STEPP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Derek Brannon

School:
Windsor High school
Area: World History

Date: 10/6/2016
Grade Level: 10th

Title: De-Christianization during the French Revolution

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Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

directly from the standard)

Content
Lesson #: 1

(Write Content Standards

High school History Standard 1.2: Concepts and skills students master: the key
concepts of continuity and change, cause and effect, complexity, unity and diversity
over time.
Standard 1.3: The significance of ideas as powerful forces throughout history.
Understandings: (Big Ideas)
How revolution has historically been extremely jarring, shaping and changing
societal hierarchy and norms.
How difficult the suppression of religion and cultural identity can be for a nations
people.
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of
instruction, select applicable questions from standard)
Why is the suppression of religious expression and practice disorientating for
people?
Why are religious beliefs important for peoples cultural identity?
Should a nation push for reason and logic at the sake of altering or hindering its
peoples identities?
Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)
Understand how the French Revolution was a time of complex and extreme change,
which had both its causes and lasting cultural effects. The students should be able
to identify the unification of certain groups during the French Revolution as well as
the diversity of the French people and their stances during the Revolution.
Students be able to understand which ideologies were at play during the French
Revolution and what force they had shaping Frances history.
Every student will be able to: put themselves into the shoes of the French
people during the French Revolution.
I can: relate to how such social upheaval would affect my own personal life.

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STEPP Lesson Plan Form

This means: I understand the social implications of the de-Christianization during
the French Revolution and can empathize with the French people.
List of Assessments: while there will be no exit ticket, at many points, students
will discuss in groups major concepts I cover and will have to share their thoughts
and feelings. If the students arent showing that they can reach the evidence
outcomes, I will spend more time scaffolding them there.

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STEPP Lesson Plan Form

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson
Should be a creative title for you and the
students to associate with the activity.
Think of the purpose as the mini-rationale
for what you are trying to accomplish
through this lesson.
Approx. Time and Materials
How long do you expect the activity to
last and what materials will you need?
Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students attention.
These are actions and statements by the
teacher to relate the experiences of the
students to the objectives of the lesson,
To put students into a receptive frame of
mind.
To focus student attention on the
lesson.
To create an organizing framework
for the ideas, principles, or
information that is to follow
(advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any time a
different activity or new concept is to be
introduced.
Procedures
(Include a play-by-play account of what
students and teacher will do from the
minute they arrive to the minute they
leave your classroom. Indicate the length
of each segment of the lesson. List actual
minutes.)
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input

How the Notre Dame became known as the Temple of Reason

during the French Revolution: During the revolution, the radicals
went to great lengths to change the cultural identity of its people from
Catholicism to a society built on virtue and reason. Students should
understand the complex effects of this change on the people and their
cultural identities.
50 mins, I will have two maps and a calendar for each groups
15 to 20 minutes
I will first give the students a map of South Bend, Indiana and ask them
to locate all of the churches and other religious institutions (including
street signs). Once they do this, I will give them a map of their home
town, Windsor, Colorado, in which I have changed all of the names of
churches to things like Center for Science, and again ask them to
locate all of the religious institutions. During this time, I will also have
them tell me what day they would go to church on a French
Revolutionary calendar which was designed to make it difficult of
Catholics to know which day was Sunday. After giving them about 10
minutes to struggle Ill make the connection to the French Revolution
during which time the Radicals in power attempted to de-Christianize
France. Once I explain the relevance of the hook, I will have them
discuss why this might have been difficult for the French people.

Teacher Actions
20 minutes
After the hook and discussion, I
will explain all of the great lengths
that the Radicals went to deChristianize France, including
changing the name of street signs
and churches.

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Student Actions
Listening and filling in an organizer
that I provide.
I will have the students discuss in
their groups what they know about
the idea of virtue. I will have them
share what they discuss.

STEPP Lesson Plan Form

-modeling
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:
-whole-class practice
-group practice
-individual practice
-check for understanding
-other

After this, I will explain the role of

virtue and why the Radicals
wanted to change the structure of
Frances society to be centered
around reason and logic.

Closure
Those actions or statements by a teacher
that are designed to bring a lesson
presentation to an appropriate conclusion.
Used to help students bring things
together in their own minds, to make
sense out of what has just been taught.
Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is
not closure. Closure is used:
To cue students to the fact that
they have arrived at an important
point in the lesson or the end of a
lesson.
To help organize student learning
To help form a coherent picture and to
consolidate.
Differentiation
To modify: If the activity is too advanced
for a child, how will you modify it so that
they can be successful?
To extend: If the activity is too easy for a
child, how will you extend it to develop
their emerging skills?
Assessment

10 minutes
I will ask students to discuss in their groups how the events of the deChristianization would relate to the big ideas of enlightenment thinkers
that they have spent most of the semester studying. They will be asked
to name one thinker that they believe would be in favor of the deChristianization and one thinker that would be against it. They will be
asked to justify why they believe this.

