diagnostic Features
In discussion, I will look for:
Students empathizing with Native
Americans.
Negative reactions to explorers arrival
in the Americas.
Students understanding that explorers
arrival and discovery of the Americas
was not a great thing for every party
involved.
In writing, I will look for:
Disgruntled tones in the students
writing, showing that they were
unhappy with the arrival of explorers.
Assertive feelings towards the
explorers.
Detailed descriptions of why they are
upset about explorers arrival (it upset
their home life, marginalized them,
overtook their land, etc.).
Support
If a child does not understand, I will sit
down with them and talk to them oneon-one about the feelings of the Native
Americans, possibly using analogies
that are relatable to their life to help
them understand.
If a child does not feel comfortable
writing the letter or cannot for any
reason write the letter, I will sit down
with them and role-play, me being an
explorer and them being a Native
American. They will verbally tell me
how they feel about my arrival.
F. PROCEDURE
(Use this graphic organizer if it is helpful for you. If you create your own format you must include each aspect listed below, in the column
headings). NOTE: You are not required to include 4 learning events if your lesson will not include this many! The extra events are only
included for the sake of demonstration.
Activity Element
& Time (in minutes)
Introduction: Discussion
of prior knowledge
Students
Describe what the students will be doing
as a result of your instructions
portion.
If necessary, I will
restate the questions
several times if they
are unclear to any
students until they are
understood.
I will be sure to use
language that will
address both higher
understandings and
lower understandings.
I will answer specific
questions to the best of
my ability to ensure
understanding.
There will be no
differentiation for this
portion.
Conclusion (5 minutes)
attention to students
who need it.
There will be no
differentiation for this
portion.
G. DIFFERENTIATION:
Write a narrative explanation of two to three paragraphs describing how you have planned to meet the needs of all students in your classroom
with varied learning styles and abilities, English language proficiency, health, physical ability, etc. How will you support the learning of
children struggling with your objectives or those who find the content only minimally challenging? Draw from the examples you described in
the final column of the chart in the procedures section of your lesson plan.
When I wrote this lesson, I planned to differentiate in several ways. The majority of the students in my class have strong engagement
during read alouds. The reading of Encounter on the reading rug will address both visual and auditory learners. Auditory learners will also be
served during the pre-discussion and discussion of the book. I believe that all of the students, however, will enjoy this portion of the lesson.
In the second activity, the writing of the letter from the Native Americans to European explorers, students will practice their
comprehension and writing skills. Many students struggle with these things in my class. It will be a great opportunity for these students to work
more with their writing and pulling information from the text and our discussion. This will serve the kinesthetic learning style, in that the
students will actually be creating something and applying knowledge gained throughout the reading and discussion.
In the third portion of the lesson, the rap, students that are auditory learners are primarily reached. The students will be repeatedly
reading and working with their group the Columbus rap that will be provided to all of them. They will be hearing it, making connections to the
lesson, and saying it. I think that this will really sum up the lesson well in a fun way that will make their knowledge of the subject concrete.
After this, I will address auditory students (mostly) again when closing in a brief discussion that draws conclusions about the lesson.
H. RATIONALE: 1-Double-spaced page that justifies what you are teaching and why it is important for students to develop a deep
understanding of what is being taught. Be sure to emphasize how it contributes to students development as citizens and to their lives beyond
school. Explain why it matters in terms of its meaning to students, the value of the subject content, opportunities for inquiry and its importance
to the community and to society. The rationale should not be that the lesson fits within the state or school curriculum.
When explorers arrival to North America is typically taught in schools, students hear a brilliant tale of an exciting, new, worldchanging discovery of a never-before-found-land by European voyagers. Children are taught about how the Europeans came here bravely and
had friendly encounters with the Native Americans that had privately inhabited this land for years already, sharing feasts and giving thanks
with them. However, I think that it is a big part of historical education to provide students with an unbiased variety of viewpoints and accounts
on every event and situation. This is the main reason I have chosen to approach this subject with the kind of lesson that I have designed.
Encounter by Jane Yolen, the main introduction or part of the lesson content, is a counter narrative to European arrival to the Americas that
provides a story of this event from the somewhat neglected viewpoint of the Native Americans involved.
After completing this lesson, I am hoping that this will help children to be better citizens by causing them to be empathetic towards the
feelings of others and respectful towards other cultures. As citizens, we must try to be aware of all the viewpoints and stances of people not
only in our community, but also in surrounding communities and global communities in order to make informed decisions. Being aware of the
norms of other cultures also helps us, as citizens, to respect them and the people that are within that culture.
This lesson is also important because it falls within the unit the students will be working on at that time: explorers. This not only makes
it convenient to teach, but also allows for me to show students another view to something that is typically taught so one-sidedly. I think it will
give students a well-rounded body of knowledge about the subject.
I.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Think about this! It may help you avoid an embarrassing situation. Look over the choices youve made for teaching this lesson. What
extenuating circumstances (based on what you know if your students, their schedules, and the context in which you teach) could potentially
derail your otherwise excellent plan? Identify at least 4 potential problems and thoughtfully describe your plan for addressing them when they
arise? IN other words, what are your contingency plans?
There are two students that get pulled out with a speech specialist during part of the time in which I plan to teach this lesson, which cannot be changed.
However, I am hoping that because the lesson has several different parts that address the same concept, these students will not fall behind. Additionally,
the two students that get pulled for speech do not participate in WRE (Weekly Religious Education) on the day after the lesson is taught. If needed, I
can work with these students to clear up any confusion that may result from missing the first part of the lesson the previous day.
The students may not take from the book, Encounter, the message that I am trying to emphasize (that Native Americans may have felt scared and
invaded, etc.). If this is the case, I will appeal to the students personal lives by asking how they would feel if totally foreign, different looking, different
speaking people came into their home and took over. Hopefully, this will cause the students to empathize with the Native Americans and take from the
activity what I am hoping.
Some of the students in the class tend to struggle more than others with writing. I do not believe that they have been instructed on how to write letters
yet, so there may be confusion on how to approach this. However, my hope is that the template that I create to write on will be helpful and clear up
some confusion. I will also answer questions, and explain the template thoroughly using the document camera if needed.
One thing that the students have been focusing on a lot has been fluency. Where some of them are advanced, some of them are struggling greatly with
this skill, concerning me a little for the rap activity in this lesson. I will be placing the students in 6 groups of 3 and will be grouping them with readers
of different levels. However, if this strategy does not work for whatever reason, I will alter the groups, or I will work with students that are struggling to
perform the rap together (I will participate fully in the activity).