Teacher Candidate: Stacy LaBounty

Date: February 25, 2016

THE UCI LESSON PLANNER

Part 1: Classroom Information
Grade: 5

Content Area: History Social Studies

Group Size: 29 Lesson Length: 50 minutes

Student Context:
Identified Needs

Accommodations

Students with Special Needs

(IEP and/or 504)

1 IEP

May work around room where

comfortable; may take breaks if
overwhelmed; work with
teacher individually or in small
group after whole class lesson

Students with Specific Language Needs (ELL)

2 Early Advanced ELLs

Give vocabulary definitions and

write on board, sentence frame,
think pair share

Part 1: Planning for the Lesson

A: Standards
i. Key Content Standard:
5.5 Students explain the causes of the American Revolution
1. Understand how political, religious, and economic ideas and interests brought about the
Revolution (e.g., resistance to imperial policy, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, taxes on
tea, Coercive Acts).
B. Objectives
i. Learning Objective/Goal: The students will (DO __) to (LEARN ___).
The students will simulate unfair taxation to understand why the colonists were upset with the king of
England. Students will research events leading to the American Revolution to ultimately create a
jigsaw of causes of the Revolution.
ii. Language Objective (transfer this from "Incorporating Academic Language"):
The students will explain why certain events led to the American Revolution using the word because
and supporting details.

C. Assessments:
Informal assessment strategies you will use during class (What evidence will you see and/or
hear and how will you note it?)
Note student reaction to taxes and use real reactions to facilitate class discussion about taxation.
i.

Written assessment you will use to determine, for each individual student, to what extent
they have met your learning objectives. (What evidence will you collect?)
Each group will turn in written notes about an assigned pre-Revolutionary event after additional research time is provided.
ii.

D. Lesson Resources/Materials (e.g., handouts, manipulatives, text pages, special supplies):

29 Dixie Cups, mini marshmallows, 2 plastic bowls, role cards (1 king, 2 parliament, 2 tax collectors),
4 object cards (jeans, instrument, backpack, glasses), tall wooden chair, two chairs; event cards
(Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Boston Massacre, Tea Act, Coercive
Acts, Battle of Lexington and Concord)

Part 2: Instructional Sequence - Engaging Students in the Learning Process

Introduction (20 min.): Describe how you will 1) make connections to prior knowledge, tap into
their experiences and interests or use a hook, AND 2) let students know what the objective of the
lesson is.
Students will have Dixie cup of mini marshmallows and a role card on their desks. Instruct students
before entering the classroom not to touch the cup or turn over the card.
Tell students they will be participating in a simulation. Ask students what a simulation is. Confirm it
is acting out something that has happened.
Tell students to turn over cards without speaking to a neighbor. Ask whoever has the king card to
come forward and sit in the tall chair. Ask the students with the parliament cards to come and sit in
the chairs on either side of the king.
Ask students what parliament is. Write definition on board.
Ask students with tax collector cards to come forward and stand on either side of parliament.
Tell students that parliament will be levying taxes on certain items, and any student who has that
item with them at school must pay taxes.
Have parliament randomly choose 1 object card and announce to class. Have tax collectors collect
taxes for those items (students put marshmallows from their cup into bowls). Repeat for 3 or 4 object
cards.
Have all students return to seats.
Facilitate discussion:
What was so unfair about how the class was taxed?
How did you feel about paying taxes without any choice?
Is there a way to tax the class more fairly?
Why would taxation without representation be a cause for revolution?
Body of the Lesson (20 minutes): Describe step-by-step what the teacher and the students will be doing during the lesson.
Tell students that taxation without representation was one idea or concept that led to the Revolution,
but that there were also specific events. Students have learned some in a previous lesson.

 Let students know they will be working in their table groups to find information about specific
events.
Show students one event card and announce what information they need to look for.
Tell students they must work at their desks. Tell students we will come back as a class after they have
done some research.
Pass out event cards and have students begin. Circulate and monitor student work
Closure (10 minutes): Describe how you will prompt the students to summarize the lesson and restate
the learning objective.
Ask students what they learned about their event and to explain why the event led to the colonies declaring independence from England and fighting a war.
Give students an example of a thorough explanation. Write sentence frame on the board. Have students tell a partner why these events led to the Revolution.
Have a few students share out.

Part 3: Incorporating Academic Language

(to be completed after you have planned the content part of your lesson plan)
1. Describe the rich learning task(s) related to the content learning objective.
Students will simulate taxation without representation, then research a specific event that led to the
American Revolution.
2. Language Function: How will students be communicating in relation to the content in the learning
task(s)? Identify the specific function (purpose or genre) you want to systematically address in
your lesson plan that will scaffold students to stronger disciplinary discourse. The language function will always be a verb. Some examples are: describe, identify, explain, justify, analyze, construct, compare, or argue.
Students will explain why certain events led to a revolution.
3. Language Demands: Looking at the specific function (purpose or genre) your students will be using, what are the language demands that you will systematically address in this lesson?
Vocabulary:
Key to this lesson: parliament, taxation without representation
Syntax1: I think this event led to the Revolution because __________________.
Discourse2: Students will give their explanation in an academic discussion with a partner and
with the class.
4. Language Objective: What is/are the language objective(s) for your lesson? (The students will
(FUNCTION) (LANGUAGE RELATED TO CONTENT) (SYNTAX AND/OR DISCOURSE)

1 Use of a variety of sentence types to clarify a message, condense information, and combine ideas, phrases, and clauses.
2

Discourse includes the structures of written and oral language, as well as how member of the discipline talk, write, and
participate in knowledge construction.

