The Great Depression Lesson Plan

EASTERN UNIVERSITY

Name: Luis Arauz

Content Area: History
Grade Level 1st Grad.
Duration of Time: 45 minutes
Subject/Lesson Topic: The Great Depression

I.
Lesson Overview: Brief description of the lesson and what you are planning on doing and why.
Specifically, name the teaching method(s) and strategies used in the lesson.

- Introducing 1st graders to seek and identify reliable sources to find historical information to
understand better their country's history and why it is essential to know about history. Planning
helps them find various ways to find sources with technology to enhance their technical skills
and know-how to find sources on a laptop and or tablet because this will introduce skills that will
build more robust as their educational journey continues.

II.
Instructional Objectives/Learning Targets: The objective(s) need to be aligned with the
standard(s). Write as a behavioral objective.

Concepts and Competencies for all students:

- The student will learn how to identify information about the past.
- The student will use books, computers, and other sources to get information about a topic.
- The students will analyze their sources and select which sources they prefer.

III.
Grade Level Common Core and/or PA State Standards: Use the numerical code and the
standard description. Use bullet points if you need to be more specific.
Big Ideas: Core Concepts, principles, theories, and the processes that are the focal point of
instruction and assessment.

PA SATE STANDARD: 8.1.1.C Identify sources of historical information

CORE CONCEPTS
● Identify various historical sources
● Finding ways to locate information about the past

Theories
● Lev Vygotsky, Scaffolding
PRINCIPLES:
● Collaboration
● Sharing Ideas

FOCAL POINTS
● Obtaining information from various sources

Instruction and assessment

● Step by step, clear and straightforward instructions, and the assessment part is
integrated with this lesson's closure.

IV.
Vocabulary:
Essential Vocabulary for all students
● Technology
● Evidence
● Identify
● Photographs
● Sources

V.
Materials/Resources: List all of the materials needed for the lesson.
● Discussion area
● Whiteboard
● Great Depression books
● Tablets
● Laptops
● Smart-board.

VI.
Classroom arrangement: Describe the setting.

- The classroom setting will be prepared for discussion; the lesson will be worked on with
student to student interaction, grouping pairs of 2 or three. It would be in a rug area where
students can sit down and move smoothly without any physical items in each other's ways.

VII.
Instructional Process: Break down into each section. All sections can be bullet-pointed with
complete sentences that give detailed steps for teaching the lesson so that someone else could
pick it up and teach it.

The teacher will ask, "with a raise of hands, how many have used laptops and tablets to find
information?"

- Before the lesson, the teacher will first set the classroom to create arrangements mentioned
earlier to provide a space where collaborating students and gather into a rug where they can sit
down; attention is focused on the teacher.

(Approximately 5 minutes)

- The teacher will introduce the history lesson, posing the question," how many know about any
history of the U.S.?" The teacher will allow wait-time, giving students time to think about their
answers and more time (5 seconds minimum) to elaborate on their answers. The teacher will
provide examples of sources they found on the smartboard prior. The teacher will then briefly
brief what the Great Depression was and identify their sources in pairs.

(Approximately 10 minutes)

- The teacher will enter the discussion, asking questions on how they can find information on
The Great Depression and how they will be sharing their findings to the classroom at the end of
the lesson. The teacher will write down on the smartboard vocab words for students to visually
see, hear, and repeat.

- The teacher will allow students to pair up in groups of two or three, depending on how many
students arrive.

- The teacher will hand out either tablets or laptops (depending on what they can provide), and if
neither can be provided, they can use the smartboard as a classroom as plan b.

(Approximately 20 minutes)

- Students will be encouraged to identify the Great Depression information as they would like
either through books provided or surface their tablets in pairs, seeking different ways.

- The teacher will be using scaffolding to provide pairs with questions about how they got there,
what they have found so far, what sources students have found, and what other sources they
have used. The teacher can repeat vocabulary words such as Did you find any photographs of
the Great Depression? Is there any evidence on this source about the Great Depression?

(Approximately 10 minutes)
- once the time is up, the teacher will re-direct their attention and discuss call on pairs, leading
to the assessment portion of this lesson.

