CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Dylan Delehoy

4/27/16
School:
RMHS
Government

Date: 4/26/16
Grade Level: 11/12

Content Area:

Title: The Case for Reparations

of 5

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

directly from the standard)

Lesson #: 5

(Write Content Standards

Content Area: Social StudiesStandard: 4.3 Civics

Prepared Graduates: Analyze origins, structure, and functions of governments and
their impacts on societies and citizens
Evidence Outcomes:
a. Discuss multiple perspectives on local issues and options for participating in civic
life (DOK 1-3)
b. Analyze and discuss multiple perspectives on state issues and options for
participating in civic affairs by shaping policies (DOK 2-3)
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of
instruction, select applicable questions from standard)
How does the US move forward from past injustices?
How can the US deal with lingering/invisible issues of
discrimination/disenfranchisement?
Concepts and skills students master: (Understandings, Big Ideas, Unit
objectives)
Examining multiple perspectives on issues to come to a well-balanced solution to
problems in society
How to look beyond the surface of certain issues and recognize invisible factors that
may be causing discrimination/disenfranchisement even today
Evidence Outcomes: (Knowledge/ Skills, Lesson Objectives)
Every student will be able to: Each student will read one section of the article
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates, pull out six useful quotes from

the article to use in the Socratic seminar, and speak at least twiceonce to
report one of Coates arguments/supporting evidence, and once to report out
their own political stance on the topic of reparations.

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Assessment of Evidence Outcomes: (How will you assess the selected lesson
objectives (general explanation, you will go into more detail at the end of the lesson
plan)
Students will be assessed on their participation in the socratic seminar

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

Should be a creative title for you and the children to associate with the activity.
The Case for Reparations

Approx. Time

How long do you expect the activity to last?

The activity will carry over two days, the first students will read their section of the article within
their groups, and the second day will be the actual seminar where they will report out

Anticipatory
Set

The hook to grab students attention. These are actions and statements by the teacher to
relate the experiences of the students to the objectives of the lesson, To put students into a
receptive frame of mind.
I will introduce the lesson by defining what reparations are, giving some background on the
author, Coates, as well as pull up a picture of Representative John Conyers Jr. who introduces a
bill every session of Congress for reparations. This will give the students the context of the
article as well as make it relevant to their lives.
Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding
1. Input: Input will be limited mostly to the anticipatory set, as students will be relying on
their knowledge and skills from previous lessons to form their arguments
2. Modeling: I will go through the directions with the students, as well as pull up the article to
explain how to navigate it as well as use some of the interactive maps, charts, and other
tools within it. I will also pull these up during the seminar to incorporate visual evidence
and numeracy into the discussion
3. Checking for Understanding: As students are reading through the article, I will move
around the room and check to make sure each group understands their section of the
article and fill in any gaps if needed
4. Questioning Strategies: During the first day, the goal will be to question students to lead
them into forming their own arguments on the topic. Questions such as what do you think
about the authors claim? Do you think reparations would be a wise use of tax-payer
dollars? During the seminar, questioning should be limited as it ultimately should be
student led
An opportunity for each student to demonstrate grasp of new learning by working through an
activity or exercise under the teachers supervision. The teacher moves around the room to
determine level of mastery and to provide individual remediation as need. (Praise, Prompt, and
Leave)
Students will be broken up into groups to read their section of the article, and I will move around

Teaching/
Presentation:
(Select the most
appropriate
teaching model.)
-cooperative
learning
-inquiry

Teaching
Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

the room to talk to each group to make sure they understand the argument, and can form their
own positions on the subject
Teaching
Strategy:
(Independent
Practice)

(This may not come immediately following each lesson)

Once students have mastered the content or skill, it is time to provide for reinforcement
practice. It is provided on a repeating schedule so that the learning is not forgotten. It may be
homework or individual work in class. It can be utilized as an element in a subsequent project. It
should provide for relevant situationnot only the context in which it was originally learned.
On the day of the seminar, students will independently engage in political discourse to discuss
Coates argument for reparations as well as their own individual stances on the topic and other
possible courses of action to solve some of the present day issues they have learned/read about

Closure

Those actions or statements by a teacher that are designed to bring a lesson presentation to an
appropriate conclusion. Used to help students bring things together in their own minds, to make
sense out of what has just been taught. Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is not closure.
For closure, I will have the students reflect on the seminar by putting a mark on the board of
whether or not their position stayed the same throughout the discussion, or whether it changed.
I can use this to get the students to engage in some meta-cognition to think about how they
approach and discuss certain issues.
What do you need to do the activity?
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates from The Atlantic website
Students will need their laptops in order to read the article

Materials

Accommodatio
ns
&
Modifications

Assessment

To modify: If the activity is too advanced for a child, how will you modify it so that they can be
successful?
To extend: If the activity is too easy for a child, how will you extend it to develop their emerging
skills?
What accommodations will need to be implemented and for what students?
This is a very high level article, so some of the students with lower reading levels will be placed
into specific groups with peers who can help with reading/comprehension. For students with even
lower reading levels, there is a video within the article that they may watch as a substitute for
reading. To extend, the seminar will be student led and students can go further in-depth and
expand beyond just two talking points. For students that are absent, they will make up the
seminar by writing a page response answering the two main talking points.
How will you record the childs challenges and successes with this activity? (Even if this is

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written within your lesson plan, specifically state it here. How will you know the students have
met the objective? Attach a copy if applicable.)
Students will be assessed on their participation in the Socratic seminar in two ways. The first
being their ability to read and analyze a political argument and report out one specific
quote/piece of evidence to sum up Coates argument. The second is their ability to formulate and
express their own stance on an issue in front of the class.

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Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize
assessment data to justify your level of achievement)
Overall, the students really took off and ran with this discussion. They
were engaged, passionate, and critically and objectively examining the
topic of reparations for African Americans. There were only two students
who did not speak twice despite multiple reminders, everybody spoke
once as we began the seminar by just going around the circle allowing
every student to speak out at least once. The visuals and charts from the
article provided some great discussion as well as it helped students to
understand issues such as red-lining and the far reaching effects they
have.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would

you make if you were to teach again?
Next time it might add another dimension to the activity if the students
not only discussed the issue and possible solutions/policies, but actually
formed their own policies as a class and voted on them at the end of the
seminar. This could take the activity out of theoretical political discourse
and into actual policy making.

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice,

reteach content, etc.)
Since this is the end of the unit, this lesson does not directly lead into
another lesson. However, students will use the skills they gained during
this unit as they are researching and working on their Civic Action Projects
as they continue on to attempt to solve problems in society by influencing
public policy.

Colorado State University College of Health and Human Sciences

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