Transportation
Two Weeks
Social Studies
Lesson Plan
Grade: 6th Grade
Teacher: 6th Grade Teacher
Lesson Title:
Vikings
STRANDS
History, Individuals, Groups, and Interactions
LESSON OVERVIEW
Summary of the task, challenge, investigation, career-related scenario, problem, or community link.
The focus of the Transportation Unit is on means of traveling on water. The Vikings are famous (or infamous) for their use of the long ship. This transportation
innovation is a key reason they are viewed as a historically significant group of people. Students will realize who the Vikings were from a historical standpoint to better
understand how this ship was so advantageous to them. They will also be exposed to the engineering or construction view of how this boat was made. The Viking long
ship was larger, faster, and moved more efficiently than other boats in the world during this time. This allowed the Vikings to raid large portions of Europe and even be
the first Europeans to step foot in the Americas. Students will also calculate a rough estimate of travels made by Viking ships during the Viking Age. Examining such
items will allow students to realize the things that can be accomplished with transportation advantages.
Hook for the week unit or supplemental resources used throughout the week. (PBL scenarios, video clips, websites,
literature)
MOTIVATOR
“Port of Los Angeles” Found in Appendix A
DAY
Objectives
(I can….)
1
I can identify the
Vikings as a historically
significant group of
Materials &
Resources
Found in
Appendix A
Instructional Procedures
Essential Question:
1. Why are the Vikings a historically significant group of
people?
Differentiated
Instruction
Assessment
Remediation:
Formative:
Seating to minimize
Worksheet
people.
iPads
I can elaborate upon
the Viking’s impact on
Europe.
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Vikings History Chanel
Vikings Impact
on Europe
2. How did the Vikings impact Europe?
Set: “Write down the first two or three things you know, or think
you know, about Vikings.” Students will be given a few moments to
generate responses. Volunteer students will share their thoughts
with the class.
Teaching Procedure:
 Students will first view “Vikings – History Chanel” to be
provided with an overview of who these people were.
 The class will very briefly discuss the highlights of this short
video.
 Students will then be directed to “Vikings – Ducksters” and
perform the correlating worksheet.
 Selected students will provide their answers to the
worksheet’s questions to stimulate discussion of the
content.
 The class will then view “Vikings Impact on Europe.”
 A brief discussion of the video’s highlights will follow.
distraction
Exit Tickets
Heterogeneous Table
Groups
Anchoring Activity: As
students work on their
worksheets there will be
one on one attention
provided to students in
need.
Enrichment:
Heterogeneous Table
Groups
Summarizing Strategy:
 As an exit ticket students will provide two ways the Vikings
impacted Europe.
2
I can explain what
daily life of a Viking
was like.
Found in
Appendix B
iPads
Essential Question:
1. What was daily life of a Viking like?
2. Why did the Vikings invade Europe?
Remediation:
Formative:
Seating minimize
distraction
Worksheets
I can identify reasons
as to why the Vikings
invaded Europe.
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Daily Life as a
Viking
BBC Vikings
Set: “If aliens ever invaded earth, what would be their reason?”
Students will be a given a few moments to generate responses.
Volunteer students will share their thoughts with the class.
Teaching Procedure:







The class will first watch “Daily Life as a Viking” and briefly
discuss the highlights of the video.
Students will then be directed to “BBC Vikings” and perform
the correlating worksheet.
Volunteer students may share their thoughts with the class
to stimulate discussion about the content.
The class discussion will then move to the central question
as to why the Vikings needed to invade Europe.
Students will work in homogeneous groups of three to
formulate a hypothesis and elaborate upon their reasoning.
(Reasons were addressed in ‘Daily Life’ video)
Students may perform independent research on their iPads
to support hypothesis.
Groups will be given the opportunity to share their thoughts
with the class, building upon the information realized in the
video.
Adjusted Questions
Exit Tickets
1.If the Vikings lacked
resources and wealth,
why would invading
Europe be an attractive
option?
2.What did the Vikings
lose by leaving their
homeland?
3.What did they gain by
traveling to Europe?
Enrichment:
Homogeneous Groups
Summarizing Strategy:

