Understanding by Design

Curriculum Template

Day
1

Essential
Question(s)
Why is it important
to know how and
why events
happened in the
past In order to
understand the
present day?

Standard(s)
PA 8.1.A:
Analyze
chronological
thinking.
PA 8.3.A:
Identify and
evaluate the
political and
cultural
contributions of
individuals and
groups to United
States history.

Why is it important
to know how and
why events
happened in the
past In order to
understand the
present day?
Who writes history?
What are primary
and secondary
sources?

PA 8.1.A: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.A: Same
as above.
PA 8.1.B:
Analyze and
interpret
historical
sources.
PA 8.3.B:
Identify and
analyze primary

Learning Plan
Content

Resources/ Materials

Learning Activities

Introduction to the class,

its goals, and its
expectations. Students will
be seated according to a
chart to help me learn
names as fast as possible,
and the syllabus will be
distributed to them with a
page to be signed by
parents/guardians. I will
introduce myself and go
through the syllabus with
them while taking
questions on it. We will
finish with a preliminary
discussion of why history
is important.

Seating chart, printed

syllabus, students prior
knowledge and
experiences in history

Syllabus distribution,
explanation, and
analysis, directly
leading into a
discussion of why
history is important to
learn and know

Start with Do Now

reviewing yesterday: Why
is learning history
important? ~5 min to do
activity, about the same
time to share responses.
Following this, I will
discuss historiography
and historical sources. I
will explain the difference
between primary and
secondary sources and

List of sources for

identification as primary
or secondary

Do Now activity about

relevance of history,
primary and secondary
source identification
exercise

Understanding by Design
Curriculum Template
documents,
why they are used.
material artifacts Students will then be
and historic
given a list of various
sites important
types of sources and
in United States asked to ID if those
history.
sources are primary or
secondary sources. I will
collect signed pages from
syllabi during this activity.
3

Who writes history?

What are primary
and secondary
sources?
How can the
identity of a person,
group, or society
affect their
relationship with
history?
How does one
recognize bias, in
oneself and in
others?

PA 8.1.B: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.B: Same
as above.

Start with Do Now

reviewing yesterday: What
are primary and
secondary sources? How
are they related and how
do they differ? ~5 min to
do, ~5 min sharing.
Discussion of bias will
open will a clip of
Community in which
Malcolm McDowell says
history is written by the
victors. As a class we will
discuss how narratives
promoted by dominant
groups have historically
been favored, how the
Internet has expanded
access to information of
widely varying quality and
neutrality, and how to spot
bias.

Clip from TV show

Community season 4
episode 4: Alternative
History of the German
Invasion, projection
equipment to show
class the clip (lesson
works without the clip
but the clip is fun and
useful), collective
wisdom of group

Do Now activity about

sources, classroom
discussion of bias

Who writes history?

How can the
identity of a person,
group, or society
affect their
relationship with
history?
How does one
recognize bias, in
oneself and in
others?

PA 8.1.B: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.B: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.D.
Identify and
analyze conflict
and cooperation
among social
groups and
organizations in
United States
history.

Why is it important
to know how and
why things
happened in the
past In order to
understand the
present day?
Who writes history?

PA 8.1.D:
Analyze and
interpret
historical
research.
PA 8.1.A: Same
as above.
PA 8.1.B: Same

Understanding by Design
Curriculum Template
Group activity: in groups
Handouts containing
of 3 or 4, students will be
two sources each from
presented with two
different perspectives,
passages, each of which
for as many events as
discusses the same event there are groups
from a radically different
perspective (ex: Native
American versus
European-American
colonial). They will
analyze the differences
and similarities between
the documents, looking in
particular for how
differences in perspective
lead to different
interpretations of the
same events. Do the
students feel that looking
at these documents
allowed them to
understand what really
happened? This will take
about 30 min. Class will
conclude with each group
sharing their findings.
Start with longer Do Now Knowledge and
reviewing yesterday:
experience students
When conducting
have gained over the
research to find out what
course of the week,
happened, historians rely
plus their previous
on a large body of
knowledge and critical
sources. What can they
thinking
do to make sure these

Group activity about

source analysis and
bias

Do Now activity
reflecting on previous
days group activity
about source analysis,
written homework
assignment reflecting
on week
3

What are primary

and secondary
sources?
How can the
identity of a person,
group, or society
affect their
relationship with
history?
How does one
recognize bias, in
oneself and in
others?

as above.
PA 8.1.C: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.A: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.B: Same
as above.
PA 8.3.D: Same
as above.

Understanding by Design
Curriculum Template
sources are accurate?
What should they do if
they find biased
information? 8-10 min for
this activity. Follow Do
Now with sharing and
classroom discussion of
student responses,
leading into a discussion
and review of the whole
weeks material:
understanding the past is
vital to understanding the
present and future,
sources are vital to
understanding history,
understanding bias is vital
to using sources well. As
homework, students will
be asked to write a 1-2
page reflection about the
importance of history and
of using well-selected
sources in finding out
what happened, to be due
Monday. Students may
start working on this in
class as time permits.
Students will also be told
to prepare for the
beginning of formal
chronological curriculum
next week.
4