Dylan Frendt

American History, Grade 10

1st Period, 52 Mins.
Road to the American Revolution: Foundational Lesson

OVERVIEW/ RATIONALE
This lesson serves as the first lesson in the unit on the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War (1733-1776). The
lessons in this unit will detail and explain marquee events leading up to the American Revolution (examples: the Molasses
Act, the Stamp Act, the Quartering Act, the Boston Tea Party, etc.), providing the students with a context that will help them
understand the causes for Americas secession from Great Britain.
This particular lesson will focus on one of the key events that preceded the American Revolution: the Molasses Act, which
will serve to introduce students to the concept of trading.
Students will begin the period by being introduced to a new class concept: journals. Each student will receive a journal where
they, for the rest of the year, will complete their Do-Now, non-note writing, reflections, and an Exit Ticket. These journals
will serve as a way to gauge class understanding, interests, and help with attendance.
After the introduction of journals, students will be given five minutes to complete a student inventory that will help me with
their names, goals for the class, and help me better get to know them. After this, students will complete their Journal Prompt.
Students will then be given information about the Molasses act, molasses, and colonial geography. The rest of the class will
be devoted to a trading game, then an exit-slip.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

The Molasses Acts angered Colonial Americans.

Colonists began to feel as though the British government was putting unfair monetary burdens on them.
The Molasses Act, in particular, angered New England colonists.
Trading is one of the most important global concepts, and is just as important today as it was in Colonial America.

GOALS/OBJECTIVES

Students will know what the Molasses Act did and how it affected New England Colonists.
Students will understand the relationship between the importation of Molasses, how it was used to make rum and
other goods, and how the Molasses Act hurt business.
Students will be able to locate where in the world molasses came from and which colonies imported it.
Students will be able to simulate trading and understand how trade affects different countries.

STANDARDS
MATERIALS

Journals
Computer
Projector
SmartBoard
Slips of paper

Dylan Frendt 11/7/2015 8:32 PM

Comment [1]: As I wrote these enduring
understandings, I had to continue to
remind myself that enduring
understandings are the What do I want
my students to know in 40 years, and I
often got lost in the nitty-gritty details of
what I wanted my students to individually
walk away with. I remember that my first
understanding about the Molasses Act
was for them to understand the exact
details of the act, with the following
understandings also being much more
specific. I still believe that my
understandings were a little too specific.
After completing this lesson, I came to
realize that my students did, indeed, ...
walk
[1]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 5:56 PM
Comment [2]: Perhaps I could have
added a why, but the thrust of what I was
trying to get my students to understand
seemed to be enduring.
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 5:59 PM
Comment [3]: This becomes redundant
due to my first understanding focusing on
anger in the colonies. Perhaps the
substitution could have been The
Molasses Act affected the New England
... [2]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:00 PM
Comment [4]: As I read this, my brain
simply asks why? Of course I know
why trade is important, but without
making my reasoning explicit, I think that
I run the risk of not focusing enough ...
when
[3]
Dylan Frendt 11/7/2015 9:45 PM
Comment [5]: As I review this lesson
plans objectives, I realize that I was more
focused on multiple objectives: being able
to understand, being able to know, being
able to locate, and being able to participate
... [4]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:02 PM
Comment [6]: I think that this was direct
and worked very well to reinforce the
enduring understanding. I remember
writing this objective as a direct parallel
to
... [5]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:03 PM
Comment [7]: This spoke to how the
molasses act angered and affected the
New England colonies, but I wonder if
there is a way to take the enduring
understanding and goal/objective and
... [6]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:05 PM
Comment [8]: How does this simulation
play into their overall understanding of
the topic? I remember the lesson being
very successful and having quite a few
aha moments, but I believe I need to
... [7]
Dylan Frendt 11/7/2015 8:46 PM
Comment [9]: Though we are not
currently focusing on standards, I feel as
though I am not getting in the habit of
providing the standards that some school
districts may demand, and I want to work
... [8]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:06 PM
Comment [10]: While I know exactly
what I meant by the materials, the
vagueness of certain terms does not help
someone reading my LP understand ... [9]

