Lesson Plan: Introduction to Muhammad

7th Grade World History

Learning Target
Students will learn about the life of Muhammad and create 3 instagram posts depicting various
aspects of his life and prophethood.

State Standard Addressed

CSS 7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of
the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.
CSS 7.2.2 Trace the origins of Islam and the life and teachings of Muhammad, including Islamic
beliefs, practice, and law, and their influence in Muslims’ daily life.

Instructional Procedures

Anticipatory Set
Instructor will start by asking students to write down their answers to two of these three
questions: “What is a religion? How do religions start? What makes people religious?”

Perceived Objective
“Today we are going to learn about the prophet Muhammad who created Islam, and then we are
going to create 3 instagram posts representing different aspects of his life.”

Input
Instructor will begin by giving a short PowerPoint lecture to introduce the class to the ideas of
Islam and the life and impact of Muhammad. The goal of this lecture is to explain to students
who Muhammad was, how the Arabian peninsula differed before and after Muhammad’s time,
his Prophethood, and how he created Islam.
- Arabia Before Islam
- Lived in clans
- Polytheists
- Mecca as a prosperous city and religious center for worshiping many Gods
- Muhammad’s Early Life
- Born into poor clan
- Lived with nomad family in desert and learned arab traditions
- Married wealthy businesswoman
- Birth of Islam
- Muhammad receives visit from angel Gabriel
- Gabriel told Muhammad he is the messenger of God
 - His wife tells him he has been chosen as a prophet and she becomes the first to
convert
- Islam
- Monotheism
- Muslims are “those who surrender to God”
- Qur’an is holy book of Islam
- Connection to Islam today
- Muhammad is still remembered today
- Like the Jesus for Christians and Moses for Jews

Modeling
As instructor lectures and goes through the slides, students will be filling in the blanks from
pre-printed notes of the PowerPoint on Instructional Material 1. Instructor should model this type
of note taking for the first few slides, reading the first sentence on Instructional Material 1 with
the word filled in as shown on the slides to demonstrate to students how Instructional Material 1
directly reflects the information as shown on the PowerPoint slides.

Check for Understanding

A first check for understanding will happen during the lecture. The instructor will pause after the
first slide to see if students got the correct word for the fill-in-the-blank notes by reading the
sentence aloud and having the class say the blank words. After the lecture, instructor will read
descriptions of key terms or ideas from the lecture and ask students to call out the answers,
which they can find in their notes. Secondly, once the instructor has explained the procedures of
the independent practice, instructor will pause to ask students questions to check for
understanding. Students should be able to recount the requirements as explained by the instructor
and also outlined on Instructional Material 2. As students are working on their posts, instructor
should circulate the class, stopping at individual students and different sections of the classroom
to ensure they are on task and understand what is expected.

Guided Practice
During the lecture portion of the lesson, as students are taking notes, instructor will pause after
each section of the notes to have students quietly and independently write one question they have
about the information. They will then have one minute to Pair-Share this question with a
neighbor. The instructor will then regain the attention of the class to continue the lecture to the
next section. There is a total of 4 sections of the lecture: Arabia before Muhammad,
Muhammad’s early life, birth of Islam, and Islam.

Independent Practice
After the lecture and note taking, students will be creating Instagram posts about Muhammad on
Instructional Material 2. Instructional Material 2 contains four templates for a post and students
must do three posts based on the three sections of Muhammad as covered in the lecture and
outlined in chapter 8 in the textbook: Arabia During Muhammad’s Time, Muhammad’s Early
Life, and The Call to Prophethood. Students will use their lecture notes and sections 8.2-8.4 in
the textbook to create posts that include both an image(drawing) and a caption of 1-3 sentences.
Students must follow the guidelines as outlined in Instructional Material 2, which includes using
appropriate drawings, complete sentences, and the option to apply modern (but school
appropriate) hashtags to add to their captions. If students finish early, they are encouraged to do a
fourth post on anything they learned about today. ​Note: Students may NOT draw Muhammad
himself. Most Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of the prophets of Islam should be
prohibited ​and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad. The key concern
is that the use of images can encourage idolatry.

Closure
To conclude, after students have been given time to draw their posts, they will be given time to
share these with students sitting near them. Instructor will bring the class together at the end to
share exemplary posts on the overhead projector and ask students to explain how their image and
caption relate to Muhammad. To leave class students must complete an exit slip. They will write
on a half sheet of paper the answer to this question: “Why is Muhammad an important person in
history?”

Differentiation:

For students who may have trouble with auditory learning, copies of the PowerPoint lecture
completed notes will be printed for them to be able to read and follow along during the verbal
part of the lesson. For students who may have social anxiety and do not feel comfortable sharing
their thoughts verbally in class (as participation is always a part of their grade), they may hand
write their thoughts to be turned in at the end of class for participation credit. If a student is a
slow reader or writer and needs extra time with the fill in the blank notes, they may work with a
neighbor or use a printed copy of the PowerPoint slides. Instructor should walk around during
procedures for making the Instagram posts. This will account for students who may not feel
comfortable raising their hand to ask clarifying questions during the group lesson, so at this time
the instructor may work with the struggling student one-on-one. During the independence
practice, students will start by working quietly and independently and then will be released to
work with students around them. Instructor will have printed copies of the sections of the
textbook (8.2-8.4) for students who forgot or did not bring their book to class.