UMF Unit-Wide Lesson Plan Template
Name: Haley Knowlton Program: Student Teaching
Lesson Topic / Title: Case Studies of Cults
Lesson Date: March 17th Lesson Length: 60 Minutes
Learning Objectives & Content Standard Alignment - Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and
performance tasks that support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals based on content standards.
Learning Objective(s)
● Students will be able to identify any new
information that they learned about religion.
● Students will demonstrate their knowledge
of sociological observations/perspectives
through written analysis.
Content Standard(s)
Grade 11 English Standards
● Understands how to draw general
conclusions from multiple comments, claims,
and evidence made on all sides of an issue.
● Use conventions of standard grammar and
usage when writing and speaking.
College Level Public Speaking
● Is skilled at presenting information, findings,
and supporting evidence, conveying a clear
and distinct perspective, such that listeners
can follow the line of reasoning.
Course: Sociology
Grade/Age: Grades 10-12
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
● Students can track their learning through
their KWL charts. This is important because
it demonstrates to the students their growth
over the course of this week long unit.
● The focus of the unit was to illustrate to the
students that you can still scientifically study
the impact of religion on people, even though
religion is not something which is a tangible
concept. Within science you are supposed to
experiment, observe and report findings.
More specifically in sociology, which is a
scientific study of observation of behaviors,
how sociologists can study the observable
impacts of something which is intangible.
The students are taking those
concepts/perspectives which we introduced
and doing their own case study to
demonstrate their application and
knowledge of them on a cult of their
choosing.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
● As previously stated Sociology does not have
its own standards because it is not a required
course for students to take. As a result, I
selected standards from the English
department to observe and measure their
skills on. Though this is slightly above grade
level for one student, and below for a few
others these are still essential skills that the
students need to develop and continue to
work on/practice. These will be assessed not
only in their written report but also in the
verbal discussions we have on our case
studies we look at together in class.
● Some students may have taken public
speaking, but for those that haven’t it is still
required in order for them to graduate. I
 chose the college level public speaking
standard in order to challenge the students.
The same concepts still apply in the grade 12
public speaking standard, however, this has a
more central focus on crafting your own
opinion while requiring that they back it up
with evidence. This concept, with this
standard, will be measured during their
verbal discussions. Once they master it
verbally it can potentially transfer into their
writing skills where they will need it for their
cult analysis.

Assessment - Uses assessment flexibly to expand and deepen understanding of learner performance and determines
best supports for continued learner growth.
Assessment Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

● KWL Chart on Religion ● Having the students complete their final KWL
(Summative/Post-Assessment) column is to really wrap up the unit. It is also
a way for the students to see what it is that
they have learned over the course of the unit.
Obviously, the students will not have
answered every question that they had
because some of them might not have been
exactly relevant in the larger scheme of the
unit plan. However, it can be a way for them
to check their learning and if there is
anything left over that they still wish to
explore they can do so.
● Cult Examination (Summative Assessment) ● Having the students do their own cult
analysis/examination is a way to test their
knowledge on the sociological
concepts/perspectives which we explored
during this unit. It is a final way to test their
knowledge and application of those concepts
which we studied as a class. The material is
scaffolded beforehand for them because we
are doing two cult analysis together as a class
before their individual assessment and
analysis.

Instructional Materials and Resources - Stays current in content knowledge and expands expertise in reviewing
instructional materials from the perspectives of both the discipline and individual learner needs.
Materials, Resources, and/or Technology Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

● Laptops ● Students will need their laptops to access

their homework assignment which was
posted and submitted on our google
classroom page. It will also allow for them to
have digital access to their summative
assignment and their KWL Chart.
 ● Zoom ● Zoom is essential in reaching the students
from home. We have cameras in the room
which connect to zoom so that the students
who are on remote learning are able to see
what is going on in the classroom, including
anything I share visually on the computer
through screen sharing or any notes that I
happen to write on the board. In this specific
instance I will be screen sharing videos on
the People’s Temple Cult and a cult from the
show Tiger King.
● KWL Chart ● At the beginning of the unit the students
filled in two sections of a KWL chart, sections
about what they know and what they want to
know in regards to our topic of religion.
Today we are filling in the final column as a
smaller type of summative assessment to
really wrap up the unit before their major
summative assessment where they are
applying the concepts that we covered and
discussed in class.
● Cult Analysis Summative ● The major end of the unit project is for
students to pick a religious cult and analyze it
through sociological perspectives. In the start
of this unit we had a focus on major world
religions to look at observing their practices
and the impacts that they had on behavior.
These observations and analysis were done
in order to prepare them to apply the
concepts on their own for this summative. It
is a final check for understanding over the
material, which is done individually.

