Lesson Title: Five Pillars of Islam 10-09-19

Unit Central Historical Question(s): Why were the civilizations of African important to the
world?

Subject / Course: World History

Grade: 7th Grade

Lesson Duration: 55 minutes (this is part 1 of a 2 day lesson on standard 7.4.5)

Content Learning Objective (content and product):

Today my learning target is to define oral storytelling and describe how it was used in
West African culture.

I know I have met my learning target when I can answer my focus questions using
evidence from my document and present my answers to my group by speaking or
showing a detailed diagram.

It is important to learn this because oral tradition is still a large part of African culture
today.

Historical Thinking Learning Objective (thinking skill and product):

Students will be able to use evidence and interpret it in order to define oral storytelling
and identify its use in West African culture by reviewing one of 4 sources and listening to
the presentations or studying the diagram of the students within their group.

Historical Thinking Skill, California Content, and Common Core Standards Addressed:

Evidence and Interpretation

7.4.5 Describe the importance of written and oral traditions in the transmission of
African history and culture.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8:
1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary
sources.
2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source;
provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or
opinions.
Narrative Summary of Tasks / Actions:

Warmup (5 minutes)
Setting the Stage (5 minutes)
Group Activity (35 minutes)
Lesson Assessment (5 minutes)
Closure (5 minutes)

Materials / Equipment:

PowerPoint
Copies of each of the 4 source documents
Box with highlighters, colored pencils, erasers at each group desk for annotation
Class Journals

Inquiry-Based Lesson Plan for History-Social Science

1. Anticipatory Set Time: 5 minutes

When the students walk into the classroom SLIDE 1 (part of attached PDF of
presentation) will be displayed. Classroom procedure is to walk into class and get their
classroom journal out.
Students are creating a mind map to recap the content of last lesson which focused on
the spread of Arabic language in West Africa. They are given two guiding questions to
answer. Students are given a diagram example to jog their memory. They are
encouraged to draw pictures or use words to fill it out.
Differentiation in Anticipatory Set:
 Ability to draw or write their answer depending on literacy skills or preference
 Pick one out of two questions to answer depending on level of understanding or
literacy skills

2. Central Historical Question for Lesson Time: 1 minute

What is oral storytelling and how was it used in West African culture?
3. Teacher Input (delivery of historical context) Time: 5 minutes

The students will view a PowerPoint discussing storytelling in West Africa (SLIDES 2-3).
The input is very brief, as the students will use documents to get more information about
oral storytelling, its transmission and its uses. The input will go over the general region of
Africa we are discussing. Then the slide will be blank, as the teacher dictates what oral
storytelling is. The teacher will then tell the students that what she just did, talking
without help of words on a screen behind her, is similar to oral storytelling. The teacher
will emphasize that oral storytelling is not supported by words or images.

Differentiation in Input:
 Oral input
 Visual input

4. Student Activity and Investigation (w/ differentiation) Time: 35 minutes

Students will be divided into groups of 4. These groups are chosen by the teacher and
are comprised of mixed levels of ability and language learning. Documents will be given
to each student based on their literacy. However, each document has different focus
questions and slightly different content. Therefore, the student does not feel that they are
receiving a ‘easier’ version of the work.
The students will be given 7 minutes to read and assess their document. The teacher
encourages the students to use reading strategies to understand their document,
including notetaking or highlighting. The document is double-spaced so they may make
notes in between lines.
Then the teacher will then direct the students to start the focus questions. They will be
given 10 minutes to answer them using evidence from their document to support their
answer. The teacher will encourage them to use the time to re-read their document if
they need to. Students are allowed to either answer their focus questions in sentences or
to use a diagram (such as the mind map example used in the warm-up) to lay out their
answer and their evidence to each question.
After the students have their sentences or diagrams, the teacher will give them about 4
minutes each to show their diagram or present their answers verbally. Students are
encouraged to ask questions of the presenter if they do not understand. They are asked
to take notes in either diagram or sentence format of the information they received from
each student.

Differentiation in the student activity/investigation:

 Documents are adjusted for level. There is one for a gifted student, two different
levels for general students, and an adjusted document for ELL students, students
with lower literacy levels, or students with exceptionalities.
 All documents have annotations to define more difficult words
 Focus questions are adjusted for difficulty of document
  Ability to draw or mind map their answer depending on literacy skills or
preference

5. Lesson Assessment (w/ differentiation) Time: 5 minutes

Assessment will be done through journaling. Once they get back to their desks, students
will use their class journal to answer today’s central historical question (SLIDE 4). Based
off of all the information you read and heard from your classmates, what is oral
storytelling and how was it used in West African culture? You may answer this in a mind
map, a bulleted list, a collage of images or a paragraph.

Differentiation in Lesson Assessment:

 Ability to be produce work in one of four ways; mind map, bulleted list, collage of
images, or paragraph.
o Collage of images allows students with lower literacy levels or second
language learners to show their understanding of the lesson content.

6. Closure Time: 5 minutes

To wrap up the class I will ask the students to share their lesson assessment activity with
their shoulder partner. This allows them to get input on their understanding of the lesson
from a peer, which can be a lower stakes environment than sharing out to the class. The
teacher will walk around and listen. After 3 minutes, the teacher will share out what she
heard.

7. Student Reflection (metacognition) Time: N/A

Students will reflect on the work done in-class by doing a ‘Lesson Yelp Review’ in their
journal. They are tasked with writing about what they liked in this lesson and what they
didn’t like in this lesson. Then they give the lesson a star review. This gets the students
thinking about how they learned and if they learned well with this method. It also gives
the teacher a gauge of how the lesson was received.