Teacher Candidate's Name: Karl ‘Alec’ Schoettle

Lesson Plan Template: Backward Planning

Unit Title: Civics
Lesson Title: Assessment exercise
Content: Students will work in groups to attempt to find solutions to issues currently facing the local
community
Grade/Level: 8
Date of Lesson: 3/4-5/2020
Length of lesson: 2 50 min periods

Alignment CCSS for ELA/Math

to
Objectives (or MLR and/or Next Gen Science for other content areas)
MLR for Social Studies; Grades 6-8; Civics and Government 2: (F1) Explaining the constitutional and legal
1,2
status of "citizen" and provide examples of rights, duties, and responsibilities of citizens.
MLR for Social Studies; Grades 6-8; Civics and Government 2: (D2) Analyzing how people influence
government and work for the common good including voting, writing to legislators, performing community
1,2 service, and engaging in civil disobedience through selecting, planning, and implementing a civic action or
service-learning project based on a school, community, or state asset or need, and analyze the project’s
effectiveness and civic contribution. *

Essential Question(s)
What does it take to govern?
How hard is it to know the right thing to do in politics?

Objectives and Assessments

Objective Objective(s) (Number each objective.) Assessment(s) for Each Objective
Number (In parentheses, mark each I for
informal or F for formal.)
1 Students apply what they have learned over the last couple of weeks
Students recognize the difficulty of attempting to satisfy all goals in
2
finding solutions to public issues

Necessary Prior Knowledge/Skills (Describe where/when/how each has been learned.):

This lesson is designed to be the culmination of what we have gone through in this class in the last
couple of weeks. Students at this point have a basic working understanding of civics, and have worked
with the idea that people can have very different opinions on an issue and have legitimate
reasons/points behind their opinions. They also hopefully have an interest in what happens in the
local community.

Alignment Instructional Components

to What Teacher Does What Students Do
Objectives
1 Review civics unit. Remind students about Think back over the unit, discuss past lessons/class

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 how they disagreed on topics but had exercises
logical reasons for their opinions.
Introduce exercise/assessment that they Listen; ask any questions they have about the
will be working on for this and the next exercise
class. (attached to the end of this lesson
plan) Students will be working in groups to
come up with their own potential solution
to one of two issues currently facing the
town of Belfast. They will be given a sheet
of questions to answer and a page on each
of the two issues with pros, cons and some
links to more information. Teacher will go
over the questions sheet to ensure that
there is no confusion about any of the
questions or the exercise itself, then
quickly go through the pages on the two
issues and point out the other links (also be
sure to explain that the videos provided on
the aquafarm are put out by the company
and so likely contain bias)
Send students copies of both the questions Break up into groups. Make a group copy of the
sheet and the informational pages. Help questions document - also share the group’s
the students get into groups if appropriate. document with the teacher. Look over the two
topics and pick one to work on. As a group, review
the available information on your topic (students
are welcome and able to do added research on
their topic if they choose). Go through the
1,2
questions, figure out what you think would be an
appropriate solution to the issue. Explain your
solution and why you think it is the most sensible
answer. Students will also have to write up who
they think may be unhappy about their solution
and why; as well as what, if anything, they will do
to try and appease these people.
Group work will take more than the single Get ready for the end of close; finish ongoing work.
class period. When the end of class nears, Pack up.
let the students know so that they can
make note of where they are and be ready
to jump back off from this point next class.
Next class - get groups started back up on Start back up, hopefully be able to finish up
their work. Ask how much more time they projects in 20 minutes.
need. Aiming for around 20 minutes
remaining of group work.
Re-arrange desks into a large conference Share and discuss solutions. Share thoughts on how
table format. Have student groups share effective/viable/satisfying to the community you
1,2 their solutions and discuss among the think different solutions are and why. Discuss what
class, share opinions you think community reaction will be and why. Is
this solution the best thing for our town?
Say goodbye to the students! (This will be
my last class with them!)

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Links to Technology: Students will receive question sheets and informational pages through links. They are also
attached to the end of this document.

Materials and Supplies: Students’ school computers, projector

Accommodations/Adaptations/Differentiation:
At the beginning of this lesson, we will go through the project as a group. I will be both explaining the project aloud and
showing it on the projector. This should help both students who learn orally and those who learn more visually to
understand the project. The students will be working in groups and so if they have any problems they can ask their peers
for help. If any groups are having trouble, or if any students have questions that can’t be answered by their peers in their
group, I will be moving around the room and can help students as needed.

Maine Common Core Teaching Standards (MCCTS) (Check those that are part of this lesson.):
Check only those that are part of the lesson plan, not those that are part of lesson implementation.

