EGP 335

Lesson Plan
Title: Explorers Arrive
Day: 7
Author: Lauren Barger
Unit:
Grade Level: 3rd
Background Information:
Expected Duration: 45-50 minutes
Concepts: History, Geography
Vocabulary: trade route, explorer

Skills: Map, predictions, reading aloud, information gathering, compare contrast, note taking
Learning Outcomes/ Objectives:
Students will be able to summarize why each of the 3 explorers first came to America.

Students will be able to describe what each explorer found when they arrived on the new land.
Students will further build their knowledge of explorers by exposing themselves to books,
videos, and articles.

PA Standards:
7.1.3.B: Identify and locate places and regions as defined by physical and human features.

8.1.3.C: Conduct teacher guided inquiry on assigned topics using specified

historical sources.
8.3.3.C: Identify and describe how continuity and change have impacted
U.S. history.

NCSS Standards:
enable learners to identify and describe significant historical periods and patterns of change
within and across cultures
Encourage learners to construct, use, and refine maps and mental maps, calculate distance,
scale, area, and density, and organize information about people, places, regions, and
environments in a spatial context

Guide learners in exploring characteristics, distribution, and migration of human

populations on Earths surface
Anticipatory Set:

The teacher will begin by talking about routes. The teacher will ask the class to share some
routes that they take. Students will offer answers involving the busses route to school, the route
to their friends house, ect.
The teacher will show a map of just Europe and Asia and begin to discuss how in the 1400s the
route to Asia from Europe was very long and difficult (while pointing out on the map what route
used to be used). The teacher will introduce the vocabulary word trade route and describe it in
terms of Europe and Asia
The students will be asked to talk to their partner about other possible routes between Asia and
Europe. A few groups will be called up to point out other possible routes on the map.
(Some students may ask for a map of the entire world, if not,) the teacher will then pull up a map
of the world and say that Christopher Columbus decided to go this way (and run finger/ pointer
across the Atlantic Ocean); but why wouldn't this way work? (as the teacher bumps finger/
pointer into American coast).
The teacher will then have students open their text books to Chapter 4, Explorers Arrive to find
out what happened when Christopher Columbus traveled across the atlantic.
Procedure:
Teacher and students will read pages 110 to 113 in the textbook on Columbus, Cabrillo, and
Champlain, using the popcorn reading method.

The teacher will then split the students up into 3 large groups and send them with a paper and
pencil to each station where they will take notes on each explorers journey.
In one station, the group will popcorn read part of The Columbus Story by Alice Dangliesh and
take notes on Columbus. (Read: The Admiral Sails- The New World)

The second station on Cabrillo will have printouts of a short article on Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
by the San Diego History Center for students to read individually and take notes on.

In the third station there will be laptop, where students will watch the youtube video Champlain
in America- First Contact as a group and take notes.
Once the groups have visited all three stations, they will return to their seats.
On the interactive whiteboard, the teacher will have a venn diagram; using the notes they took
at each station, the students will provide differences and similarities between the three
explorers.

The teacher will moderate as students volunteer answers to go up to the board and write them
on the venn diagram.

Differentiation:
ELL: For ELL students who may have trouble gaining and sharing information from the
stations, provide them with a world map and a toy boat and have them model where the
explorers traveled and discuss the reasons why.

 Challenge: For students who seemed to have grasped the information well and are prepared
to go further, have them act out the explorers voyages to the new world with dialogue that tells
the story and gives information.

Closure:
To wrap up the learning that occurred, the teacher will go over the main similarities and
differences on the venn diagram. The teacher will then thank the class for creating the very
detailed and factual venn diagram and working so nicely in their groups. The students will all
receive a printed out copy of the venn diagram they created as reference to study the explorers.
Assessment:
Formative assessment will include observation by the teacher as the students work in stations to
take comprehend text/ information and take notes. The teacher will also be formatively
assessing students as they volunteer answers for the venn diagram; the teacher will offer
suggestions of changes on what to write on the board. This will acknowledge students answers
but also make them as factual and easy to comprehend as possible.
Materials:
Text books
Room for students to work at each station
The Columbus Story by Alice Dangliesh

Print outs of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo article from San Diego History Center website
Laptop with Champlain in America- First Contact set up on youtube.com
Interactive whiteboard with venn diagram

Reflection on Planning:
For this lesson I was originally only focusing on Christopher Columbus and providing children
with different mediums of information on just that explorer. I realized that the book highlights the
other two explorers just as much as it features Columbus. I decided to have the students gain
knowledge from all types of resources to show that they can get information from a variety of
places and in many different ways. I think this activity will be engaging to the students because
they get to move around and work in groups but also have a chance to individually share their
knowledge and ideas with the class durring the venn diagram.