Lesson Plan Template

Subject: ________________Social Studies______________________________ Grade: _______9_______

Teacher: __________________Tiffany Izzo____________________

Thinking About Planning:

1. Pre Planning Information:

This lesson will make use of a graphic organizer for making inferences. The student should have some experience using graphic

organizers.

As this lesson will demonstrate how background knowledge combines with information provided in a text in order to make an inference,

some background knowledge sufficient to understand a few comic strips will move the lesson forward. For the second half of the lesson,

the background knowledge will be provided to the student. The second half of the lesson will show how knowledge about the recent events

in the Ukraine can be applied to political cartoons in a way that supports inference making.

2. Common Core Learning Standard(s) Addressed:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic

aspects of history/social science.

3. Learning Target(s): (What will students know & be able to do as a result of this lesson?)

Objective: Recognize the process of making an inference by identifying clues from the text and synthesizing this with content knowledge to

draw an inference.

Goal: Use a graphic organizer to analyze comics and practice the process of forming an inference. Apply this same strategy to analyze

political cartoons about the current events in Ukraine.

4. Content Information:

Understanding current events often requires some knowledge of the history that precedes it. Synthesizing this together enhances a student’s

understanding of the world around them and helps them see how history is relevant to the events today. In the case of the events of the

Ukraine, there is a wide range of historical circumstances that can help to shed light on the situation. Some of these events, such as the Cold

War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, are significant events within the content area.

The student should learn how making inferences by synthesizing information can enhance our understanding of current world events. The

political cartoons surrounding the Ukraine and Crimean Crisis build on past events such as the Cold War. Geography also plays a role in

understanding the cartoons. In the end, the student should be able to demonstrate his or her ability to apply the strategy of inference making to political cartoons in order to understand them.

As it is uncertain which of the prior students in lessons will be involved in this lesson, the lesson is designed to work on a strategy that is

relevant to either student.

5. Language Information:

The comics and political cartoons used for this lesson do not necessarily contain much vocabulary that will be difficult to the

student. However, some of the language in the video might be difficult for the student. Content specific language such as

“referendum” and terms about the economic and diplomatic implications of the situation might be new to the student. This can be

addressed in the lesson.

The student will be expected to identify what direct information is being provided by the cartoons, relate this to background

knowledge he or she has, and synthesize this information together in order to make an inference about that the author is implying.

The materials will be shown to the student along with a graphic organizer, which will be explained and then demonstrated in

practice with the student. I will explain to the student that the purpose of the first part of the lesson with the comics and graphic

organizer is to practice making inferences so that we can apply this to political cartoons in a similar manner.

Thinking About Instruction

6. Engagement/Motivation The student has probably had some interaction with comics and this part of the lesson is planned to have fun and engage his or her attention. Also, there

will be a fun video used to explain the recent events in the Ukraine. Hopefully, this will help the student retain the information better than reading an

article on the events.

7. Explicit Instruction

Direct Instruction-

I will begin the lesson by asking the student if he knows what “inference” means. I will say, “An inference is a conclusion that we can

make by using evidence. Sometimes this process can be difficult to understand, but there are times that we do it without realizing what we

are doing. For example, when we read comics, we are often using background knowledge to make inferences in order to understand the

joke.”

I will confirm that the student understands the meaning of inference and set the purpose of the lesson, “Today, we are going to use a

graphic organizer to help us understand how we make inferences when we read comics. After that, we will try to apply this strategy to

political cartoons using background knowledge.”

I will introduce the graphic organizer by reading the titles of each of the three columns and explaining what we will be writing in them and

the purpose of doing so.

Next, I will give a copy of the graphic organizer to the student and say, “I am going to read this first comic and then fill out each of the columns by moving from left to right.”

I will read one of the comics about Calvin and Hobbes and think aloud by asking myself, “What is happening in this comic?” and use this

to fill out the first column.

Next, I will ask, “What do I know about what is going on in this comic that might help me understand the joke?” and note this in the second

column.

I will then think aloud to connect this information and say the point of the joke, which I will note in the third column.

Before moving to a second example, I will confirm that the student understood why I wrote each item in each column.

I will continue onto another comic, filling out the columns accordingly while the student does so as well.

Guided Practice-

After confirming that the student understands how to fill out the chart, I will say to the student, “We will read the next one together and fill

it out.”

The next comic used is one that has the Nike logo on it. This is something that the student will most likely recognize right away. I will ask, “What is happening in this comic?” We will note this in the first column.

Next, I will ask, “What information did you know that the comic does not directly say?” The student should say that he recognizes the Nike

swoosh and knows the motto, “Just do it.” I will ask him where we should right this and we will right it in the second column.

We will do another example together to ensure he is comfortable with the strategy.

Independent practice

I will instruct the student to try the next comic on his own, while monitoring his ability to use the chart successfully. If necessary, there will

be another comic for him to repeat the strategy again on his own.

Direct Instruction-

I will transition to the next part of the lesson and return to direct instruction.

I will ask the student if he has heard anything about the current events in Ukraine. I will explain that we will be looking at political cartoons

concerning this particular current event, but that first we will review some information so that we have the background knowledge to make

inferences. I will remind him how it was helpful to have background knowledge when reading the comics and explain that this applies to

political cartoons as well.

Next, I will choose one of two videos I have explaining the events in Ukraine based on the amount of background knowledge he already

has. One of the videos has more information, but the other video is more engaging if he already has some knowledge

After watching the video, I will summarize the information and confirm that he understands the basic facts of what is happening.

I will say, “Now I will look at the first political cartoon and see if I can fill out my chart like we did with the comics.”

The first comic shows a woman, “Russia” dragging a man, “Ukraine” away from a chair next to “West” and I will write this down in the

first column.

