Teacher Candidate: Brian Justice
Date: 2/25/15
THE UCI LESSON PLANNING TOOL
Planning for the Lesson
Practices/Habits of Mind: Grasp the significance of the past in shaping the present
Key Content Standards: 11.7.2 -- Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles of
Midway, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the Bulge
Key ELD Standards (Only need to include if you have English language learners in your class):
How does this lesson relate to the Big Ideas of the Unit?
 Enduring Understandings: Students must understand both the details of major battles involving the
U.S. in WWII, as well as their significance within the context of affecting the outcome of the war.
 Essential Questions: What were the major battles of WWII involving the U.S. and how were they
significant to affecting the outcome of the war?
 Where is this lesson located within the unit? Knowing the major battles of WWII is essential in
understanding how the war was won by the Allied forces over the Axis powers.
Learning Outcome/Objective: By the end of the lesson, students will know when and where the major battles
involving the U.S. in WWII were fought, the sides involved, how they were fought, the outcomes, and the
significance of each battle within the context of the overall outcome of WWII.
Cognitive Task: In groups of 3 or 4, students will be assigned one major battle of WWII involving the U.S. and
be tasked with becoming experts of their assigned battle by creating a group poster and using the graphic
organizer chart as a rubric for how to fill out the poster. Each group will then be responsible for presenting their
poster to the rest of the class, as they will be filling out their graphic organizers as each group presents.
Students will then be asked to self-reflect on the significance of each battle within the context of the outcome of
WWII by having to rate each battle from most significant to least.
Knowledge/skills: CU: Students will understand that a war is a compilation of battles that significantly affect
the end outcome of a war, and WWII is not different, as the U.S. were involved in many significant battles
which all had implications on the eventual Allied victory. K: What were the major battles involving the U.S. in
WWII? Who was involved and what was the outcome? S: Students will improve their ability to categorize
historical information using visual aids and graphic organizers. Students will improve their ability to teach their
peers historical content and become the experts.
Language objective: Students will build upon their understanding of language related to U.S. involvement in
WWII by locating and labeling key data, terms, and information that help shape their understanding of
significant battles of WWII and how they contributed to the overall outcome of the war.
Formative and Summative Assessments:
During: A gallery walk/peer presentation where the students will present their information on their battle
and its significance within the context of contributing to the outcome of WWII to the rest of the class.
Closure: A ranking of all of the battles in which they will have to write at the bottom of their graphic
organizer which battle they chose as the most significant towards the end outcome of WWII and their reasoning
for it.
Prerequisite Skills and Knowledge: CU: Students should already be cognizant of the world-wide impact of
WWII and that it resulted in millions of deaths and a shift in world power resulting from the outcome of WWII.
K: Students should be aware of U.S. involvement in WWII and that it had a significant impact on affecting the
outcome of WWII. S: Students should know how to fill out a graphic organizer and follow its directions, as
well as creating a poster using a graphic organizer as a rubric.
Lesson Resources/Materials: 11 sheets of construction paper; a class set of markers; textbooks; technology
devices such as phones and laptops. Students will be instructed to send one group member to go retrieve a
piece of construction paper and markers for the poster-making portion of the lesson. Graphic organizers will be
handed out by me with the help of my MT. At the end of the lesson, students will be instructed to turn in their
markers back to the container.
INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE: ENGAGING STUDENTS IN THE LEARNING PROCESS
Sequence/Groupings
Teacher actions/questions
Tied to Learning Outcomes
Making thinking visible
differentiation
Student actions/possible student thinking
Introduction
(5 min. )
T: Students will be prepped on the lesson
tasks for the day, be introduced to the
learning objective question, and launched
into the poster-making portion of the
activity (0:00 – 5:00)
By asking students if they have any
questions on the lesson plan, task, or
learning objective for the day, I can check
for understanding that they listened to my
instructions.
