CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Chris O
10/3/16
School:

Date:
Grade Level: pre-ap 9th

Rocky Mountain High School

Content Area: World History

Title: The Dark ages, was it really so bad

#:1__ of _2_
Lesson Idea/Topic and
Rational/Relevance:
What are you going to
teach and why is this
lesson of importance to
your students? How is it
relevant to students of
this age and background?
Why are you teaching
this lesson now (what
came before/what will
come after)? What
teaching
methods/strategies will
you use and why?

Lesson

Students are going to evaluate whether or not the Dark

Ages is an appropriate name for the period from the fall
of Rome to the Renaissance. They will start to recognize
that history often does not often fit nicely into
overarching themes. It will also help students to
recognize that we tend to focus on Western Europe
when describing the entire continent, which can lead to
misleading conclusions. It is relevant to students group
in this age group because they are starting to be
allowed to do independent research and they need the
skills to avoid making oversimplifications of complicated
issues. It is also a more difficult exercise that can occur
in a pre ap course like this one. This lesson is occurring
at this point because the class moves chronologically,
and to an extent regionally. Prior to this class we were
discussing the rise of the Islamic world during this
historical period. This lesson helps to set up the
crusades, the clash of these too regions which will occur
in the next class. Students will practice writing about a
prompt, participating in group and class discussions,
analyzing and evaluating primary sources, citing
evidence and practice verbalizing their points verbally
for their class. We will also create a class definition and
compare it to a historical one, as well as evaluating if
students have enough evidence to draw a conclusion.

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

directly from the standard)

(Write Content Standards

Use the historical method of inquiry to ask questions, evaluate primary and
secondary sources, critically analyze and interpret data, and develop interpretations
defended by evidence

Understandings: (Big Ideas)

Students will understand how to evaluate a group of sources for validity.

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 1

CEP Lesson Plan Form

Students will understand that period in history often overgeneralize the past
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of
instruction, select applicable questions from standard)
Was the dark age truly dark, or is that a broad generalization that does not
accurately describe the past.
What are different exceptions to being called the dark ages, can it still be called the
dark ages in a broad sense.

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) AND (Success Criteria)

I can:
Identify the source of a document, geographically by author and in time to better
understand a sources origin
Students can recognize that different cultural lenses can affect how we define
history.
Students will be able to combine evidence from multiple sources.
This means:
Students will be able to evaluate the reliability of their research when working on
future projects.
Students will recognize that that the point of view of their sources might not give
the full picture.
Students will be able to synthesize multiple sources and demonstrate how different
sources build off each other.
List of Assessments: (Note whether the assessment is formative or summative)

Students will present how they would define a dark age, formative

Students will present their findings when reading the articles to their groups
and then to the class, formative

Students will submit their reading responses to their individual articles, as

well as their responses to questions answered in group discussions.
Summative

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 2

CEP Lesson Plan Form

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson
Should be a creative title for you and the
students to associate with the activity.
Think of the purpose as the mini-rationale
for what you are trying to accomplish
through this lesson.

Approx. Time and Materials

How long do you expect the activity to
last and what materials will you need?

Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students attention.
These are actions and statements by the
teacher to relate the experiences of the
students to the objectives of the lesson,
To put students into a receptive frame of
mind.
To focus student attention on the
lesson.
To create an organizing framework
for the ideas, principles, or
information that is to follow
(advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any time a
different activity or new concept is to be
introduced.
How do you intend to engage your
students in thinking during the
Anticipatory Set?
Why are you using it at this point in
your lesson?

The Dark Ages, Was it really so bad?

90 minutes. PowerPoint of lecture materials Documents A-E. Reading

response questions. Student netbooks.
Students will write in their journals how they would define a dark age. I
may, depending on the type of things students are writing have them
discuss as table groups to help them brainstorm. Afterwards I will lead a
brief class discussion what they thought was key for an age to be dark.
We will create a class definition.

The strategy I intend to use is _Think Pair shair

I am using this strategy here because: It is something that the students
are used to doing at the start of class. It also helps demonstrate that
their interpretation of what makes a period dark may differ from a
textbook, or between classmates, emphasizing that how we define
history is often up to interpretation.

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 3

CEP Lesson Plan Form

Procedures
(Include a play-by-play account of what
students and teacher will do from the
minute they arrive to the minute they
leave your classroom. Indicate the length
of each segment of the lesson. List actual
minutes.)
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input
-modeling
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:
-whole-class practice
-group practice
-individual practice
-check for understanding
-other

Teacher Actions
Questioning Strategies Start time: 0
Instruct students to take out their journals
and begin writing what they think makes
a period dark, with the prompt on a
PowerPoint slide.
Whole-Class practice Start time 5 minutes
in: I will ask students for what their
response was, emphasizing differences of
opinions among different students. I will
emphasize what the key points brought
up by students are.
Teacher input Start time 12 minutes in: I
will lecture about the Dark Ages providing
students with a basic foundation on the
material
Teacher input Start time 20 minutes in: I
will introduce the main activity of the
class. Students will be arranged into
groups of five. Each student will then
analyze a document responding to the
questions on a document provided on
google classroom. After a set amount of
time students will compare what each of
their documents was about, and as a
group answer several additional guided
questions.
Individual practice tart time 25 minutes
in: students will begin working on their
documents and questions. Myself and Mr.
Ogrady will walk around the classroom
checking in with groups and checking to
see if students are understanding the
material. Particularly those students who

