Cory+Sprague+LEDP

Learning Environment Design Project Cory Sprague A group of Honors Freshmen are beginning a unit on the Holocaust using the memoir //Night// as their primary text. The introduction to this unit includes the essential question: //How could almost 90% of Germans condone the behavior of the Nazi regime and deny knowing about the atrocities that were taking place?// The week before the class begins reading the novel, the classroom will take part in becoming familiar with some of the domain-specific vocabulary of the Holocaust. After the class has had time to review the vocabulary on Friday, the teacher will inform them that – since it’s Friday – they will be playing some team games.
 * INTRODUCTION**

The primary principal of learning involved in this activity is the Self-Knowledge Principal. While the game that the students will be playing will have activities and content that is completely unrelated to the content area, by the end of the game the students will (hopefully) learn a valuable lesson about themselves and be able to answer the essential question.
 * PRINCIPALS OF LEARNING**


 * **Lesson Title/Description/Classroom Subject/Level:**


 * Finding the Light in Night**
 * This lesson will prepare and introduce students to the upcoming memoir Night by going over vocabulary and posing the essential question:**

//How could almost 90% of Germans condone the behavior of the Nazi regime and deny knowing about the atrocities that were taking place?//


 * Honors English**
 * Freshmen** ||
 * **Time Allotted for this Lesson: 50 min** ||
 * **Goals:**


 * RL.9-10.6 Analyze a particular view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide range of world literature.** |||| **Objectives:**


 * Use your experience to help you answer the essential question in a minimum of three sentences.** ||
 * **Pre-Requisite Knowledge and/or Skills:**


 * Students will need to know how to analyze an activity to understand its importance to answering an essential question.**


 * How I know the students have this:**


 * Students may not be able to do this without the scaffolding that will be provided in the form of a short video clip at the end of the activity that directly links the activity to the question.** ||
 * **Materials:**


 * Essential question**
 * Game trivia questions**
 * Garbage bag and paper wads**
 * Paper airplanes**
 * Holocaust Vocab PowerPoint link:**

[|**http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/through-the-wormhole/are-we-all-bigots/**] ||
 * Video clip: Through the Wormhole: Are we all bigots? (clip name: Brain workings of competition)**
 * ** Procedure: Teacher Does** || ** Procedure: Students Do** ||
 * **Time**
 * 15** |||| **Motivation/Hook/Anticipatory Set:**


 * Teacher will begin class by telling the students that the essential question for today (above).**
 * The teacher will then begin reviewing some of the vocabulary for the next chapter on the Holocaust through an informative powerpoint.** || **Motivation/Hook/Anticipatory Set:**


 * Students will begin to think about the essential question and follow along with the powerpoint, taking notes on the words.** ||
 * **5** |||| **Teaching/Guided Practice/Independent Practice:**


 * Teacher will then tell the students that since it is Friday, they will finish class by playing a game and that this game has nothing to do with school.**
 * The teacher will then split up the students in the class so that every other student has to move to the opposite side of the room.**
 * Once the sides are reorganized, the teacher will designate a blue and red team.** || **Teaching/Guided Practice/Independent Practice:**


 * Students will be excited to do something that doesn’t relate to school and willingly switch sides and listen to game rules and instructions.** ||
 * **20** |||| **Teaching/Guided Practice/Independent Practice:**


 * The teacher will then begin the games. The first game will have a random team member from each team play. The game will require each team member to attempt to throw wads of paper into a trashcan. The first team to score a point wins.**
 * The second game will be a round of trivia questions. The red team will get a chance to answer two and the blue team will get a chance to answer two.**
 * The next game will have two new team members. These new members will each throw a paper airplane as far as they can to see who the winner is.**
 * After that game, the teacher will facilitate two more trivia questions per team.**
 * During the games the teacher will not address any cheating and quickly transition from game to game, giving points to winners.** || **Teaching/Guided Practice/Independent Practice:**


 * During the games the students will complain of fairness of judging and possibility of cheating. The will also be encouraging cheering for their teams, and booing the other.** ||
 * **7** |||| **Teaching/Guided Practice/Independent Practice:**


 * The teacher will quickly end the game unceremoniously with the final trivia question and play the Through the Wormhole clip.**


 * Once the clip is over, the teacher will ask the students to spend 3 minutes answering the essential question based on what they learned from playing the game and watching the clip.** || **Teaching/Guided Practice/Independent Practice:**


 * The students will realize that the clip shows them just how our brains work by creating “in” groups and taking pleasure whenever the “out” groups suffer, whether it be in a simple game or on a larger scale.**


 * For many students this will be enough information to answer the essential question and complete the objective.** ||
 * **3** |||| **Closure:**


 * In the close the teacher will ask the students why they thought he played the clip and how it related to the class game.** || **Closure:**


 * A student will volunteer to read or talk about what he/she wrote and their possible answer to the essential question.** ||
 * **Meeting Varying Needs of Students:**


 * Students not able to learn the lesson from the materials given will still be given the opportunity to realize connections when they are talked about at the close of class.** ||
 * **Assessment**
 * 1) **__Evidence__ collected during/as a result of this lesson:**


 * The teacher will be able to assess whether or not students can answer the essential question about the point of view of a German during WWII.** ||

CONCLUSION This lesson was actually implemented in class. The students were completely caught off guard because they really believed that the games were just for a little Friday fun. After I played the video, some if not most of them were kind of shocked about how they acted and the immediate alliances they formed when they were arbitrarily grouped together against another team. Many of the students were able to make the connections necessary on their own to learn the lesson and complete the learning goal for the day.