Embedded Files
Introduction
Introduction
Lesson planning is a vital way to communicate what a teacher intends to do during class so that information laid out in the unit plan is conveyed to the students on a particular day. In this section I have an example lesson plan from the Social Studies "My Community and its Economy" unit. This plan highlights which standards and objectives will be addressed in the lesson, how new ideas will be taught, and how student understanding will be assessed.
Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan
This Social Studies lesson is written as a 40 minute co-taught lesson between a Teaching Artist (TA) and Classroom Teacher (CT). It addresses both National Arts Standards and Louisiana Student Standards for Social Studies. This lesson could be solo taught by a classroom teacher, but the purpose of arts-integrating this lesson is to have students learn arts standards in tandem with curriculum standards to enhance the lesson and make it more memorable and interactive for students.
While my students are fascinated by the concept of currency having seen their parents use money in exchange for purchasing goods, they struggle to understand the concept of monetary worth. By having them create and then vote on their own classroom form of currency, this lesson aims to appeal to student interest in money and what it can be used for. Ultimately, students will use these skills in tandem with their math addition skills to buy different items at our classroom store during our culminating activity as it is outlined in the unit plan.
Here is the currency template my students will use. Once students create their own currency, they will be able to practice exchanging currency for goods from our class store and receiving currency as employees of the store. This will broaden their understanding of the purpose of currency as it is used in the community around them. My students can use this knowledge to understand both how they and their families act as consumers, and how the adults in their lives work as employees in order to earn money.
This lesson, like the others in this unit, acts as a cross-curricular learning opportunity where students can apply social studies standards to ultimately create a dramatic play version of a store similar to one they might experience in their own community. Since students will also create the products they would like to sell at their store, this gives them a chance to make what they might consider to be culturally significant items. In a New Orleans style grocery store, this might include foodstuffs such as crawfish, red beans, king cake, and jumbo, all items that they have discussed in class previously as foods that they enjoy.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Lesson planning is an integral part of teaching. Creating quality lesson plans is the surest way to help students reach mastery in any subject. Whether the lesson plan is co-taught or solo-taught, from a scripted curriculum or teacher-made, the goal remains the same: for all students to be able to learn new content in such a way that they are supporting their growth towards our end of year learning goals. When I created this Social Studies lesson, I focused on the related standards, and back planned to make sure that students were learning foundational skills that will support their future learning as well.
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