High School Sample Lesson Plan

High School - Social Sciences

Final Lesson Plan and Diverse Modifications Paper

Amanda L. Duckworth

Department of Education and Human Services, Florida State College at Jacksonville

EDF1005: Introduction to Education

Grade Level: 

9th - 12th Grade

Subject: 

Social Science

Objective: 

Students will learn to identify primary and secondary sources of information and evaluate them for accuracy and applicability in pursuit of a given topic.

Primary Standards Addressed: 

S.S.912.W.1.3, which states: Interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources. https://www.cpalms.org/PreviewStandard/Preview/3436 

Materials: 

The lesson includes the use of the following materials: laptops, notebook paper, the Internet, a teacher-made slideshow, a YouTube video, pencils, a projector, the board, dry-erase markers, a web quest activity sheet, and an annotated bibliography assignment.

Technology Used to Deliver Lesson: 

The following technology will be utilized during the lesson: laptops, the Internet, YouTube, a projector, and a teacher-made slideshow.

Essential Questions of the Day: 

What is the difference between a primary and secondary source? How can we determine if a source is reliable? Why are sources important?

Opening: 

The teacher will introduce the concept of sources (examples: artifacts, images, auditory, and written) to the students using images as examples in a slideshow, taking less than 5 minutes. These sources should be cohesive and apply to a central research topic that will be the theme of the lesson. (i.e., the Holocaust, the Civil War, the origin of Civilization) At the end of the slideshow, the teacher will leave several new vocabulary words projected on the screen without definitions.

Pre-assessment: 

The teacher will present the class with declarative statements, one at a time, that match up to the different vocabulary words. The teacher will prompt the class to vote on which vocabulary word the declarative statements correspond to. 

Step-by-step Procedures:

Guided Practice:

1. The students will watch a video explaining primary and secondary sources while utilizing the Cornell note-taking method. 

   1. The teacher will first instruct the students to set up their Cornell notes on a sheet of notebook paper.

   2. The teacher will show the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPQ95B95bWE&ab_channel=Scribbr 

   3. After the end of the video, the teacher and class will discuss the main ideas and keywords from the video to condense their notes.

2. The teacher will present a slideshow with several sources as examples, which they will use to explain how to interpret and evaluate sources. These sources should be cohesive and adhere to the research topic introduced in the opening. Students will be directed to create a KWL (know, want to know, learned) chart to fill out during the presentation periodically.

   1. First, the teacher will show students different ways to search for sources. This should include search engines, library archives that the students may have access to, and a brief overview of how to navigate museum websites.

   2. Next, the teacher will explain how to evaluate a source’s credibility. This should include the concepts of reliability, preservation, translation, and point of origin.

   3. Then, the teacher will explain how to interpret a source. This should cover how applicable the source is to the research topic, the quality and quantity of information, and the search for keywords and main ideas.

   4. Finally, the teacher will go through the process of searching for a source pertaining to a specific research topic and then evaluating and interpreting the source. This can be done with as much or as little class participation as possible.

Independent Practice:

1. Depending on the ability level and general understanding that the class has, the teacher will instruct the students to complete the following exercise individually, with a partner, or in groups. 

2. The teacher will write the research topic on the board and ask students to come up with questions related to the topic that could be helpful during the research process. These questions should be written on the board under the topic.

3. The teacher will then instruct the students to retrieve their student laptops and access their virtual classroom, where an activity sheet will be waiting, indicating that they will be going on a web quest.

   1. The worksheet will detail 3-5 websites for the students to visit with instructions to find, evaluate, and interpret a source at each location. (These websites should be tailored to the specific social science class and a unit they have already been through; i.e., 10th grade world history, unit 1, ancient Greece)

4. Once the task is complete, or an allotted amount of time has passed, the teacher will have the students swap work and peer grade the activity. (This doesn’t need to be an actual grade, just an exercise with at least some amount of peer input to demonstrate the lesson to students.)

Modifications:

Remediation 

Students who are struggling with evaluating and/or interpreting sources should be given guided notes on the video presenting primary and secondary sources. Students specifically struggling with interpreting sources should review keywords and terms that help identify useful information. Students specifically struggling with evaluating sources for credibility should be given an example of things that make a source unreliable (sometimes, information presented oppositely can be received better).

Enrichment 

If the teacher has access to real-world, physical sources, they can be presented in class in place of images on a slideshow. Samples of sources pertinent to the social science class may be used.

ESE Accommodations 

The teacher will point out keywords and terms that help identify primary and secondary sources to ensure these concepts are translated to the students’ Venn diagrams. The KWL chart should have a guided notes version available for students who need it. Group work, possibly even small groups, is encouraged if the class has a push-in ESE teacher. The assessment can be done in groups if necessary.

ESOL Accommodations 

A list of keywords and terms translated into the student’s first language should be provided before the lesson. Subtitles on the video in the student’s language should be used. The web slideshow presented by the teacher should be printed out and translated into the student’s language and the web quest should be in both English and the student’s language. The ELL student can utilize sites in the search for sources that can translate the website into their first language. The annotated bibliography can be completed in the student’s language, but it would be better if an ESOL teacher could help facilitate the assignment being done in English.

Closing: 

The teacher will congratulate the junior historians on the completion of their web quest and either select or request students to present one source that they found. The student should not only present the source but also define its pertinence in accordance with the assigned research topic, describe how they evaluated the source, and give a short interpretation of their source.

Homework Extension Activity: 

If necessary, the teacher should assign a vocabulary worksheet for students to take home to help accentuate understanding of the terms delivered in the lesson.

