UNLV/Department of Teaching & Learning Elementary Lesson

Plan Template

UNLV
Angela Hicks PSMT Name: Sande McNeil
Student:
Lesson Plan Black History Lesson Plan Writing/Social
Title: Month Topic: Studies
Estimated
Date: 2/1/2018 80 minutes
Time:
Thiriot
Grade Level: 5th Grade School Site:
Elementary

1. State Standard(s): W.5.7 Conduct short research projects that use several
sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a
topic
2. Teaching Model(s): Direct Instruction, whole-group instruction,
independent
3. Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, students will be able to conduct
show research projects using several sources to build upon knowledge of a
topic
4. Materials and Technology Resources: Origin of Black History video, social
media writing template, famous African Americans research questions,
computers
5. Instructional Procedures:

a. Motivation/Engagement: (20-30 minutes)
• TW ask the class: What is today’s date?
• Allow students to answer
• TW explain to students that today is the first day of February
• TW ask students: What are some things we celebrate during the month of
February?
• Allow students to share answers
• TW explain to students that February is the month in which we celebrate
Black history
• TW tell students that today they are going to be learning about black
history month, how it started and why it’s so important to celebrate
• Play “Origin of Black History Month” video
• Stop the video and ask the class: Why do you think that it’s important we
celebrate black history?
• TW will ask students to discuss this question in their teams
• Allow students to answer
• TW explain to the class that back in the day, people with different skin
color were not always treated fairly.
• TW give examples to show the unfair treatment of black people (slavery,
segregation)
• TW explain to students that black history is important to celebrate the
stories of famous African Americans and to see how far we’ve progressed
as a nation
b . Developmental Activities or Learning Experiences: (40 minutes)
• TW explain to the class that today we are going to learning about the
different contributions that famous black Americans have made throughout
history such as Martin Luther King Jr.,
• TW ask the class to raise their hand if they know what Instagram is
• TW explain to the class that instagram is a social media site where you can
post photos of your life along with captions
• TW tell students that they are going to conduct a short research project
• Each student will be assigned a famous African American person to
research
• TW explain to students that they will be answering questions about their
famous person as they research them on the computers
• After students have finished researching that person and have answered
the questions that go along with it, students will then use the Instagram
writing template to write a social media profile for them
• TW ask the class: What point of view should your writing be in if you are
writing a profile for your person? First Person P.O.V
c. Closure (10 minutes)
• TW review the importance of celebrating black history month with the
class: Why is it important that we continue celebrating black history? How
would things be different if we did not celebrate black history month?
• Allow students to answer
• SW share their famous person with the class and share one fact they
learned while researching that person.
d. Extension:

If time remains in the lesson, the teacher will briefly go over the questions
on the worksheet with students. The teacher will ask students to share and
explain how their famous person has contributed to history.

If time is cut short from the lesson, students will take home their writing
template and complete their famous person’s social media profile at home.
Students must complete the template and bring it back the next day. The
teacher will briefly allow students to share their famous person’s greatest
achievement and contribution to history.


6. Accommodations, Modifications and Differentiations for Diverse Learners:

I designed this lesson to incorporate a variation of different learning styles
and interests my students have. After getting to know my students, I have
come to understand that all of them differentiate when it comes to cultural/
language backgrounds, intelligence level, and learning styles. Knowing this, I
made it a priority to deliver the content of my lesson in multiple ways that
addressed the different academic needs the students in this class have. For
this lesson, I started off with a video to engage my students. The video
included bolded captions and words to help the ELL students in this class
build background knowledge of Black History. After watching the video,
students were interested in learning more about black history month which
greatly helped set up a discussion on the importance of Black History Month.
After the video, I asked the class why celebrating Black History Month is
important? I then gave students the opportunity to learn collaboratively as
they discussed this question within their teams. Students were eager to
express their ideas and listen to what their classmates had to say, building off
each other’s ideas. During this lesson, students had to research a famous
African American person in history using technology resources. For many of
my students, this was a new concept, so I provided pre-made questions to
help those students who did not know the first step to conducting research.


