Lesson #1

Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?

The purpose of this lesson is to define what a leader is and what characteristics
make a person a leader. Students will learn how they can be leaders in their community.
This leadership lesson will lead into our social studies content about Christopher
Columbus.
Prior learning How will you make connections to prior learning?
Students will make connections to this lesson by thinking of the characteristics
leaders in their life have. They will think back to previous information and knowledge
they know about Christopher Columbus.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make
connections to your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in
the learning activities you have planned?
All the students in the class act as a leader in one-way or another. Leaders are
important for our society and students need to think of these leadership skills because
they are skills they will need the rest of their lives. Students enjoy working in groups, so
for part of the lesson I will split them up into groups. This should motivate them to learn
and do the work because they will be able to communicate and collaborate with each
other. Many of the students are visual learners and like things in an organized format,
which is difficult for some of them to do on their own, so I will supply a graphic
organizer.

Content Outline

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/ sequence of activities

(include what you and the students will be doing that
supports diverse student needs)

-State purpose/Explain Unit [2 min]

- The purpose of this lesson is to define what a

leader is and what makes a person a leader. Students will
learn how they can be leaders in their community. Later on
in the lesson we will be talking a previous leader in history
and discussing his life to figure out if he really should be
considered a leader.

-Fishbowl style discussion

5 students in the middle at a time

-Discussion questions

What are some characteristics of a leader?

Who are some leaders in your life?
Who are some historical leaders you know? And
what have they done to be considered a leader?
What makes a good leader?
How/where can you be a leader?

Why does our community need good leaders?

What does the word discovery mean?
What kind of things can be discovered?

During this class activity I will be facilitating the questions

and making lists on chart paper so we can reference the lists
throughout the unit. The students will be participating and
answering these questions as a whole class. This will be
more discussion formatted and interactive than a typical
lecture.

--Activate and assess the students

prior knowledge on Columbus (I will
give a diagnostic assessment to see
what they know. As 4th graders they
should have a general idea of who he
is and his voyage from either
learning it in previous years or
Columbus Day activities. I am not
expecting they know Columbus
interaction with the islands native
people and his intentions for finding
the New Land) [20 min]

-Students will be split into 6 groups of 4. Each group will

receive a graphic organizer consisting of four squares. Each
square will contain one question. The students are to discuss
what they already know about these questions. A different
student will write what the group talks about in each square.
During this activity I will be walking around and listening
to the groups discuss. When necessary I will ask probing
question to keep the students thinking.
-Graphic Organizer Questions

-Tie the discussion and prior

knowledge activity together to see
what the students think of Columbus
before they learn the real story [10
min]

Why did Columbus want to sail to find new

land?
Where did Columbus end up when he
reached land and what did he find?
What do you think the Native Americans
thought of Columbus and his men?
What happened to the Native Americas
after the arrival of Columbus?

-Each student will receive a post it

-There will be two pieces of chart paper, one marked
Christopher Columbus was a leader and one marked
Christopher was NOT a leader
-Students will take their post it note and vote on whether
they think he was or was not a leader
-These posters will be revisited at the end of the unit

Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One two statements that
you will say at the end of the lesson)
Our purpose today was to discuss characteristics of a leader and to determine what we
already know about Columbus. We then put these two topics together to see if the class
thinks Columbus is a leader. Tomorrow we will learn more about the voyage Columbus
went on and what he did when he got to the new land.
Assignment What independent work will be assigned?
Write two paragraphs (10 sentences) about one of the following
1) A leader in your life and what makes them a leader? List specific characteristics
this person has. Do they have any negative qualities?
2) A historical leader and what they did to become a leader? Have you
heard/read/learned about anything negative this historical character has done?

Lesson # 2
Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?
Our purpose today is to read two books about Christopher Columbus. Each book
is written from a different perspective and we will be able to emphasize with other groups
of people whose perspectives are usually not addressed when talking about Columbus
sailing the ocean blue in 1492.
Prior learning How will you make connections to prior learning?
One of the books is the standard information that is taught about Christopher
Columbus, so students will recognize most of this story. One of the activities involves
news sources. At MAS the students are constantly researching and reading science news.
The activity in todays lesson will involve their skills in finding articles, and the activity
will aid the students in the future when they are reading their science news articles.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make connections to
your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in the learning activities
you have planned?
The students enjoy reading and being read to, so having childrens literature read during a
social studies lesson will be enjoyable and they will be engaged. Students enjoy using the
new iPad set the school recently got, so having part of the lesson on the iPads they will be
motivated and excited to do the activity.

