Lesson Cycle

Lesson Title/Topic: Who am I?: Famous Historical Figures

Target Concept: The lives of Amelia Earhart and George Washington Carver: specific aspects
that made them unique and the contributions they made to society.

Standards/Rationale: TEKS 4B - The student is expected to identify historical figures such as

Amelia Earhart, W.E.B. DuBois, Robert Fulton, and George Washington Carver who have
exhibited individualism and inventiveness.

Lesson Objective: Given a writing

prompt, the student will write a short
paragraph comparing the lives of George
Washington Carver and Amelia Earhart
with at least 90% accuracy.

Assessment: The student will turn in their

response to the writing prompt. Assessment
will be based on sentence structure,
spelling, and whether or not students
included valid points of comparison.
Students will need to make at least 90% on
this assessment to display appropriate
learning/understanding.

Materials:
Fact cards, brown bags, small items pertaining to historical figures, and PowerPoint
Presentation.
Lesson Cycle: (Direct instruction)

The teacher will:

The student will:

Focus/Mental Set: Brown bag guessing

activity. Write "Who am I?" and draw two
concept maps on the board. The center
circle of the concept maps should read
Person 1/2? with four offshoots for each
mystery item thats included in each bag.
Next, using bag 1, the teacher will have
one student at a time draw an item out of
the bag and that student will make an
inference as to how the item may relate to
the mystery person. Items and inferences
will be written, by the teacher or student,
on the concept map located on the board as
the activity is performed. *Each student
will be instructed to keep his or her item
until the end of the activity, when items
will be returned to the brown bags. After
bag 1 is empty, the teacher will continue
with bag 2. Once this activity is completed,
the teacher will reveal the two mystery
people, Amelia Earhart and George
Washington Carver, by placing their
pictures in the center of the graphic
organizers on the board. The teacher will
now transition into the direct instruction
portion of the lesson by telling students that
In todays lesson, you will learn how,
exactly these brown bag items relate to
these two unique individuals.

The students should start this activity

intrigued and wanting to find out what is in
the two mystery bags. Taking turns, eight
students will be given the opportunity to
pull one item out of the bag and show that
item to his/her classmates by holding it up
in the air. The student will then share
his/her ideas on how that item may relate to
the mystery person that will be discussed in
the lesson. If time permits, other students
may make suggestions as well. Next, the
teacher or student will go up and fill out the
graphic organizer located on the board with
their item name and inference. *Students
will keep their item until the end of the
activity, when they will return items to the
brown bags. Once the bags are empty and
the graphic organizers are filled out,
students will be allowed to guess who the
two historical individuals are before the
teacher makes the big reveal. Once students
know who the mystery people are, they
will be ready to then move into the
teacher input part of the lesson, where
students will find out exactly how each
brown bag item relates to the two historical
figures.

Teacher Input: Using the brown bag items

and the PowerPoint presentation, the
teacher will explain how each item relates
to either George Washington Carver or
Amelia Earhart. After each slide is
presented, the teacher will instruct students
to turn to their shoulder partner and explain
how that item relates to the historical
person. Students will choose to be either
partner A or B, and each slide will be
labeled with who goes first. For example,
after presenting the slide on Earharts
yellow airplane (labeled As go, student

Students will watch the PowerPoint

presentation. . After each slide is presented,
the students will turn to their shoulder
partner and explain how that item relates to
the historical person. Students will choose
to be either partner A or B, and each slide
will be labeled with who goes first. For
example, after presenting the slide on
Earharts yellow airplane (labeled As
go), student A will turn to partner B and
say something like, the yellow airplane
that was pulled out of the bag relates to
Earhart because it represents her first

A will turn to partner B and say something

like, the yellow airplane that was pulled
out of the bag relates to Earhart because it
represents her first airplane. She bought it
on her own and nicknamed it the Canary
because it was yellow. Then, partner B
will respond with his/her explanation,
adding to or reiterating points. The teacher
can ask questions and encourage students
to ask questions in order to monitor
learning. After the teacher has moved
through the PowerPoint slides, she/he will
then move into the guided practice portion
of the lesson by giving instructions on the
next activity: Find your mate.

airplane. She bought it on her own and

nicknamed it the Canary because it was
yellow. Then, partner B will respond with
his/her explanation, adding to or reiterating
points. During this activity, students may
be encouraged to answer questions posed
by the teacher and may also ask their own
questions. After this activity is completed,
students will listen intently to the directions
on the next activity: Find your mate.