Assessment: 

Students will be given sample research questions and instructed to find a primary and secondary source to assist in answering the question. The teacher will hand out a rubric and instructions for an annotated bibliography. The students should be using MLA format (to endorse ELA standards) to complete the assignment. This should include a short abstract explaining the research question and three paragraphs for each source: a summary/interpretation, an evaluation, and an explanation of how the source is useful in answering the research question. The source’s locations should be cited properly in MLA format.

Web Quest

Welcome, Junior Historians! Today, you will be going on an Internet Adventure in search of sources to answer your research question. You will go from site to site in search of specific types of sources as listed below. 

1. https://www.metmuseum.org/ 

   1. On this site, you will search for a primary source. The source should be an artifact that you can use to help answer your research question.

2. School Library site

   1. On this site, you will search for a primary source. The source should be a piece of writing that helps answer your research question.

3. https://www.jstor.org/ 

   1. On this site, you will search for a secondary source. The source should be a written work that contributes to your research.

4. https://www.youtube.com/ 

   1. On this site, you will search for an auditory source, either primary or secondary, that contributes to your research.

5. https://www.google.com/ 

   1. Utilizing this search engine, you will search for an image related to your research that can be either a primary or secondary source.

List websites by number and provide information about the source you chose. You should include your reason for choosing the specific source, why it pertains to your research question, your interpretation of the source, and your evaluation of the source.

Annotated Bibliography Instructions

You will be using MLA format to write an annotated bibliography. You should choose a research question related to something we have learned so far in class this year.

What you need to have:

1. An abstract describing your research question.

2. Two citations leading to two sources; one primary and one secondary.

3. Under each citation should be three paragraphs: a summary, evaluation, and explanation of applicability to your research question.

Use this resource for help with your assignment: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliographies/annotated_bibliography_samples.html 

Diverse Modifications

This lesson plan can be used for any social science class in grades 9-12. The concept of primary and secondary sources is vital to the process of social science learning. Students must understand how to conduct research and locate sources that are credible, viable, and useful to their research. The lesson can be modified in many ways to create a space where diverse learners can grow a passion for learning.

Black Populations

“Present Black history and culture in ways that are affirming.” (Watts,2021) One of the five strategies outlined in the article by Watts (2021) instructs educators to include “images and stories of Black joy” for Black students to connect with in a positive light. Within this lesson, teachers could utilize examples of Black history to emphasize origins and understanding of historical connections to Black culture. These positive connections to their ancestry and origins are important because Black students should be able to learn about Black history from different perspectives and alternative times to the stereotypical slave story. Empowering Black students with the ability to look into their own history and culture as a school assignment allows for a positive way to open conversation among students.

Gifted Students

In this lesson, there is an opportunity for collaboration through group work to create a larger annotated bibliography. Students could be partnered up or placed in groups and given a more in-depth assignment that includes more sources or varying types, and the opportunity for collaboration between students. For a population of gifted students, though, we need to make the group work a bit more challenging. Since “the National Association for Gifted Children suggests that letting gifted students collaborate in groups enhances their academic achievements and benefits their classmates,” it stands to reason that the assignment given to the group must be challenging enough to engage the students, thus fostering a positive collaboration. To increase the challenge in the lesson, each group of students should be assigned two sources to find each, in many different forms, thus giving the group the responsibility of communicating to determine who will find which source. Gifted students are often driven by competitiveness as well as the desire for ownership of their ideas, so modifying the lesson in this way should help challenge the students and enhance the entirety of the lesson.

English Language Learners

Accommodating English language learners can often feel impossible for lessons with heavy reading or discussion incorporated into them. A few suggested ways that the University of Massachusets Global (n/d) lists for “increasing comprehensible input” are; “ read out loud or play audio versions of texts, front load vocabulary and key concepts before reading, provide a similar text in the student’s first language, and include artwork, videos, guest speakers, and stories.” In this lesson, we can accommodate English language learners by providing handouts translated into the students’ first language if necessary. The video utilized can play the audio in English and have subtitles in the student’s first language to add to comprehension. The vocabulary words can be translated alongside the student’s first language with visual representations to add comprehension. The teacher can also front-load certain main ideas about primary and secondary sources for the English language learner to take home before the lesson. To ensure that group work goes well, I think it would be great to pair the ELL student with another student who speaks their language. If the teacher is unable to make this happen, then one of the ELL students’ group members should be allowed access to a translation application to assist and encourage communication between group members.

Works Cited

Armand D’Angour. (2017, November 26). Rediscovering ancient Greek music. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hOK7bU0S1Y&t=14s&ab_channel=ArmandD%27Angour 

Oregon State University. (n.d.). Annotated bibliography rubric. Oregonstate.edu. https://ctl.oregonstate.edu/sites/ctl.oregonstate.edu/files/annotated_bibliography_rubric.pdf 

Rhodes, G. (2023). How to engage gifted students in the classroom. Slides With Friends. https://slideswith.com/blog/how-to-engage-gifted-students

Scribbr. (2021, February 16). Primary vs, secondary sources: the differences explained. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPQ95B95bWE&ab_channel=Scribbr 

University of Massachusetts Global. (n.d.). Innovative strategies for teaching English language learners. https://www.umassglobal.edu/news-and-events/blog/innovative-strategies-for-english-language-learners

Watts, R. (2021, June 11). 5 strategies to help Black students feel at home in school. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-strategies-help-black-students-feel-home-school/