EDU 155/255 Social Studies and the Arts

Opportunity Task #1: Social Studies and Arts Lesson Plans

Goal:
Your task is to create two lesson plans that will be learning experiences in the
instructional unit you have been designing. These lessons should demonstrate your knowledge of
state-adopted content area curriculum in History/Social Science and the Visual and Performing
Arts.

Role:
You are a valued member of an elementary school faculty and the lead teacher for your
grade level.

Audience:
Your target audience is your colleagues that teach at this grade level.
Situation:
You have been asked to develop and demonstrate a model unit for social studies content
integrating the arts. These two lessons will be representative of the type of learning experiences
you have planned for students in this unit of study.

Product:
You will create a lesson that addresses History/Social Science and a second lesson that
addresses Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards of the California Department of
Education for your selected grade level. The lessons must include all elements of the Mount St.
Mary’s College Lesson Plan format.

Standards and Criteria for Success:

Your product must meet the following standards:
1. Two lesson plans that are effective and engaging.
● Students will know where they are going, why, and what is required of them.
(goals, reason for learning, performance requirements and evaluative criteria)
● Students will be hooked – engaged.
● Plan will provide adequate opportunities to explore/experience big ideas and
instruction to equip students with knowledge and skills required.
● Students will have sufficient opportunities to rethink, rehearse, revise and/or
refine their work based upon timely feedback.
● Students will have an opportunity to self-evaluate their work, reflect on their
learning and set future goals.
● Plan is tailored and flexible to address the interests and learning styles of all
students.
● Plan is organized and sequenced to maximize engagement and effectiveness.
2. You will teach one of these lessons in class
 Lesson Plan Format for
Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE)
with SIOP Elements

Grade/Class/Subject: 5th Grade/ Social Studies Teacher: Claire Luna and Maria Razo

Time/Duration of the lesson: 60 minutes

English Language Proficiency of Students: In a class of twenty students, there are two ELL
learners. These students are both set as an intermediate score respectively. Much of this lesson is
taught through visual aids, so the students will be able to easily identify the words, perspectives,
and events used in this lesson to be successful.

Standards:
Performance Art Standard
2.6 Use perspective in an original work of art to create a real or imaginary scene.

Unit/Theme:
(Place this lesson in context: What is the broad topic students have been studying? Where does this lesson fit in
sequentially?)
This lesson is part of a unit on the causes of the American Revolution. At this point, students
have been studying and analyzing various events that have occurred during this time in history
such as the The French and Indian War along with various other acts that had been passed so
they may have an accurate background to be successful in this lesson.

Lesson Topic:
(What big idea/concept do you want to teach in this lesson? Or What is a focusing question for this lesson?)
This time in history has a lot of differing points of view. The Boston Massacre specifically has
differing viewpoints depending on if one asks the British soldiers or the colonists that were
located in Boston at the time. This lesson is to emphasize that there is always more than one
story to an event that happens historically.

Focus Question:
What were the perspectives of the people that were in The Boston Massacre?

Objectives: You must include content objectives and language objectives as indicated below.
(What will students be able to do at the end of the lesson?)

Content:Students will be able to recreate scenes of the Boston Massacre from 2 different
perspectives in a snapshot.

Language: Students will be able to use domain specific vocabulary previously learned to
explain what is happening in their performance snapshots.

Assessment:
 (How will you know if all students learned both the content and the language objectives? What informal and/or
formal methods will you use to gather evidence?)

As an informal assessment, teacher can observe and make notes of the conversations and dialogue happening while
students discuss their readings and their performance.

Students will write a paragraph of what was the perspective they perceived based on reading proved and their
performance.

Key Vocabulary:
Snapshot, Boston Massacre, The Incident on King Street, point of view, Perspective

Supplementary Materials:
Primary and Secondary sources in the form of text and images.

