Rationale:
· This is the fourth lesson in my work sample unit focusing on American Imperialism during the Spanish-American War. In the previous three lessons the students have become familiar with the various factors that drive nations to establish empires, vocabulary terms commonly utilized during the age of imperialism that the students will be exposed to repeatedly in lectures, texts, and educational videos, the pro-imperialist perspective, and the perspective of conquered indigenous populations.
· The particular strategy that I will be utilizing during this lesson is a read aloud activity of the graphic history text that I have provided the students with for this lesson combined with the students taking notes on the chapter by filling out a graphic organizer in the form of a text based scavenger hunt. I believe that this strategy will give the students a fun and educational way to interact with the text. I feel that a graphic based history text will be very accessible and engaging for my students and will be a nice change for them from the conventional textbooks they ordinarily use in school. Additionally, by having the students complete this graphic organizer the students will be benefiting from the kinesthetic learning effect of recording the pertinent information through writing this information down by hand.
· This is the fourth lesson in my work sample unit focusing on American Imperialism during the Spanish-American War. In the previous three lessons the students have become familiar with the various factors that drive nations to establish empires, vocabulary terms commonly utilized during the age of imperialism that the students will be exposed to repeatedly in lectures, texts, and educational videos, the pro-imperialist perspective, and the perspective of conquered indigenous populations.
· The particular strategy that I will be utilizing during this lesson is a read aloud activity of the graphic history text that I have provided the students with for this lesson combined with the students taking notes on the chapter by filling out a graphic organizer in the form of a text based scavenger hunt. I believe that this strategy will give the students a fun and educational way to interact with the text. I feel that a graphic based history text will be very accessible and engaging for my students and will be a nice change for them from the conventional textbooks they ordinarily use in school. Additionally, by having the students complete this graphic organizer the students will be benefiting from the kinesthetic learning effect of recording the pertinent information through writing this information down by hand.
· SWBAT articulate the history of Cuba’s revolutionary movement prior to the intervention of the U.S. in the civil war between Spanish colonial authorities and the Cuban insurgents.
· SWBAT comprehend and elucidate the racial undertones involved in the Cuban people’s struggle for independence.
· SWBAT identify and explain the U.S. written propaganda that led America to become embroiled in the Cuban conflict.
· SWBAT explain how at the end of their war against Spain, the Cuban people declared their nation to be independent, when in reality they were now under the political/military rule of the United States
· SWBAT comprehend and elucidate the racial undertones involved in the Cuban people’s struggle for independence.
· SWBAT identify and explain the U.S. written propaganda that led America to become embroiled in the Cuban conflict.
· SWBAT explain how at the end of their war against Spain, the Cuban people declared their nation to be independent, when in reality they were now under the political/military rule of the United States
· Students will be assessed in a summative fashion through their successful completion of the text-scavenger hunt graphic organizer that I have designed for this lesson.
· Students will be assessed in a formative fashion through class discussions of the graphic text that the class will be utilizing during a read-aloud activity.
· HS.2. Analyze the complexity and investigate causes and effects of significant events in world, U.S., and Oregon history.
· HS.6. Analyze ideas critical to the understanding of history, including, but not limited to: populism, progressivism, isolationism, imperialism, communism, environmentalism, liberalism, fundamentalism, racism, ageism, classism, conservatism, cultural diversity, feminism, and sustainability.
· HS.10. Evaluate a historical source for point of view and historical context.
· HS.28. Evaluate how governments interact at the local, state, tribal, national, and global levels.
· HS.31. Describe United States foreign policy and evaluate its impact on the United States and other countries.
· HS.60. Analyze an event, issue, problem, or phenomenon from varied or opposing perspectives or points of view.
· HS.63. Engage in informed and respectful deliberation and discussion of issues, events, and ideas.
· HS.6. Analyze ideas critical to the understanding of history, including, but not limited to: populism, progressivism, isolationism, imperialism, communism, environmentalism, liberalism, fundamentalism, racism, ageism, classism, conservatism, cultural diversity, feminism, and sustainability.
· HS.10. Evaluate a historical source for point of view and historical context.
· HS.28. Evaluate how governments interact at the local, state, tribal, national, and global levels.
· HS.31. Describe United States foreign policy and evaluate its impact on the United States and other countries.
· HS.60. Analyze an event, issue, problem, or phenomenon from varied or opposing perspectives or points of view.
· HS.63. Engage in informed and respectful deliberation and discussion of issues, events, and ideas.
Time: This lesson will take 1-2 standard fifty-minute class periods to complete.
