Drexel University

School of Education

Social Studies Lesson Plan Draft

Your Name Emerson Avery

Lesson Grade Level 10
Lesson Subject Area History
Common Core Number of the Standard: Grades 9-10, reading standards 1, 6, 9
Standard(s)
Statement of the Standard:
1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and
secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the
information
6: Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat
the same or similar topics, including which details they include and
emphasize in their respective accounts
9: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary
and secondary sources

Course U.S. History

Lesson Goals ~
Enduring
Understanding
Objectives of the At the end of this lesson the students will be able to:
Lesson ~ 1. conduct a comparison of dissonant historical sources in order to
Are these measurable? characterize the varying depictions of Columbus in the historiography
Warm-up Do Now:
How will you engage A question—Who was Christopher Columbus? If you know, please
the students? provide at least one fact about him.
Lesson Outline 1. Lecture 1:
Use numbers or a. If many of you don’t know, there’s a reason for this:
bullets to outline the Columbus used to be easier to talk about. There was a
lesson content and perfectly acceptable, even inspiring, narrative of his life
activities. These and signal accomplishment
should include b. If I were to summarize this for you, it’d go something like
interactive lectures, this:
group activities, i. Loewen, p. 32
readings, and other 2. Check-in 1:
class activities. a. In view of this story, do you view Columbus in a positive
or negative light? Why or why not?
i. Groups confer, each group offers an answer
3. Lecture 2:
a. Problematize this narrative: Lowen, pp. 47-48, with
dubious and/or apocryphal information highlighted
Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.
There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 Drexel University
School of Education

b. Where does all this come from? The juiciest detail, that
Columbus wanted to prove the earth wasn’t flat, was a
deliberate fabrication by Washington Irving
4. Check-in 2:
a. Read the excerpt from Irving’s Life and Voyages of
Christopher Columbus. What is the image of Columbus he
builds?
i. Responses, as above
5. Lecture 3:
a. This sort of programmatic version of Columbus is
frequent throughout history—or rather, historiography,
which is the writing of history
b. A second, and in some regards diametrically opposed
version of Columbus may be found in Kirkpatrick Sale’s
The Conquest of Paradise,
i. Similar posture, more entertaining than another
reading: Adam ruins everything, “Christopher
Columbus was a murderous moron”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=k8PQXiJiLOY)
6. Check-in 3: Can you come up with three differences between
these two narratives?
7. Source comparison
a. Introduction:
i. Now the ball’s in your court. How do you interpret
these texts?
b. Student groups are provided with excerpts of three texts:
i. Washington Irving’s Life and Voyages of
Christopher Columbus (1828)
ii. Samuel Eliot Morrison’s Christopher Columbus,
Mariner (1955)
iii. Kirkpatrick Sale’s The Conquest of Paradise
(1990)
c. Groups must read all three texts, but focus on one
(assigned) text in particular. Groups are to answer two
questions for their text:
i. How does the text describe Columbus’ character?
ii. How are his accomplishments viewed?
d. A group representing each text shares a main idea with the
other groups
Assessments Do Now is a diagnostic assessment
(diagnostic or Check-ins during interactive lecture are formative assessments
formative) The exit ticket is a summative assessment
Where in the outline of
Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.
There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 Drexel University
School of Education

your lesson, do you

assess student
learning?
Closing Activities 1. Exit ticket: List three things you learned about Christopher
How will you bring Columbus during today’s lesson.
closure to the lesson
and provide
opportunity for
student reflection or
assessment?

Assignments No HW assigned

Attach any materials that you are using in the lesson, i.e. a power point, study sheet,
assessment, etc.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin