UWP Lesson Plan Template

Teacher Name: Collin Skarzynski Grade Level: 10th

Target Content/Lesson Topic: Cold War Date: 5/5/23

This lesson is for a(n) __X__ whole class _____ small group _____ individual

Planning
Essential Question Essential Question- How did The Cold War impact civilian life?
- What is the essential question that Core Purpose- The core purpose of this lesson is to learn about perspective, context, and the Cold War in
this lesson addresses? general. The reason civilian life will be looked at is because The Cold War was not a physical war, it’s described
- What is the core purpose of the as a culture war in which every civilian is fighting, and to understand the war it’s important to understand
lesson that includes the strategies people’s mindsets.
and skills necessary to accomplish
the deeper learning in the standard?
Sequencing How It Fits- This lesson will fit within the student’s larger unit of study by giving an intro to The Cold War and
- How does this lesson fit into the demonstrate how it differs from other major conflicts. More specifically this unit will add a bit of texture to the
larger unit of study? unit that reflects the overall situation. Overall Americans feel very vulnerable at this time hence the building of
- Focus on a logical/hierarchical bomb shelters that the students will study.
sequencing of skills (e.g., main ideas Logical Hierarchy- Students have studied WW2 and the development of weapons of mass destruction. This
before details, similarities before unit of The Cold War builds on that with the concept of atomic and nuclear bombs. From an education
differences). standpoint on Bloom’s taxonomy given that this is the 2nd-3rd lesson of the unit students are going to be
working at the levels of remembering and understanding.
State Learning Standards SS.Hist4.d.h- Analyze how the POV of the author can influence the content and intent of a primary or
List the complete, relevant grade- secondary source and identify whose voices may be left out.
level standard(s).
Learning Target(s) and Learning Learning Objective- Students will have a decent understanding of the worried culture and uncertain future that
Objective(s) M.A.D (mutually assured destruction) brings during The Cold War. They will be able to give direct pieces of
- Choose your learning target(s) and evidence to support their claims about the culture either from the reading or from previous lectures.
objective(s) based on the relevant Learning Target- I can describe what civilian life/culture was like during The Cold War and give at least two
state learning standard(s). pieces of evidence to support my answer from this lecture.

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 - Write focused targets and
objectives that describe the specific
learning outcome (what students
should be able to do as a result of
the lesson).
- Be sure they are stated in
observable and measurable terms
(e.g., ABCD+T).
Grouping Grouping- Students are typically grouped as they like with a few exceptions, and I plan to keep it this way.
Describe how and why students are Students seem to work well and become social when they can sit with their desired group. This leads to easier
grouped based on communication, relationship building, and comfort in the class. I am aware that there are at least two students
- homogeneous, heterogeneous, with mid-mild degrees of special needs and since I am not able to access their files, I want to keep them seated
randomized where they feel comfortable, so they can work effectively without me compromising their privacy. The few
- ability, interest, IEP goals, social or exceptions to this seating arrangement are that two groups of students have been known to get a little rowdy
social-emotional, behavioral, and can’t sit together. My mentor teacher has already dealt with the issue, so they have certain restrictions that
language acquisition shouldn’t be a problem when I am there.
Co-Teaching Strategy N/A
Does this lesson involve co-
teaching? If not, state N/A. If yes,
identify the co-teaching model and
what role each teacher will play.
-One Teach, One Observe; One
Teach, One Assist; Station Teaching;
Parallel Teaching; Supplemental;
Alternative; Team Teaching

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 Differentiation Content
Describe how you will meet • Building of bomb shelters during the Cold War
individual students’ needs by • Cartoons during the Cold War
adjusting the content, process, • Kids and their safety during the Cold War
product, and environment based on • Common worries during the Cold War
their readiness, interests, and learning
• Direct quotes/interviews during the Cold War
preferences.
Process
• Reading
• Talking
• Analyzing cartoons
• Listen to me talk (briefly)
• Listen to other’s ideas

Product
• Oral report of interesting things
• Notes/coding text
• Asking questions
• Debate/agree or disagree statements (all students raise their hands if they agree or disagree
with a statement and if they want answer why)

Environment
• Preferred seating
• Group setting
• Individual setting
• Noise canceling headphones

IEP Goals Relevant to Lesson (Add rows as necessary.)