Technology in Support of Learning:

None

Anticipated Misunderstandings/Difficulties:
(What areas of confusion or difficulty do you anticipate students might encounter with this material? How will you
address them?)

Element
Describe what will happen.
Introduce the Lesson:
(Clearly identify the objectives for the lesson. Also, how will
you ensure students are engaged and can access the content?
-How will you link information to student’s lives? What will
you do to teach unknown vocabulary?)
Students will have a warm up with the question:
Write about a time where you felt like there were
two sides to a story.
Students will be given about five to seven minutes
to get a few sentences down on paper.
The instructor will have them share with a partner
what they wrote about for about a minute. The
instructor will then ask for some examples the
students came up with and the students will share
their thoughts on what they wrote about with the
class.
Rationale
Why did you choose to do it this way?
Having the students do a warm up
activity with the given question gives
students context of what the lesson will
be about. The teacher can provide
example and use stories that students are
familiar with, such as The Three Little
Pigs and The True Story of the Three
Little Pigs. These stories provide
examples of how there can be two sides
to a story. Providing an example can help
ELL students understand the task.
Having students share with a partner is
also helpful for ELL students as they can
share with their peers if they are not
comfortable with sharing in a big group.

The instructor will then explain that in history there

are usually two sides to a story as well. They have
already learned about various events in United
States History pertaining to the causes of the
American Revolution, but today they will be
learning about different sides of The Boston
Massacre.

Develop Understandings (Instruction): Having students read the text with a

(How will you make input comprehensible – scaffold the partner, helps them learn from each
content-, convey information to be learned, and integrate the other, perhaps there might be words that
concept and language objectives?)
that one partner cannot understand and
Students will use their textbooks to read the the other can, or one partner is a more
section about the Boston Massacre a partner, fluent reader and the other one is not.
alone and the teacher will rad, clarifying any terms Reading the reading alone can help
and answering any questions, to refresh their student internalize and process
memory. After reading, the instructor will draw two information. Finally having the teacher
columns on the board and will ask ‘Who were the read and clarify can further help the
people involved?’ students understand the reading and be
able to answer given questions. This also
Students should answer along the lines of benefits ELL learners because they are
colonists, soldiers, the British, or the Patriots.
exposed to the text in several ways.
Using this information the instructor should help
the students identify the titles of each column as
‘Patriots’ and ‘British soldiers’. Then the instructor Having the students take time to respond
should explain that these are the two perspectives and giving them time to look back can
we will be analyzing and looking at today. help them with their writing.

Having students share what they wrote

The instructor will then tell what the students can provide an opportunity for teacher to
should put into the column about the Patriots. clear any misconceptions. The
Based on their textbook’s information, they should discussions that can come from sharing
talk about the colonist’s frustration with the British are also beneficial.
soldiers and why they were protesting against
them. The instructor will list the answers the
students come up with on the board.

In the second column, they will talk about the

British soldiers. Based on their textbook’s
information, they will talk about the frustrations the
British soldiers had with being in the colonies and
away from home. The instructor will write those
answers on the board as well.

Students will be given time to look through their

resign again and try to find at least one
perspective for each, write it and then share it with
the class and the instructor will write their
response

For both sections, students should gain an

understanding of how the people involved felt
about what was happening.
Practice/Application:
(What activities will help students grasp and practice
concepts/skills? How will students be grouped?)
The students will be separated into four groups of
five students. The students will be given a slip of
paper with one of the perspectives. There will be
two groups for each perspective. The students will
be instructed to create a set of three silent scenes
snapshots that the students can perform that will
follow a story about the Boston Massacre.
Before they begin, the instructor will go over the
rules for being respectful to everyone in the group.
Teacher will also go over the performing
expectation. Everyone should be able to
contribute to the activity and be able to be heard.
All viewpoints and representations also matter and
should not be made fun of. Once everyone agrees
to the terms they must abide by for the activity,
teacher will carry out a warm up. Students will be
asked to create certain unrelate poses and
movement to get their juices flowing. Once this is
complete, they can begin developing their scenes
with their groups.
Having students in groups
heterogeneously helps all students work
with peers that are in different levels.
This is also beneficial for ELL students
and students that require inclusion.
Going over the rules and expectation is
also helpful to keep students on tasks and
they are aware of what the teacher will
be looking for. The warmup is an
essential part of this performance,
because teacher can see who is not
comfortable and may need
accommodations to make them feel
included. This activity also provides
students with a different mode of
conveying a message. Instead of having
students write about it, they can act it out
and use their creative juices in a different
way..

