POWERFUL SOCIAL STUDIES LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program: ELED 434 ALL SECTIONS

Practicum Student: Erica Blaine Cooperating Teacher: Cameran Kite

Grade Level: Second Grade School of Placement: Plains Elementary School
Date Lesson is to be taught: October 28th, 2019 Date plan is submitted: October 18th, 2019
 Date written plan is submitted to the practicum teacher
(Plan must be initialed and dated by the teacher when it is reviewed—at least one week in advance.)

A. TITLE OF LESSON: Native Americans Unit Review

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
Unfortunately, for this lesson topic, I was unable to give the students a physical/formal pre-assessment, as I started in their class after they were
already introduced to the topic. I was, however, able to observe the students still early on in their topic to gauge how much they have already
covered and what areas they are still learning about. My cooperating teacher used a method of information retrieval to gauge how much the
students had remembered from the previous week’s lessons on the Native American tribes of the Powhatan, Lakota, and the Pueblo. The
questions she asked started off very broad like, “Can anyone name the three main Native American tribes that we have learned so far?”, and
gradually became more specific like, “What is the environment for each region of the tribes?”. For a lot of the questions that she asked, she
allowed the students the opportunity to turn and talk to each other to share ideas and brainstorm what the answer could be (think-pair-share
strategy). This version of a pre-assessment can be seen through the childhood development lens of Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s theory states that
we learn best from social interactions and communication with others, so this pre-assessment utilizes peer collaboration and communication to
help them learn. My review lesson comes at the perfect time for these students because they have been learning about these three tribes for a
few weeks now and are getting ready to take their unit test. This lesson will be across the curriculum, highlighting different aspects of
geography, environment, writing, history, read aloud, societal contributions, and art. Since this review lesson covers many cross-curricular
ideas, it also supports Vygotsky’s social learning theory that children need to build off their own knowledge and make connections within their
own learning. This lesson solely focuses on the voices, experiences, and contributions of the marginalized Native American groups by
introducing the students to the lives of these Native American groups.

C. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING and C3 FRAMEWORK indicator(s) (write out, don’t just list numbers)
 2.3 (History) The student will compare the lives and contributions of three American Indian cultures of the past and present, with
emphasis on
a) the Powhatan of the Eastern Woodlands;
b) the Lakota of the Plains; and
c) the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest.
 2.7 (Geography) The student will locate and describe the relationship between the environment and culture of
a) the Powhatan of the Eastern Woodlands;
 b) the Lakota of the Plains; and
c) the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest.
C3 Framework Indicators
 D2.Geo.4.K-2
o Explain how weather, climate, and other environmental characteristics affect people’s lives in a place or region.
 D2.His.3.K-2
o Generate questions about individuals and groups what have shaped a significant historical change.
A. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand –
Students will understand the
differences between Native American
groups and how their respective
environments influenced those
differences
B. ASSESSING LEARNING:
What will your students do or say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your objectives? Remember—every objective must be
assessed for every student!
Task:
o The Kahoot review game will
be the main task for the
student to complete to show
their understanding of the
objectives.
o Another way to assess
students learning is the
graphic organizer that
students will use to write
about what they know of one
of the Native American groups
of their choice.
Know –
Students will know the different jobs,
homes, and modes of transportation
for one of the three Native American
groups (Powhatan, Lakota, Pueblo)
Diagnostic features:
 For the Kahoot, I
wish to see at least 80%
correctness for the
answers from each
student
 For the graphic
organizer writing, I wish
to see at least two facts
written in complete
sentences for each topic,
as well as a topic
sentence that covers the
main idea of their
writing.
Do –
Students will be able to write facts
about either the Powhatan, Lakota, or
Pueblo Native American groups
Support:
For students who need support
reading the Kahoot questions
and answers, I will read the
question out loud to them
(multiple times if necessary)
For students who need support
writing two facts, I will require
them to write only one fact for
each topic. If students need
more support, they can choose
only one topic to write about,
instead of the three.
 C. MATERIALS NEEDED
 Gift Horse: A Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson
 Kahoot review game
 Native American graphic organizer woorksheet

D. PROCEDURE
(Use this graphic organizer if it is helpful for you. If you create your own format you must include each aspect listed below, in the column
headings). NOTE: You are not required to include x learning events if your lesson will not include this many! The extra events are only
included for the sake of demonstration.

Activity Element Procedures and Management Academic, physical, social & linguistic
& Time (in minutes) Step-by step procedures including questions and main points – differentiation, resources, and support
visualize what you are going to say to the students. It might be How will you support ALL students by
helpful to script out what you are going to say, although during differentiating aspects of your lesson
the lesson you do not need to use this language verbatim. What based on readiness and interest, and
will students be doing and how? according to content, process, and
product? It isn’t always necessary to
include differentiation in logistical aspects
of the lesson such as transitions.
Introduction  This lesson will be introduced by having students turn
and talk to each other about the three Native American
groups they have been learning about so far. After the
students had the time to talk, I will refocus them back to
me and ask for a few students to share what they were
talking about. This will serve as a short retrieval practice to
see what topic students remember the most, and what
were some things students didn’t remember talking about.
 The conversation that takes place during this time is
based off what the students will be saying, but main points
that I want to cover are: the three Native American tribes,
the homes of each of them, and some of the different jobs
within each group.