Student IEP Goal

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Accommodations and/or Modifications Required for Students in Special Education (Add rows as necessary.)

Student(s) Required Accommodation/Modification

Supports for English Language Learners (Add rows as necessary.)

Student Necessary Supports (e.g., Sheltered English strategies, grouping strategies)

Assessment
Formative Assessment How I Will Monitor Students- I will monitor students in two ways: first I will do my typical rounds walking
- How will you monitor student around the class ensuring that everyone has at least 2-3 notes/codes on their text and answer any questions,
learning throughout the lesson? second I will be able to monitor their learning when we come together to share based on the amount of
- Be specific about how your practice participation and questions asked.
assessments connect directly with the How This Will Measure Lesson Objective- This lesson is about POV and sense making, so the thinking is more
lesson objective. abstract rather than concrete. I will structure the conversation and questions in a manner that fosters an answer
that connects with the Learning Objective/Target (This will be present in my slides in the “Circular
Instructions Material”). With that being said, I can judge whether they have met not looking so much for a set
of answers rather that the students are engaging in the text, using evidence from the text to make a conclusion
of their own, and noting significant events in the text.
Formative Evaluation Criteria Materials- None (done from memory)
- What material(s) will you use to Checklist/Objectives- I will look that students can answer the Learning Target (I can describe what civilian
evaluate learning? life/culture was like during The Cold War and give at least two pieces of evidence to support my answer from
- Attach a copy of your checklist, this lecture), then look for at least 2-3 notes/coding on their readings, and I will look for everyone to
rubric, observation criteria, or other participate in the conversation at the end.
measure.

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 Summative Assessment Students will create their own newspaper and pretend that they are in the Cold War. They will have different
How will students demonstrate sections including political issues, political cartoons, ads, opinions pieces, and so on. This will demonstrate
mastery of the standard? student’s knowledge of how POV can influence a primary source like a newspaper, report, video, propaganda,
Note: This assessment does not have or declassified records, because they will portray it in their newspaper as if it were them in that time period.
to occur during/after this lesson but
in upcoming lessons.

Summative Evaluation Criteria I would have the following criteria: cause effect relationship, biases/voice (who’s voice in being used, and
- What material(s) will you use to why?), content of articles (omission and inclusion), and intent of articles.
evaluate learning?
- Attach a copy of your checklist,
rubric, observation criteria, or other
measure.

Procedures
Opening: Introduction and Hook- I will introduce the class to the text. I have purposely selected Newpapers during the Cold War from
Connection to Previous Learning Kenosha, Wisconsin and I included cartoons that correspond to the unit. I’m hoping this will spark interest in
● Anticipatory Activity (Hook) the class seeing as they live in Kenosha.
● Activate prior knowledge. Activate prior knowledge- I will ask the students what they already know about the Cold War, about culture,
● Be sure students understand and if anyone has living relatives from the Cold War.
procedures and instructions for Be sure students understand procedures and instructions for the lesson- I will introduce students to coding text
the lesson. and explain how it works by showing the coding rubric (this will appear in the “Curricular and Instructional
● Establish clear expectations. Resources or Materials” below) and hand out the reading.
● Model concept. Establish clear expectations- I will inform students of the learning target, the overall theme of the lesson
The groupings/instruction/lesson (civilian culture during The Cold War), tell them how long they have to read, tell them approximately how
progression may look different in different many notes/codes they should have and the diversity of those notes/codes, and inform them of the questions
parts of the lesson! we will discuss later.
Model Concept- I will demonstrate how to do the task by having the first paragraph or so done to present it,
then I will walk the students through how I got my answers.
During: Lesson Progression Students’ thinking and how they will start the lesson- Students will start the lesson by reading the newspaper of
In this portion of the lesson, you will their choice and once done move onto the next one. The thinking I that students will make connections with
be letting go and letting students the text and code it as time goes on.
engage in productive struggle;
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 engaging in gradual release (“I do, we Provide appropriate support- I will be circulating around the class. Realistically there’s not away they can get
do, you do”), inquiry, guided or their answer wrong as long as they can explain why they choice it for a certain code, because it’s based mor eon
independent practice, or other interpretation and opinion with an element of objectivity. If students need help deciding what to code I can
learning methods. Please write what provide a series of questions that can help them narrow it down: does it makes sense, does this affect the
you are looking for in terms of: broader community/nation, is it something that you would expect to appear in a history book, could you use it
● Students’ thinking and how in a research paper as a compelling argument?
they will start the lesson. Provide worthwhile extensions- We will talk about online archives/databases and how to find these resources
● Provide appropriate support on their own.
(not explaining how to do it). Provide opportunities for students to engage in using the academic language- Students will have the
● Provide worthwhile opportunity to engage in academic language when they read, annotate, and most of all when they discuss as a
extensions. class.
● Provide opportunities for
students to engage in using
the academic language.
This is where you will be suggesting
or modeling specific strategies
and helping students choose which
strategy makes sense to them.
However, you must make sure ideas
come from students.

