Lesson Plan Template

Date: 3/24/2020                                                           Teacher’s Name: David Beaver

 

Subject: Social Studies                                                            Grade level: 7th

Length of lesson: 45 min

Central Focus: 7.3 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: Growing tensions over political

power and economic issues sparked a movement for independence from Great
Britain. New York played a critical role in the course and outcome of the
American Revolution. (Standards: 1, 4, 5; Themes: TCC, GOV, ECO)

Title: “The Boston Massacre vs. The Incident on King St.”

Essential Question(s): “What role does prejudice play when tragedy strikes? How can prejudice
be dangerous in the court room?”

Learning Standards: 7.3b Stemming from the French and Indian War, the British government
enacted and attempted to enforce new political and economic policies in the colonies. These
policies triggered varied colonial responses, including protests and dissent.
 Students will investigate the Albany Congress and the Albany Plan of Union as a plan for
colonial unification.
 Students will examine actions taken by the British, including the Proclamation of 1763, the
Quartering Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Coercive Acts, and colonial responses to
those actions.
 Students will compare British and colonial patriot portrayals of the Boston Massacre, using
historical evidence.
 Students will compare the proportions of loyalists and patriots in different regions of the
New York colony.
 Students will examine the events at Lexington and Concord as the triggering events for the
Revolutionary War.

Pre-Assessment: Do Now: Think Ink Pair Share- building from the Political Cartoon Lesson,
looking at patriot depiction of Boston Massacre

 What does the author want viewers to take away from the piece?
 How can you tell this is his purpose?

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to Assessments: Students will show their
summarize the events of the Boston understanding by completing the Argument
Massacre, and the different portrayals Frame.
patriots and loyalists have demonstrated by

12/1/2018
 the arguments both sides made during the
trail of the British Soldiers.

Differentiation: Valeria communicates fluently in English; however, has difficulty in

understanding the explanation of historical concepts. I found that by presenting the concept
in different scenarios helps Valeria understand the meaning of the concept. Once she
comprehends the explanation, she is usually able to understand the meaning and accurately
complete the appropriate topic. However, Valeria has trouble applying the concept to events
that happen after as a result.

This lesson is designed with summative processing, relying on creating a organized

system for students to understand and analyze information that we learn from the people
during this time period. My goal is to help Valeria connect the lesson plans together ensuring
that she can practice applying prior knowledge to every lesson. Similarly, the lesson began
with a Think-Ink-Pair-Share to help build off of our previous lesson on Political Cartoons,
using the strategies we taught to analyze them, and applying them this time to a political
cartoon relating to our current lesson (The Boston Massacre) this helps to keep past
information fresh in their minds as they see how the new information changes and creates
different meaning in the new context. Similarly, the activity will have students follow the
Argumentative Frame of summative assessment where they will organize the authors claim,
evidence, support, and qualifiers; all of which helps students compile organized information
to grasp the overall main arguments especially when similar evidence and accounts are used
to argue two different perspectives. Grouping students together to work through the last
document helps students cooperate and aids with students like Valeria who may become
confused by the academic language of claim, evidence, support and qualifier. Likewise, every
Argumentative Frame has guidelines for notetaking that students will use to identify the
various categories (i.e.) Box the claim, underline evidence, circle support. The lesson also uses
an animated/ live action video to help explain the consensus of the Boston Massacre, and
briefly introduces the sides that we will go further into detail throughout the lesson. This
combination of video and animated text helps form dule coding to help students understand
the course of events that occurred.

Academic Language:

Vocabulary: Robert Paine, John Adams, Boston Massacre, Arguments (court room context),
Patriots, Loyalists, Moderates.

Language Function: Summarize

Syntax: Primary Source Documents, Political Cartoons.

Discourse: Problem/Solution Frame, Discussing the different arguments to defend the British
Soldiers, discussing different arguments against the British Soldiers, understanding how the
court made its decision-Not Guilty.

12/1/2018
Procedure:

Anticipatory Set
1. [Slide 2] Do Now: Think Ink Pair Share- building from the Political Cartoon Lesson,
looking at patriot depiction of Boston Massacre

 What does the author want viewers to take away from the piece?
 How can you tell this is his purpose?
Initial Phase
2. Play video [slide 3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx0B5A2GVNE
3. [Slide 4] Read aloud the John Adams quotes, and further explain why John Adams took
the case; putting aside political beliefs to uphold the respect for the law
4. [Slide 5] present students with the Argumentative Frame, and hand out documents with
frame
a. “Evidence-What information does the author present that leads to a claim?”
b. “Claim-What does the Author assert is true?”
c. “Support-What outside ideas support the author's claims?”
d. “Qualifier-What does the other author say counters the claim presented?”
5. [Slide 6, Doc A] Models how students should approach the text (Box claim, Underline
evidence, and Circle support [slide 6 is animated to demonstrate the process of
analyzing the document])
6. [Slide 7] and how to fill in the Argumentative Frame sheet corresponding to the
document (Leave Qualifier Blank)

Middle Phase
7. [Slide 8, Doc B] Work along with students editing the text on the Smart Board as
students work through to complete how we approach the document to practice what
we did for Doc A: Box claim, Underline Evidence, and Circle support.

12/1/2018
 8. [Slide 9] Have students work through editing the text on the Smart Board as students
work through to how they would complete the Argumentative Frame
9. [Slide 10, Doc C] Repeat step 7 for Document C
10. [Slide 11] Repeat step 8 for Document C

Independent Phase
11. [Slide 12, Doc D] Students will join in pairs to complete the analysis approach for
Document D: Box claim, Underline Evidence, and Circle support.
12. [Slide 13] Student pairs will complete the Argumentative Frame for Document D
Concluding Phase
13. Come together as a class and discuss what they did for steps 11 and 12.
14. [Slide 14] Talk about how the two authors counters one another’s claim
a. (Adams’ evidence of the crowd antagonizing the soldier’s counters Paine’s
claim that they were mere boys being boys)
b. (Paine’s evidence that the objects did were not thrown hard enough to do
bodily harm, counters Adams’ claim the soldiers acted in Self Defense)
15. [Slide 15] Shows how Adams’ applied qualifiers during the case through court
precedent, all decisions made from previous trails of the same crime that the soldiers
found themselves involved with.
Follow up: [Slide 16] Pretend your friend missed class and they asked you what you covered, write a one-page
summary of the days lesson. It should include.
1. An outline of the Boston Massacre 
2. Summarize the arguments made by John Adams
3. Summarize the arguments made by Robert Paine 
4. Summarize how the two men challenged the others claims.
5. (BONUS) add who you believe was more effective in presenting their argument 

Materials: Smart Board (Zoom for on-line learning), Handouts (Documents and Argumentative
Frame), YouTube

References and Resources:

Perspectives on the Boston Massacre. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2020, from

https://www.masshist.org/features/massacre/trials

State Bar of Georgia. (Jun 20, 2018). The Boston Massacre Trial (1770) | Triumph of the Rule of
Law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx0B5A2GVNE

Self-Reflection of the lesson:

12/1/2018
12/1/2018