n/a
Body of the Lesson (80 min):
SS: Work on poster-making activity on their
assigned WWII battle, while also filling out
their battle information outlined on their
graphic organizer
T: Walk around and monitor progress of SS
while keeping them on task and answering
any questions they may have. Attendance
will also be taken at this time (5:00 – 25:00)
T: Launch SS into gallery walk/jigsaw
activity
SS: Find a spot along the walls of the
classroom to tape poster up and assign
roles for presentation (25:00 – 30:00)
Students will make learning visible in a
number of ways. First, they will make their
knowledge and understanding of their
assigned battle visible through them filling
out their graphic organizer and creating a
poster of their assigned battle. Second,
they will share their knowledge and
understanding of their assigned battle to
their peers through the group
presentations. .
A: SS will be conducting a gallery walk-style
presentation of their posters where they will
rotate every 2 minutes to a new poster
where the assigned presenters will present
their information related to their assigned
battle
SS: 1 or 2 students from each group will be
assigned to be the presenters of their
group’s poster and the other 1 or 2 students
will be assigned to walk around and listen
to the presenters present their posters.
After one full rotation the roles will flip and
we will have one additional full rotation
T: Walk around and observing the poster
presentations while announcing the next
rotation every 2 minutes (30:00 – 85:00)
Some groups may need
help in finding information
related to their assigned
battle, which I will help
them by pointing them to
where they can find the
information in the
textbook.
Some presenters may not
fully present all of the
components of their poster
properly, which I could help
with by asking questions to
them that directly relates to
their findings on their
assigned battle.
Closure (15_min.):
T: Ask students to rank each battle in
order of significance to outcome of WWII.
Record results on the board.
SS: Students will rank the battles on their
graphic organizer (85:00 – 95:00)
T: Instruct students to write reasoning for
why they chose their most significant
battle. Ask for volunteers to share out
loud what they wrote to the class.
SS: Write down reasoning for why they
chose their most significant battle on
bottom of graphic organizer and
volunteer to share out loud their
responses to the class (95:00 – 100:00)
Their thinking will be made visible through
their written arguments on which battle is
the most significant to the outcome of
WWII on their graphic organizers
I can elicit student thinking by probing them
on why certain battles would be deemed
more significant to the outcome of WWII
than others.
For IEP students, I can
modify the ranking systems
for them where they could
rank the battles according
to which ones were their
most favorite and ask for
reasoning based off of their
answers to that question.
INCORPORATING ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
1. Restate the cognitive task related to the learning outcome: By the end of the lesson, students will
know when and where the major battles involving the U.S. in WWII were fought, the sides involved,
how they were fought, the outcomes, and the significance of each battle within the context of the
overall outcome of WWII.
2. Language Functions: Identify key descriptive information regarding major WWII battles involving the
U.S. and argue why certain battles are more significant than others using the language directly related
to the content of WWII battles.
3. Language Demands:
Vocabulary: New: Names of battles, such as Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Normandy. Continued
support: engagement, offensive. Previous: World War II, outcome
Syntax: When presenting information, using linking words or phrases such as ‘in addition’ ‘as a
result’ and ‘however’. When writing their arguments for most significant battle, using
sentence starters such as “The most significant battle of WWII is…” When ranking, using
comparative words such as ‘most’ or ‘least’
Discourse: During the poster-making and presentation tasks of the activity, students will be
using descriptive language to communicate to their peers the content related to their assigned
battles. During the ranking task, students will be using argumentative language, as the
discourse will be one of taking their learned content and making it significant within the
broader frame of the overall impact of WWII.
4. Language Objective: Students will build upon their understanding of language related to U.S.
involvement in WWII by locating and labeling key data, terms, and information that help shape their
understanding of significant battles of WWII and how they contributed to the overall outcome of the war.
5. Support: I will help students use new words to build ideas or create products, identify significance, and
build arguments by having them fill out a graphic organizer that will also be utilized as a rubric, presenting
their information to their peers, and obtaining all of the required content information through the use of a
jigsaw activity.