Lesson Planning For Social Studies 

There are many ways to plan lessons; daily, weekly, monthly, lateral or vertical, but no matter how they are planned there is either too much or too little information and activities throughout the lesson. Two ways which have proven helpful, personally, is daily and weekly using a timeline. By timeline I mean time spots telling how many minutes will be spent on each lesson. Daily obviously means what is to be taught that day and weekly is how the lessons within a unit will be split up and taught throughout the week.

 Using a Timeline to Create Lessons

Several advantages to using a timeline include:

• Giving the teacher an idea of how long tasks will take 
• Putting a time limit on tasks (but remaining somewhat flexible)
• Understanding how the material needing to be learned will fit into the unit
• The ability to easily look at the schedule and plan for the lessons relatively easy
• offers a pre made, well-organized calendar for teaching

The timeline is laid out on a chart with spaces for time and lessons and columns for minutes and M-F. My timeline starts out with a 5 minute bell ringer and from there it goes into 10, 20, and 5 minute portions where the class is listening to a brief lecture, participating in group projects, collaborating as a class, studying documents, or working on presentations. 

An example of part of one:

Unit Plan "Lesson Plan Book"

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
5 minutes Bell Ringers	Questions on Jamestown	Virginia Company picture	Tuscarora and Yamassee map and questions	Slave Ad Indian Boy Ad	Politics of New England
10 minutes	Timeline-Settling America	Video-Bacon’s Rebellion	Timeline-Early Colonial Uprisings Review and Native Americans	Timeline- Slavery	Timeline-Religion- Maryland Act of Toleration and 1689 Act of Toleration-Primary Source
20 minutes	Pre-Assessment	Timeline-Native Americans-Indian Massacre of 1622 Compare  Contrast Bacons Reb. And King. Philip’s War-Primary Source Plan	Tuscarora and Yamassee Wars study and foldables	Slave Laws 1662, 1705-the Duke’s law, slave revolts, 1740 Negro Act	Quakers and Puritans-Picture Comparisons Compare Contrast Religious Freedoms, now & then

 
Being as how this is for a 90 minute class, the rest of the times are divided into 15, 10, 5, or 20 minute segments.  

How to Plan a Timeline Lesson

Everyone is different when it comes to planning how to work an unit. For me, I decided on what I wanted to include in the lesson, such as:

• Timelines
• Document Studies
• Poster Project
• Compare/Contrast
•  Script Writing 
• Picture studies
• Period Music
•  Pre and Post Test
• Videos
• Test Review

Other items that could be added might be lectures or reading circles (just a few examples). From there, I decide how long each will take.

The Bell Ringers begin at the start of class and happen to be a great way to review what was learned, can be used as a pretest to find out what the students already know, or a way to present the lesson. The only one that may take longer than 5 minutes in the pretest. Most the videos are short segments (anywhere from 4 minutes to half a class-which is used after the unit test to give students a break and introduction into the next unit), very useful for a break from lecturing, reading, projects, researching, or group work.  

After figuring out what is wanted, one has to decide if these items will be placed in a graphic organizer, folder, or just turned in as completed. The Bell Ringers are basically quizzes and turned in daily. At this point, it is all about what is to be compared and contrasted, how long the teacher wishes to spend on each category or how long she believes it will take, and how to organize it so there is some type of flow. 

Unfortunately, an actual lesson plan is still needed to know what will be taught and when, but using the calendar an educator can either write these as a daily lesson plan or a categorized lesson plan, example: 

Time needed:

2 classes/40-45 minutes

Materials/Equipment:

Day 3:

10 drawings and paintings of  the Tuscorora Indian, Pequot War, Yamassee War, King Philip’s War, and Bacon’s Rebellion.

50 notecards

Colored Pencils

Day 5:

10 Paintings and drawings of Puritans and Quakers

10 Paintings of the Salem Witch Trials

30 copies of the story behind the pictures

Analyzing Pictures Worksheet

 

Instruction –procedure.

Day 3: Students will put the pictures in order and place the correct note card description with the right picture.

Day 5: Students will spend about 10 minutes comparing and contrasting Puritans and Quakers, they will participate in a class discussion on the topic.

Students will answer questions based on the pictures featuring events during the Salem Witch Trials. The questions will be placed in their notebook.

Once again, this is a brief example. Doing daily plans may be better but some might like to organize them like this. Even so, it is up to the teacher.

Hope this is helpful for anyone looking for ways to plan a unit.

 

Tips For Teaching History

As a new comer to the world of teaching social studies, it seems like there is so much information out there on how to teach and make it enjoyable for the students, as well as educational. This blog is going to be used to give some helpful thoughts (hopefully) on things to do, lesson plans to create, and directions on what to do in order to help anyone who needs it. 
Happy Reading and Happy Teaching