KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
PROFESSIONAL SEMESTER PROGRAM
LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Teacher Candidate: Paige Halligan
Cooperating Teacher: Claire Kempes
Group Size: 21 Students
Allotted Time: 45 minutes
Subject or Topic: Social Studies – Rosa Parks
Date: 02/24/15
Coop. Initials: ________________
Grade Level: 1st
Section: EEU 390-045
STANDARD: (PA Common Core):
5.1.1.C: Define equality and the need to treat everyone equally.
8.3.1.A: Identify Americans who played a significant role in American history.
I. Performance Objectives (Learning Outcomes)
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the events that happened around Rosa Parks refusal to give
up her seat on the bus by cutting out the events and gluing them to a picture frame timeline.
II. Instructional Materials
 MacBook Pro (internet access)
 Screen
 Rosa Parks timeline handouts (one per student)
 What makes a good leader? chart paper
 Set of markers (one pack for teacher)
 Toolkits (one per student)
o Glue stick
o Colored pencils
o Scissors
III. Subject Matter/ Content (prerequisite skills, key vocabulary, big idea)
Prerequisite Skills
o Watch and listen to videos
o Cut and glue pieces of paper to other paper
o Relate to feelings of others
o Basic understanding of what segregation is
Key Vocabulary
o Segregation - The enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or
establishment.
o Boycott - When people join together and refuse to do business with someone or something
o Activist - A person who works to make changes to laws or to the way people act or treat each
other
Big Idea
o Rosa Parks stood up for her rights and helped changed the laws for people to be treat
equally.
IV. Implementation
A. Introduction –
1. The teacher will guide students to the back of the classroom and bring their attention to the
What Makes a Good Leader? chart.
2. The teacher will ask students to think about a leader they have either learned about in
school or have met in their own lives.
3. The teacher will ask students to turn-&-talk to a peer about someone they know or learned
about and what makes that person a good leader.
4. The teacher will ask a few students to share and ask them what qualities and traits that
person has. As students respond, the teacher will write the trait up on the chart.
5. The teacher will bring up that in today’s lesson, they will be learning about a leader who
changed a law and continued to help bring equality for African Americans during the time of
segregation. That leader’s name is Rosa Parks.
6. The teacher will ask students to return to their desks.
B. Development –
1. Once the students return to their desk, the teacher will ask, “Has there ever been a time you
felt you were treated unfairly?” The teacher will ask students to raise their hands if they have
experienced this.
2. The teacher will explain that in the 1950’s black people experienced this everyday over
many things. Such as where they went to school, where they went out to eat, where they
went to the movies, where they went to the bathroom, and even where they had to sit.
3. The teacher will explain that Rosa Parks did not want to be treated unfairly any longer and
made difference. The teacher will explain the students will be learning about her from a
video.
4. The teacher will put on a BrainPop Jr. video about Rosa Parks and what she did to change
history.
5. After the video, the teacher will review the basic facts with the student about what events
happened that changed history. The teacher will ask students to share what they learned.
As the students share, the teacher will write the events before, during, and after the time
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus.
6. The teacher will tell students that they will be cutting out and pasting in the events that
occurred that day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in order on a Rosa Parks timeline
handout. The teacher will give student the specific instruction to read the events carefully,
put them in the correct order, raise their hand to have approval from the teacher, and paste
them on the time line.
7. After students complete the timeline accurately, they can color in the timeline.
8. After students color the timelines in, they can complete the “I was brave like Rosa Parks when
I…” bus activity. If this activity isn’t completed in class, the students will complete it for
homework for a reflective response to the lesson.
C. Closure –
1. As the teacher comes around to approve students to glue the events in order, the teacher
will keep track of what students did not put the events in the correct order on a checklist.
2. The teacher will ask students to put their timelines and sentence papers in the “Finished”
basket in the front of the classroom for evaluation.
D. Accommodations / Differentiation –
 For students with visual impairments, an enlarged copy of the What Makes a Good Leader
chart will be provided for the student to see and the teacher will have it previously filled out
with intended traits and evidence prior to teaching the lesson. Also, preferential seating
close to the white board and screen during the projection of the BrainPop Jr. will ensure
optimal visual ability for the student throughout the lesson.
 For students that have difficulty focusing during lessons, a guided sticky note with questions
on it will be provided to ensure focus of an end result after watching and listening to the
video.
E. Assessment/Evaluation plan
1. Formative
 Rosa Parks timeline – Students will complete a timeline of the
events that occurred the day that Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on the bus for a white person. The teacher will come around
the room and approve students gluing in their responses to
monitor which students grasped the concept of the events in
sequential order. All students who completed the timeline
correctly or incorrectly will be recorder on a checklist. This will
indicate to the teacher if the students understood the series of
events that took place that day in history.

“I was brave like Rosa Parks when I…” bus activity – Students will complete this
activity to service as a way for the teacher to see if they are accurately reflecting to
the lesson taught on Rosa Parks. It is apparent in the lesson the Rosa Parks
demonstrated bravery standing up for what she believed in. The student will need
to demonstrate empathy and reflection to complete this activity. Students will be
evaluated by writing in complete sentences, using capitals and punctuation marks,
spaces between the words, and whether or not their writing makes sense upon
reading.
V. Reflective Response
A. Report of Students’ Performance in Terms of States Objectives
Students were able to perform the Rosa Parks Timeline handout with accuracy and
completion. Only three students demonstrated incorrect sequencing of the order of events that
occurred. With these students, they needed more clarification. For these three students, I had to
individually ask students which card belonged first, second, third, and fourth with questioning (First,
what happened when Rosa was told to get up out of the “Whites Only” seating area? Good… What
happened to Rosa when she refused?...). With this sort of scaffold instruction, I modified the way I
assessed the three students’ understanding of what happened in the events of Rosa Parks we learned
about in the lesson. After this type of modification and completion of the hand out, I had the three
students say the order of the events without any guidance verbally. All three students were able to
recall the order of events, make personal and meaningful connection to Rosa’s actions and what
happened to her, and demonstrate understanding of the lesson.
B. Personal Reflection
Did students understand the significance of Rosa’s refusal to get up out of her seat on
the bus? Yes. Students listened to the story of Rosa Parks through viewing the BrainPop Jr.
video of her life and the event of the day she refused to give up her seat. After viewing and
reviewing, students made remarks such as “Wow, she did that even though she knew she
would get in trouble?” and “Did this change the rules about where black people could sit?”.
Students really seemed to make connections to the cause and effect of Rosa’s actions.
Reflection:
This lesson was introducing Rosa Parks and her actions that impacted the Civil
Rights Movement. I taught the surrounding basis of this event, cause and effect, because
students will be learning much more about Rosa Parks in Second Grade. I wanted students
to recognize the sequence of events that occurred in this historical event and for students to
understand the magnitude and impact this event made in American History. Students made
connections between Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks without me posing any sort of
connection between the two figures that we’ve learned about so far. This connection that
students were making reassured me that my lessons were making an impact of the students
and they were comparing the two figures so far in the unit. So far, I am very pleased with
how students are responded to this unit.
VI. Resources
Rosa Parks. (2012). Retrieved from https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/biographies/rosaparks/
Name: ______________
Rosa Parks Timeline
Cut out t he event s and glue t hem in t he cor r ect
or der on t he t imeline!
1
2
3
4
I will
not
give
up
The law
changed!
Rosa went
t o j ail.
Rosa r ef used
t o give up
her seat .
People
st opped using
t he buses.