Content Outline

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/ sequence of activities

(include what you and the students will be doing that
supports diverse student needs)

-Introduce lesson and define the term -Did you know that a story can be different depending on
perspective (5 min)
who is telling it?
-An author writes from a certain perspective or point of
view when telling a story.
-Point of view refers to who tells us a story and how it is
told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a
story are shaped by the authors point of view.
-Yesterday we talked about the facts we already knew about
Columbus. We know he sailed from Spain and wanted to
find the Indies. He ended up landing on America, where
some people already lived. He called these people the
Indians. Did you ever wonder what the story of a Native
American would sound like if they were telling it? How
might that same story be different if a European told it?

-Read the Book Christopher

Columbus: A Great Explorer by
Carol Greene.
This is a book about Christopher
Columbus and the traditional story
students are usually taught. (15
min)

-I will read this book out loud to the class, stopping

occasionally to ask questions, define words, and ask for
predictions in order to keep the lesson interactive and the
students involved.
Discussion Questions following Read aloud

-Preview/definitions preceding
second childrens book
Encounter by Jane Yolen (5 min)

What parts of this book were familiar to you and had

you learned before?
Was there anything that happened in the book that
you had not known happened?
Whose perspective was this story told from?

-Taino-A tribe of Native Americans who lived on the coast

of San Salvador upon the arrival of Columbus. The Taino
called the land Guanahani after the islands many iguanas.
The Taino were people who wore gold nose rings and gold
armbands, sometimes painted their faces and bodies, and
always greeted strangers with a feast.
-What do you think the word Encounter means?
-What do you think is pictured on the cover?

Read the book Encounter by Jane

Yolen (20 min)
This is a book told by a Taino child.
This is a different perspective of the
story of Columbus than the children
are used to. Hearing this story will
open their minds and allow them to
think that maybe all the information
they had learned in the past about

-I will read this book out loud to the class, stopping

occasionally to ask questions, define words, and ask for
predictions in order to keep the lesson interactive and the
students involved. The predictions are more important in
this book than the previous book because majority of the
students do not know the story from this perspective and
will really have to use their making an inference skills since
they will not previously know what is going to happen.

Columbus isnt the whole story and

will prepare them for the following
lessons.

Discussion Questions following read aloud.

Comparing and contrasting the

books (15 min)

What parts of this book were familiar to you and had

you learned before?
Was there anything that happened in the book that
you had not known happened?
Whose perspective was this story told from?
How do we know whose perspective we can trust?
Why?

-Split the students into groups and have them complete a

graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the books and
their different perspectives
- List the positives and negatives of the encounter from
both the Taino people and European conquistadors points
of view.
(During the group will I will be walking around to each
group to make sure they are understanding the comparing
and contrasting of the books and to ask them questions that
will force them to think critically about the books and the
perspective the book was written in)

Discussion Activity(10 min)

-Students will line up in parallel
lines and talk to one other student for
a few minutes answer the asked
question. One line will then shift
over one person to answer the next
question. This way they can have a
one on one discussion. They can
hear what their classmates have to
say and give their own input.

- How does the story of Columbus discovering America

change when it is told from a different point of view?
-What does hearing the different perspectives teach you?
-What other types of text should we take perspective into
consideration when reading?

-News activity: we will be using the -With current event topics in the newspaper that have
different perspectives in each article, students will pick a
set iPads the school has. The
students will be doing this in pairs so topic (example: upcoming election) and analyze three or

they can bounce their ideas off of

each other and can gain a deeper
understanding of perspective. (20
min)

more articles written from a different perspective. They

must state whose perspective each article is in and then
explain if there was any information that differed among the
articles because of the perspective.
-

During this activity I will be helping and guiding the

students who struggle in reading. They often have
difficulties with story grammar and it will be likely
they have a hard time understanding the perspective
of the article.

Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One -two
statements that you will say at the end of the lesson)
Our purpose today was to read two books about Christopher Columbus written
from different perspectives. From the second book we learned to emphasize with other
groups of people whose perspectives are usually not addressed when talking about
Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492. We also learned that we must take point of
view into account when reading other forms of literature.
Assignment What independent work will be assigned?
Exit ticket: What is point of view/perspective and why is it important? How do we see
point of view regarding the story of Columbus?

Lesson # 3
Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?
The purpose of the lesson today is to be able to map out Columbuss four voyages
and to understand the areas he was trying to find verse the land he ended up coming
across.
Prior learning How will you make connections to prior learning?
Students have learned about the United States geography and this lesson will
expand their knowledge.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make connections to
your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in the learning activities
you have planned?
To motivate and engage the students this lesson involves coloring. Many of the students
enjoy lessons that involve art and learning.