Guided Practice: Find your mate activity.

Students will take their matching fact card

and will move around the room to search
for their corresponding card. They will do
this by reading other students cards,
thinking critically about whether or not the
information on each card truly corresponds
to theirs. Students will be respectful of
classroom rules, by staying on task,
maintaining a low volume level, and
remain actively engaged in the activity.
When students have found their mate, they
will check with the teacher to make sure
that they are correct. After doing this,
students will return to their individual seats
but are allowed to help other students
around them. Once all students are seated,
students will, one pair at a time, go to the
front of the classroom to share their facts
with the rest of the class.

Using the provided set of matching fact

cards about Earhart and Carver, the teacher
will mix up the cards and hand each
student one card. Students will be
instructed by the teacher to move around
the room to find out who has their
corresponding card, their mate. The
teacher will explain to students that once
theyve found their mate, they need to
check with the teacher. If the students are
correct, the teacher will instruct them to go
back to their individual seats. Students who
are sitting will be allowed to help fellow
students out as needed. From beginning to
end, the teacher will monitor, observe, and
guide students as needed. Additionally, the
teacher will make sure that students are on
task and are not taking this time to play
around or socialize. Once students are all
seated, pairs will, one at a time, be asked to
come to the front of the room to share their
fact.
Independent Practice: Think-pair-write
activity. The teacher will place students in
pairsnot with the same person that
theyve already worked with, however.

Think-pair-write activity. Students work in

assigned pairs, working with someone
whom they have not yet worked with.
Using the given writing prompt, students

Students will then be asked to brainstorm

various ways that Carver and Earhart can
be compared. The teacher will instruct
students to each pull out three sheets of
notebook paper: 1 for individual ideas, 1
for paired/shared ideas, and 1 for the
written paragraph. Students will be
instructed to first brainstorm and write out
ideas individually on the first sheet of
paper, next combine ideas on the second
sheet of paper, and last to write their own
paragraph on the last sheet of paper. The
teacher will explain to students that they
will turn this last sheet of paper in as a
grade. If time permits, students will be
instructed to share their writing with the
class. The teacher will monitor students as
they write their paragraphs and share their
responses and will help students who need
further explanation/assistance.

will then brainstorm various ways that

Carver and Earhart can be compared. To
begin, students each pull out three sheets of
notebook paper: 1 for individual ideas, 1
for paired/shared ideas, and 1 for the
written paragraph. Students will first
brainstorm and write out ideas individually
on the first sheet of paper, next combine
ideas on the second sheet of paper, and last
write their own paragraph on the last sheet
of paper. During all of these activities,
students will think critically and work hard
to integrate ideas. Once complete, students
will turn this last sheet of paper in as a
grade. If time permits, student will share
their writing with the class. At any time,
students can ask questions and share ideas
as appropriate.

Closure: The teacher will ask students or

student pairs to volunteer to share what
they wrote and/or the most interesting thing
they learned. Also the teacher will ask if
anyone has any other questions.

The students will volunteer to share what

they learned. They will also have the
opportunity to ask any questions and reflect
on how they felt the lesson went.

Options:
Enrichment: Students who finish early will
be allowed to use the classroom computers
to play detective. They will be asked to do
research speculations on Earharts
disappearance. As another option, students
can use computers to try to find fun facts or
least-known facts on either Carver or
Earhart. They can jot their findings down
in their writing journals.

Reteach: For those students who did not

learn as planned, the teacher will provide
these students with more individualized,
technology-based instruction. The plan will
be to, during the next days
acceleration/intervention block, allow
students to use the interactive history
website BrainPop to learn more about
Earhart and Carver. After going through the
two activities, students will be allowed to
rewrite their paragraphs if needed.

Modifications/Correctives:
ESL: provide students additional
scaffolding, additional time on tasks, and
do not require at least one paragraph on the
writing assignment.

References: