Lesson Planning Form for Differentiating Instruction Education 305

Teacher:
Anna Claire Lambers and Emily Veenstra
Grade level and theme:
4th Grade, How do we convince others to vote for our candidate? (Debate)
Thread/crossover:
Language Arts
I. Objectives
What is the main focus of this lesson?

After preparing a concrete argument about why their candidate should be elected into office (or school
vending machines) students will get the opportunity to present their information in a presidential debate-style.
How does this lesson tie in to your Big Idea

Our leaders get into office by presenting their arguments and what they stand for, and defending these in a
presidential debate that is broadcasted nation-wide. This debate is an important aspect of the election process.
What are your objectives for this lesson? (students will be able to.) Indicate connections to applicable national or state
standards (glces). Indicate themes from any threads addressed in this lesson (ex-Geography-human environment interaction)

Students will be able to:

Research their candidate to know as much as possible about it.
Design an argument detailing why their candidate should be elected into office.
Prepare for potential rebuttals that may occur from the opposing party.
Debate using the Lincoln-Douglas debate format, defending their position in front of the student body
at an assembly.
Threads:
PoliticalStructure of Government
PoliticalDecision Making
Grade Level Content Expectations:
4 C1.0.1 Identify questions political scientists ask in examining the United States (e.g., What does
government do? What are the basic values and principles of American democracy? What is the
relationship of the United States to other nations? What are the roles of the citizen in American
democracy?).
4 C3.0.6 Describe how the President, members of the Congress, and justices of the Supreme Court come
to power (e.g., elections versus appointments).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with
diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.3
Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.

II. Before you start

Prerequisite knowledge and skills.
What are you assuming they know
or have already done.

Homework from the night before will have students look up as much
information as possible about their candidate, taking as much of it that can be
utilized for a debate with them to this class period. They should also know a
little about the opposing party.

Assessment
(formative and summative)

Debate Rubric

Key vocabulary for this lesson

(include key concepts from
individual threads ex- economicsopportunity cost etc)

Affirmative Argument
Negative Argument
Rebuttal
Cross-Examiner

Materials-what materials (books,

handouts, etc) do you need for this
lesson and do you have them?

Resource that presents Lincoln-Douglas Debate format:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/03/lp304-01.shtml
Reserve School Auditorium or gym for debate to take place.

Opportunities for differentiation

There will be different roles within the debate assigned to different members of
each party, so that multiple voices will be heard.

III.
The
Plan
Time

Parts
Motivation
(Opening/
Introduction/
Engagement)

The description of (script for) the lesson, wherein you describe teacher activities and student
activities

Students should come in prepared with information that they have collected over
the course of this unit that will benefit their argument for the debate.
Have students work in groups to organize their information and determine which
is the most important information to cover in the time span allotted to them.
Present what a Lincoln-Douglas Debate format is, and how we are going to
make the alteration. Rather than going affirmative and negative, we are going to
be focusing on Coca-Cola and Pepsi:

10
Development

Coca-Cola position debater presents constructive debate points. (6 minutes)

Pepsi position debater cross-examines Coca-Cola points. (3 minutes)
Pepsi position presents constructive debate points. (7 minutes)
Coca-Cola position cross-examines Pepsi points. (3 minutes)
Coca-Cola position offers first rebuttal (4 minutes)
Pepsi position offers first rebuttal (6 minutes)
Coca-Cola position offers second rebuttal (3 minutes)

In our debates there will be different roles. As the teacher, I will act as the
moderator, calling the debate to order and posing a debatable point that
introduces the debaters and their role. In this case, the question up for debate is,
Between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which beverage line should be sold in this
school?
Have the rest of the roles written on the board. Students will determine amongst
themselves who they best see in each position. (Depending on the class the
teacher may need to predetermine/assign these roles:

Lead Debater/Constructor -- presents the main points/arguments for his or her team's stand on the topic of
the debate.

Questioner/Cross-Examiner -- poses questions about the opposing team's arguments to its Question
Responder.

Question Responder -- takes over the role of the Lead Debater/Constructor as he or she responds to
questions posed by the opposing team's Questioner/Cross-Examiner.

Rebutter -- responds on behalf of his or her team to as many of the questions raised in the crossexamination as possible.

Summarizer -- closes the debate by summarizing the main points of his or her team's arguments,
especially attempts by the opposition to shoot holes in their arguments.
Information found at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/03/lp304-01.shtml#sthash.CnoSEfF1.dpuf

Once the students have their assigned roles, let the debates begin. Move to the

auditorium where there will be an assembly for the students to debate in front of.
(Another option would be to record the debate then air it on the student channel
for the classrooms to watch later to relieve some of the pressure public speaking
can have.)
Students will follow the timed Lincoln-Douglas debate format, with the teacher
moving the debate along and serving as the moderator.

20
1
10

Closure

Shake hands with opposing teams.

Have each individual classroom teacher take a poll of the student body, to see
who wins the election, but do not release the results until the following lesson.