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 Closing: Wrap-Up and Extension Promote a community of learners + Listen actively and probe thinking without evaluating or telling them how
End the lesson with a final review of you would do it- In this final section we will come back together to share our findings and try to answer
key ideas and knowledge. This is questions related to the learning target that I have provided.
where you have students talk about
their thinking and share strategies
with the whole class. It’s important
to name strategies and use academic
vocabulary here, extending the lesson
to broader ideas.
● Promote a community of
learners.
● Listen actively and probe
thinking without evaluating
or telling them how you
would do it.
Summarize main ideas and identify
future problems that they would be
able to solve using the thinking you
have discussed. Provide a brief
preview of what the next lesson will
include.

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 Curricular and Instructional • Presentation + Link (click here)
Resources or Materials • Handouts + Link (click here)
- List and provide a brief rationale
for all necessary lesson resources and
materials. If not original, cite the
source.
- Attach/link a copy of all materials
the teacher and students will use
during the lesson; e.g., handouts,
questions to answer, slides,
worksheets, and so on.

Supplies, Equipment and • Computer

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Collin Skarzynski
Edu 412
5/5/23

Reading Strategy Reflection

My lesson was on The Cold War, which my students were just starting out on and I

wanted to lay out the foundation of the war involving domestic conflicts and the culture war

during this time.

For this lesson I chose coding as my strategy and chose sense making for the purpose. I

feel that both coding and sense making in the field of history generally are great things to go to,

because history often has so much to read it can be hard to separate the interesting from the

important. On the other hand sensemaking is great, because history does have a static element to

it that everyone knows, but it’s not a clear cut answer we are looking for it’s “how does this event

from the past affect today,” which can have a number of correct answers depending on the

person. It appeared that the students enjoyed this portion of the lesson and got something out of

it. They were somewhat apathetic towards the strategy, but the vast majority of them willingly

participated in both the strategy and the discussion afterwards. I noticed insightful comments

were made at the end of the lesson where I presented a few questions. The students who

answered all made sense of what they had read and came to their own conclusion. I see immense

value in the strategy despite its simplicity. I wish I had more time to demonstrate just how much

it can be used. Overall I would consider this portion of the lessona success and I’m proud of my

students. In the future when I have more time I hope to build upon it to get students’ minds to

think like a historian.

getting better at presenting, having practiced it in my college class beforehand. The visual tool

was a simple rubric for the coding with my example of coding the text next to it. All the students

appeared to catch on with ease and I saw a good portion of the class periodically looking at the

screen to reference the rubric. Coding text is pretty simple compared to other strategies and I

intentionally kept it simple with a total of four codes, which worked in my favor. I’ve learned

from the past that students (like anyone of us) don’t like to be bombarded with overly

complicated presentations. I’ve made a mental note to keep it simple and make sure to achieve

the learning target every time. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of student engagement.

