Lesson+Plan

Cassandra Sclafani and Kimberly Lehn

Professor Shteirman

EDU 566

19 June 2012

**The American Revolution: Team Patriots or Team Loyalists?** **Day 1 Lesson Plan** ***This lesson plan template is a modified version of the State of CT Lesson Plan** This lesson allows students to make tangible connections to the Revolutionary war, which will allow for them to understand the significance of the event in America’s history. The students are asked to take their own side (Patriots or Loyalists viewpoint) and to justify their reasons for doing so. The need to support one’s stance with concrete evidence through persuasive argument is a skill, which the students must develop as set forth by standard 2.5.11 from the CT state content standards (see 2.5-11 detailed in curricular standard). Within this lesson, students are also led through forming graphic organizers in the form of Venn-diagrams and T-charts. This lesson allows students to improve upon their note-taking skills, which will prove to be extremely crucial as they progress through their schooling career and move onto needing to organize more extensive and challenging information in a comprehensive fashion. The graphic organizer component of the lesson will allow for students to take notes more efficiently and will meet the CT content standard of “comparing and contrasting two or more interpretations of a historical event” (Standard 3.1-1 as featured in more detail below).
 * __Educators__:** Cassandra Sclafani and Kimberly Lehn
 * __Grade Level:__ 8 __Subject__: History**
 * __Date of lesson__: TBA __Length of lesson__: 80 minutes**
 * __Lesson Topic:__** The Revolutionary War and the Opposing Views of the Patriots and Loyalists
 * __Overall Goal:__** Students will understand the opposing stances of the Loyalists and Patriots during the Revolutionary War and choose the side that they support.
 * Learning Goals taken from the State of CT American History standards include**: “Students will compare and contrast two or more interpretations of a historical event” (3.1-1), “students will present persuasive pieces on historical questions and use appropriate visual evidence” (2.5-11), and “students will justify why people might have different points of view on a historical or contemporary issue” (3.3-5).
 * __Learner Background:__**


 * Curricular Standards:**
 * The CT Content Standards embedded within this lesson include:**
 * 3.1-1** Compare and contrast two or more interpretations of a historical event.
 * 2.5-11-** Present persuasive pieces on historical questions and use appropriate visual evidence.
 * 3.3-5 -** Justify why people might have different points of view on a historical or contemporary issue.
 * Primary Learning Objective**:
 * Learning Objective 3** - Use primary and secondary sources to write a persuasive newspaper article to support either the Patriot or Loyalists point of view


 * The Information Literacy/Inquiry Standards/21st c. Skills required of this lesson include:**
 * 1.1.6** Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
 * 1.1.7** Make sense of information gathered from diverse sources by identifying misconceptions, main and supporting ideas, conﬂicting information, and point of view or bias.
 * 1.1.9** Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding.


 * 2.1.5** Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems.
 * 2.1.6** Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings.
 * 3.1.3** Use writing and speaking skills to communicate new understandings e ﬀ ectively.

Students will be able to portray a Patriot or Loyalist through means of writing a letter in which they will prove their stance for why they (Loyalists or Patriots) should win the war.
 * Student Learning Objective(s):**

After the students are led in guided instruction through a “centers” rotational activity as well as minimal lecture, they will all be given an A, B, C, and D note-card. There will be slides on the projector with questions that correspond to the newly learned information. Students will need to hold up the card that corresponds to the correct answer of the multiple-choice question featured on the Smart board. This activity is formative as it assesses students’ overall comprehension directly after learning a new topic and allows for both the teacher and LMS to adjust instruction to meet the needs of his or her student population prior to moving on to new material. This activity serves as a check for understanding.
 * Assessment:**
 * Part I: Formative Assessment- A, B, C, and D notecard activity**

As a formative assessment, students will be constructing a Venn diagram detailing the similarities and differences between the Loyalists and Patriots. Students will submit the Venn-diagram to the teacher for a grade as this will allow the teacher to assess the student’s note-taking capabilities and to see how well the student’s notes set them up for success on the final product. The teacher will circulate the room while the students are setting up their Venn-diagrams to provide individual attention and guidance to those that need it.
 * Part II:**


