The History of Walled Lake

Teacher: Sara Fredrick

Unit Title: The History of Walled Lake: Using Historical Thinking to Understand the Past
Big Idea/Questions Being Addressed:
Communities change overtime.
How has the city of Walled Lake changed overtime?
What historical events have caused changes?
Objective:
Students will work with partners to find facts within non-fiction pieces about different important events in
the history of Walled Lake
Content Standard:
2-H2.0.4: Describe changes in the local community over time (e.g. businesses, architecture and
landscape, jobs, transportation, population)
Materials & supplies needed:
-Printed information about events in Walled Lakes past
-Pencils
-Sticky Notes
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event
Introduction to the lesson (5-7 minutes)
-Students will begin up on the carpet as whole group.
-Teacher will introduce lesson by saying: today we are going to
learn about different changes that have occurred over time in our
city, Walled Lake. HoweverI think it would be more fun for all of
you to read and research these events and then teach each other
about them, instead of sitting here listening to me read about it!
-Teacher will remind students that we have been working a lot with
non-fiction pieces and writing facts about the information we are
learning.
-Teacher will then say to students: we know that as non-fiction
readers, it is important to respond to new information we are
learning by jotting down ideas in our own words.
-Teacher may ask students questions to probe further
understanding of non-fiction readers by asking questions such as:
Why is it important for us to write down the information we learn?
What do I mean by writing something in your own words?

Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic Support during
each event
-Repeat new vocabulary words
or confusing words concisely and
clearly for ELLs
-Arrange students strategically
on carpet; if some students focus
better near the front and if some
need to be re-directed from
another student so they do not
get distracted

*teacher will transition to modeling expectations and introducing

students to the different pieces of information*
OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15-20 minutes)
-Teacher will explain that she is going to give groups of
students different non-fiction pieces about important events in

-Group students strategically so

TE 802, Fall 2015

Walled Lakes history.

-Teacher will then tell students that her goal is for them to read
through the information as a group and pull out facts that they
think will be important to teach the class and jot these ideas down
on sticky notes in their own words
-Teacher will reiterate that it is important for non-fiction readers to
jot down ideas or facts from the reading in their own words in order
to respond to new learning.
-Next, teacher will model expectations of research and learning by
using the pre-settlers page
-Modeling will look like:
(1) reading through passage
(2) pulling out new facts that are important to the piece and
important for others to learn
(3) jotting down facts in own words on a sticky note
-After modeling, teacher will ask students to restate expectations
-Teacher will then give students their non-fiction passage, their
group, sticky notes and a place in the room to work with their
partners

that they are able to work with

others who can help them if
struggling

make sure to tell students that in order to be a team player, they

must work together to find information
Closing summary for the lesson (3-5 minutes)
-After students finish jotting down ideas about their learning in their
own words, teacher will give students the opportunity to share
some of their facts.
-Teacher will close lesson by reiterating the importance of jotting
down facts in our own words and reading non-fiction pieces to learn
new information. Teacher will explain that this information is
specifically important because it is important for us to know about
our community and changes that have happened over time.
Transition to next learning activity
-Call students randomly to go back to seats for next learning
activity. (i.e. shirt color, or by first letter of name)
Assessment
-Observing the notes or facts students are pulling out from their
passages and the conversations between students about their
learning.
-Things to listen for during discussion of partners:
This is an important fact because __________
Im wondering
Im noticing

Academic, Social, and/or

Linguistic Support during
assessment
-Repeat new vocabulary words
or confusing words concisely and
clearly for ELLs

TE 802, Fall 2015