Joining in discussion.

I will then lead a whole class

discussion about why this would
be so disorientating for the French
people and ultimately failed.

The first activity will be visual and tactile. The rest of the lesson will
involve filling out an organizer, discussion, and a power point which will
contain images and text.

Just formal assessments every time the students discuss making sure

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STEPP Lesson Plan Form

How will you know if students met the
learning targets? Write a description of
what you were looking for in each
assessment.

they are understanding the major concepts.

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Reflection
1. The areas of the lesson you felt were a success and areas you felt could have
been better. Please explain why you think this was the case

2. Discuss the relationship between planning and teaching. How did what you
planned match with what was implemented? How did what you think your
students would engage with align with what actually happened?

3. What knowledge and skills do you think students walked away thinking about
after the lesson. For this area I want you to provide evidence. Give us
examples from things students said, work you collected that let you know this
is what they either learned, practiced or left thinking about

4. Thinking about the questions above (and anything else you

reflected on), how has this experience informed your teaching
for future lessons? In other words, what have you learned
about yourself as a teacher and your students as learners that
will help you continue to grow in the profession?
During this particular lesson, I am quite happy with my success in minimizing
my use of formal lecture and Power Point Presentations. While I did use a
presentation for one of several visual aids, my goal was to center the lesson
around a group activity and discussion. While I think its important to avoid
formal lecturing when possible to promote engagement, this did create some
of its own problems. Based in data I gathered later by reviewing key points
of my lesson with discussion and a Kahoot quiz, I found that some of the
information did not sink in. While I think this lesson was particularly strong in
cementing my big ideas, some of the specifics were lost on my students.
While the activity and resulting discussion were extremely productive, the
later part of the lesson, specifically the discussion about the Republic of
Virtue was not made clear enough by me. That being said, my students
made huge connections with the Enlightenment thinkers that they have been
studying up until the lesson. I am quite happy with the way that the activity,
hook and discussions went, however parts of the lesson will need to be
clarified in the future.
One thing I would really like to work is spending more time to plan lessons
more completely. Activities and discussions that I spend a lot of time on
seem to go about as well as I could hope for. That being said, I have a
tendency to wing things perhaps through over-confidence, or my ability to
do so in my own studies. The problem with winging certain portions of
lessons is that you never know how students are going to react. After
planning a couple of lessons, I have come to realize that it is more beneficial
to over-plan rather than trying to wing things. While my activity for this
lesson was extremely well thought out and worked exactly the way that I had
hoped, I could have spent time learning names, preparing discussion

STEPP Lesson Plan Form

questions, and working in lecture content in ways other than through the use
of a Power Point Presentation. While the discussions seemed quite fruitful,
there was content that was certainly not covered as well as it should have
and that's simply because I was completely able to predict how my students
would react to certain questions. While my students more or less mastered
the concept of de-Christinization, its quite clear that the concept of virtue
is still a bit fuzzy for most students, especially in how it applied to France's
new republic. That's because I didn't spend enough time planning this
portion of the lesson, something I would make stronger in the future.

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STEPP Lesson Plan Form

Every single student asked a question or raised a point during the discussion
which tells me that they were engaged. After giving a Kahoot quiz, it was
very clear that my students understood the big idea relating to the lesson's
hook. I can confidently say that every single student in my class walked
away understanding at least one component of de-Christianization during the
French Revolution, which was the impact that renaming street signs and
churches had on the French people. Since giving my lesson, these concepts
have been tied into several other lessons and activities, and every student
seems have a grasp on some of the foundational concepts presented during
this lesson. During the Napoleon unit, the students had to explain why he
made an attempt to bring peace between the French Government and the
Catholic church and what the significance of that event was. This means
that they not only understood why the Catholic church may have been mad
at the French Government (ie. De-Christianization), but why it was important
that Napoleon made that move. Because every student had their own
unique answer for this question, tells me that the big idea of my lesson was
learned by the students.
The biggest thing I learned from this lesson is that as a teacher, I may need
to continue driving certain ideas home during later lessons. While the big
idea from my hook certainly stuck, my discussion of virtue seemed to not
sink in which tells me that if it were my class room, I would continue to check
in and make sure my students are building understanding. I also learned
that using forms of media other than power point presentations are a much
needed solution to try to keep students engaged. It would seem that this
type of lecture can allow certain students to zone out or remain un-engaged
so going forward, I would try to use them sparingly.

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