· Copies of modified Chapter Two from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of American Empire OR Chapter Twelve from Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of The United States.
· Text Based Scavenger Hunt Graphic Organizer
· Story of The U.S.S. Maine Video
· Text Based Scavenger Hunt Graphic Organizer
· Story of The U.S.S. Maine Video
· At the beginning of the lesson I will be making the students aware of our agenda and purpose for the day’s lesson. I will be writing the agenda and the goal for the day on the board so I and the students can refer back to it throughout the lesson, as can the many students that invariably come to class late. These students will be able to refer to the goals and agenda until I am able to detach myself from the rest of the class and personally catch them up on what we will be doing in class today.
· I will explain to the students that our goals for today we will be learning about the history of the Cuban people’s struggle for independence form the Spanish Empire and how the United States became involved in that conflict. We will also be investigating how America utilized this conflict between Spain and colonial insurgents to acquire former Spanish colonies for our nation’s own benefit.
· I will further explain to the students that we will be accomplishing these goals by conducting a read-aloud activity of a text I have prepared for their use and by their participating in a scavenger hunt for information contained in the reading material and completing a graphic organizer with the information they collected during the hunt.
· My anticipatory set will be to ask the students if they can tell me how wars start and if they can provide me with examples. After we discuss the examples that they come up, usually how there is a single cause that is utilized as justification for entering a conflict. After this discussion I will play a six minute clip describing the events surrounding the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine and it's role in sparking the Spanish-American War. Before airing the video I will explain to the students that often wars predicated on false information and propaganda based upon this information. The sinking of the U.S.S. Maine is most often cited as the reason for America’s entry into the Cuban conflict and by extension war with the Spanish Empire. I wanted to expose them to the most commonly cited cause of the Spanish-American War, since we will be reading about other less known incidents and rationales for U.S. intervention in the Cuban rebellion. I will instruct the students to take three notes on the role the U.S.S. Maine played in the events leading up to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War that we will discuss after the video.
· This will lesson will connect to previous lessons where the students have become familiar with the aspects, driving factors, and vocabulary associated with the age of Imperialism, by having the students learn about the process through which the United States acquired its own colonies.
· I will explain to the students that our goals for today we will be learning about the history of the Cuban people’s struggle for independence form the Spanish Empire and how the United States became involved in that conflict. We will also be investigating how America utilized this conflict between Spain and colonial insurgents to acquire former Spanish colonies for our nation’s own benefit.
· I will further explain to the students that we will be accomplishing these goals by conducting a read-aloud activity of a text I have prepared for their use and by their participating in a scavenger hunt for information contained in the reading material and completing a graphic organizer with the information they collected during the hunt.
· My anticipatory set will be to ask the students if they can tell me how wars start and if they can provide me with examples. After we discuss the examples that they come up, usually how there is a single cause that is utilized as justification for entering a conflict. After this discussion I will play a six minute clip describing the events surrounding the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine and it's role in sparking the Spanish-American War. Before airing the video I will explain to the students that often wars predicated on false information and propaganda based upon this information. The sinking of the U.S.S. Maine is most often cited as the reason for America’s entry into the Cuban conflict and by extension war with the Spanish Empire. I wanted to expose them to the most commonly cited cause of the Spanish-American War, since we will be reading about other less known incidents and rationales for U.S. intervention in the Cuban rebellion. I will instruct the students to take three notes on the role the U.S.S. Maine played in the events leading up to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War that we will discuss after the video.
· This will lesson will connect to previous lessons where the students have become familiar with the aspects, driving factors, and vocabulary associated with the age of Imperialism, by having the students learn about the process through which the United States acquired its own colonies.
· I will then transition to the central activity by informing the students that we will now be moving on to our Read-Aloud Activity, of our graphic text. I will explain what a Read-Aloud activity is when handing out their modified copies of Chapter Two from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the American Empire.
( If you are teaching this unit in an academic setting where the use of the graphic textbook is unfeasible, you can simply substitute it with Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States, Chapter Twelve, "The American Empire", page.185-192. Much of the same information is presented in the alternative text so the accompanying materials can still be utilized in place of the graphic text if circumstances in your school do not allow you to employ a graphic textbook in your classroom.)
· This lesson will be exposing the students to multicultural perspectives of the events surrounding America’s involvement in the Spanish-American War and the Cuban people’s struggle for independence from Spain.
· As I hand out these packets I will also be distributing their scavenger hunt graphic organizers; I will read through the document and explain what they will be looking for in the text. I will also tell the students that they should try to at least partially fill out the graphic organizer as we conduct the Read-Aloud activity.
