Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

Main ideas: What are the main ideas (maximum of three) students need to know about this

topic?

Materials: What materials (e.g., activity sheet, map, song) will I use to present information

and teach academic skills?

Aim: What overall question am I asking the class to answer?

Do now: What activity, if any, will I use to settle students and establish a context?

Motivation: How will I open the lesson and capture student interest?

Activities: What activities will I use to help students discover what they need to learn?

Key questions: How will I summarize and assess student learning?

Homework: What must students learn on their own to reinforce what we did in this lesson

or to introduce the next topic?

Follow-up: What topics come next?

IV.b. Sample Streamlined High School Social Studies Lesson Plan

(developed by Alan Singer)

UNIT: The Growth of Sectionalism—the Antebellum South

LESSON: Lives and hopes of enslaved Africans in the American South

1. What are the main ideas (maximum of three) students need to know about this topic?
   
   
   1. Traditional songs are primary sources that help historians understand the
      lives and dreams of ordinary people.
   
   
   2. Enslaved Africans experienced slavery as oppressive and wanted freedom.
   
   
   3. Songs from the era of slavery express the dreams and aspirations of enslaved
      Africans.
   
   
   
   


2. What materials (e.g., activity sheet, map, song) will I present? Activity Sheet: African
   American Songs from the Era of Slavery; audiocassettes and tape recorder.


3. What question will I ask the class to answer (aim)? How do songs express the dreams
   and aspirations of Africans enslaved in the United States?


4. What activity, if any, will I use to settle students and establish a context (do now)?
   Read “All the Pretty Little Horses” and answer questions 1–3.


5. How will I open the lesson (motivation) and capture student interest? How can we
   learn about the ideas and feelings of ordinary people from the past? Brainstorm a list
   of ideas on the board.


6. What activities will I use to help students discover what they need to learn (activi-
   ties)? Read the lyrics to the songs and listen to recordings. The first song is a do now
   for individuals. Groups will analyze and report on the other two songs.


7. How will we summarize and assess student learning (key questions)? What does this
   song tell us about the experience of enslaved Africans? What does this song tell us
   about the lives and hopes of enslaved Africans in the American South?


8. What must students learn on their own to reinforce what we did in this lesson or to in-
   troduce the next topic (homework)? Read pagesxxx. Answer questions 1–4 on page
   xxx. Take one of the three songs and rewrite it as a “rap.” Be prepared to perform
   your version in class.


9. What topics come next (follow-up)? Tomorrow: Slave resistance; After: Debate over
   slavery.

82 CHAPTER 3