 * Venn Diagram**
 * Patriots Loyalists **



As a summative assessment, students will be writing a persuasive letter acting as either a member of the Patriots or Loyalists. In this letter, they will explain their stance for why they should win the war utilizing primary and secondary sources as well as supporting evidence. The rubric for the letter is as follows:
 * Persuasive Letter Rubric** **Total Grade:** /20


 * || **1** || **3** || **5** || **Grade Earned** ||
 * **Citing of Sources** || Student cites all 3 sources incorrectly. || Student cites some of the sources incorrectly. || Student cites all sources correctly. ||  ||
 * **Spelling and Grammar** || Work has many spelling and grammatical errors. Proofreading not evident by product provided. || Work has several grammatical errors and spelling errors. More proofreading necessary. || Work has little to no grammatical/spelling errors. Proofreading is apparent. ||  ||
 * **Letter Format** || Student fails to follow proper letter format. || Student does not follow all components of formatting a letter. || Student properly formats the letter including the salutation, body, and closure. ||  ||
 * **Supporting Evidence** || Student provides little to no supporting evidence for why they should win the war. || Student provides some evidence for why they should win the war. || Student provides clear evidence for why they should win the war. ||  ||


 * Students will be instructed in how to properly format a letter as part of the next lesson.

For this lesson, students will be provided with the following components from the teacher: a T-chart template to organize their notes during guided practice, a Venn-diagram template to organize their notes before the final product, A, B, C, and D notecards for the formative assessment, slides on Smart board for formative assessment, and a rubric, which details the necessary components for the persuasive letter. Students will complete this lesson in the library and will be provided with the following sources from the library media specialist: a select few excerpts from books detailing the Revolutionary War and the Patriots and Loyalists opposing viewpoints, computers, access to Live binder where they can find pre-selected sources to guide their note-taking process as well as guide their opinion of who should win the war.
 * Materials/Resources:**


 * The Lesson**

Today, we are going to examine the opposing viewpoints of both parties and you will have the chance to take a stance and actually be a Patriot or a Loyalist. By the end of this lesson, you will have chosen which group you support and will begin writing a persuasive letter in which you will argue why your group should win the war. Every day in life there will be disagreement whether it is you disagreeing with a friend, a parent, or eventually a boss or coworker. This lesson will allow you to develop the skills to form a polished and persuasive argument that will support your individual stance. This will be a crucial skill for you as you progress in life because you are getting to the age where you need to be your own self-advocate. Are we ready to get started?”
 * Initiation:**
 * Say:** “Today we are going to uncover a war that changed the history of America. No, it is not the Team Jacob/Team Edward war from the blockbuster hit Twilight; however, you can actually look at this situation in a similar way. Just like how in Twilight there were two opposing groups (vampires vs. werewolves) with very different opinions, in the American Revolution, there were also two disagreeing groups, the Patriots versus the Loyalists. Similar to Twilight, the Patriots and Loyalists were quite territorial, meaning that they were possessive and protective of the area where they lived. Loyalists believed that they had the right to come in and take Patriot territory; the process of coming in and settling on what was once someone else’s property is called colonization. The Patriots believed that owning land was a right that no one could take away. The issue of land ownership is only one area in which the Patriots and Loyalists disagreed and this ultimately led to a war between the two.