Content Outline
-Introduction to lesson (Directions:
color where Columbus was from a
certain color, color the country that
gave him the opportunity to set out
in search of new land a different
color, each voyage is in a different
color, shade the areas he was
expecting to go to in one color, the
areas he ended up in a different
color, color the bodies of water he
went through, create a key at the
bottom of the map) (10 min)

-Creating a map of Columbuss

voyages: After discussing his first
voyage in depth, we will talk a little
about how he completed other
voyages (20 min)

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/ sequence of activities

(include what you and the students will be doing that
supports diverse student needs)
-Discuss the general area of travels done by Columbus.
Explain to students that explorers to the New World came
from many European countries, including Spain, Portugal,
England, Scotland, France, and Italy. The Ocean he was
mainly traveling in.

Where is Europe?

Where is Asia?

Where is North America?

Where is South America?

Go over lists of his voyages and explain directions.
Distribute the Just Where Was Columbus? and Columbus's
Voyages handouts (taken from website). During this part of
the lesson I will be using the big map and point to areas of
interest.

-Students will be given a world map and they will follow

the directions (above)

-Explanation of voyages (The

answers to these questions the
students should know from previous
lessons, but will be reiterated by this
geography lesson)
(10 min)

-After students finish the map they will answer the

following questions:
-What were Columbus's intended destinations for each
voyage?
-Why was he trying to get to each destination?
-Who lived in these places before Christopher Columbus
landed there?
-What kinds of discoveries were made at these new lands?
-What kind of crops were grown there?
-Did trading happen?
-Did they become friends with the natives?
-How did Columbuss coming to the new land change the
way people lived on the island?

Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One-two
Statements that you will say at the end of the lesson)
The purpose of the lesson today was to be able to map out Columbuss four
voyages and to understand the areas he was trying to find verse the land he ended up
coming across. It is important to know where and what Columbus was looking for to help
us with our next lessons.
Assignment What independent work will be assigned?
-Finish the map and explanation questions if they did not do so during class time

Lesson # 4
Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?
The purpose of the lesson today is to discover and learn the history of the
American Indians that lived in Wisconsin.
Prior learning How will you make connections to prior learning?
Students have learned about the Tanios that lived on the land that Columbus
discovered.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make connections to
your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in the learning activities
you have planned?
This lesson is connected to the students lived because it is about American Indians who
settled in Milwaukee. There are still current things around Milwaukee named after the
tribes that settles here.

Content Outline
- Tell students that we know there
were people living all over North
and South America before Columbus
arrived and after. He just didnt
know about them. In fact, long
before Europeans came to North and
South America, there were millions
of native people spread across the
two continents.

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/ sequence of activities

(include what you and the students will be doing that
supports diverse student needs)
- The Menominee, Ojibwe (Chippewa),
Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) peoples are
among the original inhabitants of Wisconsin. The American
Indian population is heterogeneous and their histories differ
based on tribal affiliation.

(5 min)
-Sing a song about Indians and
Columbus (10 min)

- In fourteen hundred ninety-two

Columbus sailed the ocean blue,
It was a courageous thing to do
But someone was already here.
Columbus knew the world was round
So he looked for the East while westward bound,
But he didnt find what he thought he found,

And someone was already here.

Chorus
The Inuit and Cherokee,
The Aztec and Menominee,
The Onandaga and the Cree;
Columbus sailed across the sea,
But someone was already here.
It isnt like it was empty space,
Caribs met him face to face.
Could anyone discover the place
When someone was already here?
Chorus
So tell me, who discovered what?
He thought he was in a different spot.
Columbus was lost, the Caribs were not;
They were already here.
Chorus

-Take turns reading and questioning

this article about Indians in
Wisconsin (15 min)

https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/minorityhealth/population/amind-pophistory.htm
-While reading the article we will discuss where we
have seen some of these tribe names presented in
Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin. We will
compare these Native American tribes to the Indians
Columbus came across. We will discuss how these
people were really already living on American land

before Columbus ever came here.

-Use this list of 10 truths about

Indians to teach the kids facts
(15 min)

-Split students into pairs (4 groups of 3) and assign each

group one of the truths. They will read about the truth and
learn some of the common misconceptions related to this
truth. They will then explain to the rest of the class what
they learned from their provided truth.
http://www.mitchellmuseum.org/education/documents/
2011TopTenTruths_TeacherStrategySheet_Final.pdf

Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One-two
Statements that you will say at the end of the lesson)
The purpose of the lesson today was to learn about other groups of Native
Americans in different areas other than where Columbus landed. These areas happen to
be in our community and in the state we live in.
Assignment What independent work will be assigned?
-Look around your community and ask your parents if they know of any buildings,
businesses, museums, or anything named after a tribe that was first settled in the state of
Wisconsin.

Lesson # 5
Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?
The purpose of this lesson is for students to find out the effects of
Columbuss voyage to the new world. The students will read articles written by scholars
and will research one designated topic in a group.
Prior learning How will you make connections to prior learning?
Students will use the information they have learned in the last three lessons.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make connections to
your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in the learning activities
you have planned?