7. Assessment and Evaluation of Learning:

I assessed student understanding during and after the lesson through
formative and summative assessment. During the lesson, I checked for
student understanding in various ways to monitor student progress as we
reached the end goal of the lesson.

I checked for student understanding during the lesson through whole-group

discussion and whole-group learning. I circulated the classroom to make sure
students were on task while conducting their research on the computers. After
students completed their research, they transferred the information to the
Instagram template. This template served as a summative assessment.
Through the use of formative and summative assessment to check for student
understanding, I concluded that the students were successful in achieving the
learning objective of this lesson.
8. Homework Assignment: I have decided to not give students a homework
assignment because I felt that they achieved the target curricular aim of the
lesson. I checked for student understanding during the lesson through whole-
group discussion and whole-group learning. I circulated the classroom to
make sure students were on task while conducting their research on the
computers. After students completed their research, they transferred the
information to the Instagram template. This template served as a summative
assessment. Through the use of formative and summative assessment to
check for student understanding, I concluded that the students were
successful in achieving the learning objective of this lesson.
9. Reflection:

a. Strengths: This lesson included many strengths. I designed this lesson to
include relevant topics that my students would find engaging. As educators, I
think it’s so important to bring awareness to topics such as Black History
Month, especially when you are teaching a diverse group of students. In
addition, having the students create a social media profile for their famous
person allows the students to feel connected to their research because they all
find Instagram relatable. When it comes to my 5th grade class, they are
constantly talking about technology whether it’s about games or social media.
It’s important to me to relate what they are learning inside the classroom to
their lives outside of the classroom. I found that overtime, having my
students make these connections helps them to understand new concepts as
well as gets them excited about learning.
b. Concerns: One concern I had planning this lesson was the researching part
of the lesson. Although my students are exposed to technology at school, the
reality is that many of the students that attend Thiriot come from low-income
communities where they do not have access to technology resources at home.
I was concerned because we only had 45 minutes to use the computer lab and
did not want my students to struggle while conducting their research. In
order to make it easier for those students who did not know how to get started
researching their famous person, I made each student a set of questions to
research such as: Who is your famous person and where were they born?
What accomplishments has your famous person made? I found that preparing
these questions in advance really helped the researching portion of this lesson
to go smoothly because the questions guided the students.
c. Insights: After teaching this lesson, I feel really proud of my students. Not
only did they create exceptional work, but they were able to finish their
research projects within the time frame that we had. In addition, the topics in
this lesson were relatable and relevant to my students’ lives which created
excitement and interest. I also feel that by having them conduct their research
on the computers, they were able to make meaning of their learning by
demonstrating learner independence. Since each student was assigned a
different famous person, they felt a sense of ownership during this project.
After the end of the lesson, each student had a chance to share their famous
person(s) to the class and I hung them on the bulletin board in the hallway
which the students were so excited to see.
10. Lemov Strategies: During the lesson, I used three Lemov strategies to
deepen student understanding and learning.The first strategy I used was the
Hook. I introduced my lesson with a video to grab the attention of my
students and to enhance my lesson. This strategy was great considering my
class is full of many visual learners. It caught their interest and kept them
engaged on the topic throughout the lesson.The next strategy I used during
my lesson was Name the Steps. As I explained the objectives of the lesson, I
made sure to explain each step of the research project to make sure that my
students understood. I broke the assignment down into steps by showing and
explaining to the class that they will first be assigned a famous African
American person to research, then they will answer the research questions
pertaining to that person on the worksheet, and lastly they will create a social
media profile for that person. I also made sure to go over each question on
the research worksheet to further explain what they will need to type into the
computer. This strategy was great because this particular class loves to ask
me questions every chance they get, so I took the time to model and explain
the directions to prevent further time from being wasted on answering
questions during the lesson. The last strategy I used during this lesson was
Circulate: Keep Moving. Circulating was a consistent strategy I used during
this lesson because it helped me to check for student understanding and
monitor student progress as they reached the end goal of the lesson. By
circulating the classroom, I was able to guide students to make new
connections to the concepts and topics we were learning about in class. In
addition, it helped as a behavior management tool for students who had
trouble staying on task.