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 4

Student Actions
Take out their
journals and begin
responding to the
prompt.
Students will provide
what their responses
to the prompt were,
elaborating on what
they wrote down and
providing rationale.
Students will take
notes and actively
listen to lecture
materials.
Students will listen to
instructions then
move into their
assigned groups,
logging into their
netbooks to access
the necessary
materials. They will
analyze their
assigned documents
and respond to the
guiding questions.
questions.
Students will
describe their source
and how it relates to
the guiding
questions. They will
discuss the different

CEP Lesson Plan Form

How do you intend to engage your

students in thinking during the

may struggle or get off task.

Group practice Start time 45 Minutes in:
students will be instructed to start
discussing the group response questions.
Whole Class Practice Start time 65
minutes in: students will be asked to
bring their attention back to the front.
Students will then explain whether or not
they think the dark ages were dark,
based upon evidence from their texts.
Students will also be encouraged to share
their responses from the group discussion
questions.
Whole Class Practice If there is time at
the end I will ask students if there is
enough information to draw an accurate
conclusion. I will bring up a blank timeline
that covers the dark ages. I will ask
students what dates are covered by the
sources they looked at. I will then ask if
looking at the sources visually changes
their interpretation, and if so, how much
more information would they want to
draw conclusions.
Whole Class Practice If there is time at
the end I will pull up a blank map of
Europe and ask where geographically
where each of the sources are from
geographically. This will help students to
visualize how large of an area Europe is,
and how much information we need to
draw conclusions about the entire
continent.

perspectives of the
sources and
reliability of them.
Students will respond
to teacher questions
with their conclusions
from the texts citing
evidence from the
sources. Students will
actively listen to their
fellow students to
build upon what
other students have
contributed to the
class discussion.
Students will draw
conclusions about
the reliability of the
sources used as well
as how much
information is
needed to draw
conclusions about an
entire region over
such a long period.
Students will think
about what kind of
additional sources
they would want to
add to draw a better
conclusion.

The strategy I intend to use is examining documents and group

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 5

CEP Lesson Plan Form

PROCEDURE?

discussions

Why are you using it at this point in

your lesson?

I am using this strategy here because: It empowers students to be the

creators of their own learning.

Closure
Those actions or statements by a teacher
that are designed to bring a lesson
presentation to an appropriate conclusion.
Used to help students bring things
together in their own minds, to make
sense out of what has just been taught.
Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is
not closure. Closure is used:
To cue students to the fact that
they have arrived at an important
point in the lesson or the end of a
lesson.
To help organize student learning
To help form a coherent picture and to
consolidate.
How do you intend to engage your
students in thinking during
CLOSURE?
Why are you using it at this point in
your lesson?

Differentiation:
Differentiation should be
embedded throughout your
whole lesson!!
This is to make sure you have

I will ask students to make a final argument for why they think the Dark
Ages are Dark or not. I will then challenge their belief by pointing out
that Leif Erikson was able to sale across the ocean during this period,
but we think of the Vikings of being one of the barbarian groups. I will
then challenge them as they move forward to think outside the box.
Particularly when they work on their projects in class moving forward.

The strategy I intend to use is __Summarizing_________

I am using this strategy here because: I am tying together everything
that we went over, and how they can use it moving forward.
Students in this class are pre-ap so there are fewer students needing
support. However, to evaluate if they are understanding the assignment
I will be walking around the room to check in with those students who I
know may need more help. If they are not understanding a question I
will rephrase it to help them understand. During the table group
discussion period they will have support from their fellow group mates.
For those students who need additional challenges, the open ended

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 6

CEP Lesson Plan Form

met the needs of your students

on IEPS or 504
To modify: If the activity is too advanced
for a child, how will you modify it so that
they can be successful?
To extend: If the activity is too easy for a
child, how will you extend it to develop
their emerging skills?

Assessment Reflection: (data

analysis)
How will you know if students met the
learning targets? Write a description of
what you were looking for in each
assessment.

nature of the questions being asked enable them to provide more

detailed answers to the questions. Students. Additionally, when I walk
around the room I will be encouraging students to think more deeply
about the questions.

I will be comparing the results of the journal right at the beginning of

class to the group discussion at the end of class to see if students have
an increased understanding of the subject matter. Students may have a
more conditional or restricted definition of a dark age. I will also be
looking at their responses to the reading questions to check to see if
individual students are understanding the questions, and if there are
clear differences in quality between their group questions and the ones
they answered individually. Perhaps indicating that they relied on the
rest of the group for answers. I will be looking for students to cite
evidence from the text to support their answers.

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 7

CEP Lesson Plan Form

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 8

CEP Lesson Plan Form

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize
assessment data to justify your level of achievement)

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would

you make if you were to teach again?

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice,

reteach content, etc.)

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

Page 9