 * Lesson Development:**

Students will be split into two groups before arriving at the library media center. Both groups will have varied learners of different levels in the style of the cooperative learning model. Once at the library, half of the class will have the task of researching the Loyalists stance and the other half will have the job of researching the Patriots stance. The students will be given a T-chart to organize their notes and thoughts. Both groups will be doing rotations, with one group viewing pre-selected sources on the computer on Live binder and the other group viewing pre-selected written sources in the form of book excerpts. As a result, there will be two centers per group, one center being the computers, and the other being the book station. The LMS and teacher will be circulating the room to target the needs of the diverse group of learners. The articles on Live binder as well as book excerpts are at various readability levels in order to accommodate the diverse needs of the relevant student population. The sources on Live binder also feature videos that are designed for students of lower reading levels. The T-chart provided to the students will have “Patriots” written on one side and “Loyalists” written on the other side. The T-chart will highlight a few important areas that the students should keep an eye out for such as each group’s beliefs, opinions, and what type of people were in each group. The stations and T-chart activity will last 30 minutes. After both groups have gone through the full rotation, we will come back full circle as a class and complete a jigsaw inspired activity. The students will be provided with guiding questions from the teacher and LMS and while one group is responding, the other group will be filling in the empty part of the T-chart. The educators will ask questions such as: “what type of people were part of the Loyalists?” “what did the Patriots believe?”, etc.. This share-out will take 15 minutes. At the conclusion of the share-out prior to independent practice, students will be given an A, B, C, and D notecard. The LMS will display questions on the Smart board. The questions will be about the Loyalists and Patriots identities and varied viewpoints. The questions will be scaffolded in the sense that in the beginning of the slides the questions will be along the lines of, “what type of people were part of the Patriots?” and at the end the questions will involve more thought. An example of an end question is, “identify the group (Patriots or Loyalists) that would argue AGAINST the following statement”. “Let’s go settle on the farmers land; they don’t need it anyway.” This activity can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending upon the needs of the students. The teacher and LMS will allow up to 10 minutes for its completion and then will individual address struggling students during independent practice before they move onto the next activity. The teacher and LMS will be able to visually see which questions were answered with the least accuracy and can address the misconceptions before moving forward with independent practice. The last lesson component is that the students will independently create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the Loyalists and Patriots. The information they have from their T-chart is what they will use to construct this Venn diagram. Once the information is inserted into the Venn diagram, the students will be able to make a better-informed decision on which side they agree with. After completing the Venn diagram, the students will start to outline their letter, paying careful attention to the rubric provided to them by the teacher. They will first be instructed to gather and organize the sources they will be utilizing as their supporting evidence as library access may be limited at the completion of this lesson period. Both the teacher and LMS will circulate during this time to look over students’ notes to see that they are on the right track and to guide them if necessary. The LMS will be more focused on pin-pointing citation issues as well as ensuring that the students are choosing sources that support their argument, whereas, the teacher will be looking for spelling and grammar mistakes, lead the students’ thought processes that are “stuck” by providing them with guiding questions, and help the students to begin to properly format the letter. Students will work on outlining the letter until the end of the class period and will be asked to complete the rest of the outline for homework. This will last 15-20 minutes. When the outline is brought back to class, the teacher will continue to provide the students with time to edit and revise it prior to creating the final product.

The lesson will end with a few questions that will serve as a check for understanding by cementing that students understand the opposing viewpoints of the Patriots and Loyalists. The teacher will ask for students to raise their hands and respond to questions such as, “what did the Patriots believe and how was that different from what the Loyalists believed?” The teacher will discuss the importance of the note-taking process and explain to students how it will allow for them to organize their thoughts in a more quick and efficient manner as they start learning more difficult concepts; there will also be mention of how taking good notes sets one up for success on tests, quizzes, and projects. The teacher will also highlight the importance of taking a stance and being able to back up one’s stance up with supporting evidence; an example that the teacher can use is if a student receives a grade that they disagree with, that they may want to talk to the teacher about it but will need to justify why they think they deserve a different grade. They can do this by supplying the teacher with past examples of work that they have done and highlight the amount of times that they have stayed after school for extra help. The LMS will touch on how citing is an important aspect of research and that this skill is something that is going to be required of them for almost every research project or paper they do during their high school and college careers. Students will be given a sticky-note on which they will write the most important lesson they learned today and stick it on the wall on their way out of class. The next time they return to class, they will pass by and read what their classmates wrote on their sticky note. The lesson closure will last approximately 5-7 minutes.
 * Closure**:


 * File available for download below.