3
I can elaborate upon
why most Europeans
viewed the Vikings as
Found in
Appendix C
Students will compare and contrast the reasons for the
Viking’s invasion of Europe to their thoughts on why aliens
might invade earth. This will be submitted as an exit ticket.
Essential Question:
1. Why are the Vikings viewed as barbarians?
2. What technology was critical to the Viking’s success?
Remediation:
Formative:
Seating to minimize
distraction
Worksheets
barbarians.
I can provide details
about the Viking’s long
boat.
Set: “Who was the king of the Vikings?” Students will be given a few
moments to generate responses, and selected students will share
their thoughts with the class. The goal is to discover that the Vikings
were independent groups all with their own leadership.
Teaching Procedure:





The class will view “Secrets of the Vikings.”
Students will be presented the lesson’s essential questions
and work in their table groups to formulate answers.
Volunteer tables will share their thoughts to generate class
discussion and ultimately answer the essential questions.
Students will then be directed to “PBS Viking Ships” and
perform the correlating worksheet.
Selected students will share their answers to stimulate class
discussion.
Summarizing Strategy:




4
I can provide details
Found in
about the construction Appendix D
Having previously learned about how the Ancient Egyptians
naval advantage helped their economy, students will
compare the two groups.
Why is having faster, more efficient ships such an
advantage?
Students will work independently to formulate a response in
paragraph form.
Volunteer students may share their thoughts to close the
class session.
Essential Question: What about the construction of the long ships
provides them with such an operational advantage?
Prompting
Adjusted Question:
1.Does the United States
have a large navy?
2.What advantage does
this give us over countries
that do not have effective
navies?
3.How can this be
compared to the Viking’s
naval advantage?
Enrichment:
Adjusted Questions
1.Why was the naval
advantage geared
towards raids rather than
economics for the
Vikings?
Remediation:
Seating to minimize
Formative:
of Viking long ships.
iPads
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Set: “What advantages can be had in most athletic competitions
from being faster and quicker?” Students will take a few moments
to generate responses. Volunteer students will share their thoughts
with the class.
Teaching Strategy:




Students will first watch “Dragon Harald” to see how a
Viking long ship is constructed.
Following the video the class will discuss what advantage
the gentlemen building the boat in the video have over the
Vikings of over a thousand years prior.
Students will then be directed to “eHow Viking Long Ships”
and perform the correlating worksheet.
Selected students will share their answers to stimulate class
discussion.
Summarizing Strategy:


5
I can identify Leif
Erickson as a
significant historical
Found in
Appendix E
“Vikings invaded Europe because their homeland lacked
wealth and resources. Combining this with the fact that the
Viking long ship’s speed and effective maneuverability, what
deductions can be made about their historical significance.”
Students will be instructed to write a paragraph on the
prompt and this will be submitted before the class session
has ended.
Essential Question: Who is Leif Erickson?
distraction
Worksheets
Prompting
Summarizing
Paragraphs
Anchoring Activity – While
students write their
summarizing paragraphs,
students in need will
receive one on one
attention.
Enrichment:
Adjusted Questions
1.Would Viking raids on
Europe be an important
part of world history
without the long boat?
2.What might be different
about Viking history if
they were a more
governmentally organized
group of people?
Remediation:
Formative:
Seating to minimize
Worksheets
figure.
Erickson v.
Columbus
iPads
PDF Notes
Apple TV
Set: “Who discovered America?” Students will be given a moment to
answer the bell ringer. Selected students will share their answers
with the class.
distraction
Teaching Procedure:
Homogeneous Groups



Students will first be directed to “Vikings Discover America”
and perform the correlating worksheet.
Volunteer students will share their answers with the class to
stimulate class discussion on the content.
Class will then watch “Erickson v. Columbus” to further
explain the importance of Leif Erickson and the Viking long
ship in world history.
Exit Ticket
Prompting
Anchoring Activity – Pairs
that require some
additional help during the
summarizing paragraph
will receive it.
Enrichment:
Homogeneous Groups
Summarizing Strategy:



6
I can provide details
about the daily life of
a Viking.
Found in
Appendix F
iPads
Adjusted Question
“Why do you think Columbus receives more recognition
than Erickson for being the first Europeans to arrive in
America?”
Students will be grouped into homogeneous pairs to write a
paragraph on the question and submit it as an exit ticket.
Volunteer students will share their thoughts to close the
class session.
Essential Question:
1. What was the daily life of a Viking like?
2. Where did the Vikings travel?
1.Does the Viking’s history
of being a barbaric people
have anything to do with
why Erickson does not
receive his credit?
Remediation:
Formative:
Seating to Minimize
Distraction
Map
Calculation
I can provide details
about Viking
exploration routes.
Apple TV
PDF Notes
Six Sided Dice
(10)
Set: “If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go
and why?” Students will be given a moment to generate a response.
Volunteer students will share their thoughts with the class.
Teaching Strategy:




