Lesson Planning Template

Lesson Title: Political and Personal Leadership

Grade: 9

Rational: To introduce the lesson I found a website called Living Room Candidate that allowed to mesh
different parts of different presidents speeches and advertisements. I used this to create an unbiased
approach to presenting the material. This is with the understanding that the many of the students will
have opinions on the different presidents that I choose for the video. However, I hope to use these
opinions to fuel into the discussion part of the main section of the lesson. I choose to use the work sheet
because it was a good transition point between the different discussions and it was away for the students
to gather their thoughts on where they themselves stand before the class really jumps into discussion. I
choose to have the students create their own commercials with the presidential commercial pieces
because I wanted them to have a sense of what different presidents thought were important and also see
that it takes different parts of to make a whole. The initial introduction video is an example of
Knowledge Building Activity Type so is the group discussions. The worksheet is convergent knowledge
expression activity type. Having the students create their own commercial is an example of Productorient divergent knowledge expression activity types.
Goals or Objectives:
I can identify key leadership characteristics in political candidates.
I can identify the leadership characteristics, which I most and least exemplify, and make a plan to
improve upon them.
I understand key subjects to consider when voting for a candidate
Grade Level Guide: Content Standards
Content Curriculum Focal Points Common Core State
(ie: NCTM, IRA,)
Standards
Net
1.Opportunities for civic
1b. Create original works as a
engagement with the
means of personal or group
structures if government are
expression.
made possible through
6a. Understand and use
political and public policy
technology systems
processes.
6b Select and use applications
2. Political parties, interest
effectively and productively
groups and the media
NCSS
provide opportunities for
Individual Development and
civic involvement through
Identity
various means

Interdisciplinary Connections
Media
Writing
Politics

Academic Language: Republican, Democratic, qualities, polls, advertisements, candidates, elections

Students Needs: Majority of students previous knowledge in regards to leadership especially in regards
to politics comes from their parents. For some this may mean that they know absolutely nothing about
either party what voting is, how it occurs, and what the president does. However, for many students their
understanding of presidential leadership comes from their parents and tends to be very one sided
because it is based off of overheard conversations.

English Language Learners

Special Needs (can be a

group such as struggling
readers or individuals)

Materials: List materials for both

Student Needs
Note book paper to write down any notes that they choose to write during the video and discussion
Goals Worksheet
Homework- Video
Teacher Needs
Link to Video
Copies of the Goals Worksheet
Questions to help the discussion along
Directions for the homework assignment
Language Function: Students will be able to analyze and evaluate leadership positions and the qualities
it takes for someone to fill that position.
Analyze, Argue, Describe, Evaluate, Explain, Interpret, Justify, Synthesize
Lesson Plan
Before: To introduce the lesson I will begin with a 30 sec video that I created on The Living Room
Candidate Prior to being this video the students will be asked two questions two look past the
candidates that were used because I did choose candidates that they would have opinions about. I also
ask them to look for what qualities they would consider in leadership in video. Also at the end of the
video placed a segment on voting. After the video we would discuss as a class what they saw in the
video, so qualities they think are important based on the video. As we are going through this as a class I
would write the different qualities on the board. Part of how I will word the one of the questions is how
will the qualities of leadership influence how you the voter will vote. (4 minutes)
During: To introduce the main part of the lesson the student will work on the goals sheet. This will
allow students to be able organize different leadership qualities in how they personally see them in
importance. The work sheet will lead into the main part of the lesson, which is a discussion. The
students will be asked questions of how does leadership interact with your life today and qualities of
leadership. Depending on the size of the class and its mannerism. Questions will be thrown out how can
leadership be used in your home life, school life, sports and so on. Students will also be asked how
looking at leadership in their own lives will influence how they vote for others who are running for
leadership positions. (15-20mins).
After: To conclude the lesson the students will use the same site I used earlier to create a 30 second
video that shows at least 3 of their top qualities of leadership. The videos must be well thought out I will
remind the students that I have seen their worksheets and with in class discussions the students should
have a good grasp of what they consider to be their top qualities. The top 5 videos will be shown in
class. Ideally this lesson would be planned on a Friday so that this assignment could be worked on over
the weekend. The students will be given instructions on how to use the website and how to make the
video.

Assessment: How will you determine who knows which objectives? Describe the tools and techniques
you will use.
Type of assessment
(formal or informal)

Description of
assessment

Goals Worksheet
Formal
Informal

Class Discussion

Formal
Video

Modifications to the
assessment so that
all students could
demonstrate
learning
The teacher will
give additional help
by breaking down
the questions.
In class discussion
students who need
additional help may
work with a partner.
Students may work
with a partner but
must receive teacher
permission prior to
being allowed to
work together.

Evaluation Criteria- What

evidence of student learning
(related to the learning objectives
and central focus) does the
assessment provides?
Competition for the first part and
opinion and clearly supporting
their opinion in their statements.
Students actively participate and
are engaged in the class and when
they state an opinion they are able
to clearly support it.
Students clearly show their three
most important qualities in the
video.

Resources:
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/admaker/2008/sandbox/1194e09f5580b834cb57cf417a75bb49
Analyzing Teaching: To be completed after the lesson has been taught
What worked?
What didnt? For whom?
Adjustments
What instructional changes do you need to make as
you prepare for your next lesson?

Proposed Changes

Whole class:

If you could teach this lesson again to this group of

students what changes would you make to your
instruction?

Groups of students:
Individual students:

Justification
Why will these changes improve student learning?
What research/theory supports these changes?