Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

Teachers: Rachel Weber Subject: American History – “Dancing

Through Time”
Grade Level: 8th Grade (Middle Levels) Topic: Dancing Through the Harlem
Renaissance
Common Core State Standards:
 8.H2.2 – Explain how popular movements, reform efforts, and activist groups have sought to
change American society and institutions.
Anchor Standard
 Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually, quantitatively, and orally.
ISTE Standards
 For Educators:
5. Designer
b. Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and
use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.
 For Students:
3. Knowledge Constructor
a. Plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other
resources for their intellectual and creative pursuits.
Objective (Explicit):
 Students will be able to explain how popular dance movements of the Harlem Renaissance
sought to change American Society by comparison with popular artistic movements of
another time.
Essential Question:
 What can the historical roots and social motivations of Harlem Renaissance-era dancers
teach us about the artistic movements of other marginalized groups throughout history?
Essential Ideas for Students: Essential Ideas for Teacher:
 Artistic expression served as escape from  Harlem Renaissance often skipped over
harsh realities of life for African Americans as its own event in history
 Connecting timeline from Civil War,  Continuum of history from one point of
Segregation Era, and Great Depression time to another
 How to interpret art as a focal point of  Students learning to empathize with
social, political and historical change marginalized groups they personally do
(artifact analysis) not relate to through their art
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable):

 Students will fill in a venn diagram including the Harlem Renaissance and an artistic artifact
from one other marginalized group of their choosing.
-Differentiation: Students will be provided an example piece through the “I do, you do, we
do” portion of instruction on which they can choose to complete their venn diagram.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex):
 The story of American History will pick up where the previous lesson (The Civil War) left off.
Students will draw connections back to the war to understand motivations behind the
Harlem Renaissance.

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 Students will be able to use contextualization and historical reasoning to empathize with the
historically marginalized communities within lesson.
 Given the population of my district, empathizing with marginalized groups without personal
experience as such is crucial to developing the authentic skills which historians employ.
Key vocabulary: Marginalized, segregation, Materials: N/A
Jim Crow laws, stereotypes
Opening (state objectives, connect to previous learning, and make relevant to real life)

 Students will be asked to imagine a time when they were stuck somewhere that they
didn’t want to be and to explain and reflect upon how it felt to be let out. After jumping
into the lesson, they will be asked to apply the feeling of freedom and elation they
described to the artistic expression through dance of African-Americans in Harlem, New
York during the Harlem Renaissance.
Teacher Will: Student Will:
Instructional

 Show clear and completed example  Volunteer additional ideas that

Input

of formative assessment comparing instructor could have used in example

teacher-specific example and HR and develop understanding of research
through venn diagram process.

Teacher Will: Student Will:

 Verbally prompt students to share  Begin deciding who they would like to
Guided Practice

with the class any artistic or social work on project with and begin
movements which occur to them activating prior knowledge to determine
and were not provided as topic which would be most engaging
examples. As them to share with for them.
the class along with a similarity and
a different with the Harlem
Renaissance.

Teacher Will: Student Will:

As students work in pairs and in
groups, teacher will circulate
around the room asking questions
and guiding conversation so that
Independent Practice
Students will work in pairs or in groups to
research and discuss the points which they
will add to their own venn diagrams. I am
confident that the content is relevant enough

students remain on topic. and that the diverse media elements utilized
Additionally, resource has been in this lesson will leave students engaged and
provided which will provide all with the knowledge and skills required by the
preliminary information students objective.
may need to complete the
formative assessment.
Differentiation Strategy
 For students struggling with reading or writing, they may complete the formative
assessment used as an example by instructor in PowerPoint. Additionally, they will
be required to add only 2-3 short bullet points to each compartment of venn diagram
as opposed to the 3-5 required of the rest of the class.
 For students needing an extra challenge, they will be invited to research a topic
other than the Tupac example provided for the exercise and lead their own inquiry-
based learning and research process.
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Closing/Student Reflection/Real-life connections:
 How will students summarize and state the significance of what they learned?
 Why will students be engaged?
By diversifying the lesson content and including examples of music, poetry and visual art of the
time, students will hopefully have enough sensory stimulation to stay engaged with the lessons.
Additionally, I believe by opening the lesson with a way that students can contextualize the
harsh realities of life for free slaves, they will find other things in the story to relate to. Finally, by
opening up the assessment to team and group work and offering options for differentiation, I
hope that students will have the tools to effectively show that they are making the connections
stated in the objective.