I bombed my previous observation and I had little to no student engagement there, so to have a

decent amount of students and a diverse set of students participate was a heart warming

experience that I hope to foster in the future. The one thing I would improve in the future is

having just a few more critical thinking questions after the initial questions were asked and

maybe an incentive to participate. Overall I kept it simple and organized, which appeared to

appeal to students and foster engagement to a degree.

When it came to incorporating the students' literacy surveys I was initially dumbfounded.

I had no idea what I was going to do. Basically all the kids said they “don’t like reading” and one

kid said that all “books should be burned.” With that being said, beyond recommending the

book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to the book burning kid, I didn't know what to do. I

eventually had an eureka moment where I remembered a lot of the kids like music, T.V., and

anime, so I got creative and found official declassified military documents, newspapers from the

Kenosha area during The Cold War (these were super interesting), and political cartoons.

Unfortunately there was a scheduling issue with the placement and by the time I would get there
they would have passed the time era of the documents, so I had to abandon the interesting

declassified military documents. My thinking was to appeal to a more interesting type of

investigation that sparked a sense of curiosity and excitement without totally relying on reading.

This was based on the idea that some kids do read at home, but they read subtitles on anime, so I

thought if there was some excitement/reward for reading they would enjoy it. I included a

popular political cartoon or PSA of sorts from the time that I thought would continue to foster

that curiosity and appeal to visual learners to a degree. Overall it seemed to be a success.

Students demonstrated sense making perfectly and backed their conclusions up with a bit of

evidence from the text, which was perfect. Most students read for the whole time and were active

in their note taking. Now that I’m writing my reflection it just occurred to me that I left out one

crucial element of the reading, which is music. In the future if I teach this again I will plan on

incorporating music. In this lesson music could have been easily incorporated given the cultural

change during this time. I still remember my high school history teacher using the song. For

What It’s Worth by Buffalo Spring Water to show the civil unrest surrounding the Vietnam War.

I’m sure as I conduct more research there will be other aspects such as art, technology, and

economics that I could incorporate. Despite my omissions the students seemed to enjoy the text

as they were all focused on reading it and they made insightful comments at the end of the

lesson. Overall I used the surveys to implement more action and visual stimulation as noted in

their surveys to appeal to the students, which seemed to work well. In the future I hope to expand

on this to appeal to a wider audience in the field of art, technology, and music.

I noticed improvement to the lesson in three areas: the format of the paper, topics, and the

closing questions/discussion. The format of the papers was something I couldn’t fix as far as I’m

aware. I genuinely wanted to print a large sheet or maybe a life size newspaper page of the
articles from the war I found, but the printers didn’t allow for it. There’s so much more

information to gather from the newspapers that I wish I could have shared. At the very least I

shared the website I got it from. The topics of the newspapers could have been broader. As

previously mentioned I could have easily touched on music and with a little more research I

probably could have expanded to technology and art. I know there are declassified government

documents that I think the students would enjoy like the ones on WW2 that I had to abandon due

to time restraints, but the ones I found on The Cold War were too complicated for the kids.

Unfortunately due to the broad time span of the war and the immense amount of conflicts

students would need a lot of prior knowledge to comprehend what they were reading. That’s

something I would like to use in the future if I can find a student-friendly set of documents.

Finally the closing discussion I thought I did pretty well on, but I should have had additional

back up questions to ask once the initial questions were brought up. Bringing up a question like

“what was the main idea of this article during the war” is a good question, but it becomes a better

question if I then ask, “what does this say about the nation as whole?” In general there is without

a doubt room for improvement in my wrap up questions, content selection, and formatting style

that I look forward to working on in my next clinical placement.

In conclusion I found this exercise to be a success due to the student’s engagement,

success in sense making, and my implementation of the strategy. In the future I hope to teach this

reading strategy even better by adding more content, asking better critical thinking questions,

and formatting the newspapers better.