For example: The students will compare different types of parallelograms using transition words
such as similarly, different from or by contrast. Note: be sure to copy and paste this into the top of
the lesson planner.
The students will explain why certain events led to the American Revolution using the word because
and supporting details.
5. What does your language objective sound like/look like for different levels of language learners?
Ask yourself, What would the students say/write when using the language function. Remember
to consider the language demands while creating sample language that the students might use.
Emerging

Expanding

Bridging

Start here!

I think this event led

to the Revolution because
_________________.

6. Language Support: What instructional strategies will you use during your lesson to teach the
specific language skill and provide support and opportunities for guided and independent practice?
Instruction
Direct model a thorough
explanation.

Guided Practice

Independent Practice

Students think, pair, share their

explanation.

Students reference a sentence

frame to explain.

Part 4: Lesson Analysis

In addition to answering the questions below, annotate (make notes on) the actual lesson plan to indicate what worked, what didnt, missed opportunities you had, where you collected evidence of student
learning, how you monitored students, and other anecdotes.

LEARNING GOAL
1. What was your content learning objective/goal?
The students will simulate unfair taxation to understand why the colonists were upset with the king of
England. Students will research events leading to the American Revolution to ultimately create a
jigsaw of causes of the Revolution.

EVIDENCE
2. a) What specific examples of student learning do you have that showed students met or made
progress toward the content learning objective? Please complete the chart below.
Teacher Actions &/or Strategies
Why was this method of taxing unfair?

Evidence of Student Learning

Because some people had to pay taxes and
others didnt.
Some people ended up with less
marshmallows that others.
Some people had to pay even though they
didn't have very many marshmallows left.

Did anyone have a say in what was taxed or No.

how much they should pay?
What is this called?
Taxation without representation.
How could we tax in a way that is more
fair?

Tax everyone the same.

People with more money should have to
pay more taxes.

b) Write a narrative that explains the decisions and strategies you used that led to successful student
learning of your content learning objective.
I had students simulate taxation without representation so that they experienced the outrage that the
colonists did. Students were very much against giving away their marshmallows and often tried to bargain. I then facilitated a discussion among students, and students responded to the thoughts of others.
Students were better able to understand the concept and experience the emotion through a simulation
and debrief.
c) What evidence is missing? What would you do to capture this evidence in the future?
I am missing individual evidence of understanding of taxation without representation and its impact on
the colonies. In the future, I could have the students complete a quick write about the simulation and
discussion, and have them jot down their thought about the exercise and why taxation without representation was so unfair.

3.

a) What specific examples of student learning do you have that showed students struggled to meet
or make progress toward this goal? Please complete the chart below.
Teacher Actions &/or Strategies
Who thought this was a fair way of levying
and collecting taxes?

Evidence of Student Learning

1/4-1/3 of class raises hand

Who can tell me why they thought this was

a fair way to levy taxes

Everyone had to pay taxes

b) Write a narrative that explains the decisions and strategies that may have interfered or created
missed opportunities in terms of student learning.
They way I asked at least on of my questions made students think I was looking for a certain answer.
They game me the answer they thought I was expecting, instead of the answer that they believed. I unknowingly led students to an incorrect answer, before steering them back towards the correct one.
c) What evidence is missing? What would you do to capture this evidence in the future?
I am missing evidence of individual students misconceptions or misunderstandings. In the future, I
would have students complete a quick write about the exercise to that I had an informal assessment of
each students understanding or lack thereof.

ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES and NEXT STEPS

4. Considering student learning, if you were to teach this lesson again, what decisions and strategies
would you change (in planning, instruction, and/or assessment) to teach an upcoming lesson? How
do you expect these strategies to impact students achievement of the lesson learning goal(s)?
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would ask students open ended questions without a suggestive
intonation so that students would take the time to think about their own opinion, instead of answering
the way they think I want. This would help students achieve the learning goal of understanding why
the colonists were upset with the king of England by giving them the opportunity to express their
thinking without their thoughts first going in a different direction. I would also have students complete
a quick write about what they learned, in addition to checking in with the whole class orally. This
would give me a better understanding of the students achievement of the learning goal.
5. Using the evidence of student learning described and observed, what will be your next steps in future instruction with the class, small groups, and/or individual students?
My next steps in future instruction will include simulations that allow the students to experience the
concepts that they are learning. I will also continue to facilitate discussions with the whole class, and
encourage students to respond to each other. I may have students debrief in small groups to encourage
more students to speak up about what they have learned and to be able to listen in on multiple groups
discussing and hear from more students.