ED618 Lesson Design Template

Candidate Name: Amanda Elder Host Teacher Name: Madison Visser

School: Government Hill Elementary Grade Level: 5th/6th # of Students: 32
Date & Time of Lesson: March 2nd 11:30am Length of Lesson: (day or days) 1 day- 45 minutes
Topic of Lesson: World War 2 Content Area: Social Studies

Student /Classroom Demographics: Many different cultures and races present in the class. Majority of the class is boys. This
class contains a high percentage of students with behavioral and learning disabilities. Wide range of lexile levels.

Materials: Include all materials including types of technology used:

Student textbooks, computer, projector, powerpoint, timeline worksheet, social studies journals

Alaska Content Standard: (One standard for the lesson)

History- A student should understand historical themes through factual knowledge of time, places, ideas, institutions,
cultures, people, and events.

Transfer Goal(s) - Unpacked Standard (Transferability)

The students will be able to explain the main events of World War 2

STAGE 1 – Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings (Meaning)

Enduring Understanding(s) : (1 or 2 are sufficient) Essential Questions to be Considered: (1 or 2 are
Students will understand that…. sufficient)

War is a result of prior events. How did World War 2 change America?

STAGE ONE: STAGE TWO:

Objectives/Learning Targets (Acquisition)
Knowledge: What students should know…. (2-3)
Identify the main contributors of the Axis and
Allied parties (Axis- Germany, Italy, Japan, Allied-
Britain, US, Soviet Union)
Create a timeline of the main events during World
War 2.
Assessment/Acceptable Evidence Of Learning
Formative, Summative, AND Performance types of
evidence.) All three types must be included.
You will embed these in the lesson.
To begin the lesson I will gauge students current knowledge
of world war 2 by asking students to guess the event (WW2)
as I put short facts about WW2 on the board. One by one I
will post a fact (hardest to easiest) until someone guesses the
correct answer of WW2. Formative

Skills: What students should be able to do….(2-3)
Discuss the causation of events during WW2 with
classmates in a small group
discussion.
Students will fill in a timeline with the main events of WW2.
The events will be listed by letter and the student needs to fill
in the blank in the correct order. Students will need to think
of the cause and effect of each event to complete this activity.
Summative, Performance

Organize important facts, thoughts and emotions
from each major event during
WW2 into a web diagram.
After the lesson the students will fill in a web diagram of the
most important events and the players. (Allied and Axis
powers, D-Day, Holocaust, Pearl Harbor). They should
include facts that were important to them as well as emotions
or thoughts they had about the topic.- Formative

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STAGE THREE: Learning for Understanding/ Instructional Activities
Learning Activities and Strategies:
 Instructional activities should lead to meeting the Objectives above.
Pre-Requisites: What is the prior knowledge students have to have before starting this lesson?
It will help students to know the events leading up to WW2 (WW1 and the Great Depression). Students need to know the
idea of cause and effect. They need to know how to fill out a timeline (direction, dates). Students should also be familiar
with a web diagram.

Overview/Introduction/Hook (Make a connection with students’ backgrounds using an authentic situation to start them
thinking about the objectives and the essential question the lesson addresses.)
I will start the lesson by gauging what students already know about World War 2 through a guessing game. I will have a
sheet of paper with facts about WW2. Students need to guess what the event is by understanding the facts. The facts will
go from hardest to easiest in relating them to WW2. This will also be the hook because the facts are intended to get
students interested in what the event was and what happened.

Lesson 1 Differentiation Strategies for the

 The One Nation Many People textbook contains the
basic information of World War 2. From the book, I
have pulled all necessary information to make the
chapter on World War 2 more like a story that I will
read to the students. A powerpoint of primary source
pictures and updates as we read will follow along with
the story.
 After the story, students will work together in groups of
four to complete a timeline of events worksheet.
Students are given ten minutes and need to think
together to come up with one timeline sheet to represent
their group. Bring the class back together to discuss the
events of the timeline, the cause and effect of the events
and put the events in correct order on the board.
process/product/assessment
For the timeline activity the groups will consist of students
with various ability levels. The group work allows each
student to contribute something to the activity.
My HT does personalized grading where she takes the
students ability levels and compares the work to their level.
Students are not graded using the same standards but on
how hard they worked. I think this is a great idea!
The TA will be in the classroom for students who need extra
attention or help with concepts. Students can work with the
TA during the timeline activity or during the web diagram.

 Closure- To close the lesson, students will take out their

social studies journals to make a web diagram of what
they consider the major events and players of World
War 2.

Closure: Bring it all together with the focus of the lesson and the Objective. Tie the closure for each lesson in with the
Hook, the Objective, and the Essential Question.
To close the lesson, students will take out their social studies journals to make a web diagram of what they
consider the major events of World War 2. Under the major events, the students should include important facts,
thoughts and emotions they relate to the event.

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Reflection
Instructions: Respond to the following questions:
~How did the lesson go?
The lesson went extremely well. The kids were engaged, they enjoyed asking questions, and almost everyone participated
in the activities. I enjoyed teaching the lesson and I was impressed with how the students’ work turned out.

~Did the students meet the objective? How do you know?

Yes. All groups completed the timeline activity in the correct order. Many students worked hard to fill out the web
diagram. For the students that were having difficulty with the web diagram, I used guiding questions to help them find the
right answer. Most of the time they knew the answer, they just didn’t know how to put it on paper.

~Were there any unexpected events? How effectively did you respond?
On this day I had planned to teach them a science lesson in the morning and a social studies lesson in the afternoon. Upon
starting the science lesson, the internet would not cooperate. With quick action I switched the lessons and started my
social studies lesson. I was happy with how well it turned out despite the quick unplanned start.

~Comment on one student who did particularly well and one who did not meet your
expectations.
The web diagrams were not collected because they were written in their social studies journals. However I did spend my
time walking around the room and glancing at their work. Most students had a really good start filling out the diagram.
The difficult part was associating a feeling with an event or power so only a few kids were able to connect an emotion to
an event. Of the few I captured in picture, I was really happy with Merita. All of her facts are correct and she is able to
associate a feeling with the events and powers.
Another student, Connor, is difficult to get engaged in lessons and even more difficult to have him complete written work.
I was happily surprised that he engaged in discussions during the lesson. However, at the end he chose not to make a web
diagram in his journal. I asked him some basic questions about the lesson and he was able to answer them. While he did
not show his learning with written work, I was satisfied that he learned the necessary information.

~Why did this happen? What can you do to follow up with the student who did not do well.
In Connor’s situation I could have asked that he complete one or two events. Connor does not do work when he feels
overwhelmed by the amount of work. I should have went over to Connor once students started working and ask him if he
could attempt one or two of the events for me.

~Comment on how you incorporated local or cultural knowledge in your teaching.

At the end of the lesson, I read the students my grandmothers account of her as a child during WW2. I think the students
could relate to this more because it referenced a child that was near their age. This is also an entrance into the next lesson
on how the war affected Americans.

~Are there any changes you would make in this lesson if you could do it again? Why?
The only change that my host teacher suggested was that I call on the students who don’t participate in the discussion.
Many high performing students know the answers but choose not to participate.

The historical documents and the original format for the thesis worksheet came from:

World War II Photos. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos

Garcia, J., & Harley, S. (1995). One nation many people. Paramus, NJ: Globe Fearon.

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Student Examples