EGP 535

Lesson Plan
Lesson Title: Americas Heroes
Day Number:
Author: Lauren Barger
Unit: Houghton Mifflin Chapter 4 (II)
Grade Level: 3rd
Background information:
Expected Duration: 60 Minutes
Concepts- History, Biographic
Vocabulary- Freedom, Hero

Skills- Active listening, Note taking, Collaborative writing, Making connections, Speaking

Objectives:
Students will be able to name, identify, and describe Americas heroes of the time.
Students will be able to explain why these people were important in Americas history.
Students will be able to discuss certain heroes beliefs and how they were put into action.
Students will be able to identify important factual information from given
Standards:
PA Standards:
8.3.3.A Identify the social, political, cultural, and economic contributions of individuals and
groups in U.S. history.
8.3.3.C Identify and describe how continuity and change have impacted U.S. history.
NCSS:
assist learners in articulating personal connections to time, place, and social/ cultural systems
help learners understand how individual perceptions develop, vary, and can lead to conflict
assist learners as they work independently and cooperatively within groups and institutions to
accomplish goals

assist learners in developing historical research capabilities that enable them to

formulate historical questions, obtain historical data, question historical data, identify the gaps
in available records, place records in context, and construct sound historical interpretations
Anticipatory Set:

To lead into this lesson, the teacher will start a discussion about what a hero is. The teacher will
take input from the class and use it to formulate a brief definition of hero. The teacher will then
say that we are going to be taking a look at Freedoms heroes and ask the students to activate
prior knowledge about American history to think about who could be some of Americas heroes.
Procedures:
The teacher will direct the class as they read aloud from the chapter Freedoms Heroes

After reading the section on Franklin, stop to take notes on the board. The heading will be Ben
Franklin, and the teacher will ask the students to raise their hand and share what they learned
from the chapter and write it on the board.
(possible notes on Franklin- 1709 to 1790, from Boston, reading and writing, electricity,
inventions, freedom, Declaration of Independence,Constitution)
Continue with the reading onto Thomas Jefferson then stop to take notes as a class.
(possible notes on Jefferson- 1743 to 1826, building design, inventions, wrote D.O.I, freedom
and fairness, 3rd president of U.S.)

Read through the section on Adams and stop to take notes as a class.
(possible notes on Adams- 1744 to 1818, wife of J. Adams, mother of J. Quincy Adams, 4
children, farm, women's independence, and the education of girls)
The students will be asked to create baseball cards for these 3 characters. They will draw a
picture of the person and write facts on the back.

The students will then be split up into small groups of 3-4 students and each group will be
given a laptop or tablet to visit the website http://mrnussbaum.com/ampeople/ which contains
biographies of influential people during the time of the American Revolution
Each group will be assigned an American hero to read a biography on and create a baseball
card for.

The groups will come up one by one to give facts on the hero they researched and share their
baseball card on the doc. cam.

As groups are sharing, the rest of the students should be taking notes like we did as a class
from the text.

The children will then be given time to make baseball cards for at least 3 more characters of
their choosing.

Differentiation:
As an exercise for students who may be having trouble, have them make notecards with each
of the focused heros names on them. The teacher will read out facts about one of their lives
and the students will hold up the name card of the person the fact is about.

 As a challenge for students who have fully grasped the concept, challenge them to further
their research on one of the heroes and use the new information to write a report on that
persons life and accomplishments.

For ELL support, give the students the words printer, inventor, president, university, farm and
independence to find definitions for. Have them use those words to write facts about each of
the heroes.

Closure:
To wrap up the learning that occurred in this lesson, the teacher will challenge the students to
tell how our lives might be different today if it weren't for Americas Heroes. Answers should
directly connect the actions or beliefs of people in history with a luxury or idea of today.
Formative/Summative Assessment of Students:
The teacher will be formatively assessing students by the answers they volunteer throughout the
class discussion and note taking. The teacher will assess students ability to pick out important
factual information by what they share with the class after reading the bibliography. The teacher
can assess students knowledge on different characters by the baseball cards they create.
Materials/ Equipment/ Resources:
Text book
White board
Blank baseball cards

http://mrnussbaum.com/ampeople/

Technology:
laptops or tablets for children to visit website
doc. cam. for groups to share their baseball cards