Traye Pelzer

April 9, 2015
Social Studies
6th Grade
1st Block: Heterogeneous group spaced fairly evenly around the room.
Both talented and behind students in the classroom. One student
with a personal aid.
Social Studies: The Crusades
Objective: Students will know and be able to explain the main
instruments that lead to the crusades.
Vocabulary
o Palestine: The Holy Land, Jerusalem
o Alexius Comnenus: Emperor of the Byzantine Empire in
1095, asked Pope Urban II for help fighting the Turks in the
holy land
o Urban II: Pope who called for the aid of all Christian knights
in freeing the Holy Land from the Muslims
o Crusades: Eight major military expeditions with the goal of
reclaiming the holy land.
Teacher Materials:
Bowl of Candy (always essential)
Video The Crusades: A Concise Overview for Students
Textbook pages 407-408
Student Material:
Textbook
Anticipatory Set:
Bowl of Candy activity
o Activity is designed to put the reason why the crusades
seemed like a good idea at the time into a sixth grade
perspective
o Separate the group into two parts, boys and girls
o Send each group to opposite sides of the room
o Put the bowl of candy with one group and tell them each to
take a piece
o Have the other group cross the room very quietly and ask
the other group if they may take a piece of candy
(optional) explain that the road is long and treacherous and
as the room is very quiet yell and quickly explain again
that the road is scary and dangerous
o After activity is done ask the groups if they think it was
fair? Why or why not?

o Explain that the Christians had to cross a very long

distance to travel to the Holy Land, and, once there had to
ask permission to enter the
Holy area.
Procedures
o Video The Crusades: A Concise Overview for Students
Short five minute video that outlines the major ups
and downs of each crusade.
Before starting the video have kids open their books
to pages 406/07
As the video is playing have them look out for the
keywords that they see highlighted in their books. We
will discuss the words after the video has finished.
o Vocabulary Overview
Will then go over vocabulary with students starting
with Palestine
Palestine: The Holy Land
o Ask Why it was important to both the
Christians and Muslims
Alexius Comnenus: Emperor of the Byzantine
empire, called for the aid of Pope Urban II to
push back Muslims and reclaim Jerusalem
Crusades: Eight major military expeditions set
upon with the goal of reclaiming the Holy Land
and expanding Christian lands
o Ask how many, if it wasnt already said
o Fought between whom?
o Where were they fought?
Closure
o Review the lesson and invite questions to be asked
Review Alexius Comnenus plea for help
Pope Urban IIs call to all Christian men, rich and poor
Eight crusades with the purpose of reclaiming the
Holy Lands and expanding Christian lands
Assessment
o Informal:
Keep eye on each student for understanding. While
questioning look for classes reaction to the question.
Do they know the answer? How many? If not retouch
the subject and return to it during closure.

Reflection
During this lesson I believe that I did very well. I know the kids in
the class very well and they were as excited for my lesson as I was. I
know that my starting activity was well planned and it went very well.
It put the crusades in a relatable set of circumstances that made it
easy for the students to connect the activity to what we are learning
about. I then showed a video while having them look through their
book and identify key words throughout the video. I think that this was
well done as it kept them engaged in listening to the video while also
making them focus on the main ideas of the lesson.
Things that I would change and improve on were the amount of
energy I put into the lesson and putting more main points and
information into the lesson. Towards the end of the lesson it began to
get very repetitive and I could tell I was starting to lose some of the
kids. This could have been helped through more energy on my part. I
am pretty low key and tend to go at my own speed, but with this class I
would go back and try to be more energetic, even if they thought it
was funny. To a degree the teacher has to be the class clown I believe,
and its important in making kids enjoy the room and pay closer
attention to you as a teacher.