PROCEDURES

Student Inventory: (4minutes)

o Students will be given a student inventory that they will fill out. (5 minutes)
Opening Discussion: (3 minutes)
o Students will be given their journals and introduced to the concept of journaling.
o Students will be given time to write their names on their journals.
Journal Prompt: (3 minutes)
o Students will be asked to answer the following writing prompt: What did you know about America
before this class?
Body of the Lesson: (30minutes)
o Students will be introduced to the concept of the Road to the Revolution, which will be symbolized by
a road that we are going to take, as a class, for the next week or so.
o Students will be presented with a slide that details the Molasses Act. A few brief, important notes will be
put up for them to put in their copybooks.
o Students will be shown what molasses is and told what it is used to make.
o Students will be shown a map of Colonial North America and the Caribbean to see the molasses trade.
Students will come to the board to identify New England colonies to reinforce their understanding of
colonial geography.
o Students will be divided into three different groups: the New England Colonies, the French Caribbean
territories, and Great Britain.
Each table will be given something different. The New England Colonies will be given
simulated money cards to give to the French Caribbean territories for molasses. With enough
money, they will also be able to trade, with me, to turn the molasses into rum, which I will then
buy and give them more money.
The French Caribbean territories will be given a supply of molasses cards, which they will sell to
the New England Colonies group for a set price.
The Great British table will be told to sit and observe, and will watch the New England money
pile up and pile up as they are not receiving money.
o The Great British table will then be told that, by passing the Molasses Act, they will be
able to get the money from the colonists. When the act is passed, every time the New
England Colonist group trades with the French Caribbean territories, the Great Britain
group will receive a bit of the money.
o After the simulation, students will be told that this is what caused the British to pass the Molasses Act.
CLOSURE (5 minutes)
o

As an exit-ticket, students will be asked the following question: If you were a New England Colonist,
would you have wanted to lose money because of the Molasses Act? Why or why not?

ACCOMODATIONS
o I do not anticipate the lesson being too challenging for students. However, I will provide a copy of the
notes on the Molasses Act to students to reinforce their learning (but will not tell them, first) and will go
over the information in a pre-test review at the end of the unit.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
o I will know if my students have absorbed the materials by observing the following behaviors:
Students will copy the notes on the Molasses Act and ask questions if they are confused.
Students will engage with the interactive portion of the molasses lesson by coming to the board
to engage with the molasses trade.
Students will participate in the simulation and, after modeling of how the simulation works, will
be able to sustain their own student trade for a few minutes.
Students will have thoughtful responses in their exit-tickets.

Dylan Frendt 11/7/2015 8:49 PM

Comment [11]: What is a student
inventory? This should have been defined
with a note that the survey was attached. I
realize that this LP has a theme of me not
being explicit with some of my resources,
and this is not helpful for future
supervisors, fellow teachers, or for myself
upon critical review.
I was also not clear in saying that this was
not a learning objective, but was based in
research showing that getting to know
your students and making them a part of
learning and instruction yields positive
results. It is because of this research and
my own philosophy that I gave them
... a[10]
Dylan Frendt 11/7/2015 9:45 PM
Comment [12]: Comment 11 holds true
here, as well. What are the journals?
What are they going to be utilized for?
There should have been an introduction in
the LP so journals could be referenced
in
... [11]
Dylan Frendt 11/7/2015 9:04 PM
Comment [13]: This was the intentional
use of imagery for ELLs, which has been
demonstrated to aid in retention with
ELLs. The use of an image was also my
way of framing the lesson.
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:15 PM
Comment [14]: Im not sure if this
focused enough on my students different
L2 acquisition levels and skillsets. I know
that I have started to address this with
a
... [12]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:18 PM
Comment [15]: Also explicit use of
imagery and explanation, which research
shows is good for ELLs.
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:16 PM
Comment [16]: See Notes 14 and 15.
Continued use of imagery but also the
introduction of a more interactive
component to the lesson.
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:16 PM
Comment [17]: Research demonstrates
that ESLs learn better in groups where
they have more time to communicate and
are also given a clear set of instructions
that provides room for them to be creative
... [13]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:17 PM
Comment [18]: Vague. Im not sure
why I worded it this way.
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:17 PM
Comment [19]: Personal tie in for the
students to internalize the lesson. Also a
small attempt to contextualize.
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:18 PM
Comment [20]: This section should
never be empty if the class is one-hundred
percent ELLs. At this point, I did not have
as much research, as I do now, regarding
official accommodations as well as ... [14]
Dylan Frendt 11/3/2015 6:13 PM
Comment [21]: Wiggins and McTighe
(2005) propose that someone who
understands something:
Can generalize
Can interpret
... [15]

