Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher George Ahiome

Date

Subject/ Topic/ Theme World History: Comparing Agrarian Civilizations

Grade 9&10

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
River valley civilizations started appearing independently across the globe. In this lesson we will explore some of the earliest agrarian civilizations and discover what
made them similar and different. We will also explore how each civilizations geography played a part in its development as well as the challenges that people had to
overcome to thrive in their specific region.
cognitiveR U Ap An E C*

Learners will be able to:

Read, analyze and evaluate articles about early agrarian civilizations

Identify and explain agricultural, geographical and environmental challenges that affected early agrarian civilizations
Identify and explain the legacy and accomplishments of early agrarian civilizations
Describe how a civilizations food and animal sources impacted its history

physical
development

socioemotional

R, U, An,
E
R, U
R, U
R, U

Common Core standards (or GLCEs if not available in Common Core) addressed:
Michigan Common Core State Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin
of the information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or
ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.5
Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8
Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.
(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular learners
write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.)
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create

II. Before you start

Identify prerequisite
knowledge and skills.

Outline assessment
activities
(applicable to this lesson)

Students should know of some of the early civilizations that were around in Big Era 3-4
Students should know how to do academic reading of articles
Pre-assessment (for learning): The teacher will ask the pods to come up with a list of early agrarian civilizations
that were around during big era 3-4. This will help the teacher gauge the students prior knowledge of early
civilizations.
Formative (for learning): Throughout the class the teacher will move around the room observing students
participation, making sure they are on task and understand the expectations of the activity. The teacher will also
give feedback on students work and answer the students questions.
Formative (as learning): Students will share information about their specific civilization with other members of
the class this will show their level of comprehension and reinforce learning.
Summative (of learning): Students will use all the information gathered during the unit including the

articles to write an essay answering the question was agriculture and improvement over foraging?
What barriers might this
lesson present?
What will it take
neurodevelopmentally,
experientially,
emotionally, etc., for your
students to do this lesson?

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Provide Multiple Means of

Representation
Provide options for perceptionmaking information perceptible
For this lesson the students will be
the teachers for the day. They will
read articles about specific
civilizations and will become
experts on their assigned
civilization and share their
information with the other members
of the class.

Provide Multiple Means of Action

and Expression
Provide options for physical actionincrease options for interaction
Students will have the opportunity
to present mini lectures to the other
pods.

Provide Multiple Means of

Engagement
Provide options for recruiting
interest- choice, relevance, value,
authenticity, minimize threats.
Students will have the responsibility
to extract important information
from their articles so they can teach
other students.

Provide options for language,

mathematical expressions, and
symbols- clarify & connect
language

Provide options for expression and

communication- increase medium
of expression

Provide options for sustaining effort

and persistence- optimize
challenge, collaboration, masteryoriented feedback

Students will work together to

compile important information
to share with the rest of the
class. Students will be
responsible for the days
learning.
Provide options for comprehensionactivate, apply & highlight

Students will display

comprehension by presenting a
mini lecture.

Provide options for executive

functions- coordinate short & long
term goals, monitor progress, and
modify strategies

Provide options for self-regulationexpectations, personal skills and

strategies, self-assessment &
reflection

Students will have the chance to

self-assess as they prepare their
mini lecture with their pod.

Materials-what materials
(books, handouts, etc) do
you need for this lesson
and are they ready to
use?

Civilization articles
Comparing Civilizations Chart
3 Close Reads sheet

How will your classroom

be set up for this lesson?

The classroom will be divided into 7 pods with 4-5 students in each pod.

III. The Plan

Time
5 min

30
mins

15
mins

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Components
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)

Development
(the largest
component or
main body of
the lesson)

Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)

Describe teacher activities

AND
student activities
for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order thinking questions and/or
prompts.
As a warm-up activity the teacher will ask the
In their pods, students will discuss early agrarian
students to come up with a list of ancient
civilizations in big era 3-4 and generate a list of
civilizations that existed around big era 3-4.
ones they know.

The teacher will introduce the Comparing

Civilizations activity to the students and assign
specific civilizations to each pod.
The teacher will share the articles of the various
civilizations to the students.
As the students do the 3 close reads of the
articles the teacher will walk around class to
answer questions and give feed back.

The students will do 3 close reads on their

assigned civilizations and prepare a mini lecture
to share with the other students.

The teacher will explain the modified jigsaw

activity to the students.
Each seat in the pod is lettered A, B, C, D (in
some situations there will be 5 in a pod.) Each
person in the pod will be assigned to a different

After having read up on their civilization the

students will be experts on their specific
civilization.
They will have the opportunity to be the teachers
for the day and have the responsibility if sharing

table and they will give a mini lecture of the

civilization they covered. After all mini lectures
are done a different pod will share their mini
lectures till all pods have had the chance to
present and the charts are filled out.
During the mini lectures, the teacher will walk
around the class to give feedback, expand on and
fill in the gaps in the presentations.
After the mini lectures, the teacher will facilitate
the follow up questions and probe deeper on key
points.
To connect the lesson to the students lives, the
teacher will engage the students in a
conversation on climate change, highlighting the
environmental/climate challenges that some of
the civilizations faced that eventually led to their
collapse.
The teacher will also start the discussion of
whether agriculture is an improvement over
foraging, citing the lack of variety in the diet of
agrarian civilizations. This will foreshadow
elements that will be on their unit paper.

their information with other members of the

class.
The other students will take notes based on the
mini lecture and fill out the Civilization
Comparison Chart

Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as well as ideas for improvement
for next time. (Write this after teaching the lesson, if you had a chance to teach it. If you did not teach this lesson, focus on the
process of preparing the lesson.)
This lesson was one in which the students took on the role of teachers. The students had the responsibility to read up and become
experts on a particular civilization so they could teach the rest of the class. This activity was good because it had two stages of
learning. First, the students had to analyze an article and evaluate what the most important information was to teach their classmates.
The second level of learning happened when they each had to teach other members of the class. Through his process they reinforced
their learning by repeating what they know to others in class. Over all I think this lesson went well because the students did most of
the work and were challenged by the process. One challenge I had during this lesson was that it was difficult to observe every single
mini lecture as 4 or 5 were happening at the same time. For next time, to ensure that all the relevant information was filled in the
chart I would go over the list with the whole class so that the students have a more complete chart.

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