Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Environment:
1. How will your choice of materials and resources and your arrangement of the physical
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
The Lesson
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
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
Looking more closely at the lifestyle of Jefferson will also help students analyze how he
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.
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
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,
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.
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
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
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
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
8. Materials
i. Isidewith.com
e. Voting ballots
f. Computer, iTunes
9. Enactment (the planned sequence of events in the lesson: include time estimates for each part of
the lesson):
Hook:
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
“You all just had to make choices about your beliefs just as the
Student Aim:
“I’m glad we all got our political ideology fluids going today
accomplish your various goals. You will have a little over ten
Development:
35 minutes sheets including their opinions on the XYZ Affairs, France, and the
Culmination:
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
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
Leap:
begin analyzing how Jefferson lived, and how his political beliefs
shaped his life, and vice versa. Please take out your Chromebooks
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
“Can someone please share out their findings with the class?”
“While we wrap up, take a minute to think about how the time
afternoon!”