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Christie Beach, EDUC-310

Augustana Individual Lesson Plan

The Environment:

1. How will your choice of materials and resources and your arrangement of the physical

environment enhance learning?

a. The physical environment of the room will first mock a debate-like atmosphere, with desks

lined up facing one another (Washington/Hamilton on one side, and the candidates on the

other). This way, students will be more likely to feel as though they are participating in a

real debate, as well as being more inclined to open up and discuss with one another

because they can see/hear each other. I have chosen various resources for this lesson. For

starters, the ideology survey will get the students to begin thinking about their political

ideals and how their life has shaped those thoughts, and/or how those thoughts have shaped

them. The biography sheets help the students to become familiar with their character and

step into the shoes of someone else. The questions also provide students an opportunity to

participate without being put on the spot. Lastly, the virtual tour of Monticello will help

students to visualize what the life of Jefferson was like, and the artifacts inside of the home

signify key beliefs that Jefferson held. Instead of students having to memorize that

Jefferson sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition from a text book, they will instead

have the opportunity to see maps, Native American artifacts, and portraits of various

expeditioners in Monticello. These visual “lifelike” experiences may resonate more of a

significance with students as opposed to a textbook account. If I cannot bring my students

to Monticello, I will bring Monticello to them.

The Lesson

1. Election of 1800/11th Grade/Honors United States History/January 25, 2018

2. Performance Objective
After reading over their historic figure’s biography and reflecting upon their own political beliefs,

students will be engaging in a Presidential Debate that reflects the beliefs and events akin to those

in America in 1800. A virtual tour of Monticello will also help students begin to see what life was

like for President Thomas Jefferson. Students will begin to be able to compare and contrast

political ideals and lifestyles from a historic and current lens.

3. Rationale

In this lesson, students are challenged to think outside of their own personal comfort zone

and become a character from history, adopting a past and set of beliefs different from their

own. This challenges the students to start analyzing how different people’s beliefs effect

their political and personal choices, which connect to the Illinois Board of Education’s

Standard of, “SS.H.8.9-12: Analyze key historical events and contributions of individuals

through a variety of perspectives, including those of historically underrepresented groups.”

Looking more closely at the lifestyle of Jefferson will also help students analyze how he

individually contributed to American history in the early 19th Century.

4. Assessment strategy

Following this lesson, students will be writing a reflection/reaction paper analyzing their

character’s choices and the effect that those choices had on subsequent events. Students could also

choose to write about how their beliefs were challenged, as well as why they believe the historic

outcome of the vote differed from the outcome derived in the class.

5. Accommodations for Exceptional Learners

Because this lesson is heavy in reading and reading comprehension, I will send home the link to

the ideology survey to the students the night before, so that they can read over it and ask any

questions they may have during the next class period. The extended time for this portion of the

assignment allows for the students to complete the task with full accuracy as opposed to rushing

through it and guessing upon their beliefs. Also, I will be sending home every student’s character
role before the class period so that they can read it at home and work through their expectations

and research. This will not only help ELL students, but the entire class as well. Students will be

receiving printed copies of their biographies in class, but preparing them ahead of time will be

beneficial to their understanding. A supplemental video could also be added to the class and/or

homework to support a growth in background knowledge and context.

6. Supporting Content Development through Language

a. Language Function

Throughout this lesson, students will be learning the necessary information that they will

need in order to compare and contrast the personal and political beliefs held, in America,

by political officials in 1800.

b. Key Vocabulary Related to the Language Function

During the lesson, the students will be expected to showcase the language function through

their oral speaking and reading skills. Students will be able to begin comparing and

contrasting the beliefs of political officials once they receive and read their character’s

biography. Then, through both speaking and listening to the half hour long debate, students

will continue the process of comparing and contrasting beliefs by filling out the Semantic

Feature Analysis literary strategy while the debate is taking place. Afterwards, students

will continue to compare and contrast by reading the rest of the biographies and double

checking their answers from the debate on their Semantic Feature Analysis.

c. Additional Language Demand (e.g, discourse or syntax)

In order to fully understand this lesson, students will need a strong comprehensive

knowledge of the vocabulary words in this unit, which include: Democratic Republican,

Federalist, XYZ Affairs, Alien and Sedition acts (1798), The Neutralization Act, and vote.

These vocabulary words are to be learned through the reading of the character’s

biographies, especially the footnotes at the bottom of the page. Other of these vocabulary
words have been discussed in previous lessons, but the student’s understanding now will

be crucial. These terms will reappear and be helpful for students to know during the

debate, as well as during the completion of their literary strategy—the Semantic Feature

Analysis. There will be no specific knowledge of symbols within this lesson. Because

students will be participating in a debate, their ability to structure text orally and participate

in knowledge construction, they will be demonstrating appropriate historic discourse.

d. Language Supports

Before the content of the lesson beings—the debates—I will be teaching the students the

proper way to complete the literary strategy of the Semantic Feature Analysis. By doing

so, students will begin to see how they can effectively use the Semantic Feature Analysis

to compare and contrast the historic figures within the debate. During the lesson, the

students are to debate one another using the resources that they were given—the

biographies—in order to gain factual knowledge of the vocabulary (such as federalist,

which is defined in the “Possible Questions” portion of the biographies), and apply context

to other vocabulary words (such as XYZ Affairs, which is explained in the footnotes).