Event 1 Kahoot review game (actual questions to come, I still need to  I will be reading out loud each of
run them by my CT and have her give me feedback to make the questions and answers to help
 sure the questions actually cover things they discussed in class) support any students who have
trouble reading the questions
 I will also rephrase/reword unit
vocabulary when it’s used (ex:
transportations-how people got
around and moved)
Transition  Instruct students to return their ipads to their desk and
then come back to the carpet to listen to the book read
aloud
Event 2  Read aloud of the book Gift Horse: A Lakota Story, by  There will be periods while
S.D. Nelson reading this book that I will ask
 While I’m reading this book, I will take time to stop students if they have any
every so often to ask review questions to the class. Or give questions to help clarify the
students the opportunity to turn and talk to each other story
about the information on the page that I just read.
 There will also be
 Some examples are:
opportunities for students to
 pg 2-What are some things we can tell about the
Lakota’s from this picture? (they live in tipis, they have turn and talk to each other
horses, they eat meat, they live in a grassy area) discussing the question being
 pg 4- What do you think the role of the horses were for asked, this way for students
the Lakotas? (help them move/mode of transportation) who aren’t fully understanding
 pg 6- What region did the Lakotas live in? Can you use they can hear their classmates
this picture to help you understand the area of where they ideas
live? What can you notice of their environment from this
picture?
 pg 7-What do you think was the role of the Lakota
warrior? (they protected the village and hunted the buffalo)
 pg 18- What was the main thing Lakotas ate?
(buffalo/bison), What else did they do with the buffalo?
(make their tipis out of their skin, make coats,
tools/weapons)
 At the end of the story, I will ask comprehension
questions like: who gave the boy his horse and why was it
important for a young Lakota boy to have one? (his father
and to be able to become a warrior and hunt), What were
some things the boy did with his horse? (ride him across
the plains, hunt buffalo, defend the village from horse
thieves), imagine living in the same village as this young
 Lakota boy, what kinds of things would you see and do?
(tipis, buffalo, warriors, hunt, paint, make clothes)

Transition  After reading the book and asking questions, I will

instruct students to move back to their desks quietly and
take out their social studies notebook and open it to their
pages on the Native American notes. At this time, I will be
passing out their graphic organizer
Event 3  Students will be quietly filling out their graphic  My CT and I will be walking
organizers, while me and my CT will be walking around around answering student’s
answering questions and guiding students to use their question and helping them
notebooks as resources to help them remember details spell.
 Students will be able to use
their physical notes on Native
Americans to help them
remember details and key
vocabulary
 Some students will be given
modified directions for their
graphic organizer (write only
one fact, write about only one
topic)
Conclusion:  Have a few students share about which tribe they  If students don’t want to share
wrote about and ask them if they want to share what they verbatim what they wrote
wrote with the class about they can share the main
points

E. DIFFERENTIATION:
This lesson has the opportunity for differentiation at each stage. For the beginning part of this lesson, students will be able to be supported with
direct intervention from my CT and me to help them read the questions and answers. The students are familiar with the Kahoot format and even
enjoy the competitive nature of the review game. The nice thing about incorporating the read aloud into this review lesson is that it helps touch
on important concepts for the students to learn in a fun way presented by a story. The questions that I will ask the students during the read
aloud will be differentiated by difficulty. For example, easy questions that can just be retold directly from the page, and more complex
imaginary questions for students to ponder on.
The part of this lesson that includes the most differentiation come during the graphic organizer writing. This part of the lesson needs the most
differentiation because we have such a wide range of ability when it comes to retrieval of information, attention, and writing. For students who
 need support with their writing, they will be given a condensed version of the organizer to fill out and will be able to use their notes to help
them recall information. This would also be a suitable support for the students who struggle a lot with attention. For students who can quickly
finish this assignment, they will be asked to re-read their writing and see if there are any places where they can add more detail and to check
their spelling. If they also finish that task, they will be asked to write one more fact for each topic.

F. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
 Technology problems during the Kahoot game
 I will ask the students to be patient and if their ipad is not working have them work together with a partner to answer the
questions. I would make a note on who this has happened to so that I can assess them in a different way.
 Attention problems during the read aloud/kids are moving around a lot
 Verbally address the behavior by pausing and saying “I love how well ---- and ---- are sitting quietly, on their bottoms and
looking at me while I read this book. If the behavior continues, I will have the student(s) move closer to me so that the
proximity to me will help them stay still.
 Lack of participation
 If while reading the story nobody volunteers to answer my questions, I will rephrase the question until the students understand
and have the confidence to answer. Or I will implement more turn and talk or think-pair-share opportunities.
 Students refuse to do graphic organizer/don’t want to write
 I will conference with these students one-on-one and have them verbally tell me the facts, so that I can still assess what they
have learned
 G. Lesson Implementation Reflection
As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be thorough in your
reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why you made them.
a. The day that I was teaching my lesson, we were notified that the school’s internet was not working. This made me completely change how
I was going to implement this lesson. Instead of having the students use their individual Ipads to do the Kahoot, I had to quickly change my
plans and have them go through the questions one by one, and instead of answering through their Ipads, they had to turn and talk to a
neighbor about the answer. This made that part of the lesson go by a lot quicker than I had wanted, so I was able to spend more time
reading and discussing the Gift Horse book.
b. I had also originally planned this lesson to be done in one day, but instead my CT decided that we should drag out the last event (the
writing/graphic organizer) over the duration of immersion week. The revision of this event looked like this:
i. Monday-I read the mentor text for the first time. Red (low) group will focus on just writing their topic sentence. Other groups will
be writing their topic sentence and begin writing/filling out the facts.
ii. Tuesday- Red group will begin working on their three facts. Other groups will work on finishing their facts and closing sentence.
iii. Wednesday-Red group will finish their facts and closing sentence. Other groups will revise and edit (check for mistakes-
capitalization and punctuation) by swapping with a friend. I will look over edits and make a few of my own.
iv. Thursday-Red group will draw a picture about the Native American group they chose while I will be conferencing one-on-one with
the students to help them make revisions. Other groups will write up their final draft on another piece of paper. (I should have
some time after this day to take pictures of writing samples and grade them according to the rubric-provided by my CT).
v. This allowed the students more opportunities to practice and demonstrate their Native American knowledge, as well as, experience
the writing process over time.

II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did
they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?
a. This lesson’s formal assessment focused more on the conventions of their writing and less on the Native American facts that
they were writing about. I think that the best thing about this lesson’s formal assessment was that it came at the end of a long
period of editing and revising. Having this assessment at the end allowed students to go back and check for errors and even
helping their peers look over their own work. This lesson taught students the reason for editing one’s own work for errors, a
method they had not really used before. I was able to tell that the student’s learned to correct errors because when looking at the
rough draft of the graphic organizer and the final draft there were lots of changes. If I was the classroom teacher, I would teach
a lesson on listing and the correct way to list two or more things. I think this will help students become better writers because I
saw many students using “and” to link a lot of objects together instead of commas. I was able to informally assess student’s
Native American facts over the days that I was helping them construct their writing. I was able to which students needed to use
their notes to remember facts, which students knew a lot about the tribe they picked (wrote more than the required number of
facts), and which students need a few reminders about what they knew (helping them talk through what they knew). By the end
of the assignment, I can confidently say that each student could list at least three facts about one of the Native American tribes
we have been studying.
III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more thorough way if you were to teach this
lesson again.
a. I thought that this lesson had many great areas of differentiation due to it being completed over a few days, which gave me the flexibility to
tweak expectations for certain students or to help them. I think I could have had an extension activity to give to students who completed
their graphic organizer and final draft quickly. I also think that with the Kahoot, I could have paired up students instead of letting them
choose so that there could be an element of peer teaching/reviewing for the content. I think since I was able to oversee the students
throughout the activity, I was able to step in and intervene when I saw students struggling. If I had to do this lesson on a larger scale where
I couldn’t directly monitor, I would provide the students with word banks with the content specific vocabulary and allow more students to
refer to their notes to help them think of facts.

IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher?
a. If I were the classroom teacher, I would teach a small extension lesson that focuses on the three Native American groups in the current time
period. I would let the students examine recent resources/primary documents to help them make the connection that Native Americans are
just in the past, this could also be a lesson on social justice.

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young children as learners?
a. From teaching this lesson, I have learned that children love to share their knowledge of topic. I saw this happen a lot during this lesson
because it took the place of a review lesson, so it asked students to retrieve that information. I had always known that children as learners
needed repetition to achieve mastery, and this lesson reinforced that. Having students repeat/retell information that they knew was special
because it gave them confidence and solidified what they were learning.

VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about teaching?
a. If anything, this lesson has reinforced that teaching is all about adaptability and flexibility. I had no idea that I would be forced to change
the introduction of my lesson and had to think of a new activity for them to do quickly. While the new activity lacked the same effect as the
original, it still accomplished the same base knowledge that I wanted the students to think of. This lesson has taught me that as a teacher, I
need to understand that technology may not always work, so I need to have some good “old fashioned” back-ups needed.

VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about yourself?
a. From teaching this lesson, I have learned that I love teaching to small groups. This was something I never really considered before this
practicum placement to structure my lessons. I like this format of teaching because it provides just the right amount of time for students to
focus on an activity before they lose interest. I also enjoyed that this lesson was spread out over a few days because it seemed more realistic
for students to carry out the revision process. I also noticed that the students really liked having the opportunity to go back day after day to
their work. Personally, I would like to enforce small group centers in my own classroom.