Content Outline
-Students will explore facts and
information about specific topics by
researching and reading articles. I
will give each group one or two
articles relating to their topic, but
they are allowed and encouraged to
do more research and use other
artifacts, such as primary or
secondary sources.
(25 min)

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/ sequence of activities

(include what you and the students will be doing that
supports diverse student needs)
-Students will split into 4 groups of 6 and each be assigned
to a specific topic to conduct research on.
1. Foods and Plants: A variety of new foods and
plants were introduced from Europe to the Americas
and from the Americas to Europe. Students should
concentrate on naming such plants and flowers.
2. Disease: Diseases introduced by the Europeans
ravaged native populations. Only one disease
migrated from the New World to the Old.
3. Native Americans Encountered by Columbus:
Columbus only met peoples with very simple
technologies. However, America was home to a
number of complex cultures that would have their
own encounters with Europeans. What cultures and
technologies did Columbus himself encounter in the
New World? How were these cultures changed?
4. Christianity: Columbus declared he was sailing
west "to see the said princes, people, and territories,
and to learn their disposition and the proper method
of converting them to our holy faith." How
successful were the Spanish in converting the native
peoples?
(During the researching I will be walking around

- Presentations (20 min)

ensuring every student is on task and that the articles

they are finding are relevant.)
- Each group of students will present to the class what they
have concluded from their research. Each presentation will
be about 5 minutes and each student is required to talk.
Students are allowed to have pictures or explain artifacts
they found during their research.

Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One-two
Statements that you will say at the end of the lesson)
Today we learned about some of the differences between Europe and America,
and how things changed in the Americas once the Europeans got there. Objects, food,
and plants were traded, diseases were brought, cultures were intruded on, and beliefs
were changed.
Assignment What independent work will be assigned?
Exit Slip: Write one interesting fact you learned from each of the four presentations.

Lesson # 6
Purpose How will you state the purpose of the lesson?
The purpose of this lesson is to put the information the students have learned into
statements. The class will also revote on if Columbus should be considered a leader or
not.
Prior learning How will you make connections to prior learning?
The previous lessons are important in this lesson. We will make connections back
to the first lesson when we talked about leaders. We will also have to think about the
different perspectives of the story we have learned when deciding if Columbus should be
considered a leader or not.
Connections to personal/cultural/community assets How will you make connections to
your students strengths as a way to motivate students to engage in the learning activities
you have planned?
This lesson will help students learn to think critically and view other perspectives while
learning other social studies content.

Content Outline
-Create true statements about
Columbus using a given sentence
structure. These statements will be
posted onto padlet.com so they can
be accessed throughout the year. (15
min)

Instructional strategies/learning tasks/ sequence of activities

(include what you and the students will be doing that
supports diverse student needs)
- List appropriate statements about expectations and
outcomes
Events don't always turn out the way one expects. As a
culminating activity, have the class brainstorm and list
many appropriate statements about expectations and
outcomes in the following form:
Columbus (or "Europeans" or "Native Americans")
__________
___________________, but __________________.
For example, students might say:
"Columbus thought he had discovered a new route to the
Indies, but he had really traveled to what we now call the
Americas."
"Columbus thought the natives 'would be good servants,'
but trying to make slaves out of them was so unsuccessful
that eventually Spain imported slaves from Africa.
"Columbus encountered natives living with a simple

technology, but civilizations with advanced technologies

also lived in the Americas.

-Voting on if Columbus should be

considered a leader
(5 min)

Post the statements on Padlet. As the students continue to

study other events in history, especially meetings of
disparate cultures, such as the colonial settlers and the
Native Americans, they should note the effects of these
encounters, both intended and unintended. These statements
will also help the students remember to think about what
was intended was not always the outcome and what they
learn is not always the full story.
-Just like at the beginning of the unit the students will
receive a post-it and there will be two pieces of chart paper
labeled with Columbus was a leader and Columbus was
not a leader

-Final fishbowl discussion about

everything we have learned and
discovered about Columbus.
-4 Students in the middle, everyone needs to have a turn to
be in the middle
-Questions: At the begging of the unit we voted on if
Columbus should be considered a leader, why do you think
our answers changed?
Did your vote change?
What characteristics of a leader did Columbus have?
What are reasons Columbus should not be considered a
leader?
What perspective is the story of Columbus usually told
from?
Do you think the true story of Columbus should be taught
the first time a student is taught about Columbus?
How did the world change based on Columbuss voyage to
the new world?

Should we change the way we celebrate Columbus day?

Summary of lesson How will you bring the lesson to a close? (One-two
Statements that you will say at the end of the lesson)
We have read, learned, discovered, researched, and explored the story of Columbus in
many different ways. Throughout this unit we have gained skills we will continue to use
in our future social studies lessons.