Socia Studies Lesson Plan Reviews - Essay Example

Social Studies Lesson Plan Reviews Affiliation Lesson plans are critical to performance. While teachers want to ensure that their students record a good performance in academics, they have a great role to play, which can only be initiated through a great lesson plan. This paper is on reviews of three Social Studies Lesson plans with respect to their strengths and possible ways of improving the lesson plans. The lesson plans in social studies provide a great framework for providing practical instructions as well as lesson planning activities for improved students’ learning (Welton, 2005).

The lesson plans place social studies within a modern context while exploring the way various factors such as diversity in language, culture, and various standards affect both students and teachers. The review revolves around such aspects as the model unit lessons, the teacher-tested activities, any technological updates, as well as authentic work of students. The lesson plan on “Physical Setting of California and beyond” is well written following the required lesson plan design and Academic Content Standards.

The lesson plan clearly identifies the academic level as grade 4. The lesson plan addresses most of the issues required in Academic Content Standards. Students in their fourth grade are required to understand all parts of a map if they have to gain the required understanding of California physical setting and beyond the same state (Welton, 2005). The Academic Content Standards also requires them to identify the specific characteristics on maps. The lesson plan also addresses the learner outcome adequately, which reflects the Academic Content Standards.

Another section addressed include the pre-assessment activities, in which the tool to be used in establishing the understanding level of every student is specified. The Academic Content standard establishes that the pre-assessment makes it possible to extract the knowledge base for the students (Welton, 2005). The plan also identifies the differentiation, adaptation, and the accommodation strategies. This is tackle in line with the Academic Content Standards and it is based on pre-assessments and modification of learning activities.

The characteristics of learners are highly considered in this case for effective learning through initiated differentiation with respect to students’ abilities. The different groups considered include language groups, religious groups, and groups based on ability. The resources are addressed clearly alongside the activities to be handled by the plan. Activities in this case also include the learning activities with respect to the aided guide (Welton, 2005). Requirements on independent practice are also addressed in which students are provided with homework to enhance their understanding in graphs and maps.

This understanding is further developed through assessment. This lesson plan addresses differentiated assessment and ELL as the best evaluation techniques. It could have included other techniques such as the use of common knowledge questions and short answer questions for better results. The lesson plan on “Tracing Family History,” the lesson plan has fully tackled all Academic Content Standards and requirements. Such requirements include differentiation on historical happenings and current issues in relation to family matters.

This includes comparison between the living styles and standards of ancestral family members and the living individual. The plan shows how the students can understand their family tree and how such family tree could have an effect on their social life. This lesson plan also addresses all requirements provided within the Academic Content Standard. It has addresses the learners outcomes clearly and has combined these outcomes with the learning objectives. The only problem is the way of checking the outcomes for students in their 2nd grade level.

The use their journal could be tricky but could apply best to the bright students who can keep journals about their life (Welton, 2005). The lesson plan also addresses issues of pre-assessment as well as strategies for differentiation, adaptation, and accommodation according to the laid requirements. Other issues addressed clearly are the resources, learning activities, independent practice, closure, and lesson reflection. The lesson plan on “Culture of our Ancestors,” is on grade 1 as the academic level being addressed.

The plan also addresses a social issue but focuses on ancestral cultures in which student are required to understand various aspects about their ancestors. The introduction is well tackled addressing what is required of students in their 1st grade as far as the culture of their ancestors is concerned. It clearly addresses the learners’ outcomes, the pre-assessment activities, and the various strategies in terms of differentiation, adaptation, and accommodation. The resources used are social work books reflection on historic life of ancestral figures as expected of very student in this category.

The plan addresses clearly the learning activities in both the explicit teacher instructions and the guided or collaborative practice (Welton, 2005). The independent practice is also addressed alongside the need for good assessment and evaluation. The plan finishes with the closure and the lesson reflection or assessment section. The three lesson plans are great but the first one, “Physical Setting of California and beyond” does not address issues related to lesson reflection or assessment.

This section is great but can be avoided since it has already been addressed in various other sections of the lesson plans such as the independent practice, the assessment, and evaluation, as well in the closure section. The three lesson plans have addressed social studies clearly and adequately with respect to the Academic Content Standards for each of the respective level of students (Welton, 2005). Reference Welton, D.A. (2005). Children and their world: Strategies for teaching social studies. (8th ed.) Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts.