Lesson Topic: The Romanov Dynasty

Grade:8

Teacher: Ms. Goodman

Date: 10/29/15

Standards
a. Content standards
PO 3. Construct timelines (e.g., presidents/ world leaders, key events, people

PO 1. Construct charts, graphs and narratives using historical data.

PO 4. Formulate questions that can be answered by historical study and research.

PO 7. Compare present events with past events:

cause and effect
change over time
different points of view

a.
b.

b.
c. ELL Standards
(iii) are able to, at a level nearly comparable to native English-speaking peers, use their familiarity
with English language structures to construct meaning of grade-appropriate text; and
(ii) generally read grade-appropriate, familiar text with appropriate rate, speed, intonation, and
expression;
Visuals/Materials/Resources:
Intro video- The Romanovs Part 1of 5 - YouTube
Discussion questions
Pen
Paper
Two informational articles
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/volkov/8.html
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/russia-1900-to-1939/the-death-ofthe-romanovs/
Key Vocabulary:
1.
Dynasty- a line of hereditary rulers of a country
Czar- an informal title for certain high-level officials in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Bolshevik- The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian
Revolution of 1917, and founded the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which would become the
chief constituent of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Content and Language Objectives:

a. Content objectives:

SWBAT create a letter to their current selves, from their Russian Revolution selves
SWBAT analyze the theories of the Romano capture through the reading and discussion of an article
SWBAT identify statements from classmates that they reflect on.

b. Language objectives
SWBAT demonstrate their understanding of the material by discussing the theories of the Romanov
capture using appropriate vocabulary
Reading objectives
SWBAT will demonstrate understanding of the content by reading the two assigned articles and writing a
reflection.
Writing Objectives
SWBAT write a reflection, and a letter emphazing the experience of the Romanovs during the Russian
Revolution
Assessment (At least three assessments)
Individual: Write a reflection based on student discussion of the articles
Group: Students will discuss their reflection points in a group
Written: Student will write a reflection based on their classmates discussion points and will consider
three points: A point they agreed with, a point they disagreed with, a question they have.
Lesson Sequence
Introduction: (How will you get students started as they enter the room? What will be the first task they must
engage into capture their interest? Or initiate their background knowledge or past learning?)
As the students enter the room, they will be given discussion questions that will be used after they finish
watching a video on the material. A video on the Romanov Dynasty will be shown to the students, to visually
introduce them to the content and rein form them of information they previously learned about the Russian
Revolution.
Students will write a letter to their current selves from the view point they would take during the Russian
Revolution.
Main Lesson:
I do: Introduction to new content (How will you express to students what the learning goals for the lesson
are?)
Students will receive two articles that the instructor will read aloud to them. During this time, the students
will have chance to take in the info and take notes as they so desire. The articles will focus on the theories of
the Romanov capture and their life as a royal family.

We do: Guided Practice (How will you show students what you want them to engage in?/ What will you
model in terms of learning content and target language?)
Students will take the information from the articles and engage in a class discussion, listening to their
classmates opinions and findings on the articles. Important vocabulary terms will be written on the board so
when students are making a point during the discussion they can refer back to and use the vocabulary. Along
with writing notes students will draw a picture summarizing the two articles.

You do: Independent practice

After the discussion, students will take the points of their classmates and write a reflection that includes one
point they agreed with, one point they disagreed with and one question they have. This exercise will bring the
group together and make them think about the content in a more specific way.

Closing: (what will you do invite students to share back what they did or learned during the lesson?)
To make sure the students understood and learned from the lesson, they will get into table groups of four and
explain their reflection and why wrote their chosen points.
SIOP Features
Preparation
___Adaptation of Content; ___Links to Background; ___Links to Past learning; ___Strategies
incorporated
Integration of Process
___Reading; ___Writing; ___Speaking; ___Listening
Scaffolding
___Modeling; ___Guided practice; ___Independent practice; ___Comprehensible input
Application
___Hands-on; ___Meaningful; ___Linked to objectives; ___Promotes engagement
Grouping Options
___Whole class; ___Small groups; ___Partners; ___Independent
Assessment
___Individual; ___Group; ___Written; ___Oral

Signature assignment part B

I gave my lesson once every period for six periods. The lesson was composed of a video,
a discussion of two articles, a letter writing activity and a reflection. To begin the lesson I
reminded the students of what they had learned the day before and what parts of the content we
would be learning today. I began the lesson with a video to jump start the student engagement by
incorporating auditory and visual learning. The students seemed to be engaged in the video
watching the screen and taking a few notes. After the video I explained that students would be

writing a letter addressed to their current selves from who they would be in the Russian
Revolution. The students had learned about the daily life of the Russian civilian earlier in the
week and I wanted to students to connect writing and factual information so they would feel
more involved in the content of the lesson. The students seemed excited about this starting to
complete their letters write away. I answered a lot of questions about who I thought they should
be and what they should say, so I put a few key topic and types of civilians on the board so
students would have an idea of where to start. After the letter writing activity, I informed students
that I would be reading two articles regarding the life of the Romanov family and the mystery of
their disappearance. The students were also informed that they would be participating in a
discussion on the articles so they would need to take notes and write down some thoughts they
had on the articles. I put three discussion questions on the board before the articles so students
could refer to them when taking notes. After reading the articles to the students, who were
attentive and took notes in anticipation of the discussion, I gave the class a few minutes to derive
some discussion points from the questions on the board and their notes. The actual discussion
started slow with students reluctant to begin giving their points. I chose a student to begin the
discussion who was comfortable with their points and got other students to start giving their
points and it ended up being a productive activity. After the discussion I had the students write a
reflection on one thing they agreed with, one thing the disagreed with and one question they had
about their classmates discussion points. It took students a short time to write their reflection, I
walked around the room and asked a few students to share their work with me. These students
each had different, yet interesting points about the discussion and what their classmates said
during the activity. To make sure all of the students were able to discuss their reflection and
interact more intimately with their classmates, I split the class into a few groups of four so they
could discuss their reflections. The discussions of the reflections were very in depth and
interesting, I found myself very engrossed in what each group was saying about their reflection
and what they learned from the two articles. The lively discussion and the engagement of the

students proved to me that they learned from the activities and were able to share these facts and
thoughts with their classmates.
The students successfully met every objective, the objectives consisted of the completing
the reflection, the letter and understanding the article readings well enough to participate in two
meaningful and lengthy discussions. As I observed these activities and read student work, I
concluded that all of the student were able to meet the objectives and understand parts if not all
of the new content.
Implementing many elements to teach the lesson helped the students grasp the content
and successfully get involved in the lesson. The video helped the students to gear their brains
towards the new content and the lesson. The course learning outcomes for this lesson was for
students to complete and letter and a reflection, understanding the purpose of the activities how
to complete them. I think the letter activity measured the students ability to connect past content
and current content to create a piece of writing. The discussion measured the students ability to
discuss their understanding of the content openly with their classmates. Having the students
reflect on this discussion measured their ability to listen and learn from other students.
I learned a few things about myself as an educator when implementing this lesson. I
learned that my lecture alone, does not get the information across to all of the students, I needed
all of the elements I used for the students to fully understand the content. I learned that I can
become impatient when the students take a long time to start the discussion. However, this needs
to change because students need extra time to formulate the points they will discuss and how
they are going verbalize those points. Being patient with this process revealed how well students
can do when given chance to absorb the information. I learned that reading information out loud
can help students to understand the information while taking away the pressure of finishing the
article in the allotted time span.
I learned many things about my students when implementing this lesson. I learned that
the students are able to complete activities more successfully when directions and starting points
are on the board for them to refer back to. I learned that my students are more engaged when

they have a substantial role in learning the new content. Of course it is essential to teach the
information first , however when that part is done implementing an activity where the students
can talk and learn from one another is necessary for complete engagement.
The things I learned about myself as a teacher and the learning of the students connected
to course learning because to be able to measure course learning outcomes students need to be
able to complete the measureable activities. The realization of the students doing better when
given time before the discussion, gives me the reflection tools to do exactly this for the
discussion activities in the future. Reflecting on what works best for your students when teaching
a lesson is the key to positive course learning outcomes.
If I could teach this lesson again, I would most likely add more direct instruction in place
of the letter writing activity. This activity seemed to confuse students because they did not have
enough back round information to connect the facts on their own. In place of this activity I will
speak about important aspects of the video and then transition to the articles. A change that I
have mentioned will be to give the students more time before the discussion to contemplate what
they are going to say and how they are going to say it. I would do this because the discussion is
much more productive when students are confident in the points they are going share. Based on
learning these things I would modify my lesson plan by adding more direct instruction and
putting in notes to put all directions on the board so students have a visual understanding of what
they are supposed to accomplish. Regarding ELL students I would make these changes and keep
the flow of the lesson the same. The student that I have been observing was very engaged in each
element of the lesson from the video to the reflection discussion based on my observations, the
skeletons of the lesson will work for ELL students. I think this is because the process leading to
the discussion was full of different learning styles that allowed the ELL students to grasp the
information and feel comfortable to share during the discussion.
From planning and implementing this lesson I learned that ELL students need a lot of
forms of the same topic to grasp the information. It was also observed that when blending all of

these elements together it is important to personally walk around and observe student progress,
because a lot of the time the student will not notify the instructor if they need help.
The connections I can make between what I learned from teaching the lesson and course
learning would be Understanding all learning information about your students so you can gear
the content towards their strengths. This information can also be used to understand which
lessons students are going to have trouble with as an instructor you can make certain stylistic
changes to the lesson to make sure all students will succeed