Lesson Plans

Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):

English Language Arts:

I. Meaning and Communication

Content Standard I, l: All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

1. Use reading for multiple purposes, such as enjoyment, learning complex procedures, completing technical tasks, making workplace decisions, evaluating and analyzing information, and pursuing in-depth studies.

Content Standard I, 4: All students will use the English language effectively.

1. Demonstrate how language usage is related to successful communication in the different spoken, written, and visual communication contexts, such as job interviews, public speeches, debates, and advertising.

Social Studies

I. Historical Perspective

Content Standard I, 1: All students will sequence chronologically the following eras of American history and key events within these eras in order to examine relationships and to explain cause and effect...

1. Construct and interpret timelines of people and events in the history of Michigan and the United States since the era of Reconstruction.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should have a basic knowledge of and familiarity with computer word processing programs.
Students have studied and discussed in class the effect of environment on personality. They should have a basic understanding of the meaning and definition of personality and environment.

Cue Set:

The teacher asks the class, “What significant events do you think have an impact on the formation of a person’s personality?”
Students then brainstorm ideas which the teacher writes on the board. Events both personal and global are written on one side of the board and linked personality traits are on the other side.

Best Shot Instruction:

The lesson begins with a class discussion of how the environment may impact on the personality and cause certain traits. The discussion continues to include a debate of the effect of heredity vs. environment on personality. During the discussion a list of influential events or factors is generated.
Using the class list as well as their own ideas, students develop lists of significant events which they believe have influenced their lives. Students determine the dates of these events with the help of family members.
The students bring to class any important photographs and objects from previous experiences.
Using the Timeliner software, the students construct timelines of the important moments in their lives. The timelines may be illustrated with digital photographs of relevant objects and other scanned pictures. Clipart and graphics from Print Shop Ensemble may also be added. Pictures of the students are taken with the digital camera to insert into the timelines at the current time period.
The timelines are printed in black and white as rough drafts. After student editing and teacher evaluation, corrections are made and the timelines are printed in color.

Reteaching and Enrichment:

Any student who does not have a clear understanding of the concepts of environment and personality is given a worksheet with specific questions relating to the student’s background. Such questions ask where the student lived when he/she learned to talk, how old the student was when he/she had a first pet, etc. The student may ask family members to help with the answers.
The students who have little family support may be given less specific questions to guide them in forming their timelines. As an alternative they could be asked to describe their personalities as they see them and imagine what kind of environmental influences could have shaped their personalities.
The student who has very few or no family pictures or special objects could use pictures from Print Shop or magazines to represent what is needed. The magazine pictures could be scanned into the timeline.
A more advanced activity would be to merge the student’s timeline with a teacher-created timeline of significant historical events so the student could see how his/her life aligns with a global perspective.

Review and Closure:

Each student presents his/her timeline to the class. The student explains the significance of certain events and how these helped shape the student’s personality.
The student constructs a timeline of future events and explains how those could influence or change his/her personality.

Assessment:

Students are assessed by the teacher with a predetermined rubric which includes design, content, eye appeal, number of events, and insight into the cause and effect nature of events and the personality.
Students are observed by the teacher in the computer lab while they’re producing the timelines.
Students are assessed by the teacher with a predetermined rubric during their presentations to the class.

Notes:

Timeliner makes it easy for students to create attractive products and visually observe the events in their lives in an orderly and defined manner. It also makes it easy to produce products which facilitate the communication of significant events in the students’ lives to other classmates.
The use of the digital camera and scanner make it easy to create a very personal product which a student can be proud to share with others.

East Detroit Public Schools Lesson Design

East Detroit Public Schools
Lesson Design