Lesson Plan Day One
STAGE 1---“UNPACKING” the STANDARD
RELEVANT PERFORMANCE STANDARD (S):
ELACC7W7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating
additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation.
Enduring Understandings:
Essential Question(s):
Questions guide research and investigation.
Multiple good sources are needed for effective
research.
How do questions guide research and investigation?
How do I judge what is a good source?
How do multiple sources aid effective research?
A. What is relevant for your students to KNOW or UNDERSTAND?
Students will know that questions guide research and investigation.
Students will know that multiple, good sources are needed for effective research.
B. What is relevant for your students to DO?
Students will be able to use questions to guide their research and investigation.
Students will be able to find and use multiple, good sources to effectively research a topic.
STAGE 2—ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE
LESSON OBJECTIVES:
Students will research 10 questions from a handout, correctly choosing what source to use to best answer the
questions. They will answer 8 out of 10 correctly for mastery.
Evidence of understanding:
Evidence of performance:
Students will know the best sources to use when
researching biographical information. Students will be
able to name the appropriate sources to answer
questions.
Students will select the appropriate source and answer
questions with details from the source they use.
Differentiation?
Differentiation?
Students will be able to discuss the answer with their
partner before answering or may work independently.
Sources will be available for students to look at before
making final choices.
Students will be given the option of researching topics
online or in encyclopedias, memoirs, or textbooks in the
classroom.
They will be given the option of working in pairs or
alone to complete this assignment.
STAGE 3---LEARNING PLAN
PRE-ASSESSMENT:
Prior to this lesson, students demonstrated mastery of writing skills to produce written products correctly linked to
the source.
LESSON INTRODUCTION:
Materials For Lesson
Source material including several encyclopedias, journals, magazines, and biographies.
Powerpoint or Smartboard typed text
President handout with questions
 Gain Attention:
Ask, “How do find information when you have a question?” Get answers from several students. Ask, “Now, when
you need information you know will be correct because it is something really important to you, like information on
an ancestor of yours, how do you know where to find it?” Get more answers from students. “Now last question,
when you need to find answers to make sure you get information right for a school assignment, is there anything
different you look at compared to when you just need information about a store’s hours or movie time?” Today we
are going to talk about choosing the best source based on what we are trying to research, and we will focus in on
biographical information.
 Behavioral Expectation:
I want all of you to follow along and listen. Later in the lesson you will have the chance to use some actual sources
to look up answers. Some of this will be online and some will be in books and journals I’ve gathered for today.
Please stay on task when you are on the computer and treat all of the material I’ve brought carefully and
respectfully.
 Brief Review:
Review the difference between an opinion piece of writing and using sources to guide written work. You have
learned to use sources and how to cite your source correctly, but how do you know what kind of source you need to
use? Today we’ll talk about the importance of the right kind of source and look at some examples based on what
kind of information we are trying to find.
 Rationale:
Use real life examples that will relate to the students. Examples: “If you wanted to know what your name means,
how would you try to find out?” “If you were curious about when and how your family came to the United States
and who your ancestors were, where would you look?” “If you wanted quality information and not just opinion
about how good your favorite team is going to be in the upcoming season, what would you look for in a source of
information? What would give you confidence that your source is quality?”
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES:
1. Lesson introduction: Gain their attention and give behavioral expectations. (5 minutes)
Attention: Ask, “How do find information when you have a question?” Get answers from several students. Ask,
“Now, when you need information you know will be correct because it is something really important to you, like
information on an ancestor of yours, how do you know where to find it?” Get more answers from students. “Now
last question, when you need to find answers to make sure you get information right for a school assignment, is
there anything different you look at compared to when you just need information about a store’s hours or movie
time?” Today we are going to talk about choosing the best source based on what we are trying to research, and we
will focus in on biographical information.
Expectations: I want all of you to follow along and listen. Later in the lesson you will have the chance to use some
actual sources to look up answers. Some of this will be online and some will be in books and journals I’ve gathered
for today. Please stay on task when you are on the computer and treat all of the material I’ve brought carefully and
respectfully.
2. Review previous day’s lesson and how it ties into today’s lesson. (10 minutes)
Review the difference between an opinion piece of writing and using sources to guide written work. You have
learned to use sources and how to cite your source correctly, but how do you know what kind of source you need to
use? Today we’ll talk about the importance of the right kind of source and look at some examples based on what
kind of information we are trying to find.
When we need to have specific information and to know we are writing correct information, like when something is
very important to us or for a school assignment, we need to use the right kind of sources to give us the kind of
information we need. To illustrate this point, we are going to focus on biographical information and how to learn
about people.
3. Handout “Presidents” worksheet. Ask, “What do you know about our presidents? Take a few minutes to
work alone or with a partner to answer as many of the questions on the Presidents handout as you can.” (5 mins)
4. Say, “There are multiple ways to find information, but for different types
of questions we use different types of sources. When we want to know how something thought or felt about
something, for example, we look to personal memoirs and autobiographies. When we want simple facts about
someone and what they accomplished, we can find that information in an encyclopedia. When we want to know
how someone fits into a larger picture in history, we would look in a history book or textbook on the subject.”
Together as a group let’s look at the worksheet and for each question, raise your hand and I will call on you to name
what you think is the best source to find the information. You can choose between “Personal Memoir,”
“Encyclopedia,” or “Textbook”. (10 mins)
5. You are now going to get to work on this yourself. From the “Presidents” worksheet, alone or with a partner,
you are to choose a pair of questions that interests you. Find the answer to each question of the pair and cite where
you found the answer. You will find that one question will require one type of source, while the other question
requires looking somewhere else. Once you have found the answer, look for one additional piece of information you
did not know that is of interest to you. Either write this additional information on your sheet or add it to the white
board where I have left room for President info. At the beginning of tomorrow’s class we will review and you will
have a chance to report on what you write on the board. (10 mins)
REVIEW/CLOSURE:
Discuss what the answers are to the questions and where students found the answers. Where did you find your
answers? Were the answers where you thought they would be based on what you know about sources?
(Tomorrow you will create your own questions based on provided research and will have to choose the right sources
to examine your topic.)
EVALUATION OF LESSON OBJECTIVES:
Collect handouts to evaluate student understanding, looking for them to have found the answers in the appropriate
source material.
What will I DIFFERENTIATE?
Presentation of Content: Process/Activities
Source materials students will use
will have different reading levels,
such as textbook options from lower
levels. This will help students with
less background knowledge and
lower reading skills to find
information they can access more
easily.
Students will have the option of
working alone or in pairs during
handout activity to create
opportunities for discussion and
students helping each other.
Students who quickly find answers
have the additional option of
finding another detail to add depth
and complexity to their answers.
How will I DIFFERENTIATE?
Readiness:
Learning Preference:
The parapro will be positioned near
the source material to scaffold
looking up information and choice
of source for those who need help.
Students have the option to work
alone or in pairs to let each student
determine their approach to finding
the information. This will provide
help to students less confident and
offer independence to those
preferring to work on their own.
Products:
Students have the option of writing
information they find during
research on their handout or on the
white board to share with the class.
Interest:
Students will have the opportunity
to choose which questions to
answer as well as the option of
finding additional information of a
different topic.