I will say out loud, “What do I know about these three places that might help me interpret what is going on?” and I will write this in the

next column.

Next, I will think out loud while I synthesize this information in order to write my inference, “Russia is using force to pull the Ukraine

away from the West.”

I will repeat this with another example.

Guided Practice-

I will ask the student to look at the next comic and say, “What do you see in this cartoon?” and we will note this in the first column. (This comic shows a bike rack and a cut chain.)

Next, I will say, “So what information or background knowledge do you remember that might help us understand what has happened?” and

the student should recognize that Crimea was a part of Ukraine, but is now part of Russia. We will note this together.

I will ask the student, “What do you need to infer in order to understand the joke?” and he should be able to recognize that the stolen bike is

Crimea.

We will do at least one more example together.

Independent practice

I will ask the student to try the next cartoon on his own, while monitoring his ability to use the chart and successfully apply the background

knowledge to the cartoon.

It is possible that the student might still struggle with this as political cartoons sometimes have more complex inferences than comics. If

needed, I will continue to do it with him in guided practice.

Closure:

I will ask the student if the graphic organizer was helpful to him in understanding how to make inferences. I will remind him how

combining evidence and background knowledge is important to making inferences.

Thinking About Assessment:

8. Type of assessment

The assessment for this lesson will be formative and the success of the lesson will be determined by the ability of the student to use the

graphic organizer and understand the jokes behind the comics and political cartoons.

4. Resources/Materials:

A collection of comics and political cartoons will be used. These will be printed individually as to not overwhelm the student with information.

A choice of two videos will be shown. These will be pre-downloaded onto my laptop.

Several copies of a graphic organizer for making inferences.

5. Reflection:

The student really seemed to have fun with this lesson. He laughed at the comics and successfully filled out the graphic organizer. The first

part of the lesson, which addressed inferences in comics, went relatively smoothly. For the most part, he laughed at each comic right after

reading it, which means he was making the inferences on his own. This was helpful because it allowed me to focus on breaking down how

he was able to figure out the joke in order to fill out the columns in the graphic organizer. [Student B], which is the student I worked with in

the prior lesson, is quick to jump right in and I was able to slow him down enough for him to understand his own thought process. At first, I was afraid that he might dismiss the purpose of using to chart because he understood the comics easily, but I think the fact that it was fun to

read the comics kept him engaged. Also, because I had set the purpose in the beginning as we would be applying the strategy to understand

political cartoons, he was more invested in understanding the “easier” part of the lesson so that the “harder” part would be more

understandable. Unexpectedly, [Student B] did not have the background knowledge to understand one of the comics and I had to adjust by

explaining the joke to him. I tried to help him draw the clues from the comic. It was two wizards playing Monopoly, which with some

scaffolding I was able to guide him into figuring this out so we could fill out the chart. However, I quickly recognized that he did not get

the Lord of the Rings reference of “You shall not pass!” either. For reasons of time, I thought it best not to spend time elaborating on the

comic and overwhelm him with unnecessary information. Not surprisingly, he did not find that particular comic that funny. It was fine

because we were able to do another example together.

Also, when moving into the second part of the lesson, I had anticipated him having heard something about Ukraine as it was all over the

news, but when asked, he quickly said he knew absolutely nothing about it. In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. I opted for the

video with more information, which turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The room was too loud and I quickly realized he was just getting

lost. I decided to change course and move to the other video as it was more engaging and moved slower. I figured that I could pause the

video and explain the facts a bit on my own. (Luckily for me, I had spent enough time trying to find the “right” video for the lesson that I

was very comfortable with the facts at that point.) In the end, I ended up pausing the video on the map of Europe as I could tell I was losing

[Student B]’s engagement. I used the map to explain it in my own words, which allowed me to slow the pace enough that I could confirm

that he was following. I was surprised to learn that [Student B] did not even know that much about the Cold War. When I knew that I had

given him at least the background knowledge to get through the political cartoons and the graphic organizer successfully, I moved to the

next part of the lesson.

I had intentionally picked political cartoons that consisted of one frame each in an effort to make the inferences more attainable, this

worked out well in the lesson. Also, they were slightly repetitive in themes. I made sure to do direct instruction on selected cartoons that

covered each theme. So when I asked [Student B] to try to make inferences, he was able to connect them to ones I had made. This made

this part of the lesson a little easer as I knew that political cartoons would probably be very difficult for him otherwise. While we were able

to move successfully through the cartoons and the graphic organizer, [Student B] did not reach a point of comfortable independent practice.

This was expected though and I still think he was able to understand the strategy.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this lesson. The student was very engaged in the lesson, despite lacking a lot of the background

knowledge. I am also pleased with my ability to adjust the section about the video to the student’s ability and I was able to effectively

communicate the information he needed in a manner that was actually better than a flashy video. He was more engaged in my explanation

than he was in the video. In a different setting, I could have done some things differently. For example, I had considered doing a lesson

with a K-W-L chart on the Ukraine Crisis first and then pushing this lesson to the next week as a follow-up, but I was unsure if I would

have the same student. Having done the lesson, I can see how this could be stretched out to include several strategies as well as a wide

range of content area information. The most satisfying part of this lesson for me was that [Student B] was genuinely interested in what was

happening in Ukraine. When I asked him if he wanted to do more on it next week, he quickly said yes. It was nice to be able to effectively

show him a strategy, while getting him to learn something new.

On a side note, [Student B] asked to keep the work he did so he could show his mom that he was actually doing something after school. I did take a picture, but it was interesting to see how a student is affected by outside circumstances. He also displayed some typical

adolescent annoyance with his mom. It was kind of funny.