Instructional Methods: Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and performance tasks by using a
variety of instructional approaches, strategies, and technologies that make learning accessible to all learners and
support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals.
Teaching and Learning Sequence Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

● Attendance and Check-ins (7 Minutes) ● I allow for approximately seven minutes at

the start of class for attendance and
check-ins with the students to build
connections with them. This extended time is
also where they can ask some questions
about the homework or just feel like they can
settle in before we get into covering material.
It also allows for any technological glitches,
zoom issues or tardiness to be resolved and
not interfere as much with my time covering
class material. Some remote students show
up routinely a few minutes after class starts
so it prevents a lot of recovering or

● Documentary on Jim Jones People’s Temple
Cult (20 Minutes)
● Tiger King Cult Case-Study (15 Minutes)
● KWL Chart (10 Minutes)
● Assign Summative (5 Minutes)
● Clean-up and Questions (3 Minutes)
reteaching of material that we go over at the
immediate start of class.
● Watching the Jim Jones People’s Temple Cult
film will be done together as a class followed
by a short discussion. This was to preview
what I wanted them to be looking for and
discussing in the summative assessments. It
was also an extension of a reading the
students were assigned to do from day five
and part of our day six discussion. This was
our first long case study example we did
together as a class to preview their
summative assessment.
● The Tiger King video was a second, more
modern day case study. The video discussed
more specifics about behavior and social
controls than religious ones. However, the
conversation side of our analysis did touch
on the religious connections that were a little
bit more in the background.
● Following the two case studies the students
took five minutes individually to fill in the
final section of their KWL charts about what
they learned in regards to religion. The
following five minutes was to discuss their
findings and how it matched up with what
they wanted to learn about religion and
sociology. We also briefly filled in some of the
class KWL chart to help wrap up this unit.
● Before class ended I assigned the students
their summative assignment. This is
something that they are doing independently
as a final check for understanding of the unit
and the concepts it covered. The students are
tasked with doing research on a religious cult
of their choosing and to a sociological
analysis on it. It is structured similarly to our
verbal class discussions on the case studies
we looked at, only completed individually
and in a written format of their choosing.
This is to offer choice to the students about
how they best think it is to present their
findings. It is also done in a written format
because the students indicated in their
learning style surveys that written work is
something they are all comfortable with
doing.
● Clean up procedures are required to be done
due to COVID-19 guidelines. As a result I allot
time for the students to pack up and sanitize
while I clean their desks and chairs. This final

Meeting students’ needs (differentiation,
extensions, modifications, accommodations)
three minutes is also allotted for questions
and clarifications on things we covered in
class.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

● Group Analysis/Discussion ● In class today we are watching two case

● Student choice of format and cult focus
studies about different cults. Together in
class we will be discussing the different
aspects and influences of religion that are
present in each. This is done to model what
they should be looking for in their own
summative assessments and analysis of
different cults. Modeling is a big focus in my
classroom so that every student is clear and
has an understanding of the expectations.
This, in my opinion, levels the playing field so
that they are all starting from the same place
which is especially important since some are
remote and others are in-person learners.
● Students are being allowed to choose the
format in which they would like to present
their projects. Their options are either a
written assessment of approximately two
pages and the other is creating a slideshow.
The expectations are the same in that the
required information of behavioral impacts
on individuals is a focus. I am giving this
option to the students so that they can pick a
format that they are more comfortable
presenting the information in. Some may not
be the strongest of writers and would
struggle to write an entire paper on their
findings. Which is where the slideshow
option comes into play. It takes away less
stress than insisting on a mandatory format
and allows the students to be proud of the
work that they put before me.

Field Course Only – Post lesson

Reflection

Today’s lesson was extremely successful in regard to student involvement. Though one student was absent
and thus did not meet the first objective for today’s lesson she will be able to make it up tomorrow in a
meeting with me or on her own when she completes the last section of her KWL chart.

Looking at the second objective for today’s lesson none of the students met the object entirely. I would give
the five students who were in class today a partial score. This is only because I measured their knowledge of
the concepts through our class discussions and group analysis of the two case studies we viewed. This will
change once I grade their summative projects of individual cult analysis where they are required to apply the
concepts on their own.

The lesson for today showed a high rate of student engagement and discussion that was not constantly
prompted and forced. I asked questions after each showing/case study and the students eagerly discussed
the impacts and observed behaviors there. I provided them with an older case study/film from the late
1970’s on Jonestown. Then to show the relevance cults and their influence still has on today’s society we
watched some excerpts from Tiger King, a newly released show. Overall the student engagement was
extremely high for the discussions, higher than other classes.

If I had to teach this lesson again I would provide more time for discussion of the materials/films, pushing off
introducing the summatives to maybe an eighth day. This way the conversations wouldn’t be as rushed or cut
off and the students could really develop their understanding/see everyone’s perspectives and hear their
thoughts.

Teaching Standards and Rationale

Standard #6 Assessment: The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage
learners in their own growth, to document learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s on-going planning
and instruction.
Essential Knowledge 6 (m): Knows when and how to engage learners in analyzing their own assessment
results and in helping to set goals for their own learning.

This lesson demonstrates standard six because the students are tracking their own assessment through their
KWL charts. We introduced the chart on day one, setting individual and class learning goals to guide what we
needed to explore for material during this unit. During today’s lesson, they used those goals and questions
that they had from day one in their charts to analyze what they learned, which goals they met and so on. It
also encourages the learners to look into the things that they still had questions on which we could not
explore during class. I even provided resources for the students to explore in relation to the learning
goals/questions which they had and we did not answer.