Elementary Education Program

Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Design Document for Lesson Plan

Name: Katie Noblitt and Shelby Adcock

Grade Level: 3
Concept/Topic: Historical Impact
Length of Lesson (in minutes): 50 minutes

Learning Objectives: What are your learning objectives? (What new understandings will the
students have as a result of this lesson? Make sure learning objectives are measurable.)

• Students will be able to explain the impact George Washington had on local and national
communities.
• Students will be able to list some events that shaped George Washington as a person.
• Students will be able to explain key historical events that occurred during George
Washington’s life.
• Students will reflect on events that have shaped them, as well as the impact they have had on
someone or something.

Under which standards from North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NC-SCOS) do these
learning objectives fall?

Essential Standard:
3.H.1 Understand how events, individuals and ideas have influenced the history of local and
regional communities.
Clarifying Objectives:
3.H.1.1 Explain key historical events that occurred in the local community and regions over time.
3.H.1.2 Analyze the impact of contributions made by diverse historical figures in local
communities and regions over time.

Key Tasks/Activities: What are the key activities or tasks that you plan to use?

After introducing the learning targets to the students and discussing with them what it means to
have an impact, the students will participate in a reader’s theater that gives details about George
Washington’s life, historical events that happened during his lifetime, and the impact he had on
regional and national communities. Some students will be assigned to read the part of the
interviewer and the president. Each new page of the reader’s theater will have a new student to
fill the interviewer and president roles to encourage more participation among the students. As
the students read they will be given the task to circle key historical events, key events that
happened to George Washington in his lifetime, and things that George Washington did that
impacted the community. Students will use the things they circle to fill out a worksheet about
George Washington after the reader’s theater. After they have completed this, they will reflect on
their own life’s events and the impact they’ve had on something or someone.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

What is your rationale for why you have selected these particular tasks/activities to meet your
learning objectives?

The tasks/activities that are included in this lesson center around the why? For teaching history.
Student’s historical knowledge will be enhanced through their participation in reader’s theater.
“An Interview with George Washington” provides students with a historical narrative that will
give them a deeper understanding about who George Washington is, the impact he made on
history, and historical events that happened during his lifetime. The “All About George
Washington” worksheet will allow students to reflect on the things they learned during the
reader’s theater. Moreover, students will develop their historical reasoning skills and “do history”
by writing about their own history on the “All About Me” worksheet.

Anticipating Students’ Responses: How do you anticipate that students will respond to your
planned activities/tasks? This does NOT mean their response affectively, but instead their
response academically (e.g., What prior knowledge or conceptions might they bring? How do
you think they will approach or solve the task(s)?). When necessary, please insert images of
your handwritten anticipated approaches/strategies. Be specific! Use your anticipated responses
to help you plan your questions in the lesson plan.

Based on how we have seen our students interact with social studies materials throughout the
semester, we anticipate that they have little to no understanding of what it means to be a
historical figure or to have an impact in history. More specifically, when administering a survey,
most students could not identify a historical figure. Some students may understand what it means
to have an impact, but we anticipate that most students will not. After discussing what it means
to have an impact and giving the students instructions on what to pay attention to during reader’s
theater, we expect that they will be able to adequately fill out the worksheet given to them.
Moreover, students will enjoy sharing details about themselves. Based on our knowledge of
students' skills, we expect they may need help spelling or putting their thoughts to paper when
filling out the worksheet.

Responding to Students’ Responses: Describe how you will provide scaffolding for students
who are stuck, and describe how you will extend the thinking of students who have a firm grasp
on the target content/objectives.

All students will be provided guidance on what to make note of during the reader’s theater by the
teacher at the beginning of the lesson. All students will also be given examples for each portion
of the “All About George Washington/Me” worksheet. For students who are unable to follow
along during the reader’s theater and take note of what is required of them, they will be allowed
to work with a partner or group of students to circle key details throughout the reading.
Moreover, if students are still unable to fill out each part of the worksheet after examples are
provided to them. Scaffolded and completed worksheets will be shown to the students to give
them more ideas of things they could write down. If all of this does not help the students, the
students can work one-on-one with the teacher to fill in the information. More specifically, some
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

students may not be able to put their thoughts accurately on paper, which the teacher can provide
them one-on-one guidance for. For students who have a firm grasp on the content presented and/
or finish tasks earlier, there will be a classroom library with narratives that center around George
Washington that they will have access to. These books will give students greater details on
George Washington’s historical impact.

Development of Practices among Students: Which disciplinary practices does your lesson aim
to develop? (e.g., “construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others”, “develop
and use models”) How do the task(s) develop the target practice(s)?

Our lesson plan activity will develop the children's skills of constructing an argument and
supporting that argument with textual evidence. Students will argue how George Washington has
made an impact on this community, how historical events during this lifetime impacted him and
the nation as a whole, as well as how other key events shaped George Washington as a person.
They will keep track of their evidence that supports their arguments using the worksheet
provided to them. Evidence for support of the students arguments will be found throughout the
reader’s theater document.

Assessment: Describe your assessment plan for the targeted learning objective(s). What
specific data/information will you use, and how will that data/information tell you that the
students have/have not met the objective?

Students will be assessed on their understanding of the learning objectives set by filling out a
worksheet that will be provided to them. Each question on the worksheet aligns with a different
objective set. For example, we will be able to tell if students can explain the impact George
Washington had on regional and local communities if they are able to list one thing he did that
showed his influence based on the facts presented in the reader’s theater. We will use each of the
students' answers to the three questions listed on the worksheet to determine if they understand
the content presented. Moreover, we will check students' understanding of their own personal
impact/influence by reviewing their “All About Me” worksheet. More specifically, we will
analyze their answers on someone or something that has had an influence on them, as well as
someone or something they have had an influence on. All in all, we will determine if students
understand the concepts of both having an impact on history- in a large or small scale, whether it
be a person or event- and things in history that have an impact on individuals, based on each
answer students record on their worksheet. Lastly, we will make sure to pay close attention to
what students say when they share out on their worksheet because this will give us even more
insight into what they understood from the lesson.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Vocabulary/Language Function: Define vocabulary that students will need to know in order to
access the content and goals of your lesson. Be precise and careful with your language. Please
attend to three types of vocabulary:

Content Vocab
• Impact/Influence: to have an effect on someone or something
• History/Historical: everything that has happened in the past to people or things, or a telling of
these events.
• Event: a thing that happens, especially one of importance.
• Figure: an important person
• Community: a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in
common.
Academic Language
• Explain: make a certain idea or situation understandable to someone by describing the specific
details of that idea/problem
• List: make a list of
• Represent: illustrate (a particular subject) in a picture or other work of art
• Analyze: discover or reveal (something) through detailed examination
Non-Content Vocab
• Shape: determine the nature of; have a great influence on

Classroom Management Plan: Describe your classroom management plan. Explain how you
will motivate students to engage in the lesson, how you will set and enforce expectations, and
how you will ensure that transitions are smooth and efficient.

Expectations that we will enforce during our lesson plan will include all students staying quiet
and being respectful while students read the reader’s theater document, respecting peers while
they share out during discussion, and staying engaged and on task during the lesson. We would
ensure that these things happen by having one partner monitor while the other teaches. We would
make sure transitions are smooth and effective by keeping the children in one location while
performing the lesson and making sure they stay quiet. For students who cannot maintain
expectations they will work in an area alone on the worksheet, where distractions are limited to
them. If needed, one partner can work closely with students who are showing behavioral issues.