Irish Potato Famine and intro to

France
Lesson Objective: There are two major focuses in this lesson. The first is centered on

emphasizing the brutal trip that Irish Immigrants would have taken from Ireland to the United

States during the Potato famine. The second is focused on France in the 1800s. These will

complete the unit on the western democracies. During this time period. The central focuses of the

lessons are: the Irish potato famine, Irish immigration, French governmental stability in the

1800s, and the Dreyfus affair.

Lesson objectives in Blooms Taxonomy Format:

Students will interpret a primary document from a newspaper discussing the Irish

immigration during the Potato Famine.

Students will relate primary source material to the content presented in class.
Students will support their interpretation of the potato famines importance.

School standards:

1. I can identify the causes and effects of the revolutions in the Balkans, France, Austria,

Russia and Germany and analyze the effects of nationalism or liberalism in these

revolutions.

2. I can describe the growth and advancement of democracy in Britain and France.
 3. I can identify the development of reform movements throughout the world especially

womens suffrage.

4. I can explain the idea of self-rule and how certain English colonies or territories achieved

self- rule.
Pre-instructional activities: The first thing that I will do in class will be a formative assessment.

This will assess student knowledge from the previous class period and it will ensure that the

previous class periods information was retained from the previous day of class. The assessment

will discuss the suffragette movement in England, criminal policy, the changes in the lives of

workers during the 19th century in England, and the Irish question (Irelands struggle to secede

from England).
Directed Teaching: Homework from the previous class period will require students to watch a

video for homework (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jIVOgvZ6Ig). This video discusses in

detail, the Irish Potato famine. After the quiz, I have an assignment for them where they will read

a small primary document about the Potato famine and the harsh travel from Ireland to the

United States. After his assignment I plan to discuss the potato famine with the class and talk

about why it was important. After this discussion, I plan to transition into a short lesson

discussing the important information regarding the potato famine. This lesson is important

because it discusses the sad history of the Irish people coming into America as immigrants. I plan

to have a discussion with the students about why the Irish were treated the way that they were

and draw parallels to society today.

Guided Practice: Guided practice will take place when students are working on their handout

about the Irish Potato famine. This handout will give students prompting questions to answer,

using information which they received from the video and the primary documentation included.

This will give students the opportunity to use the knowledge they have learned thus far with the
teacher in the room in order to help students ensure that they do the best possible job on their

work.
Independent practice: For independent practice, students will complete a reading guide about

France in their textbook for homework. This is done so that after a brief introduction to

information about France, the students will have the opportunity to read the textbook about

France. This will build into the lesson on the following day of class. It is important for students

to be familiar with the material about France for the following day of class.
Closure/ Summative Assessment: As an exit slip for the end of class, I plan to have students

write two sentences about the Third Republic and give it to me before the exit the class room.

This is important because I want to make sure that they have a firm grasp on the content material

and challenging them to think about the material is a good way to make them think about the

content and discuss why it is important.

Differentiation of Instruction: Students who need extra time on the potato famine will be given

however long they need and I plan to help students in any way that I can in order to make sure

that they complete this work in class.

Sources:

Irish Potato famine video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jIVOgvZ6Ig

Course Textbook: Prentice hall, World History from 1500 to Present, Chapter 11, section 2.