Title of Lesson: Annotating World War II

Objective: MN, US History Standards 9.4.4.21.4…explain the factors that lead the United States to

choose a side for war.

Skills Acquired Previously: Students have watched the following YouTube video describing how to

annotate YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_1gFURRQA 

Activate Prior Knowledge: Have students pay close attention to a short skit you perform. It will be

silent. Then tell them to watch it the second time. Have students pause when they want to add an

annotation to the skit. Students may write their annotations on the white board next to the teacher.

Remind students of the variety of annotations they can use on YouTube and encourage them to be

creative.

Lesson Activities:

1.  Introduce Animoto and have student login to the school account in order to create videos

longer than thirty seconds. http://animoto.com/ 

2.  Students will create videos about German Expansion before WWII

a.  Form their research on German Expansion have them choose three pictures and one

video.

b.  There should be no words or titles on their film.

c.  When complete upload the video to YouTube

3.  Annotate the Animoto video in You Tube

a.  Add annotations that explain your pictures

b.  Follow the rubric on how to summarize events

Closure: Have the students watch each video and evaluate how well the materials are presented.

Assessment: Watch each video and grade based on a rubric. Also pay close attention to what

annotations students are making and ask questions to help them reflect on German Expansion.

 

Title of Lesson: Summarizing Letters from the Civil War

Objective: MN, US History Standards 9.4.4.19.4 Describe significant individuals, groups and institutions

involved in the struggle for rights for African-Americans…. 

Skills Acquired Previously: Students skimmed one primary source in the previous lesson, highlighting

main ideas and blacking-out details. Students have also reported about some of the individuals they will

be reading about today.

Activate Prior Knowledge: Tell a story about something that’s happen in the last week, students will

then sort ten ideas from that story into main ideas or details. Represent these ideas graphically on the

SMART board. Have students drag them into the right column.

Lesson Activities:

1.  Students will use an iPad to create a personal story about something that happened to

them in junior high school (school appropriate please). They will take a two minute video of 

themselves telling the story.

2.  Then they will switch iPads with another student and listen to the story to complete the

following activity

a.  Listen to the story once through without stopping

b.  Decide on two main ideas, draw a picture that represents these ideas

c.  Write down five details that would not be included in your summary

d.  Write a summary in four sentences.

e.  Pair with another student and read your summaries.

f.  Critique the summary of your partner (make sure there is no repetition)

3.  Then students will read the letters from African Americans during the Civil War

a.  Complete steps a-f in Activity 2

Closure: Have the class synthesize their work into a Venn diagram representing the similarities and

differences of their summaries.

Assessment: Circulate the class during each phase of part two and help scaffold student learning

toward the desire outcomes. Let students work independently during part three and grade the

assignments formally (through their individual summaries) and informally (through the class Diagram).

 

Title of Lesson: Comparing the American Revolution to

the Arab Spring in Wikispaces

Objective: MN, US History Standards 9.4.4.17.2 Analyze the American revolutionaries’ justifications,

principles and ideals as expressed in the Declaration of Independence; identify the sources of the

principles and ideals and their impact on subsequent revolutions in Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin

America.

Skills Acquired Previously: Comparison skills have been taught in previous lessons. Students should be

familiar with Wikispaces before the project.

Activate Prior Knowledge: Help students understand what justification means. Give students scenarios

that require a decision to be made. Then poll them using Poll Everywhere Discuss whether their choices

could be justified. http://www.polleverywhere.com/ 

Lesson Activities:

1.  Students will start by defining the American Revolution and the Arab Spring.

a.  Record these definitions as Wikispaces pages (one each).

i.  http://www.wikispaces.com/ 

b.  Each Definition should have two supporting pictures.

2.  Compare the two uprisings

a.  On a separate wiki page, discuss the similarities and differences

i.  Link this pages to the other two pages

ii.  Include at least two pictures on this pages as well

iii.  Hyperlink to your sources by connecting them to important ideas in the

body of your pages.

Closure: Have students work in pairs to describe the similarities and differences. One student should

speak only of similarities and the other only of differences.

Assessment: Circulate as students are making their wikis. Ask clarifying questions and record at least

ten student responses as an audio file on your iPad.