LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE FOR

THE AGENDA FOR EDUCATION IN A DEMOCRACY

Name:___Nathan Brandsma ___________Date:________01/11/14_____________________
Unit Essential Question:__Why do we study the Enlightenment? ________________________
Lesson Topic:_Enlightenment Thinkers _____Class:_____World History ___________________
PLANNING THE LESSON
With Democracy and Social Justice at the Center of Instruction
Focusing on the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) Mission the 4-Part
Agenda for Education in a Democracy
EQUAL ACCESS
ENCULTURATION
NURTURING PEDAGOGY
STEWARDSHIP
To Knowledge
In Democratic Society
Safe and Caring for All
of the Mission
What are you and your students doing today to advance the 4-Part Mission? Connections:
With which part(s) of the Agenda does this lesson connect most clearly? And how?
Enculturation in a democratic society, because the ideas of enlightenment thinkers are crucially
important for American ideas of democracy and governance.

STANDARDS (
www.cde.state.co
)
Content:
3. a.
Discuss the historical
development and impact of
major world religions and
philosophies. Topics to
include the enlightenment.

Literacy and Numeracy:

Access and use primary and
secondary sources to explain
questions being researched

Democracy and
st
21
Century Skills:
Read, write, listen and speak
effectively.

Literacy and Numeracy:

SWBAT Access and use
primary and secondary
sources to explain questions
being researched by working
to answer questions about
enlightenment thinkers using
primary and secondary
sources.

Democracy and
st
21
Century Skills:
SWBAT read, write, listen and
speak effectively by reading
about an enlightenment
thinker, writing a
presentation, listening to
classmates presentations,

OBJECTIVES
Content:
SWBAT Discuss the historical
development and impact of
major world religions and
philosophies by researching
an enlightenment
philosopher and comparing
their ideas to the students
own.

and speaking to the class

about their thinker.
ASSESSMENTS What is your evidence of achieving each objective? How will students know
and demonstrate what they have learned in each of the areas, all of the objectives?
Content:
The conversation about the
questions the enlightenment
sought to answer as well as
the presentations
themselves.

Literacy and Numeracy:

I will be coming around and
monitoring their research and
making suggestions. The
presentations will also
demonstrate the research.

Democracy and
st
21
Century Skills:
I will monitor student
interactions and research to
see how they are interacting,
reading, listening and
presenting.

Literacy and Numeracy

Democracy and
st
21
Century Skills

KEY VOCABULARY
Content
Enlightenment
Government
Society
Human Nature

HIGHER ORDER QUESTIONS for this lesson

Content
Why do we study the
enlightenment?
Why do people come back to
these ideas?
Why did enlightenment ideas
affect societies?

Literacy and Numeracy

Democracy and
st
21
Century Skills

LESSON FLOW
This is the actual planning of the lesson activities.
Time

Anticipatory Set Purpose and Relevance

Warm-up may include any of the following: hook, pre-assessment, introduction

to topic, motivation, etc.

Time

Pre-Assessment
There is a pre-assessment for the unit that will be distributed. Also, the questions
to begin the activity assess knowledge of the enlightenment

Time

Building Background
Link to Experience:
The questions about human nature and government are
based on student experience or thoughts, not on class work
Link to Learning:
Have you ever heard of any of these thinkers?

Time

Activity Name
Should be creative title for you and the students to associate
with activity.
Thinking about the Enlightenment
Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students attention. These are actions and
statements by the teacher (or students) to relate the experiences of the
objectives of the lesson, to put students into a receptive frame of mind.
To focus students attention on the lesson
To create an organizing framework for the ideas, principles or
information that is to follow (advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any time a different activity or new concept is to
be introduced.
I will show an image of a lightbulb above someones head and ask the class
what does this image mean?

Time

Instructional Input
Includes: input, modeling and checking for understanding
I will be monitoring the students research, asking questions and giving
suggestions.
Models of Teaching

Inquiry, Cooperative Learning, Concept Attainment, Direct Instruction,

Discussion, Socratic Seminar, Synectics, Inductive, Deductive and Mastery
Learning, etc.
This lesson begins with a Socratic seminar about human nature, government and
inequality, followed by an cooperative learning inquiry lesson about the
enlightenment thinkers.
SIOP Techniques:
I do, We do, You do.
Guided Practice
: An opportunity for each student to demonstrate grasp of new
learning by working through an activity or exercise under the teachers
supervision. The teacher moves around the room to determine level of mastery
and to provide individual feedback and remediation as needed. (Praise,
Prompt, and Leave)
The research process will be supervised with questioning and prompting.
Reading , Writing, Listening, Speaking
Students will read as they research, write as they answer questions and create a
presentation, listen to the other presentations to fill in their sheet, and speak as
they present their enlightenment philosopher.
Checking for Understanding
: Determination of whether students got it before
moving on. It is essential that the students practice doing it right so the
teacher must know that the students understood before proceeding to
practice. If there is any doubt that the class does not understand, the concept
or skill should be re-taught before practice begins.
Checking as they research and create their presentation.
Questioning Strategies:
Utilizing Blooms Taxonomy questions should
progress from the lowest to the highest of the levels of the cognitive domain
(knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and
creativity).
This activity has higher order questions to start, and the presentations are more
direct in the knowledge, though they are asked to apply the thinkers at a later
lesson.
Independent Practice:
Once the students have mastered the content or skill, it
is time to provide reinforcement practice. It is provided on a repeating
schedule so that the learning is not forgotten. It may be homework or
individual or group work in class. It can be utilized in a subsequent project. It
should provide for relevant situations not only the context in which it was
originally learned.

Time

Accommodations, Modifications, and Student Adjustments

Consider: multiple intelligences, learning styles, cultural and ability diversity,
etc.
If the activity is too advanced or too easy for some, how will you modify
instruction so all students will learn?
What accommodations will be needed and for whom? (IEP, 504, Special Needs)
I will put the instructions on the board and go over them individually, as there is
a student who needs instructions read out loud. This covers audio and visual
learners.

Time

Review and Assessments of All ObjectivesHow will you and how will the
students know they have achieved the objectives of the lesson?
Content:
The presentations and the groups application of the ideas to the earlier
conversation.
Literacy and Numeracy:
What were your sources? What helped you understand
the ideas of the enlightenment philosophers?
st
Democracy and 21
Century Skills:
The presentations, as well as the earlier
discussion and the written answers to the questions.

Time

Closure
What will you and the students do at the end of the lesson or after a chunk of
learning to synthesize, organize and connect the learning to the essential
question(s)?
Having heard about the different philosophers, think back to the answers that
you wrote at the beginning of class. Which philosopher do you think you are
most similar to?

Time

Next Step

The next step is to apply the ideas of the philosophers to Fossil Ridge

Post-Lesson Reflection
( For the Teacher)
1. To what extent were all objectives achieved?
The objectives were not all achieved, as the conversation continued much longer
than expected
2. What changes would you make if you teach the lesson again?
I would give more time for the conversation, and include something more for a
ticket out the door regarding the conversation.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson?
The next lesson will be about the philosophers themselves, though tied into this
lesson.
4. To what extent does this lesson achieve the Mission of the Agenda for Education in
st
a Democracy? To what extent does this lesson achieve the 21
Century Skills?
The lesson achieves in terms of democratic objectives, in that everyone was
brought into the conversation, including the more reluctant speakers. 21st century skills were
obtained in the sense of practice speaking and discussing with peers.