Lesson Plan History

Teacher Candidate: J.J. Martone    Lesson Topic: World History/Columbian Exchange Date: November 15 2011  Grade Level: 9th    Approximate Time: 55 minutes
Stage 1 – Desired Results
National Standards: A. Thematic Standard  2:Time, Continuity, and Change Georgia Performance Standards: SSWH10 The student will analyze the impact of the age of discovery and expansion into the Americas, Africa, and Asia b. Define the Columbian Exchange and its global economic and cultural impact.
Essential Question: Why is chocolate milk a sweet example of the Columbian Exchange?
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Lesson Plan Template   Performance Tasks: I will ask the students the following questions: -Why did different crops grow in different areas? -What are some important foods that would have been missing from your area before 1492? -What changed in 1492 that enabled foods to travel to different areas?	Other Evidence: Asking the students to identify the regions of the world where the ingredients to the chocolate milk originated
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Materials and Resources (Attach all templates.): -Columbian exchange chart -Blank world map from  http://www.studentsfriend.com/aids/curraids/maps/sfworldp.pdf -world map (see PowerPoint) -colored pencils -chocolate milk (only if students want some and if they are not allergic)
Technology (If no technology is used in this lesson, provide a justification for choosing not to use technology.)  blank world map from internet world map with countries listed from internet constructed the Columbian Exchange Chart in a Word document PowerPoint slide show
Activating Thinking Strategies :(KWL, Questions, PBL, Word Splash, Concept Attainment Activities, Anticipatory Guide…): As the students walk into class, I will have projected from the projected the following: “write down some of your favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods”. I will give them about 5 minutes to do this and then go into my lesson.
Teaching Strategies (whole group, small group, active engagement of ALL students):             - I will write the following quote on the board: “Before 1492, there were no tomatoes in Italy, no         pineapples in Hawaii, no potatoes in Ireland, no oranges in Florida, and no cattle in Texas.”             - I will call on an individual student to read the quote to the class             - I will then divide students into pairs and ask them to answer the following question on a blank sheet of notebook paper: “Why were these important food crops missing in these areas before 1492?” -          I will give students background information on the Columbian Exchange in my PowerPoint. -          I’ll pass out the Columbian Exchange charts and blank world maps to each student in the class -          I’ll instruct students to examine the Columbian Exchange chart and the world map. Ill asked them to find the country of origin for each of the major food crops of the Columbian exchange. I’ll instruct the students to create a key and color and put a symbol of each plant and animal in the nation of origin. -          The students will answer the following questions presented on my PowerPoint: Why did different crops grow in different areas? What are some important foods that would have been missing from your area before 1492? What changed in 1492 that enabled foods to travel to different areas? -          I’ll then inform the students that they are about to taste an example of the Columbian Exchange by passing out a small sample of chocolate milk to every student in the class that would like some along with a d list of chocolate milks ingredients on the PowerPoint. -          I’ll then ask the students to look for familiar ingredients in the product and make a list of the familiar ingredients on the PowerPoint. -          I’ll then ask the students to identify the regions of the world where the ingredients to the chocolate milk originated and discuss the Aztec Chocolate Drink. -          Then go into my summarizing activity, “Why is chocolate milk a sweet example of the Columbian Exchange?”
Evidence of Differentiated Instruction (Content, Process, and Product: MI, Learning Styles, Flexible Grouping, Stations, etc.): Visual- seeing the questions Auditory-hearing them being read off Taste- drinking the chocolate milk Flexible grouping- putting them into groups to help with the sharing of color pencils
Modifications for Special Needs Students: (IEPs, etc.) Gifted Student- To challenge a gifted student would ask them the question “what happened if Columbus never landed in the Americas, would another ‘Columbian Exchange have happen? Would a different person/group have started a trade between the Old and New Worlds? Would the foods have ended up in different places than during the Columbian Exchange?” Could also have a gifted student find out where the food was found of their favorite meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner). Could also tie in the different thanksgiving foods since thanksgiving is coming up.
Summarizing (List higher order thinking questions to determine what students have learned; Students answer essential question): Have them answer the question “Why is chocolate milk a sweet example of the Columbian Exchange?” and “What was the impact of the Columbian exchange economically and culturally?” on a piece of paper.