After the debate is completed, by working in their debate groups, students are able to ask

remaining questions about the definition of certain terms in order to being to understand

their importance to the topic, as well expanding upon their knowledge of comparing and

contrasting the figures. By both understanding why we are using the Semantic Feature

Analysis, as well as what words are going to be important to include within their Analysis

and debate, students will be demonstrating their understanding of vocabulary and

discourse. These skills, when combined, help the students be able to accurately compare

and contrast the information about the political figures taking part in the Election of 1800.

7. Grouping strategy
Students, during this lesson, will work alone, together with their peers, and as a whole class. At

the very beginning of the lesson, students will be working alone on the political ideology survey.

Answers to this survey are going to help the student reflect on their own beliefs, and therefore will

be most beneficial to be worked on individually. Then, students will be separated into four groups

of six students for the debate—each group will contain one Washington, one Jefferson, one

Adams, et. cetera. So, while ultimately the student is working individually at this point in the

lesson, they are still in a group setting, and counting on one another to pose questions, answer

their own remarks, and to learn from. However, students will be filling out the “During” column

of their Semantic Feature Analysis alone while the debate is taking place. After the debate is

complete, students will be given the remaining biographies of the other characters, and filling out

the “After” column of the Semantic Feature Analysis as a group. We will then come back together

as a whole class to discuss the answers the students concluded. Then, students will be using their

own personal Chromebook, alone, and the Monticello website in order to conduct their

introductory research about Thomas’ life at his home.

8. Materials

a. Political Ideology Survey

i. Isidewith.com

b. Biography sheets (Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Burr, Pinckney, Adams) (x24)

c. Semantic Feature Analysis (x25)

d. “Hello My Name Is…” nametags (x24)

e. Voting ballots

i. “My character votes for…” (x24)

ii. “I vote for…” (x24)

f. Computer, iTunes

i. “Election of 1800” from Hamilton


ii. http://explorer.monticello.org/virtualtour/

9. Enactment (the planned sequence of events in the lesson: include time estimates for each part of

the lesson):

Time Estimates Events

Hook:

 The students’ character biographies will be set on the table along

with a blank nametag before they enter the classroom

 “Good afternoon, everyone! If you could all take out your

electronic devices, please. I emailed you a link just a bit ago to

13 minutes complete a political ideology survey. Don’t think too hard about

the questions; just answer based on your first gut reaction. You will

have about five minutes to do so!”

 Ask the students if anything surprised them…

 “You all just had to make choices about your beliefs just as the

Founding Fathers did…”

Student Aim:

 “I’m glad we all got our political ideology fluids going today

because we are all here to witness and participate in a presidential

debate. The Debate of 1800, to be exact. Hopefully you have all

read your character biographies before class, but if not, I want to


7 minutes
give you all a few minutes to refresh your memory and ask me any

questions before beginning.”

 Talk to Washington about his role

 What questions do you have?

 Students may ask to explain the events of the footnotes here


 “This is going to be a traditional debate—feel free to respond to

questions, ask questions, and interact with one another to

accomplish your various goals. You will have a little over ten

minutes to do so. I am going to just be observing your debate and

butting in if/when you all have questions. Good luck. Washington,

you may begin…”

Development:

 *The debate will be taking place*

 My role probably will not be needed here

 Students will be discussing the various points of their biography

35 minutes sheets including their opinions on the XYZ Affairs, France, and the

Alien & Sedition Acts

 Questions from me will be limited in order to get students involved

and asking the questions (However, questions scripted by me are

available on everyone’s personal character sheet)

Culmination:

 “Thank you for participating! We will not bring our debate to a

close and vote for the next president. While you’re all voting, I am

going to be playing the song The Election of 1800 from the musical

Hamilton in order to help you start making some connections.”


10 minutes
 *I will collect the ballots of “My Character Votes For…*

 “The winner of this election is…Thomas Jefferson!

Congratulations! Now, for you all to vote with your ‘I Vote For’

ballots, please.”

 *This vote could either follow history or not. Take this time to
reflect upon what the students voted versus upon what their

characters voted for*

Leap:

 “Using what we now know about the Election of 1800, we can

begin analyzing how Jefferson lived, and how his political beliefs

shaped his life, and vice versa. Please take out your Chromebooks

and go to the following website:

http://explorer.monticello.org/virtualtour/”

 “In your notebooks, I want you to section the page into four

quadrants and label them “Hall, Parlor, Dining Room, and Tea

Room. For each room, take the time to look around and view

various artifacts of Jefferson’s. Keep track—in your quadrants—of


20 minutes
unusual and cool artifacts that you find and/or connections that you

can make to the political climate of the time.”

 *after the students have finished looking at the virtual tour*

 “Can someone please share out their findings with the class?”

 “While we wrap up, take a minute to think about how the time

period in which someone lives, as well as where they live, can

affect their life—especially their political views. Coming up, we’ll

be discussing Jeffersonian Democracy and we will revisit the ideas

you all just shared. Thanks for participating today—have a good

afternoon!”

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