Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject: 5th Grade Social

Studies
Central Focus: recognizing the viewpoint of the Native Americans and the
Topic: Differing viewpoints on the
negatives to having the explorers arrive.
explorers arrival to America
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
5.G.1.4. Exemplify migration within or immigration to the United States in
order to identify push and pull factors (why people left and why people
came).
5.C.1.1 Analyze the change in leadership, cultures, and everyday life of
American Indian groups before and after exploration.

Date submitted:

Date taught:3/20/15

CCSS ELA Standard: RL.5.6 Describe how a narrators or speakers point of

view influences how events are described.
Daily Lesson Objective:
After reading Encounter by Jane Yolen together as a class, students will learn about how lives of Native Americans
changed. Students will write a 2 paragraph reflection from the point of view of the child from the book all grown up. They
must include at least 2 feeling they had or have and 2 ways that their life changed (based on knowledge from lesson).
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and Vocabulary):
Function: identify ways Native American life was changed by European
exploration.
Vocabulary:
Native American- people who lived in the Americas when the land was
discovered by Europeans
New World-what the Americas were referred to when first discovered by
explorers
Explorer-people who went out/go out into the world to make discoveries.
Here we are talking about people who went to find new routes to Asia, to
claim new land, and to find treasures.
Europeans- people coming from European countries such as Spain and
Italy.
Prior Knowledge:
Students should have knowledge of point of view. Students should know that there were people living in the Americas
before Europeans. Have some knowledge of exploration and of explorers such as Christopher Columbus.
Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

Recently you all talked about different point of views of characters in the
same story. People in real life also have those different point of views.
Consider the holocaust, didnt everyone have a different point of view about
what was happening? What were the Nazis view of what they were doing?
(that its acceptable to kill Jewish people because they are bad people/the
enemy) What were the Jewish peoples view of what was happening? (not
good, evil, unjust)
Today we will read Encounter, a book about explorers coming to the
previously unheard of land, San Salvador, through the eyes of a Native
American child. This book gives us a different view of the discovery of the
New World. Well learn about how the lives of the native people of San
Salvador were changed because of the arrival of explorers. Later you will
write a reflection from the viewpoint of the child in the book.
Have students sit on the carpet. Begin by introducing the book Encounter by
Jane Yolen. Ask students to make a prediction about what will happen in the
book based on the cover, other than Native Americans will meet Europeans.

Time

2 min.3min.

30sec.-1
min.
Book
Read:
12min-15

Look for, will it be a good encounter? A bad one?

Start with the Authors note on the last page (marked by the yellow tab). Make
sure students understand that this is not a true account, but an imagined
account that was created used historical records. Then read the illustrators
note., again emphasizing that these are the best imaginations of the Taino
people and their customs based on historical artifacts, records, etc., but may
not be accurate.
Read Encounter. Stop at the green tab (page 4 read pg.2 and then stop) and
ask students if they see a resemblance between the dream and the ships in the
illustrations on page 1 and 2. Ask them what they think that means (the child
dreamed about the ships coming).
Continue reading until purple tab (pg.10) Ask students about the illustration.
Is this what the explorers really looked like? Why are they drawn this way?
(No; they are so different from the Taino people that the Taino people arent
sure that they are even human).
Continue to blue tab (pg.16). Ask students, What are the explorers interested
in? How can you tell? (they are interested in the gold; the text says that the
strangers are always touching their gold jewelry and in the illustration, the
explorer looks greedy).
Continue reading to pink tab (pg. 18). Ask students if they can figure out what
a zemis is. Remind them of the illustrators note and possibly reference it if
they are struggling to answer (zemis appears to be a stone carving that is a
personal kind of god.) Tell students that the Taino people werent Christian,
Jewish, or any other religion that we might be familiar with or practice. They
had a different religion and it may have involved these stone carvings.
Perhaps him talking to the stone carving is sort of like praying.
Continue reading to the end.
Ask students what they think the warning is on the last page (to not trust
strangers, to listen to your gut feelings about things.) Is that always true? Not
exactly. We CAN let other cultures and people into our lives. We have to be
careful not to let them take away our own culture too, though. I think the
warning is to guard your identity.
Say, The explorers, some of them you may know such as Christopher
Columbus and Hernan Cortes, called the Americas a New World, but it was
actually always there and people had lived there long before the explorers
discovered the land.
Native Americans were also explorers. They were spread out over the entire
continent. They were intelligent people who managed to figure out ways to
survive in harsh climates. The European explorers brought lots of changes to
the Native American lives. Some of the things they brought were diseases,
new tools, colored fabric, new trading patterns, new customs and religion, and
slavery.
The diseases they brought included small pox, the flu, measles, the chicken
pox, and more. The diseases killed lots of Native Americans because, while
the Europeans were used to the diseases and bacteria and had a resistance to it,
the Natives had never encountered the diseases before. Their bodies had no

min.
Lesson: 35 min.

immunity to them and they had no cures because it was never before seen to
them.
Native Americans traded before Europeans arrived, but what they traded and
why changed. They used to trade for what they needed, like food. The
Europeans brought them things they wanted, like colored fabrics.
Native Americans, as we talked about already, had their own religious
customs. Europeans brought their own religion, forms of Christianity. In some
case they forced the Native Americans to conform to their religious practices.
African-Americans were not the only people in our past who were enslaved.
The Europeans enslaved the Native Americans too. They used them to build
houses, to hunt, etc. They took them across seas back home as well. We saw
that in our book. They were taken across sea to be slaves.
Many Native American groups died from diseases, slavery, and were even just
killed for their land. The Taino people were one of those groups that died out
and as far as we can tell, do not exist today.
As you discuss these, write them on the board (not in full description, just
Disease or New Religion.)
Together lets list how the Native Americans may have felt about the
explorers coming to their land.

4. Guided Practice

5. Independent Practice

Students should help you to compile a list on the board of how they felt,
including when the Europeans first arrived. Possibilities include:
Happy when they arrived
Curious about the newcomers
Scared of them
Anger at them for enslaving their people
Sad that their friends and families were dying from disease
I want you to pretend that you are the little boy from the story all grown up,
just like we see him on the last page. On a blank sheet of paper, write 2
paragraphs from his point of view about what happened. Include at least 2
ways you would feel (be specific, tell me what happened, how you feel, and
why) and at least 2 ways your life changed. Use the list of how they might
have felt as well as your knowledge about how Native American lives
changed to write the 2 paragraphs (total 8-10 sentences).

2-3 min.

20-25min.

Write criteria on the board.

6. Assessment Methods of
all objectives/skills:

Encourage students to use their imagination. They know some ways Native
American lives were changed by Europeans, have them use that to create
events that happened and how their life was changed.
Formative Assessment: teaching questioning throughout lesson.
Summative Assessment: collect student writing and determine mastery with the following
criteria:
2 paragraphs (1 pt. per full paragraph -- 2pts. total)
2 feelings (1 pt. per feeling and explanation -- 2 pts. total)
2 ways their lives changed (2 pts. Each -- 4 pts. total)
Must have 6 out of 8 points to demonstrate mastery

7. Closure

Write a jot predicting what would have happened if the Adult Taino
tribespeople had listened to the little boy.

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations:

Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:

Early Finishers:
Write a paragraph from your own point of view, imagining that
someone had come into your life and made you change
everything.
Struggling Writers: give them extra support by helping them
plan what they want to say.

Materials/Technology:
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/SmartBoard slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at the end of the lesson plan.)

Encounter by Jane Yolen

Notebook paper and pencil (for students)
White board and markers

References:
A lot of information came from this website:
http://ncpedia.org/history/early/contact
Reflection on lesson: