SoSt 200 Introduction to Social Studies

Multiple Perspective Learning Activity

You will design an inquiry/discovery/active learning exercise through which secondary students would examine multiple perspectives, paradigms, or frames of reference for one of the NCSS Standards. The lesson should be a 1-3 day activity and must be posted to your portfolio on the web. Send me an e-mail with the link to the portfolio site, and I will read & evaluate it from there.

Lesson Plan Format

Standards Addressed: (2 pts.)

Identify the appropriate NCSS social studies curriculum standard and performance expectation(s) to which this lesson relates.

Results/Expected Learning Outcome: (3 pts.)

Identify what would be the expected result(s) of the learning for the student [in the form of “The student will…” ] Focus on the student, not you as the teacher. What will students learn and do, what skills will they develop? Use clear, well-written, active verbs. Keep it to the point, doable, and appropriate to the assignment. Students will address multiple perspectives.

Assessment: (3 pts.)

How will you know that your students have achieved the results and to what degree they have achieved them? You will need criteria that point the students toward higher levels of achievement. Be thorough and clear, and make sure the student sees the link between the expected outcomes and the assessment.

Curriculum: (3 pts.)

Where does this lesson fit into the larger scheme of the entire class? [Identify a potential class in which it might fit, and where it would fit within that class.]

Instruction: (3 pts.)

This needs to be a very clear step-by-step series of activities that students complete. Pay attention to appropriate sequencing of activities. Notes about what the teacher is doing are helpful. Make sure you are preparing the students to succeed in all parts of the lesson. Assume very little in terms of what your students know or can do. A colleague should be able to use these instructions to teach the lesson as you would.

Discussion Questions: (3 pts.)

List discussion questions that will help students reflect on the activity. Questions should be clear and students should be asked about multiple perspectives. Questions should be sufficient in number and sequence to get a good discussion going. Questions should probe each level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Reflection: (3 pts.)

Explain how this learning activity will engage students in analysis of multiple perspectives. In your explanation appropriately use some of the terminology we used in class in discussing paradigms, perspectives, and frames of reference.

MSU