The Learner and Learning Instructional Practices

X S1 Learner Development X S6 Assessment
X S2 Learning Differences X S7 Planning for Instruction
X S3 Learning Environments X S8 Instructional Strategies
Content Professional Responsibility
S9 Professional Learning and Ethical
X S4 Content Knowledge
Practice
X S5 Application of Content S10 Leadership and Collaboration
Technology
X S11 ISTE Standards.T

Reflection about teaching of lesson: What went well? What would you change and why? What
evidence do you have that students learned? Based on assessment results, what are the logical next
steps in your planning for teaching and learning?

For the most part the lesson went well. The students were interested in the project and were involved and driven
to put the work in and find creative solutions. There are a couple of things that I would change though. First, in talking
with my mentor teacher after the lesson, he pointed out that there might be some extra value added to the lesson if it
were possible to present the students with an issue that did not yet have a possible solution. In the exercise as it was, the
students were looking at two issues facing the town; a proposed salmon farm and two proposed affordable housing
developments, both of which had proposed solutions - though those proposals were of course the ones given to the town
from the companies, not proposals that the town had either come up with or OK’ed. In our discussion I brought up the
fact that one of the issues that I had thought about including but had not is the fact that the state is debating new
legislation governing drones and personal privacy, but there is not yet any proposed solution. In the future I think that I
would try to lean more towards that sort of issue.
The other thing that I would want to improve about the lesson would be the debrief/discussion. While students
were interested in the issues and in the solutions that their classmates had come up with, I felt that I had to be more
involved in trying to move the discussion forward than I would have liked. In talking with some other teachers about this,
it seems to be a common complaint about trying to have eighth graders debate topics; even if they are interested in the
topic, they often need to be led into discussion by the teacher rather than leading it themselves. In this lesson, I was trying
to have things be pretty open for the students to discuss their solutions with each other. In the future, I think that I would
build the discussion around a more formal structure in the hopes that the students could then discuss the topics around
the structure rather than through my leading them into discussion.

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If this lesson plan documents Application of Content (critical thinking, creative thinking, and/or
problem solving), respond to the following:
⮚ Why was critical thinking and/or creative thinking and/or problem solving appropriate to this
lesson? (i.e., How does this lesson fit into a larger unit of which it is part? How does the higher
order thinking help students to make connections among concepts and/or engage in
examining differing perspectives?)

Critical and creative thinking was central to this lesson; in fact the entire point of the lesson
was to get students to understand the critical and creative thinking that is required to solve real life
problems. In order for adults to solve these real-world problems, they need to think critically to
analyze all sides of an issue. In order to solve tough problems, they need to think creatively to try and
find the best possible solutions that will have the most agreeable/acceptable/beneficial results.
Social studies classes should be teaching students how to be good citizens of a democracy. A
big part of that is paying attention to solutions to public problems. Whether any of the students go on
to be politicians (or be in positions to be making any major decisions) they should understand that the
best solutions to public problems usually require compromise, and often are not simply the solutions
that one side or the other would like.

If this lesson plan documents Technology, respond to the following:

⮚ In a list of a minimum of five bullets, show your key beliefs about technology’s role in teaching
and learning. (Base your list primarily on the highlighted ISTE-T performance indicators in the
resource that accompanies this assignment.) Consider the role of technology for both the
learner and the teacher. In what ways does the lesson plan that includes technology address
some of these key beliefs?

- I think that in general, technology should be used to supplement good teaching; technology is in no way a
replacement for good teaching. Most students will find technology entertaining, so using technology in a lesson
can help hook students in. Technology can also offer a giant array of aids to teaching, and so should absolutely be
used when and how it is appropriate. Technology alone, while it is a formidable tool for education in many
different ways, is still only a tool. Without guidance, students can easily use technology with no thought of
filtering good information from bad, or spend vast amounts of time learning things that may have no practical
application, or just messing around on the internet and not learning anything at all.

- Following ISTE standard 1.c, I believe that technology is a great tool for collaboration. This can be collaboration
between educators (both inside a school and around the world), collaboration between teachers and students,
teachers and parents/guardians, or between students.

- Following standard 2.a, I think that technology offers students a lot of different tools for students both to find and
learn information, but also to express what they know. As the world changes, it is no longer enough for students
to know how to express themselves orally and on paper. Students should learn how to work with multimedia
tools so that they are ready to do so in potential careers.

- As in standard 3.d, teachers should be modeling good and proper usage of technological tools in a variety of
ways. I have been surprised in my student teaching how ineffective I have found many of my students to be using
search engines productively. Many students also showed difficulty in recognizing reliable resources, and in our
discussions many students have admitted that they are courser in their interactions online than they ever would
be in person. These are all areas in which teachers can and should be positive models for their students, and help
and encourage those students to follow their example (this would also relate to ISTE standard 4.a)

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 - I also think that technology can be a great tool for keeping students in touch with things that are going on in the
world today. As a social studies teacher, this can help in getting students to make connections between past and
present events, and analyzing and working on/around current issues, as in standard 1.b.