· However, they should not worry about trying to complete the entire scavenger hunt as we read along, because when we are done, they will be splitting up into pairs to complete the scavenger hunt handout.
· I will then begin the Read-aloud Activity by modeling for the students how to read a graphic text aloud. I will also explain to the students that if they volunteer to read a section of the document aloud for the class, they will not have to read all the roles by themselves. I or another volunteer will read character’s lines in conjunction with them so they do not have to be a one student show all by themselves.
· As we read through the chapter as a class I will be stopping periodically to address key issues or important information in the text that I would like to discuss as a group. Moreover, many of these stopping points will include content that the students will need to compile for their scavenger hunt handout.
· Also I will be stopping periodically to have the students examine primary source documents that are woven throughout the Graphic Text in order to give the students a first-hand perspective of how contemporary individuals viewed the events from the text.
( If you are teaching this unit in an academic setting where the use of the graphic textbook is unfeasible, you can simply substitute it with Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States, Chapter Twelve, "The American Empire", page.185-192. Much of the same information is presented in the alternative text so the accompanying materials can still be utilized in place of the graphic text if circumstances in your school do not allow you to employ a graphic textbook in your classroom.)
· This lesson will be exposing the students to multicultural perspectives of the events surrounding America’s involvement in the Spanish-American War and the Cuban people’s struggle for independence from Spain.
· As I hand out these packets I will also be distributing their scavenger hunt graphic organizers; I will read through the document and explain what they will be looking for in the text. I will also tell the students that they should try to at least partially fill out the graphic organizer as we conduct the Read-Aloud activity.
· However, they should not worry about trying to complete the entire scavenger hunt as we read along, because when we are done, they will be splitting up into pairs to complete the scavenger hunt handout.
· I will then begin the Read-aloud Activity by modeling for the students how to read a graphic text aloud. I will also explain to the students that if they volunteer to read a section of the document aloud for the class, they will not have to read all the roles by themselves. I or another volunteer will read character’s lines in conjunction with them so they do not have to be a one student show all by themselves.
· As we read through the chapter as a class I will be stopping periodically to address key issues or important information in the text that I would like to discuss as a group. Moreover, many of these stopping points will include content that the students will need to compile for their scavenger hunt handout.
· Also I will be stopping periodically to have the students examine primary source documents that are woven throughout the Graphic Text in order to give the students a first-hand perspective of how contemporary individuals viewed the events from the text.
· After the Read-Aloud activity is finished, I will have students split up into groups of three-four, and as a group they will work together to finish their scavenger hunt handout. Undoubtedly, some students will have collected pieces of information different than those collected their counterparts; this will allow the students to discuss and share information among themselves, until each of them has a completed graphic organizer.
· I will then bring the class back together so we can review the answers to their scavenger hunt. This will enable the students to correct any errors their group made before handing this deliverable in for me to grade. I will ask students to share their answers with the class so the students themselves can provide the answers, not me. This should help to bolster the student’s confidence in their own work as well as help develop their class discussion/public speaking skills.
· After we have finished reviewing the answers, I will debrief the lesson with the students. This will not only give me an opportunity to gauge the student’s level of comprehension of the material we covered in the lesson, but will also provide me with a chance to probe the students to see if they liked utilizing the graphic textbook I provided them excerpt from. If they enjoyed working with the material, then I will precede my plan to utilize the next chapter in the same text to teach the students about how America acquired the Philippines during the Spanish-American War.
· After the discussion/debriefing session has ended, if there is time left in the period I will proceed to ask the students clean up their work space while the students go around the room and verbally communicate to me one new fact that they learned today as an exit ticket.
· Class dismissed.
· I will then bring the class back together so we can review the answers to their scavenger hunt. This will enable the students to correct any errors their group made before handing this deliverable in for me to grade. I will ask students to share their answers with the class so the students themselves can provide the answers, not me. This should help to bolster the student’s confidence in their own work as well as help develop their class discussion/public speaking skills.
· After we have finished reviewing the answers, I will debrief the lesson with the students. This will not only give me an opportunity to gauge the student’s level of comprehension of the material we covered in the lesson, but will also provide me with a chance to probe the students to see if they liked utilizing the graphic textbook I provided them excerpt from. If they enjoyed working with the material, then I will precede my plan to utilize the next chapter in the same text to teach the students about how America acquired the Philippines during the Spanish-American War.
· After the discussion/debriefing session has ended, if there is time left in the period I will proceed to ask the students clean up their work space while the students go around the room and verbally communicate to me one new fact that they learned today as an exit ticket.
· Class dismissed.