Psychology Lesson Plan

Grade: 11 & 12
Curriculum Unit: Human Development
Benchmark: SS.12P.2.2 Describe the physical, mental, and emotional changes that
occur throughout life
Time Allotted: 70 minutes
Lesson Topic: States of Consciousness: Sleep stages and dream states

Type of Lesson
Introductory: The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to understand
different states of consciousness. In this lesson students will analyze the mind and
brain during sleep stages. Students will also study the dream state during sleep.
Prior to this lesson students will have been introduced to other states of
consciousness. Students will identify altered states of consciousness with studying
aspects of hypnosis, meditation and how drugs can alter and individuals state of
consciousness.
Developmental: This lesson relates to the events that are currently occurring in the
novel the students are reading in their British Literature class. Students are
currently reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in which the character is dwelling between
states of consciousness.
Long Range: This lesson introduces students to activities in the brain during sleep. It
also dispels familiar notions of sleep that students may have had before the lesson.
Students will be able to compare and analyze the characters within the novel they
are reading and think about the activity during different states of consciousness. It
provides students the ability to analyze characters and apply concepts to particular
characteristics.
Synthesis: To complete this lesson students will watch a film the next day that
illustrates sleep stages and dream states and how consciousness change in
individuals. Students will be watching the movie Inception during class.
Assessment: Students will be working in groups and writing in their journals. Their
journal writing and discussions will be part of a formative assessment. The lesson is
building the background knowledge to compare different states of consciousness.

Students will be graded by teacher observation for the interaction of groups and the
analysis that each group produces.
Curriculum Standard Addressed: The lesson follows the standards of the State of
Hawaii Curriculum on Social Studies for Psychology. The standards include:

Human Development
Strand 2
Benchmark SS.12P.2.2 Describe the physical, mental, and emotional changes that
occur throughout life.
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Analyze the different sleep stages.
2. Discuss the importance of sleep especially in adolescent years.
3. Examine the theories of dreaming and why individuals dream.
4. Discover that the brain is always active and can change during different states of
consciousness
5. Identify the biological rhythm of individuals and how that effects sleep patterns.
7. Examine their own dreams and interpret their dreams through the concepts of
dream theories.
8. Compare and contrast Sigmund Freuds theory of dreams to that of Carl Jung,
Robert McCarley and Allan Hobson.
Lesson Procedures
Warm-Up: When students enter the class, they will get their composition books out
and answer the constructed response journal prompt written on the board. The
questions is:
In your opinion, why do you think we dream?
Students will have ten minutes to write their responses. After students are finished
with their journal entry they can volunteer to share their response with the class, if
there are no volunteers the instructor will choose students to share. Each student
who has completed their response will get points in the grade book.

Motivator/Bridge: After the students have completed their warm-up journal entry
and sharing their responses to the class they will put their journals away. They will
take a sleep quiz that will stimulate their prior knowledge on sleep and dream
states. Since sleep is familiar, many people think they know all about it. The quiz
will test the students knowledge on what they know might already know about
sleep. Students will have ten minutes to complete the quiz. After the students have
completed the quiz, the instructor will go over the answers and have a discussion
with the class on their notions of sleep. The projector in the front of the class will be
ready for the instructor to begin the states of consciousness: sleep and dreams
power point presentation. During the lecture, students will take notes from the
slides and students will write down the concepts and vocabulary that are
underlined.
Developmental Activities: The main teaching strategy that is employed in this
lesson is cooperative learning. Since there is a wide range of learning abilities in the
class, students will be able to benefit from the cooperative learning groups. Each
student is responsible for what they are learning but they should also work together
to brainstorm ideas and help each other. After the power point presentation
students will be divided into groups of four. In their cooperative learning students
will discuss and answer the following questions. Students will have time to compare
their dreams. Each group will have the opportunity to discuss and present their
findings to the rest of the class. The students will complete the following tasks on a
separate sheet of paper:
1.

2.
3.

4.

In cooperative learning groups, each student will think of a dream that

they recently had. Students will describe the events that occurred in their
dream.
Students will illustrate and discuss within their groups their interpretation
of the dream.
After careful analysis of each students dreams, students will discuss
which theory their interpretation of the dreams fit best. It could be either
tapping into subconscious wants and needs or just simply the brain
creating stories to compensate for the lack of movement.
Each groups ideas will be presented with the entire class.

Wrap up: The class will join together to discuss the differing dreams and
interpretations of it.