Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Name: Clair Gallant Central Focus/Big Idea of the Lesson: The

main ideas in The Declaration of
Grade Level/Subject: 5th/Social Studies integrated Literacy Independence. The influence of the
leaders during the creation of the
Declaration of Independence and how
their thoughts, actions, and individual
personalities impacted the events and
outcomes of the American Revolution.
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
5.H.2.1 Summarize the contributions of the “Founding Fathers” to the development
of our country
Date taught: 10/29/15
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and
when drawing inferences from the text.
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will be able to explain the main ideas of the Declaration of Independence and how the
leaders during that time in history influenced the creation of the Declaration of Independence and the execution of the
American Revolution. Students will complete an exit ticket question to demonstrate their knowledge of the meaning of
the Declaration of Independence, its impact in the American Revolution, and the significant leaders who were a part of
its creation and approval. This assessment will be graded out of 9 points, 3 points per question (3 questions), and
students must receive 6 out of 9 points to indicate mastery of this topic.
21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand (Language
Communication and collaboration: Students will be working Function and Vocabulary):
collaboratively as they paraphrase excerpts from the Declaration of
Independence. They will also work together to create a short skit acting Explain: Students will explain their
out the meaning of the excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. thoughts and ideas about the main ideas
Students will be performing these tasks in the guided and independent in the Declaration of Independence, the
practice part of the lesson. In addition to this, students will be articulating significant leaders who write the
their thoughts clearly in their written explanation in the exit ticket activity. document, and its impact on the American
Revolution in their exit ticket question.
Make judgments and decisions: Students will be interpreting information
given during various parts of the lesson where they will draw conclusions Vocabulary: declaration of independence,
and reflect critically on things that they learned. the second continental congress, militia,
minuteman, equality

Students will be using a variety of reading,

writing, and speaking skills throughout
various parts of this lesson.

Prior Knowledge: Students should have read chapter 11 in their Social Studies Alive textbook, To Declare Independence
or Not. Students should also be familiar with the history on the American Revolution and some of the important events
that led to America deciding to declare independence from Great Britain.
 Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time
Today we are going to be discussing the main ideas in the Declaration of
Independence and some of the leaders and important historical figures who
influenced the creation of the Declaration of Independence. We will also see
how the Declaration of Independence relates to the American Revolution
and America becoming independent of Great Britain. ” Can anyone tell me
some important details that they can remember from chapter 11 of your
textbook To Declare Independence or Not that you read last week? Allow
students to share their answers. Next, the teacher will pull up the first slide
1. Focus and Review of the Social Studies Alive Power Point and say “What do you imagine was it 3-5 min
about the Declaration of Independence that was so important? Has anyone
heard the mentioning of the Declaration of Independence while studying the
American Revolution so far? Think of some people famous or not who
influence you in your life- how do they influence you? What significant
people or leaders during the American Revolution do you think may have
been involved in the creation of the Declaration of Independence? What if
the American Revolution never happened- where do you think our country
would be today?” (Slides 1-4)
"Today you will learn about the main ideas in the Declaration of
Independence, the significance of this document in the American Revolution,
the leaders and significant figures like Thomas Jefferson, who were apart of
the creation of the Declaration of Independence, and The Second
2. Statement of Objective
Continental Congress. By the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain 1-2 min
for Student
the main ideas in the Declaration of Independence, know the main writers of
the document, and how the creation of the Declaration of Independence
impacted the American Revolution." The teacher will review vocabulary
terms for the lesson. (Slides 5-6)
The teacher will follow the power point slides and go through reading the
sections 1-5 in the Social Studies Alive textbook Chapter 12 The Declaration
of Independence with the class. For each section of the text the teacher will
use the power point slide to explain the topics in the text. Throughout the
reading and discussion, the teacher will follow along with the power point
and with the class complete the fill in the blank activity in their workbooks.
The teacher will give more information with interacting questions,
3. Teacher Input discussion, and clarifying the notes from the slides and discuss answers to 25 min
the questions that relate to their textbooks. The teacher will also display
from the power point the pictures, diagrams, and artwork depicting
significant moments during the creating of the Declaration of Independence.
The teacher will then go over the accompanying questions on the power
point with the students for each of these pictures. The students will use their
knowledge of the topics covered in these sections to complete the activities
in the lesson. (Slides 7-27)
Students will work in partners to paraphrase 5 excerpts from the Declaration
of Independence using their knowledge from the reading and discussion of
4. Guided Practice 25 min
the textbook and power point presentation. The excerpts the students will
be paraphrasing are in the power point and in their textbooks. The teacher
 will use the power point to guide the class in completing one excerpt at a
time and sharing them as a class as they go. Students will record their
paraphrases in their Social Studies Alive workbooks. (Slides 28-54)
Students will continue to work in partners to create a short skit for all 5 of
the excerpts they paraphrased during their Guided Practice. Students will use
their knowledge from the textbook, the discussion, and their paraphrased
5. Independent Practice versions of the excerpts from the Declaration of Independence to act out 25 min
what they conclude to be the meaning of each of the excerpts. Pairs will take
turns sharing their skits with the class. (Slides 55-67) (The teacher will not
use the remaining slides from the Social Studies Alive power point)
Students will be given an exit ticket question to answer. They must answer three
questions with a written explanation. Students must receive 6 points out of 9 to
demonstrate mastery of this content.
Exit ticket questions:
6. Assessment Methods of
1. What are some of the main ideas from the Declaration of Independence?
all objectives/skills:
2. How did the creation and approval of the Declaration of Independence influence the
American Revolution?
3. Who were some of the main leaders who were influential in creating the Declaration of
Independence? (10 min)
Students can think-pair-share about something that they have learned from
this lesson. Then the teacher can ask students to help summarize some
7. Closure important ways the Declaration of Independence influenced the American (3-5 min)
Revolution and some of the ways the main ideas in the Declaration of
Independence may have influenced America’s founding ideals and beliefs.
In the exit ticket assessment, some of the students did not finish answering all 3
questions. Out of the students who completed the first question, the majority of them
8. Assessment Results of were able to answer this question correctly with some detail provided in their answer. In
all objectives/skills: the second question, as a whole, the students partially answered the question but did not
provide much detail in their answers. In the third question, students were able to answer
proficiently with enough detail to answer the question correctly.
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations: Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:
For ELL students, the teacher can use pictures to help Struggling readers can have the exit ticket question read aloud
represent words or concepts that may be confusing in to them.
the power point.
Struggling writers will be accommodated by having a different
requirement for answering the questions. Less detail in their
explanation will be allowed or only one question may be
answered in the assessment with no reduction of points to
their grade if they are unable to get to the second question.
Materials/Technology: Smart board, PowerPoint presentation, Social Studies Alive textbook, Social Studies Alive
workbook, journal to answer exit ticket question.
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/SmartBoard slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at the end of the lesson plan.)

References:
Social Studies Alive! Our Community and Beyond. (2015). Retrieved November 10, 2015, from
http://www.teachtci.com/programs/elementary/social-studies-alive-textbook/our-community-and-beyond/
(click on Teach Now, scroll down to Ch. 12 The Declaration of Independence, click on open TCI presentation)
user:catherine.royster@cms.k12.nc.us password: torrence

Reflection on lesson:
I thoroughly enjoyed teaching this lesson to the students. I learned a lot about how time consuming the planning
process and implementation of a lesson really is. This experience was very interesting because I tried to incorporate
different teaching methods that I have learned into this lesson. When I first arrived to the class to observe the students
were conducting a skit including the whole class demonstrating how the loyalists and the patriots would have interacted
during the American Revolution. I found it fairly easy to integrate Literacy into this lesson. I was able to connect literacy
with this social studies topic by allowing the students another opportunity to put the information learned in the lesson
in their own words and then conduct another skit that would be presented. Luckily, my cooperating teacher had a great
resource for social studies which she and her colleagues used every day called Social Studies Alive. This kit was complete
with a student’s textbook, workbook, and interactive power points for each chapter in the book filled with lots of
activities that could be chosen depending on what worked for the class.

I found that this lesson was very engaging for the students. One thing that worked really well for me was being able to
follow the teaching method the students were familiar with. The students were able to easily follow along with the
routine of the lesson. The Social Studies Alive power point presentations were a clear template for the teacher and class
to follow to complete the lesson. For my lesson, I decided to focus on the main ideas that were in the students
textbooks and eliminate some of the worksheets that were available on the power point. I think that displaying a power
point on the smartboard was a good way of teaching the content of this lesson. I think that the kids responded better to
my questions because they could hear me asking the questions and see it displayed on the screen. I believe that this
helped with classroom participation in this lesson. Another strength of this lesson was the ability for the students to
instantly connect the power point presentation to the content in their textbooks. The students were able to follow
along with my presentation by reading the information in the text as a class. I found the students enjoyed the
paraphrasing of the excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and the skits in front of the class the most in the
lesson.

