Teacher: Annelise Blair

Subject / Grade Level: 9th Grade Humanities

SDTR Lesson Planning Template
CONTEXT
Provide brief context for the lesson. How and where does it fit within a unit or project? What happened the day before, and
what will happen the day after? Who are the learners? How long will the lesson last?
This lesson will be part of our launch week of the “Under These Stars” project. We have three days of launch instruction,
followed by a two-day camping trip to stargaze in Anza Borrego. For this class period, students will learn about the
historical context of stargazing.

We will have 10 minutes of independent reading right before this, so this lesson will begin at 8:45 (round 2 at 11:05).

STANDARDS
If applicable, provide specific standards that the lesson will target. Indicate if the standard is being introduced (I), practiced
(P), or assessed (A) in this lesson. Possible standards frameworks: CA CCSS, NGSS, ELD, and/or Learning for Justice.
Survey of World Religions. What do people believe, what practices do they follow as a result of their beliefs, and why is
it important to understand these various religions?
The Humanities. What does the evidence tell us about how an individual understands, justifies, and orders his/her own
existence, role in society, and relationship to the cosmos and the divine?

GOALS
What are your goals for the activity? Specifically, by the end of the lesson, what will students know, feel, understand, and/or
be able to do?
I want students to walk away from this lesson understanding how stargazing has been a human fascination since
basically the beginning of time, and how their stargazing camping trip fits into that tradition. The structure of the lesson
(projecting across time) will encourage students to think sequentially and practice predictive analysis.

MATERIALS & PREP

What materials will you need to prepare ahead of time? How will the room be set up? What other logistical considerations
do you want to plan for? Provide links to documents and/or slides if applicable.
Slides
Dry erase markers
Note catchers (1 per table, 2 classes)
● Differentiated "mild" option: History of the Zodiac
● Stonehenge
● Babylonia
● Galileo
 ● Webb space photos
● Indigenous astronomy
● Polynesian wayfinding
● Ptolemy
● Mayan calendar and astronomy
● History of the Almanac
● Discovery of Halley’s comet
● Differentiated "spicy" option: We Choose to Go to the Moon

PROCEDURE
Please provide specific descriptions of all activities, including what the teacher(s) will be saying and doing and what the
students will be doing. Remember that the person doing the doing & talking is the one doing the learning!

Launch: How will the teacher spark curiosity, get students actively engaged in lesson-related content right away, and/or
help students understand the purpose of what they will be doing during the lesson?
Estimated Time Teacher will… Students will…

5-10 minutes Ask: What do we know about stargazing? Have Answer (Turn and talk)
you ever been stargazing before?
Record student answers on white board

8 minutes As you know, we’re going to Anza Borrego to star Watch and look for one “nugget” to share with
gaze! The purpose of today is to get a sense of class
how we, as human beings, have been fascinated
by the stars since the dawn of time. Let’s get a
quick sense of what we’re going to be looking at
today:
Nat geo video

Explore: How will students engage in the “meat” of the lesson? What will students be doing in order to move toward the
learning goals? How will you be supporting them?
 Estimated Time Teacher will… Students will…

5 minutes Explain activity.
“Today, we’re going to explore some of the
cultures and discoveries mentioned in that video.
I’m going to call up a ‘captain’ from each table to
select a topic from the bench. Each table is
going to explore a different event.”
Listen, select a captain, and then each captain
will go pick up the stack of note catchers for
their desired topic (one at a time).
Each table will wind up with a different event.

45 minutes Circulate Read together, annotate and answer questions

individually (each person gets their own note
catcher).Annotate their source and answer
questions in a note catcher

5-10 minutes BREAK (passing period) BREAK (passing period)

10 minutes Explain that each table is sharing their answers Share out about historical event
to the first three questions in their note catcher
(what happened and when did this happen).

10 minutes Explain that groups will now put their event on Put event on the timeline
the timeline. If students have multiple dates in
their article, they’ll select the one that seems
most important.
Key information:
● Year
● Discovery
● Location

Drop your anchor: How will students synthesize, share their learning with each other and/or with the teacher, and make
connections to future lessons?
Estimated time Teacher will… Students will…

10 minutes What do you notice about the timeline? What are Think-pair-share
some trends that you see on the timeline? What
do you wonder? What might be missing?

10 minutes We’ve seen how stargazing has evolved over
time, now it’s time to think a bit about what we
think MIGHT happen in the future.
Ask: what do you think will happen in 10 years?
100 years? 1000 years?
Think-pair-share or just full group discussion
(depending on engagement, sometimes the
students struggle to get a full group discussion
going)

Record answers

5 minutes Pass out exit ticket: What is one thing you want Fill out exit ticket
 to remember as you’re looking forward to our
camping trip?

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT & SUPPORTS

How will you proactively help students to envision the behaviors that will make each part of this lesson go smoothly? How
and when do you anticipate needing to remind students to honor community agreements?

Differentiation: Texts are varied in length, video option for students who struggle to engage a text
Multiple phases: students aren’t just sitting at their tables for the whole time
Note catchers will be printed (no distractions on laptop)

ASSESSMENT
How will you know if your students met the goals of the lesson? What artifacts of student work will you collect and why?
Note catchers are complete, timeline is filled out, discussions go beyond surface level, exit tickets are thoughtful