1. Middle ChildhoodEducation Autumn2013
Middle Childhood Education Autumn Lesson Plan Model1
Teacher Candidate Name: Rachel Middleman
Lesson Title/#: Africa -1 (of 5), Ted Talk
Grade Level: 6th Grade SS
Lesson Foundations
Content Standards
*Science and SS should also include
common core for reading/writing
CCR: 5- Describe how a text present information (sequentially, casually, comparatively). 6- Identify aspects of a
text that reveal author’s point of view or purpose. 7- Integrate visual information with other information in
print and digital texts.
ELCS (ODE): 9- Different perspectives on a topic can be obtained from a variety of historic and contemporary
sources. Sources can be examined for accuracy.
Learning Objective(s)
Content/Skills/Concept
What are the specific learning
goal(s) for student in this lesson?
Should start with “Students will…”
Include essential question here.
1- Students will Identify author’s point of view
2- Students will Examine the accuracy of the Ted Talk as a primary source
3- Students will Discuss the impact of fact, opinion, reasoned judgment in primary and secondary sources
Prior Academic
Knowledge and Skills
Students will need to be familiar with analyzing author’s perspective and point of view, as well as how this
impacts the accuracy of information presented in the source.
Materials & Resources Handout, Ted Talk of Adichie
Instructional Procedures/Steps
Description of what the teacher will be doing and/or what the students will be doing.
Opening
____10______
Minutes
How will you begin the
lesson to engage
students and
 Students will enter and the I Can… statements will be on the board: “… identify author’s point of view.” “…
examine the accuracy of primary sources.” “… discuss the impact of fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in
primary and secondary sources.” I will read these aloud to the students before they work on their bell ringer.
These will be referred to later in the lesson.
 Students will sit in their normal seats and immediately begin working on the bell ringer. They will be asked to
write down everything they know about Africa and any questions they may have about the continent in their SS
1 The lesson plan template offers an opportunity forcandidates topractice documenting theirthinkingwhen planning initial lessons. It is intendedto prepare candidates to articulate theirthinking and justification for
plans.

2. Middle ChildhoodEducation Autumn2013
communicate what the
students will be
learning today?
notebooks, this is in the format of a think-pair-share. They will then share with a partner near them what they
wrote, and be prompted to write down things their partner wrote but they didn’t.
 Then we will come together as a class and share out. While they are doing this I will be walking around and
assessing. Materials such as the hand out and video will already be passed out at their tables. Expected answers
include: tribes, animals, war, slaves, blood diamonds, usage of words such as “strange”, “weird”, or along the lines
of different.
 I anticipate some things students share to not be relevant to the African continent. Example: students may believe
tigers live in Africa- this is false. Students may also make sweeping generalizations that are more specific and able
to be corrected or guided in the more accurate direction.
Instruction
___30-32_______
Minutes
What will you say and
do? What questions
will you ask?
What will students do?
What strategies and
content will you use to
align with culturally
responsiveteaching
practices?
How will you engage
students in student-
centered learning?
How will you give
students the
opportunity to
practice and apply
what they have
learned so you can
provide feedback?
Differentiation: How
will you provide
students access to
learning based on
individualand group
needs? Consider
students with IEPs and
We will watch two minutes of the Adichie clip, from 4:10 to 5:55. This is when she is talking about her college roommate.
After the clip is over, we will rewatch it, this time the students will be instructed to write down anything that stood out to
them- for any reason. This will be the basis for our discussion later. They will write this on the handout in the
corresponding section. I am anticipating things like: she speaks English well, she likes Mariah Carey, she went to college,
she doesn’t listen to tribal music, she is wearing a headdress, Nigeria’s official language is English, she knows how to use
a stove, her roommate felt sorry for her just for being African, Africans have feelings and are equals to the U.S. We will
watch the clip then a third time, to ensure that the students have ample time to hear all Adichie is saying because she is
speaking quickly. After we watch it this third time, I will put up the transcript from this two-minute piece on the board
while we are discussing, so students may refer to it. (15 minutes)
I will ask students to share out the things that they wrote down. We will have a discussion about why these are
surprising. Follow up questions will be made after students answer, although some additional questions are below:
How reliable is Adichie as a primary source? Whose perspective is missing? Is it fair for her to be speaking on behalf of all
Africans? Do you identify as American before you identify yourself from Columbus? How much of what she was saying
was fact? Opinion? Why did her roommate take pity on her before she even met Adichie? Adichie talks about her
roommates view of her as a “single story”, what does this mean to you? (One perspective on who Adichie is as a person,
stereotyping her before she met her, making assumptions about what she would be like based on pop culture-type
images of Africa). What does this tell you about how we in America tend to view Africans? Are New Yorkers viewed
differently than Californians? What’s the difference? But aren’t they both Americans? Isn’t that the same as Nigerians
being different from Egyptians, but still being African? (12 minutes)
Look fors: Moving from Adichie as a reliable source to reliable for her experiences, location, culture. Roommate took pity
because she assumed Adichie would be similar to the image of Africans painted in media and pop culture. Understanding
that Africans are different and eclectic just as North Americans, Americans are.
Take five minutes to write a time when someone had a single story about you. Write this is your SS notebook. If you can’t
think of one, write a single story you may still have or had about someone. Why did you view them this way, and where

