West Virginia State University

College of Professional Studies: Department of Education

LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Teacher Candidate Taylor Coleman
Date October 31, 2014
School Riverside High School
Grade/Subject 12th grade Civics
Lesson Topic What Does Racism Have to do with Me? Diversity Lesson with a Writing
Assignment

Instructional Objectives/Student Outcomes

1. Students will be able to examine a current event and research possible influences
2. Students will be able to identify racism in voting
WV CSOs: Next Generation
SS.12.C.11 analyze how the freedoms of speech and press in a democratic society enable citizens
to develop informed opinions, express their views, shape public policy and monitor government
actions.
SS.12.C.20 Assess the influence of the media on public opinion and on the decisions of elected
officials and the bureaucracy:

Bias in reporting and editorials

Push pull polls and selective reporting of citizen opinions

Advertisement and campaign ads

Reporting of news out of context

SS.12.C.22 Assess how factors such as campaign finance, participation of the electorate and
demographic factors influence the outcome of elections.
National Standards: NCSS
IV. Individual Development & Identity
f. explore factors that contribute to ones personal identity such as interests, capabilities,
and perceptions
VI. Power, Authority, & Governance
a. examine the rights and responsibilities of the individual in relation to his or her social
group, such as family, peer groups, and school class;

Management Framework
Overall Time: 45 min
Time Frame: 10 min Lesson Intro and Pretest
20 min Students activity
10 Posttest
5 Students Evaluation
Strategies
Teacher Led discussion
Diversity writing
Differentiated Instruction
If students have reading difficulties have said students work with a partner to read
speech and write responses to the questions. I could also pull the internet up and have the speech
read to the students.
Procedures
Introduction
Pretest, on topics such as the 15th Amendment and Voters Rights Act

Body and Transitions

Introduce lesson using racebridgesforschools.com What Racism Has to do with Me?
Have students read Barrack Obamas Speech he gave at the Democratic National
Convention in 2004, then have students complete a writing assignment answering the
following questions
Why did Obama tell the American people about his family?
What were the most important things he shared about his family?
Why did Obama refer to the Declaration of Independence?
What did Obama say about race in his speech?
Based on his speech, how would you describe Obamas vision of
America?
What political ideals did he talk about?
What did you learn about Obama from listening to and/or reading this
speech?

Student Evaluations
Materials
Pretest
Posttest
Obama Speech
Discussion Questions

 Student Evaluations
Extended Activities
If lesson finishes early have students to share their responses to Obamas speech
If Technology Fails
No technology was used for this lesson.
Reflections
Todays lesson went very well. The students completed every task I assigned
them in a timely manner. When it came to discuss aloud I had to dig a lot to get them to
participate, but once a couple students started talking more and more participated. I think
they were tired, it was Friday, and I gave them a lot of work to do. As I read my students
evaluations, they seemed to actually like the lesson and did learn a lot about diversity and
how it applies to Civics. I was worried about that because I gave them a lot of writing and
they started out so quiet during discussion time. The lesson lasted the entire time as I
collected the evaluations the bell rang, so I had plenty of time for everything. If I could
change one thing I would have liked to spend more time discussing Obamas speech and
what he talked about more, but I could not because I had to have time for the posttest so I
could do the data based decision making. I would have liked to make his lesson happen
over two class periods instead of one, so that we could go into greater detail and break
down how relatable our president is.

Data Based Decision Making

9
8
7
6
5

pretest

post test

3
2
1
0
A

Based on the data received from the pre and posttest every student increased their score by at
least one point. Since all the students increased their score, I feel confident that the students are
ready to move on to the next lesson. I think my students grasped the concepts of voter
qualifications and learned the important points of this lesson.
Most students seemed to be close in socio-economic status, they were all Caucasian students, and
none of them had a disability. Therefore, I chose to use gender as my basis for disaggregated
data. There were a few absences in the class this day; usually there are thirteen students in the
class, five males and eight females. On this day the class was slip evenly there were five girls
and five boys. Students A, B, D, E and H are females. Students C, F, G, J, and I are males. The
females received the highest scores with two scoring seven out of eight and three scoring eight
out of eight. The male students still did very well with two scoring eight out of eight, one scoring
seven out of eight, one scoring six out of eight, and one four out of eight.