Reflective Narrative
Reviewing this lesson enabled me to engage with my planning process and seek out ways that I could improve further lesson
plans and overall unit designs. Though this was my first lesson and I will admit that I was happy with my outcomes, my students
engagement, and their success in demonstrating the knowledge that I put in the assessment section. Yet, I have come to realize that
my design was did not fully adhere to UbD principles and the areas that I did not adhere to it were areas that, with improvement,
could help further stimulate student learning. I also came to realize that I could be more explicit with explaining my activities and the
resources that I use.
The first point that I put a great deal of reflective thought into was the fact that I did not make accurate and efficient use of the
Enduring Understandings section. I put 4 enduring understandings in this lesson (and in subsequent lessons as I modeled other
lesson plans off of this first lesson plan). Not a single one of these understandings was one that I imagined as an overall unit enduring
understanding, moreover, I did not sit down to plan enduring understandings for the entire unit before I planned my lesson (something
that is called for in a UbD template). I went into my lesson planning, then, without a goal for what I wanted my students to walk
away from at the end of the unit. I instead created daily enduring understandings that really should have been classified, I think, as
learning goals and objectives or another lesson understanding category. As I made the enduring understandings for this lesson, I
did ask myself what I wanted my students to walk away remembering at a basic level. I reminded myself that it should be a fact with
staying power that would enable them to make connections to further learning and understand the tone and context of that moment in
history. Yet, my definition of enduring understanding was, upon reflection, muddled.
This makes me want to change the format of future LPs (something I may do) and reminds me that I need to be intentional
with the construction of enduring understandings for the entire unit, and then base my assessments and lessons off of them.
I also did not plan any assessments before I made this lesson. Assessments (demonstrations of knowledge) need to be
planned before a lesson is planned. This allows us to decide what is an authentic way to demonstrate knowledge based on what we
are teaching. By designing it lesson by lesson (and in particular in my first lesson), I did not really have a clear sense of what
authentic demonstration of knowledge was. I think that I did create a decent set of what I called assessments with this lesson
(which I think were really observations of retention and comprehension) and I was pleased with the work that my students did, but I
did not fit it in a UbD framework that could have helped me differentiate authentic assessment and observations of learning and
comprehension. This differentiation would enable me to intentionally give my students multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge.
That is not to say that I did not consider my assessments authentic during planning or even after the lesson itself. As I
planned, I thought that I had a clear sense of what would qualify as demonstrations of knowledge and engagement. Nothing that I put
on the list was a throwaway, but the result of a careful reflection on what I wanted my students to learn. So, while it was not to the
full letter and spirit of UbD, I really think that I gave sufficient thought to what would count as evidence of understanding, and I was
pleased when I saw that most of my students demonstrated most if not all of this evidence of understanding.
Aside from not properly utilizing UbD in the lesson planning process, there were certain other elements of my LP that I
should have made more explicit, particularly the journals and materials needed. Though lesson plans do not have to be exhaustive, as I
wrote the plan, I had an assumption that my mentor, CM, and future individuals reading my LP would know what I meant by
journals and survey and the list of materials, yet, these things could have been explained in a few sentence with a rationale that
described how it fit into my framework (or, in the case of the survey, what kind of research and theory motivated my questions and
use of a class survey). I think that this assumed ignorance is a good practice for future lesson plans and in instruction, as the
assumption of prior knowledge could do a disservice to my students and not make my thought processes very clear (which research
shows is necessary to help model good learning practices for students).
I suppose if I had to put a summary on my internal thoughts during lesson planning, I would say that I was focused on the
there and then, and not long term objective. I decided what I wanted to teach that day based on time constraints that I artificially
created for the unit on the Road to the Revolution. Based on those constraints, I put a cap on the number of topics I wanted to discuss.
I did not consult lesson planning research or the work of other teachers, but relied on how I thought I could communicate best: a
small amount of lecturing, something interactive, journals, and a simulation. The lesson was designed to engage students and to
provide them an opportunity to learn through experience, but I was not deliberate in considering ways to incorporate
accommodations, scaffolding, and other research-based curriculum that could have been beneficial for my students and for me.
I will improve on this in the future, as my lesson and conversation with my CM taught me that, despite my limited focus
during my lesson plan, my natural inclination to be social, animated, and engaging provides me with a boost. My students really did
understand what I was trying to teach them. They were very involved with the simulation, politely took notes, engaged with
discussion topics, wrote thoughtful journal entries, and did well on questions about this lesson on the unit exam. My students
succeeded in meeting my assessments and the objectives were thoroughly gone over. I do not have to fret over my presentation as a
teacher or how I will deal with students not engaging or students misbehaving, because social capital is the strongest part of my
repertoire. What I need to focus on is intentionality with lesson planning and research-based solutions. My students can benefit from
me being a little more intentional with planning and a little more organized, and going over my thought processes deliberately (to
model good learning practices).