3. Middle ChildhoodEducation Autumn2013
504 plans. did your information come from? (5 minutes)
Support for my students who are not as adept at comprehension will be how I have the transcript on the screen during
discussion, in case students were not able to write enough notes during the three watches and re-watches of the clip.
Students will respond to questions on the hand out in their own manner- as they are open ended- allowing for the
content of answers to be stressed as important, not the format or other organizational issues of my students who
struggle with organizing.
All of this discussion will be based on developing our essential question for this mini unit, which may be slightly adjusted
in wording or phrasing than my given example, but should be something like this:
How do the things/ideas/thoughts we have about a place influence our image of the people? Where do these single
stories come from, and are they based in truth?
Closure
_____5-7_____
Minutes
How will you end the
lesson?
Students will be briefed on the next few days’ unit. I will tell them their groups now, and explain to them that tomorrow
they should sit at the table corresponding to their group numbers. I will explain to them that for two to three days they
will be working in stations with the goal of a general overview of the diversity found in Africa, and to address stereotypes
they may or may not have about the continent, referring back to the essential questions we developed.
Academic
Language
What language
function do you want
students to develop in
this lesson?
What vocabulary do
students need to
support learning of the
learning objective for
this lesson
 The language function essential for student learning within my central focus is evaluate
 Evaluation by students appears in the opener and instructional portion of the lesson: think pair share evaluation of
knowledge bringing in to Africa unit, facilitated discussion after watching Adichie’s video, and the written response
in their SS journals
 Supports that will help students understand the language function of evaluation are guided questions, discussion
with peers/partners in the TPS, modeling and scaffolding by the teacher
 Students are given the chance to use the language function of evaluating during the whole class discussion debriefing
the Single Story clip, with the think-pair-share with partners, and with their written response at the end of the period
 Supports that available to help students use the language function are facilitated discussion, guided questions, video
of Adichie, and prompt for the written response
 Vocabulary includes: single story, fact, opinion, stereotype. Vocabulary appears for student use in the facilitated
discussion of Adichie as a source, and the written response in their SS journals
 The vocabulary relates to and supports the language function of evaluate because students will rely on the ability to
identify fact, opinion, single stories, and stereotypes in order to form a deeper understanding of their evaluation of

4. Middle ChildhoodEducation Autumn2013
Adichie, of their own single stories, and of their knowledge of Africa
 Students engage in discourse using the vocabulary during the TPS, guided discussion, and in the written response
answering the prompt of a personal Single Story
Assessments:
Description of assessment Modifications and accommodation to the
assessment so that all students can demonstrate
their learning.
Evaluation Criteria - What evidence of student learning
(related to the learning objectives and standards) does
the assessment provide?
handout Students will provide answers to questions
addressing the single story narrative they heard
today, as well as have space to write a parallel and
reflect on a time when they have had a single story
about them or about someone else. May be more
towards stereotypes, but because they come from
a similar place both are acceptable.
Evidence of student learning will be an example of a
similar single story based on self-reflection. This shows
me the student is in a primed state of mind for
addressing and deconstructing single stories and
stereotypes of Africa that should happen during the next
few days’ work. “I saw an Asian man at the grocery store
and didn’t think he would be able to speak English, but he
spoke it without an accent. I probably thought this way
because a lot of times on TV people from Asia are
portrayed with funny accents.”
Think pair share in
notebooks
All students are providing their own personal
previous knowledge, which will be used as a guide
to me for any adjustments to questions I may be
asking in the next four days.
Evidence of student learning would include any examples
of things about Africa they may have known, and
corrections to things they thought of that are not African.
Checks for
understanding/discussion
questions
Student generated responses show me individual
understandings of the material and allow for peers
to hear in their own terms interpretations of
material
Look fors (discussion): included in instructional section;
look fors during TPS: tribes, animals, war, slaves, blood
diamonds, usage of words such as “strange”, “weird”, or
along the lines of different.
Reflection:
Here we are reflecting on the effects of your instruction on student learning rather than the teacher candidate’s feelings about the lesson.
Reflection
What would you do

5. Middle ChildhoodEducation Autumn2013
differently next time you
teach this lesson to improve
student learning outcomes?
Next Steps
Based on student learning,
what are the next steps for
your instruction?