Students will work in the groups for about fifteen

minutes to come up with the three poses that they
would like to use for their performance. As they
work, the instructor will be walking around to listen
and to observe the groups as they work. They will
provide extra information if needed or extra
direction if there is some confusion with the
assignment.

The students will be directed to form a circle. The

instructor will point out the direction of the
audience and then where the groups will perform.
They instructor will then provide options like
‘action’ or ‘blackout’ to end a scene and move into
the next one or to start a scene.

Groups will take turns performing their scenes.

Wrap-up: Using a sentence starter, to help students

(Review objectives and have students assess progress.)
provide feedback helps ELL students
with vocabulary and helps students use
At the end of every performance, the instructor target language.
should provide a question for the students to
answer like ‘What did you notice in the
performance?’ or ‘What did you like in the scene?’
The performers should also respond to their
performance by answering prompt questions like
‘Our scene was inspired by’, ‘I noticed that when
we did the scene’, etc. The students will then be
asked what perspective they think the performance
was from and why they think so.
Extension: Setting up the students to look for
(How might this lesson be extended into future lessons or different perspectives or point of views
other content areas?) for an event, can help them understand
that everyone involved in a historical
This lesson can be extended in a future lesson by
connecting the points of view to another event. In event, can have different perspectives of
this lesson and specific event, the points of view what they saw or heard.
were between the Patriots and the British soldiers,
in other historical events, the perspective can be
from the view of Native Americans, Loyalists,
Patriots, and Great Britain at any given event
during this time period. They would be able to
connect these emotions and thoughts to the
forming tension in the colonies.

Differentiating Instruction for EL focus student:
(Describe the challenges and ELD goals of this EL student.
What will you do specifically support this student for this
lesson?)
The challenges that an EL student may face with
this activity is the domain specific vocabulary that
comes with a short textbook reading section.
(How do your choices support this student?)
Grouping students can help them gain target
vocabulary and understand the content better.
Using kinesthetic and performance can also help
ELL students as they will express themselves in a
nonverbal way.

The goals of the EL students should be to be able

to use the vocabulary they have learned to develop
a performance in a group.

In support for an ELL student, the student can be

placed in a group of people that can effectively
support them in terms of language and knowledge.
This activity is also very kinesthetic and student
should be able to follow along with the group
while working and they should be able to
understand other group’s meanings in their
performance.
Differentiating Instruction for a focus student with
Special Needs:
(Describe student(s) special need and relevant IEP goals.
What will you do specifically to support this student for this
lesson?)
(How do your choices support this student?)
This strategy can help them since it provides the
opportunity for them to move around. Students
also work in groups where they can be provided
support by their peers.

The activities and lesson all have specific time For the students who get it, this component can
limits within 10 to 15 minutes. For a special needs challenge them since they can add a step to their
student, that easily loses focus this is ideal as they performance.
can put effort into all they are doing without
getting bored by sitting the full amount of time.
The student will also be out of their seat to plan a
performance, so they would be able to move
around if they get antsy. In groups, they would
also be able to be put in a group that can
effectively support them and include them in the
discussion.

(What will you do for those students who already "get it"
and need to be challenged in different ways?)

For the students that already “get it”, they will be

provided an extra component in the form of adding
narration in the form of a word, sound, or phrase
to their three scene snapshots.