(assessment part)
- Teachers will call pairs to share what sources have used to find information on The Great
Depression and if they could share what their findings were. Teachers will pose questions to
them on how they got their information, and what else could they have found if they had
extended time? The teacher will determine if the students followed through and completed the
goals/objectives of this lesson.

- ​Closure​, The teacher will then conclude the lesson by discussing the importance of finding
sources in various ways and how they will use these skills throughout the school year is not just
in history but in almost all areas of learning as they grow as students.

Introduction/Anticipatory Set:
State behavioral and academic expectations.

- Student collaborating to identify various historical sources by engaging in sharing

ideas, communicating in an indoor voice manner, deliberating seeking ways to finding more
information with the time given

Engage students, capture their curiosity, and activate their brains for learning.

- Engaging students by allowing them to pair up with other students and giving them the
materials they need to be successful in these tasks of identifying sources through books and
technology to come up with their likes and dislikes.

Developmental Activities: Step by step activities that will help students meet objectives

- The activity is step by step, allowing a teacher to have a prepared classroom

environment to ensure that objectives are being met for 1st graders in the history lesson.

Closure: Should wrap up the lesson and assess students' learning. Match with Assessments.

- Ending the lesson with a classroom discussion and assessing students by allowing
them to share what they found, what they searched, how students found it, and what sources
they like and do not like without the teacher's input to force them to identify historical evidence
on the Great Depression.

VIII.
Management Plan: How will you modify this lesson if necessary?

- Modification, this lesson by placing vocabulary words on the smart boards, visuals the
type of sources (ex. Visual of a book, visual of a tablet, visual of a historical image). The
smartboard will permit a teacher to show this to the class. They can even use educational
databases or different programs on the smartboard if there are any foreign-speaking students.
Pairing international students with English speaker students to enhance their learning by
visually seeing other students work on the lesson. The pairing will also work for disabled
children that cannot move around as much. The classroom arrangement allows students to
engage in collaboration.

Universal Design for Learning: Multiple means to represent the material, teacher expression,
and student engagement.

- Allowing flexibility to students will enhance their learning and knowledge outcomes from
this given lesson. The teacher can pose questions to the students before and during the lesson
to ensure that all students with different learning ranges are benefiting and understanding what
they should be doing and how they will be doing it. The classroom arrangement will set up the
learners to success because it is at a space where discussion can happen with fewer
distractions and close peers, so interaction and discussion can come naturally instead of
forcefully. If students decide that they do not want to work with a partner, the teacher will allow.

Two Classroom Management Issues Present: List two possible classroom management issues.
For each issue, suggest two proactive solutions before the issue occurs and one reactive
solution if it happens to escalate.
1. The issue, students do not know how to navigate a tablet
* Solution, teacher, will use the smartboard and replicate as a tablet to show them how a
tablet works and have educational links that show information on the Great Depression and start
finding sources
2. The issue, students, are sidetracked from other things that are outside the objectives of the
lesson
*Solution, the teacher can pause the lesson, regain their attention, switch up partners,
work as a class instead.

IX.
Formative/Summative Assessment: How will you know that you met the objectives and that
students understand the lesson?

For Formative, the teacher will determine that the lesson is progressing and that
goals/objectives are being made. Following steps for this lesson with the time given for each
section and discussing to students what and how they will complete this lesson, using
observational, analyzing students to see if they are understanding and gaining knowledge.
For Summative, a student's mastery of a topic will be determined by the closure, the discussion,
bouncing student's ideas, posing questions sharing, and collaborating students' ideas. As a
class, Figuring out why identifying different evidence methods is essential, what they looked for,
how they looked for it, and what sources they concluded.

Potential barriers to access instruction and learning: What stands in how a student can learn
effectively?

Some potential berries to access instruction and learning are if we cannot use tablets, tablets,
and any other technological device that day. We can transition into other sources of finding
pieces of information, seeking literature, newspapers, and articles. It would be better if the
environment had a library where students and teachers can teach this lesson if the technology
is an issue. Another one can be that students do not know and are confused throughout the
whole lesson. Being sidetracked with other unrelated topics or things can be another potential
barrier that will negatively impact objectives and learning.