Students will first perform “Viking Daily Life” to review what
the basic life style was like for this group of people.
Students will be prompted to look at previous lesson’s
worksheets or independently research on their iPads to do a
thorough job on the assignment.
Next, the class will examine “Viking Map” to see where the
Viking’s homeland was. Also to see the large extent to which
they were able to travel.
Students will then be paired into heterogeneous groups of
two. These pairs will be given one six sided dice. They will
play “Viking Exploration Game” for about ten minutes.
Prompting
Anchoring Activity –
Students that may require
additional assistance
during the map
calculation will receive
help.
Enrichment:
Comparing Viking
Exploration distances to
Columbus or Polo.
Summarizing Strategy:




7
I can identify how the
long ship cemented
the Vikings place as a
historically significant
people.
iPad
Doceri
Using the “Viking Map” students will take rough
measurements of the total distance traveled by Viking
explorers.
Students will use Google Maps to roughly calculate
distances.
There may be other outlets of research that need to be
explored, depending on the student’s prior knowledge and
map reading ability.
Any student who finishes with time remaining will compare
this to distances traveled by Columbus or Marco Polo.
Essential Question:
1. Why are the Vikings a historically significant group of
people?
2. How did the long ship help the Vikings become historically
significant?
Remediation:
Summative:
Seating to minimize
distraction
Doceri
Prompting
Set: “What happenings in our world today will be written in history
books thousands of years from now?” Students will be given a few
moments to generate responses. Selected students will share their
thoughts with the class. The goal is to recognize the difficulties in
recognizing historical significance in contemporary history.
Homogeneous Groups
Adjusted Questions:
1.Where is the Viking’s
homeland?
Teaching Strategy:




Students will be creating a Doceri presentation.
This presentation will have the slides answering the
following questions:
1. Who were the Vikings?
2. Why did the Vikings invade Europe?
3. Why did they attack monasteries?
4. How did the long ship aid their successes?
5. Who is Leif Erickson and why is he important?
6. Why did the Viking Age end?
Each slide is to have an image and at least three supporting
details in bullet form.
Students will work in homogeneous pairs on this project for
the entire class session.
Summarizing Strategy:

Volunteer groups will air play their finished presentations
for the class to view and discuss.
2.If your homeland were
out of resources, what
actions would you take?
3.Why does having a
bigger, faster, more
efficient means of
traveling so beneficial?
Enrichment:
Adjusted Questions
Homogeneous Groups
1.Are the Vikings barbaric
or do the means justify
the end?
2.Could the Vikings have
used their long ships in a
more peaceful,
economically beneficial
way?
8
Project Day 1—refer to unit plan
Topic—IA Maritime Challenge
9
Project Day 2—refer to unit plan
Topic—IA Maritime Challenge
10
Project Day 3—refer to unit plan
Topic—IA Maritime Challenge
STANDARDS
Identify what you want to teach. Reference State, Common Core, ACT
College Readiness Standards and/or State Competencies.
GLE’s
5.12 Understand the place of historical events in the context of past, present and future.
SPI’s
6.6.spi.1 identify examples of groups impacting world history (i.e., Muslims, Christians, Mongolians, Vikings, slave traders, explorers, merchants/traders, inventors.)
6.5.spi.7. recognize major historical time periods (i.e., Early Civilizations, Classical Period, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance).
6.5.spi.11. identify characteristics including economy, social relations, religion, and political authority of various societies (i.e., Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek CityStates, Roman Empire, Indian, Medieval).
6.5.spi.12. recognize the possible causes of change in civilizations (i.e., environmental change, political collapse, new ideas, warfare, overpopulation, unreliable food
sources, diseases).
Vocabulary:

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

Vikings: Any of the Scandinavian seafaring pirates who raided Europe
Monastery: Building occupied by monks living under religious vows
Pillage: To steal using violence
Norse: Norwegians or Scandinavians in medieval times
Quest: A long search