AUTHORS NAME Caitlin Eichlin

DATE November 18, 2015

SINGLE SUBJECT LESSON TEMPLATE

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1. TITLE OF LESSON: Skype Session with Itsik Arbib
2.

CURRICULUM AREA & GRADE LEVEL: This lesson plan fits into the Modern Problems Unit, specifically in the Israel
Palestine section for sophomore world history

3.

DATE OF LESSON/TIME NEEDED Lesson taught November 18 and November 19 2015 and 1.5 hours.

4.

RESOURCES: Access to Skype and a video cam that connects to the computer

CENTRAL FOCUS OF LESSON

5.

CA CONTENT STANDARD:
10.9.6: Understand how the forces of nationalism developed in the Middle East, how the Holocaust affected world opinion
regarding the need for a Jewish state, and the significance and effects of the location and establishment of Israel on world
affairs.

6. CA ELD STANDARD:
I.B.5: Listening Actively: Demonstrate comprehension of oral presentations and discussions on a variety of social and academic
topics by asking and answering detailed and complex questions that show thoughtful consideration of the ideas or arguments with
light support.

7. BIG IDEA/ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:

This activity is a conclusion to the Israel Palestine section of the modern problems unit. We have been learning about the war
between Israel and Palestine and now students will be able to interview an 18-year-old Israeli soldier about his experiences in the
war. This is important for my students to experience because it brings the real world into our classroom and makes them realize
that people around their age are fighting in the war.

8. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: Open-ended, arguable questions that organize the purpose of learning
How does this activity change your feelings, thoughts, and/or opinions about the Israel Palestine conflict?
Did this interview contain anything that you found especially surprising?
How does a war in the Middle East affect people all over the world?

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

9. OBJECTIVE(S) OR LEARNING GOAL(S):

Before Skyping with Itsik, students will be able to formulate relevant questions they based on material learned in class to ask
during the interview, using appropriate register.
After asking relevant questions during the skype session with Itsik Arbib, students will be able to participate in an in-class
discussion and write a reflection piece comparing what they learned during the rest of the unit to the information given by Itsik,
using appropriate register.

10. ASSESSMENT(S):
This is a formative assessment aimed at better understanding the students grasp on the material and understanding of the conflict.
This will also serve as a formative assessment to our year-long goal student goal of forming opinions based on sound evidence
from primary resources, credible texts, and lectures.

INSTRUCTIONAL AND LEARNING TASKS

Underline or highlight the differentiation strategies for specific students.
11. INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS: Teacher Steps
1. Anticipatory Set: Quick discussion on what we have learned

12. LEARNING TASKS: Student Steps

1. Anticipatory Set: Participate in discussion, think about

so far about the conflict in Israel and Palestine. After

discussion teacher says Now, I want you to think about what
it would be like to live in Israel or Palestine. Give students a
few minutes. Ask for student volunteers to share what they
think. Next, teacher says Good, now I want you to think
about what it would be like to be a solider in the conflict. Give
students a few minutes then ask for volunteers to share what
they think. (10 minutes)
2.

3.

questions teacher is asking, and share responses with the

class.
2.

State Purpose: Listen to teacher

3.

Input Modeling: Choose ambassador who will ask Itsik

questions that the class has come up with. Think of questions
and share them with the class.

State Purpose: Teacher says Thank you for sharing your

responses, your answers were very interesting. What we are
going to do next is going to give you an actual first hand
account of what fighting in the conflict is like. I have set up a
Skype session with an Israeli solider, Itsik. (2 minutes)

4.

Check for Understanding: Remember the behavior that is

expected of students when we have an guest in class.

5.

Guided Practice: Listen actively while teacher introduces Itsik

and as he explains a little about himself.

Input Modeling: Instruct students to, as a class, elect an

ambassador who will be the voice of our classroom. Next
say As a class, we are going to draft some questions that we
want to ask the solider. Ambassador, please write down the
questions that we decide to ask. Call on students who have
questions, help formulate questions, instruct ambassador to
write them down. (10 minutes)

6.

Independent Practice: Listen actively to the answers of Itsik.

Think about how his answers support or contradict what we
have learned in class. Raise hand if you have a follow up
question to an answer given by Itsik.

7.

Closure/Beyond: Participate in class discussion and share

thoughts and opinions. Dont forget homework assignment for
next class.

4.

Check for Understanding: Once the list of questions is

finalized and the class agrees on the questions, remind
students have proper behavior that is expected of them.
Instruct students to raise their hand during the interview if
they have a follow up questions to an answer given by Itsik.
(8 minutes)

5.

Guided Practice: Get on skype and introduce Itsik to the

class. Ask him to explain a little about himself and where he is
stationed. Introduce the class ambassador and instruct him to
start asking questions. (10 minutes)

6.

Independent Practice: Listen actively while Itsik answers the

questions being asked by the class ambassador. (60 minutes)

7.

Closure/Beyond: Thank Itsik for participating in our classs

learning experience. After getting off Skype, ask students So
what did you think about the things that Itsik said? Did they
surprise you? What did he say that supported, or
contradicted, what we have learned in class? What did you
find most shocking? His age? Class participates in
discussion before being dismissed. (20 minutes)

8.

Homework: Write a reflection stating how you felt about the

interview session. State what you found most interesting,
most shocking, most surprising. Explain how you think this
interview supports or contradicts what we have learned in
class. Explain how this interview helps to shape your opinions
on the conflict in Israel Palestine.

REFLECTION AFTER THE LESSON:

Overall, how did the whole class achieve the learning goals? The whole class achieved learning goals by formulating
questions and listening actively during the interview. I think that this class asked really good, on topic questions and
were surprised by some of the answers given by Itsik. I think what they found most shocking was his age (19yo). I
dont thin that they realized how much this war affects people of all ages and I think that this gave them some really
good insight to the real world.
In particular, how did your special needs and English learners achieve the learning goals? I dont have any special
needs students in the class you observed, but I do have two special needs students in my 4 th period class. They
achieved their learning goals by listening actively. One of them was very interested during the interview and had a
variety of follow up questions.
To what degree were your assessments helpful in determining students understanding? The most helpful assessment
from this interview session was the questions my students were formulating. It was good for me to see what areas
they were interested in and where they still had lingering questions.
To what degree did the lesson engage students? While they were mostly listening during this lesson, I think all of the
students were engaged. They were all listening very attentively when Itsik was answering questions and they seemed

genuinely interested in what he had to say. This was evident by the amount of follow up questions there were during
the interview.
What did you do differently from one class to the next? In my 4th period class, I tried not to have a class ambassabor
and just made individual students responsible for questions that they had. We previewed the questions ahead of time,
but each student who came up with a question got to ask. I feel like this made more of the class involved, but it also
made some students not want to ask questions because they were either shy or intimidated.
What will you do differently next time you teach this lesson? Next time, I would love to do this lesson in the middle of
the unit on Israel and Palestine, but it just worked out with our schedule that we did the activity after already moving
on to another stop on the map (if you will). I think I would also stick with the class ambassador.