In this lesson, students are using technology to collaborate within their groups. They are also using technology to
learn about the issues that they are seeking to change. They have already learned in class what they should need to be
able to complete this topic, and I introduced the lesson to them rather than simply giving them the technology.
This lesson had students working on shared group documents through Google drive. In observing how things
were going in the classroom, I saw that different groups chose to do this in different ways. Some groups chose to all work
around a single screen and collaborate orally. Some groups chose to have different group members write up the initial
answers to different questions, and then reviewed them and edited them as a group. Other groups had a shared group
document, but group members were working on answers to the questions on separate copies of the document on their
own computers, and then copying them to the group document for the group to discuss. Some groups were discussing
things orally while working on their own separate devices and having one group member work as scribe adding
information to the group document. The technology offered the students a platform to collaborate on, but the lesson did
not assign the way that they would collaborate, and so each group did so in the way that they chose.
Students also used technology in this lesson to learn about the current events topics that we were covering. I
gave them an overview of each topic on a page that I shared with the class through Google drive, and on each issue I also
provided links to supplemental information. Students were free to look up more information if they chose.
The issues that the students were working on in this lesson were current issues facing the local town. In preparing
for this class, I emailed the town Mayor to ask him what issues were currently facing the town that might be of interest to
the students to work on. He emailed me back with a list of three issues; a proposed very large salmon farm in town, two
proposed affordable senior housing developments, and making taxes in town affordable. I decided to have the students
work only on the first two issues, as I thought that trying to revise tax code might be both too boring and too complicated
for them to enjoy digging into for this project.

Student materials next three pages

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For this project you will select one of the two issues below to work on. When you have selected your
issue, you will work through what you would do to try and solve the issue and come up with a solution.
This solution should be well thought-out, and include arguments for why you think that it is the most
logical solution to the problem.

Please also have one person in your group keep track of the questions your group comes up with
while trying to solve the problem.

Issues
Nordic Aquafarms new salmon farm
New affordable housing in Belfast

What issue have you chosen?

Why did you choose this issue?

Is this issue controversial? If so, why?

How would you solve this? Please explain not only what your solution to this issue would be, but also
why you think that your solution is the most sensible option.

What do you think the response to this will be? Will everyone be happy with your solution? Why or
why not?

Are there things that you could do to make the situation better for anyone who doesn’t like your
solution? What could you do?

New affordable housing in Belfast

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Funds were made available from the state to provide for the building of 212 new affordable housing
units in the state. 2 of the projects that were awarded funds from the state are intending to build on
Wight Street in Belfast, totaling 49 rental units between the two. The two projects are being
undertaken by seperate companies, but will be building directly across the street from each other,
situated one block over from Tall Pines. The proposed facilities are aimed at older citizens, and will be
mostly single bedroom apartments.

Pros: Increased affordable housing for the area. The average apartment rental in Belfast costs $1000
a month, which is much too expensive for many of the town’s residents. There are many older
residents in town who cannot afford decent housing in town. Many of the properties on the road are
already rental properties, and with the Tall Pines community already being in the neighborhood, there
are claims that the new housing facilities will not be causing drastic changes to the neighborhood.

Cons: Changes to the neighborhood will require widening of Wight Street. Widening the road will
require taking property away from existing property owners on Wight Street. The neighborhood
becoming busier and the increase in traffic on the road may also drive down the values of homes in
the neighborhood, so property owners may lose some of their property and some of their homes’
value.

Sketches of the plans can be seen in the linked documents:

Realty Resource Management plan
Developers Collaborative plan

Nordic AquaFarms

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Nordic Aquafarms is a Norwegian based company that is proposing to build a new salmon farm in
Belfast. The proposed fish farm would be on land at a site right off route 1 on the Little River near the
Northport town line, on land currently controlled by the Belfast Water District. The salmon would be
raised entirely in tanks in Nordic Aquafarms indoor facility.

Pros: Nordic Aquafarms claims that the fish farm will create 60 new skilled jobs at first, and eventually
the fish farm will expand and add 40 more jobs.The proposed facility is intended to sbe ‘screened’ by
trees so will not be an eyesore to the town. The roofs of the facility are to be covered in solar panels to
help generate green energy. Discharge of used water will be through pipes going a mile out from
shore. Nordic Aquafarms claims that the research shows the project will have a ‘negligible’ impact on
the local ecosystem.

Cons: The placement of the proposed facility would cut off access to currently existing public hiking
trails. There are accusations that Nordic Aquafarms has never built a facility like this and aren’t
familiar enough with the technology; the similar facility that they own in Norway they bought from
another company that actually built it. Without proper planning, the fish could become diseased,
making them impossible to sell and possibly putting diseased water into the bay. While the waste
water from the fish farm will be pumped out a mile from shore, there are studies showing that there is
not as much current in the bay as Nordic Aquafarms believes, meaning that even the normal amount
of waste discharged will be too much for the area and will pollute the bay.

Video of the proposed facility

Video of how the proposed facility will operate

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