Stage 4 - Reflections
Pre- Teaching Reflection: (Assessed on the Lesson Plan Evaluation Rubric) Up to this point, the students have been studying the early civilizations of the Americas and Africa, and the Age of Exploration. My lesson will be the first that the students will see about the Columbian Exchange but is almost the end of the unit. I feel that the students will enjoy this activity in class because of the coloring, the topic of food, and receiving some chocolate milk. I feel that they will find it interesting that many of the common foods today were originally from outside the United States. The information will be presented in a relevant way to the students through food (germane). The students can also use it in their daily lives by looking at the ingredients in not only chocolate milk but other foods too (requires application of knowledge). The direction of the activity has an easy to follow format and flows from one part to another (coherent). It will be great using food as a tool in teaching the Columbian Exchange because it will get the interest of the students.  Post- Teaching Reflection: (Assessed on the TPOI Rubric) I feel as if the lesson was very effective in teaching the Columbian Exchange because the students could relate to it through food. The students enjoyed the lesson and the chocolate milk treat at the end. An example of this was when a student broke down all of the different ingredients in a hamburger and was able to point out from the map they did, where all of the ingredients came from around the world. I also walked the class through a thanksgiving dinner and dessert with where foods such as corn, turkey, and sugar originated from. Some strengths that I had during the lesson plan was the variety of differentiated instruction, enthusiasm, and my planning and preparation. I asked the students to make a key and use colors to show plants and draw a symbol to represent an animal. I had many different maps showing, the countries of the world, the triangular trade pattern, and a blank map that the students had to color and add symbols along with the triangle trade pattern routes. Another strength I mentioned was my enthusiasm. I believe that enthusiasm is a major key to teaching because the students will feed off of it and it showed especially during the lesson. My last strength I felt that really helped me was my planning and preparation I put into this lesson. Mrs. Blake gave me advice and she told me that planning and preparation is everything when it comes to teaching a lesson. It helped set a good ground for me to teach the lessons and make a few minor adjustments as the day went on. Some areas I need to work on are projecting the EQ and GPS at the start of the lesson not just for me but the students to see as well, some type of student self-assessment, and a critical thinking question that ties the lesson to the Unit EQ. Mrs. Blake already has the EQ and GPS up in the room, but I feel that it would be a great habit for me to get into by posting the EQ and GPS at the beginning of the lesson. For self assessment I could have them write down a question about something such as a term or concept that they did not understand at the end of the lesson and turn it in to me. Not only will they see what they need to study some more, but I can even use it to know what to cover with them before a quiz or test. For the critical thinking question, I tried to tie everything together at the end but I feel as if the students needed to do it. That means I need to develop a question that ties everything in the Unit together to show if the students can put things together. The only changes I would make to this lesson would be my few weaknesses that I had. I feel as if I incorporated those things into my lesson, it would have been even better than it was. Between classes, I asked Mrs. Blake how she thought the lesson was going. She thought it was going very well but pointed out a few things that I needed to try. The first being that when it came to putting them into groups, don’t let the students pick their own groups. 2nd period was over this. I said “let’s get into groups” and sure enough they all jumped up and got together with their friends. Not that the behavior was terrible but they were the worst out of all three classes. So Mrs. Blake recommended that I put them into groups and when I did that behavior was better. My second adjustment came after 3rd period. I noticed that it was taking the students all long time to answer the questions after they completed their maps and I needed to get to the summarizing questions. So after they completed, I had them move their desk back and complete the questions. This went so much smoother and behavior was even better. So that is how Mrs. Blake helped me with making adjustments throughout the day. I just want to point out a few things with the students. The first being a disappointment. With the map, I had feeling that they would have a hard time finding some countries so I would help them by letting them know what continent the country was from on. Well, I figured out that some students struggle with continents and could not even locate Europe and South America. These are 9th graders and how do they not know the continents? With the disappointment out of the way I’ll go into my positive that I saw out of students. Mrs. Blake and I have discussed this student because we see his potential but you can see that he does not like school. He does not show up to class that most of the time. I can honestly say that I have only seen him about 4 times since I have been interning with Mrs. Blake this semester. During this activity, he was actually enjoying and doing the work. I am hoping that he recognizes that school can be fun and that Mrs. Blake and I care about him. He is a really smart student he just needs to put himself to the work and school.