Lesson Plan: Social Studies

Goals:
Students will be able to have a general understanding of Mali as an African
country in terms of location, population, culture and religion.
Essential Question(s):
What are some of the differences you see between lives in Mali and
lives here in the U.S. (or Pennsylvania)?
Standards (and Assessment Anchor):
Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
o People, Places & Environment
Performance Expectations
construct and use mental maps of local regions and
the world that demonstrate relative location,
direction, size and shape (a)
interpret use and distinguish various representation
of the earth such as maps, globes and photographs
(b)
Describe how people create places that reflect ideas
like personality, cultures, wants and needs as they
design homes, playgrounds, classrooms and the like
(g)
Examine the interaction of human beings and their
physical environments, the use of land, the building
of cities and ecosystem changes in selected locales
and regions (h)
Materials and Preparation:
Meet Our New Student from Mali by Mitchell Lane Publishers (mentor
text)
Powerpoint on comparing and contrasting Mali with the U.S.
(Pennsylvania):
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kq1vsQx3ivAxLnwN9sttJfBrkv
qG8CMR-VlHM14uIG8/edit
Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:
Students will meet on the rug in the back of the classroom:
Students will be reminded of the rules while theyre on the rug
Teacher will initiate turn and talks when necessary to let the
energy out of students
Plan:

 The Hook
Review the concept of Africa as a continent by showing the map
and briefly check in with the book we read together about Africa:
A is for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefulu
We all know that Africa is not a country, it is a continent---can
someone remind us of how many countries there are in Africa?
Can someone name a country or two that they know belong to
the continent of Africa? Remember there are some fun facts
we learned in the book A is for Africa and may I have some
volunteers to share
The Body
(I) Have the powerpoint up on the smart board, but not going
into the slides yet
Encourage students to come up with a few questions that
will help them learn more about Mali as a country in
general
Record one or two on the white board and ask students to
pay attention while we do read aloud/go over powerpoint
to see if we can have their questions answered
(We) Read aloud on page 7 of the mentor text: Meet Our New
Student from Mali. Have students turn and talk to share with
their partners about what they think peoples lives in Mali are
like.
Come together as a group after a minute
After having a few students share their thoughts, we
will go back to the powerpoint and start learning fun facts about
Mali
(You)

Students
Discussions on the slides they seem particular interested in
Encourage them to make connections with their daily lives
A chart for them to record information they learned about
Mali today (leave about 5 10 minutes depending on the
length of time)

Closure:
Students share out the facts they learned about Mali
Students will go back to their seats and write on the chart:
things they already knew now and what they wish to find
more about

Assessment of the goals/objectives listed above:

Check-ins with each turn and talks on the rug
Have students help with answering the questions written down on the
board
The chart that help students record what they learned and what they
want to know more about
Closure: Share out discussion What are some of the differences you
see between lives in Mali and lives here in the U.S.?
Anticipating students responses and your possible responses:
Management issues
Remind students of the rules and norms
Remove students who are being distracting to a nearby table to
sit by themselves but having them facing the rug still so that
they wont miss the lesson
Silent moments: wait for everyone to be quiet before going to
the next step
Phrases theyre familiar with: eyes and ears track the
speaker
Positive recognition to students who are showing classroom
expectations
Response to content of the lesson
That is a very good question---please hold it for now and we will
come back to it
Thank you for sharing---I see you made a very nice connection to
your personal experience here
That is very excellent! Did you learn it from somewhere else?
Maybe in a different book? Can you tell us more?
Accommodations
Make sure that everyone has a partner they could turn and talk to
Rotate to check if they are on the right track
Have students join a different group if they have finished sharing with
their neighbors
Leave 5 seconds before coming back as a whole group so that students
would have time to organize and finishing up
Teacher revoice responses of other students