Inquiry Based Lesson Plan

Teachers: Erik Stevens Subject: Social Studies

Standard:

 Concept 1: Research Skills for History

PO 4. Formulate questions that can be answered by historical study and research.
PO 7. Analyze cause and effect relationships between and among individuals and/or historical events.

 Concept 4: Revolution and New Nation

PO 1. Analyze the following events which led to the American Revolution:
a. Tea Act
b. Stamp Act
c. Boston Massacre
d. Intolerable Acts
e. Declaration of Independence
PO 2. Describe the significance of key events of the Revolutionary War:
a. major battles (e.g., Lexington, Saratoga, Trenton)
b. aid from France
c. surrender at Yorktown
PO 3. Describe the impact of the following key individuals on the Revolutionary War:
a. Benjamin Franklin
b. Thomas Jefferson
c. George Washington
d. Patrick Henry
e. Thomas Paine
f. King George III

 Concept 8: Great Depression and World War II

PO 6. Summarize the United States’ role in the following events:
a. D-day invasion
b. battles of the Pacific
c. development and use of the atomic bomb
d. V-E Day / V-J Day
PO 7. Analyze the following individuals’ significance to World War II:
a. Franklin D. Roosevelt
b. Dwight Eisenhower
c. George Patton
d. Douglas MacArthur
e. Harry Truman
f. Eleanor Roosevelt

 Concept 9: Postwar United States

PO 3. Identify the role of the United States in the Korean War:
a. Communist containment
b. military involvement
c. resolution of conflict
PO 4. Identify the role of the United States in the Vietnam Conflict:
a. containment of Communism – Domino Theory
b. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
c. Tet Offensive
d. anti-war protests
e. Vietnam Peace Accords
Objective (Explicit):

 Students will conduct research on any war of their choosing in groups and create a presentation to
present to the class, by having the goal of completing at least the cause of the war and at least one
major battle.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable):

Students will show their evidence of mastery by completing a presentation of a war of the groups choosing. The
students will be measured based on the percentage of accuracy in their facts, along with having at least 3-4 sources.

Sub-objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex):

 Students will be able to analyze, explain and demonstrate knowledge of a war of their choosing by
creating a presentation to share.
Key vocabulary: Materials/Technology Resources to be used:

Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Gulf War, Microsoft Powerpoint, Prezi, Google Slides,
Vietnem War, Korean War. Powtoons, students can be creative with how they
present their information.

Engage (Make content and learning relevant to real life and connect to student interest)

Have the students think about the conflict that is currently going on in the middle-east with terrorism. Make a
connection with each war by stating that every war/conflict starts out with some sort of issue, whether that be
mistreatment of people, religion based disagreements, or political views.

Teacher Will: Student Will:

Before the students are given class time to start
working on their presentations, the teacher will give
a brief explanation of how to gather credible
research. The instructor will explain that blogs and
Wikipedia are not credible sources. The instructor
will assign 45 minutes to work on their
Explore
Students will proceed to research the war of the
groups choosing and begin to construct the group
presentation. Based on the goals given to the
students, they will focus their research on causes of
the war and start diving into major battles of the
war.

presentations. The instructor will explain that the

research will focus on causes of the war and major
battles that occurred in the war.

Co-Teaching Strategy/Differentiation

Based on how each student has access to technology, provide specific sources that the students can use as a
source. The instructor must provide a source for each major war instead of just focusing on one war. It
wouldn’t be fair to the other wars chosen.

Teacher Will: Student Will:

Explain

As the groups are working on their presentations, While the students are researching on the cause of
the instructor will be walking around the classroom, their chosen war, they will also be taking into
 answering any questions the students may have
about their presentations, credible sources, or any
concerns the group may have. The teacher may also
provide questions to the students to help drive
students researching in case they get lost.
consideration certain questions provided by the
instructor such as “What event kicked started
WWII?” “What drove the United States to enter
Vietnam?” “What were German U-Boats sinking in
the Atlantic Ocean?” “What issue drove the split of
the United States during the 1800’s?”

Co-Teaching Strategy/Differentiation

The instructor can also provide a list of questions to help drive the research the students are conducting. The
instructor will attach these questions based on each different war to maximize research results.

Teacher Will: Student Will:

After the 45 minutes of work time are up, the
instructor will then gather the class together. The
teacher will then give instructions to have the groups
share with the class what war they chose to present
on. Each group will then be given a chance to share
what progress they have made during the work time
Elaborate
During this exercise, the group will share to the
class the causes of their war and checking with
fellow classmates on the accuracy of the causes. The
other groups will then be able to respond to the
group with positive feedback about the accuracy of
their causes as well as add additional information

and ask questions to the other groups about what
additional information they may want to add.
that the group could use to improve their
presentation. The idea for this activity is to gather
more than just the teachers feedback from in-class
work time. The feedback from the class about more
information that may be added will help
tremendously.

Co-Teaching Strategy/Differentiation

Evaluate

While the other groups are providing feedback, the group receiving the feedback will take the feedback into
consideration by writing down the key recommendations they find useful. With this lesson, the focus of the feedback
will be mainly on causes of the wars and major battles. The students will not be graded on this presentation until the
end, however breaking up the presentation into sections will make for a better product in the end.