Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Amanda Mazzio
Stephanie Hennigan
Lesson Plan 1
Learning Target (Task, Assignment, or Content Knowledge):
In a 10th grade Civics class, students are beginning a unit on the Constitution. To
introduce and build a background for the students, an Origins of the Constitution
lesson was made. The focus of the lesson was aimed at developing a conceptual
understanding of Core Democratic Values that are protected in writing in the US
Constitution. In the ELL classroom, the teacher was given the lesson prior to the
content introduction and an adapted lesson was made. In this lesson, students
will practice how to pre-read an academic text in order to build a strong
comprehension of the content. Students will be put into groups and assigned a
section int he book that explains an origin. The group members will take turns as
scribe while working through the THIEVES method. The THIEVES method is pre-
reading strategy. It is a helpful acronym system that allows all students to quickly
gain a brief base concept of the academic text. The ELL’s have already been
exposed to this style. To insure assessment, we will have the students present
their origin and core democratic value in front of the class. After all have
presented, the class will come together and discuss what they think life would
have been like for the people of the time if those doctrines hadn’t existed.
Self-Learning Skills
Other Skills
-Note-taking
Section 3: Activity(ies)
1. (Hook) Teacher begins a class discussion by asking students “Who can
remind us…What are some of the Core Democratic Values?” Students are
instructed to raise their hands.
2. As Students respond, Teacher writes their responses on the board.
3. Teacher poses a second set of questions to the class to stimulate
discussion; “What Core Democratic Values were important in your home
countries?” “Were these values protected by some law/constitution?” Teacher
informs the class that first the class will discus in small groups (with the people at
their tables) and then as a whole group.
4. Students have 5 minutes to discuss in small groups. Teacher circulates to
make sure students are on task. Teacher may ask questions (such as “What
would happen if Justice weren’t protected by your home government?”) to get
individual groups going.
5. Teacher asks each group to report back what they discussed. Teacher may
take volunteers or call on somebody from each group. Teacher writes down and
verbally validates each contribution. Teacher should incorporate “Why is it
important to have these values in writing, as part of the law of the land?” into the
discussion.
6. (Transition) Teacher reaffirms why it is important that the Core Democratic
Values are protected in writing by using students’ contributions. Teacher briefly
explains that throughout time people have tried to protect these values through
legal “documents”. Some of these influenced our own Constitution, which also
tries to protect the Core Democratic Values.
7. Teacher introduces the chapter that was assigned in their social studies
class. The chapter is called “The Origins of the Constitution” and describes some
influential doctrines of the time leading up to the drafting of the Constitution.
8. (Body) Teacher introduces the next activity. Teacher reminds the class that
they were assigned the Origins of the Constitution chapter as homework.
Teacher reminds the class that they are going to have to read the chapter and be
responsible for the content. Teacher communicates to the class that she
understands that an entire chapter is a lot. So, the class is to brainstorm
appropriate strategies to help them complete their assignment. (What sorts of
strategies match the demands of this assignment?)
9. Teacher gives the class a moment to reflect on past learning approaches
before they offer ideas. Teacher gives them a moment to reflect on past learning
task approaches before they offer ideas. When Students share, Teacher writes
their ideas on the board. (If needed, Teacher should lead Students to mention
pre-reading and note-taking)
10. Teacher praises the class for their good ideas and comments on how each
one could help them accomplish the task. Teacher shares that for this lesson,
Students are going to practice applying the T.H.I.E.V.E.S pre-reading strategy.
Students will work together to pre-view the chapter. If the class has not already
organically reviewed the strategy, Teacher asks the class, “Do you remember the
T.H.I.E.V.E.S strategy?” (This strategy has been used often in the class, and
students should already be very familiar with using it) “What do you do? How do
you use the T.H.I.E.V.E.S strategy”
11. Using Students’ responses, together the teacher and the class write out the
acronym with a description of each step.
12. Teacher explains that each table group will pre-view a section of the chapter
using the T.H.I.E.V.E.S strategy. The group will then report back to the class
what they gathered from the section. When they present, Students should be
able to say, “Our group pre-read the ______ section. We believe that _______ is
about _________. We believe this because we found ____________ which tells
us ____________. Students should include which Core Democratic Values they
thought their doctrine protected. Teacher writes that sentence on the board.
13. Teacher reminds Students that, like in the past, each student in the group is
responsible for writing out notes for at least one step (one letter of T.H.I.E.V.E.S)
14. Teacher assigns a section to each group (some groups may get two short
sections) while passing out the Thieves Worksheet
15. Students work on their section for about 20 minutes. Teacher will circulate
through the class to answer questions, offer support, and make sure students are
on task.
16. When Students have finished, Teacher has one student from each section to
report back what they learned and answer the “question” on the board. Groups
will present following the order of the sections in the book.
17. Students are given a chance to ask their classmates questions about their
sections
18. (Exit Slip) Teacher asks the class to think about what life would have been
like for the people of the time if those doctrines hadn’t existed. For example:
What would like have been like for the people of England if the Magna Carta
hadn’t existed (or if King John refused to sign it). Teacher gives the class one
minute to think quietly to themselves before having a class discussion.
19. Teacher takes volunteers to respond to the question.
20. Teacher asks the class if they have any questions about the chapter (the
content, vocabulary, reading strategies etc.)
21. If time permits, the class will be given time to start reading the chapter.
Possible Adaptations:
-If the students are strong readers, each group can be assigned to read the entire
chapter, breaking down the task accordingly.
-Students can take notes in a variety of ways. For example, students’ notes may
be in the form of drawings. (The handout may have to be adapted)
-Teacher can collect the worksheets while students are thinking quietly about the
Exit Slip question. These worksheets can be collected and used as a formative
assessment (possibly used as a grade). Also, if time/resources permit, the
teacher could make copies of the worksheets, staple them together, and
distribute them to the class. When they read the text at home, they will have the
pre-reading notes to guide them through each section
-Any writing on the board could be done by the students themselves
Procedures
-Asking students to list and describe the core democratic values and the
T.H.I.E.V.E.S strategy activates their memories having used it. This helps
prepare the students for the following activities.
-Whenever things are written on the board, they serve as reminders and tools
throughout the lesson. If students forget the name of a core democratic value or
a step in the previewing strategy, they can find it on the board.
-By commenting on what the students’ say each time they participate, the teacher
is validating their contributions.
-By this point in the year, students would already be familiar with using the pre-
reading strategy. It would have been modeled for them and they would have
practiced multiple times (with texts of gradually increasing size and difficulty).
This scaffolding would have prepared the students to be able to complete a task
like the one in this lesson.
Materials/Resources/Technology
-Textbook
-Thieves Worksheet
-Chalkboard/Whiteboard/Smartboard and writing
utensils