Lesson Plan Template

Teacher: Racer Moody

Date: 4/15/16

Class: U.S. History

Level: 10th Grade

Purpose: This is day 1 of a 2-day lesson on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Students will be
introduced to the major people involved during the crisis. They will also experience the
tension of the situation.
Objectives: Students will begin to formulate an assessment of how Kennedy handled the
Cuban Missile Crisis by writing a claim about it. They will later defend that claim in a
structured paragraph in part 2 of this lesson.
Common Core Standards:
9-10.WHST.1: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
Students will be taking notes on PowerPoint and Thirteen Days movie in order to formulate
a claim.
HCPSIII Benchmarks:
10.3.27: Assess John F. Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis
GLOs: Self-directed Learner (The ability to be responsible for one's own learning). Quality
Producer (The ability to recognize and produce quality performance and quality products).
Hawaii State Teacher Standards:
Standard #1: Learner Development. When using the trash throwing activity, PowerPoint, and
movie note-taking strategies, this addresses the standard descriptor the teacher engages
learners in a variety of learning experiences to capitalize on strengths and build areas of
development that are weaker.
Standard #3: Learning Environments. Practicing the bell ringing classroom management
technique addresses the standard descriptor the teacher manages the learning environment,
organizing, allocating, and coordinating resources to promote learner engagement and
minimize loss of instructional time.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge. Students have the opportunity to learn the content through
multiple modes, thus addressing the standard descriptor the teacher uses multiple
representations and explanations that capture key ideas in the discipline, guide learners through
learning progressions, and promote each learners achievement of content standards.
Standard #5: Application of Content. The opening activity addresses the standard descriptor
the teacher engages learners in applying content knowledge and skills in authentic contexts.
Standard #6: Assessment. Asking students to write claims in order to assess Kennedys
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handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis matches the learning objective and aligns with the content
benchmark.
Standard #7: Planning for Instruction. The use of PowerPoint and the movie addresses the
standard descriptor the teacher integrates technology resources into instructional plans.
Standard #8: Instructional Strategies. The variety of instructional strategies used help students
to develop deep understanding of ideas and concepts rather than simply focusing on dates and
people.
Assessments: Students will be taking notes on the movie as a formative assessment. These
notes will be used to help students complete a fishbone and series of claims as a summative
assessment in another lesson. See attached movie note taking graphic organizer.
Materials/Set-Up: 30 fishbone graphic organizers (these were given several class periods
ago). 30 Movie notes graphic organizer. Projector, computer, and speakers to show the
movie. Copy of Thirteen Days (pulled from website).
Procedures:
10:52 Class begins. Turn in homework from previous class.
10:55 Trash throwing activity and discussion.
11:05 Short PowerPoint presentation.
11:20 Begin watching Thirteen Days
12:05 Stop movie, announce homework.
12:07 Class ends.
a. Introduction
At the beginning of class, students will turn in homework from last class. Then I will divide
the class into two teams for an activity. Each student will be given a crumpled up piece of
newspaper and will appoint a team captain. The rules of the game are that the team that ends
up with more trash on their side at the end must clean up all the trash. Team captains can
decide whether they should play this game or not. If they end up playing and throwing the
trash around, I will throw a bunch more around and then end the game and announce that there
were no winners in the game and everybody will have to clean up. If they decide not to play,
then the game will end there as well. We will conclude the activity with a discussion on why
they chose to/not to play and how it relates to the stand-off in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
b. Developmental
Next I will show a short PowerPoint to discuss the basic events and people involved in the
Cuban Missile Crisis. It will explain the other events that were happening during the Cold
War at the time as well. Then I will pass out the note taking sheet for the movie and will begin
playing the movie. Because it is a very long movie, we will start the movie 25 minutes into it
and I will give an introduction as to what has happened so far.
c. Concluding
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We will be watching the movie almost until the end of class, but I will cut it 2 minutes short to
make an announcement. Students should be working on their fishbones for homework as it
will be due next class. They should begin formulating their claims from each of the previous
lessons in this unit.
Adaptations and Extensions: PowerPoint always gets posted to Edline where students can go
back and take any notes they may have missed. This also helps ELL students to take notes at
their own pace.
Management Considerations: Because the activity will involve lots of movement around the
room, it may tend to get noisy. In order to gain back control, during this unit, we will be
practicing a different form of classroom management. Instead of using the hands raised and
mouth shut technique from last quarter, I am going to ring a bell instead. At this point,
students will stop what they are doing and duck under the desks. Not only will it refocus the
class back to the activity, but it will also provide a learning experience as to what life was like
for students during the Cold War.
Reflections: The opening activity went surprisingly better than I had originally thought it
would. This class is usually very difficult to motivate and generally unenthusiastic about
participating in activities. I was worried when we first started the game of garbage ball
because the class was just standing there not doing anything. However, once the first person
threw their paper, everybody else started throwing theirs and it was an all-out battle. It made
for good discussion once we finished the activity. Students were able to make the connection
that nobody really wins when both sides have nuclear weapons. This was important to
understand because that was the basis of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I took a bit longer
explaining the PowerPoint, so I didnt get to show as much of the movie as I wanted to. I will
probably have to borrow some time from the review day to finish up the movie.

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Thirteen Days Movie Notes

Directions: For each of the following characters, include the following bits of
information: What is their job title? What do they feel is the best solution to this
crisis? Two quotes or facts you find interesting about this person.

John F. Kennedy

Kenneth (Kenny) ODonnell

Robert (Bobby) Kennedy

Robert McNamara

3 2 1
3 Observations
(I see)

Segment
1

Segment
2

Segment
3

Segment
4

Segment
5

2 Impressions
(I feel)

1 Question