Although most of my lesson worked well with the kids, as I was teaching I noticed that overall there was way too much
material to cover in the time frame that I was allotted. I felt like I was flying through the power point and activities just
to finish everything in time. The students enjoyed paraphrasing the excerpts from the Declaration of Independence but
some students did get confused deciphering the definitions of the difficult words that were displayed in the power point
and then applying them to the excerpts so they could understand them enough to put them into their own words.
Looking back, I think that the words were too hard for them to understand and if time allowed should have done the
paraphrasing with them as a whole group activity. I also noted that during the lesson because it was very interactive, I
had a hard time controlling the class. I think that one of my weaknesses as an instructor was my lack of classroom
management. I had a difficult time switching from group work to instruction time. The kids were so excited and
hyperactive during the lesson that I really did not know an effective strategy to grab their attention to explain directions
or answer any questions.

I learned a great deal about teaching through this lesson. It took me a long time to find resources, plan my entire lesson,
and understand the content well enough so that I could teach it to someone else. I realized that I over-planned this
lesson and included too much to realistically teach. I also learned a lot about how students learn from teaching this
lesson. I think that the vocabulary I was using may not have been completely kid-friendly. I understand now how
important it is to go back through a lesson and review the vocabulary that will be used to ensure that it is grade level
appropriate. I also noticed that the students had numerous questions and comments during my lesson, so I have also
learned that it will be easier to take questions at the end, rather than interrupting instruction to answer every question
during instructional time. I was happy to see that most of the students understood the content in this lesson because
the majority of the students answered the exit ticket questions correctly.

In the future I would definitely not include as many activities in this lesson. I would condense everything to make sure
that there is a sufficient amount of time to complete the activities in this lesson. Another thing that I would change is
the exit ticket question. I would only create one question for the students to answer rather than three because some of
the students had difficulties writing their explanations. My CT also gave me a suggestion that I would use to change this
lesson in the future and that would be to make sure that the font on the power point is large enough because I noticed
that some students had trouble reading along with me. Overall, I thought that this was a positive, fun learning
experience for me and I really enjoyed teaching this lesson to my students!
Name:

Declaration of Independence Assessment

Exit Ticket Questions

1. What are some of the main ideas from the Declaration of

Independence?

2. How did the creation and approval of the Declaration of

Independence influence the American Revolution?

3. Who were some of the main leaders who were influential in creating
the Declaration of Independence?
 Observation
Student Observation
Classroom: Ms. Smith (pseudonym)
Grade: 5th
Curriculum Area: Social Studies
What I notice
To begin the lesson, the students gathered
around the carpet. The teacher activated
the students’ prior knowledge by asking
them, “What are some interesting remarks
from the loyalists and the patriots we
noticed when reviewing our lines for the
skit we will be performing today?” She
allowed students to respond and told them
that today we will be performing our skits
that we have been drafting and rehearsing
for the past few days. She then told
students that the focus for the day would
be to get with your groups, rehearse your
lines, get together your costumes, and
prepare to perform. The class was actually
working with the other block of 5th grade
social studies so it was two classes working
together to perform this skit together. The
students immediately knew their roles in
the skit and I gathered by asking them as
they were rehearsing that they had been
working only a little on this in class but did
most of their rehearsing for homework, The
students were very proud they had
memorized their lines and after the
teachers gathered and helped assemble the
costumes the classes were ready to film.
The teachers had instructed about 6
students to be the main characters in the
skit. These students were the "leaders" of
their groups and these students played
important people in the American
Revolution like Thomas Jefferson and
Benjamin Franklin. The role these students
played was to give a small speech as if they
were the person and then answer questions
from the other students. After the main
Observer: Clair Gallant
Date: 10/26/15
Time: 10:00
Thoughts, Questions, Connections to
Methods Classes
I enjoyed watching this activity/lesson on
the American Revolution. I thought this was
such a great way of involving the students in
the performing and acting out the roles of
significant people in that time in history.
The activity was organized, the students
were very involved, and the point of the
activity was very focused. I knew that the
students had really learned how leaders
back in the American Revolution would
have responded to questions concerning
their beliefs at the time and what they
thought should happen with America and
Great Britain. It was a great way of
demonstrating students’ knowledge but was
also fun and engaging so students really
wanted to participate and so their part in
the skit. I would love to implement an
activity like this in many Social Studies
topics. I also liked how even though the
costumes were provided for the students,
they were allowed to make some additional
props to highlight some important aspects
of their characters. This gave the students
another opportunity to display their
knowledge of the characteristics of these
leaders that were in the skit. My
cooperating teacher told me this activity
idea came from the Social Studies Alive kit
they use to teach social studies. She also
asked me to use this to teach my lesson and
there was a similar activity for the students
to do.
character students delivered their speech,
the remaining students in their group would
come up and ask the speaker questions
regarding their opinion and position during
the American Revolution. It was actually
very organized and the students and
teachers really enjoyed it. I thought it would
be difficult to keep the students on task for
the entire 90 minutes allotted for Social
Studies but they did surprisingly well. The
students had worked very hard on their
lines and the performance really did come
out well.