Angela+Sarkisian

//Lesson Plan: [|Early American Leaders]

Objectives // : In this lessons students will learn and understand the characteristics of what makes a great leader. They will focus both on current day leaders and leaders from early American History. They will make connections between why these leaders are heros and what they have done for people in our country.

//Process Overview: In this lesson plan students will first reflect on day leaders in their community, cities, country and world. They will more specifically reflect on what qualities and characteristic these leaders have and how they have helped them become a leader. They will start their reflection with their principal of their school. They can make a list of his or her character traits and qualities. They will then move on to reflect on leaders of the fire or police department, of the city, of a business or newspaper, of a state or a country. They will continue their pervious list of characteristics by adding the traits that these leaders also posses. The students will then learn the stories of important early American leaders, [|Paul Revere] , [|George Washington]  , and [|Thomas Jefferson]  . After learning the stories of these three famous men, they will take their lists of character traits and covert them into a chart with the three early American leaders at the top. They will then go through the chart and make marks for the qualities that each leader possesses. Lastly, the students will reflect on the chart and interpret what it means. They will see the traits that these early leaders have in common, which are more prevalent and which ones if any none of them posses. After reviewing the chart they can write a one paragraph response about what it means to be a leader and why Revere, Washington and Jefferson are all considered leaders. //

//Evaluation Tools:// Students will be evaluated based on a three- point rubric. They get three points for clearly identifying several traits of leadership, explaining why one or more of the men are considered heros and writing at least 10 sentences. They get two points for identifying at least one trait of leadership, explaining why one man is considered a hero and writing 5-9 sentences. They get one point if they answer one but not both questions and if they have less than 5 sentences.



PLN 6 Main Page

Joyce's Response
**I think that this lesson is a great way to think about these American leaders and leaders in general. One way I would refine this lesson would be to have the student evaluate the specific characteristics of leaders. For example, I would have them list what makes a good leader and what makes a bad leader. This way, they can evaluate the leaders they know and think about whether they are successful or not. Another way I would extend this lesson would be to have students do research on another famous American leader. Then they could give a presentation on the leader's history and contributions to America. The student could also talk about what made that person an effective leader. In addition, this lesson could also be extended by having students interview someone whom they consider a leader in their community. They could get information about what that person thinks it takes to be a good leader.**

===** __Molly's Summary__: I think this lesson plan is very beneficial to third grade students, which is the age that we chose for the benchmarks. What I would add is having the students write about a person that is a leader in their life and what kind of qualities those people have. They would draw and color this person and I would have them make a Venn diagram and compare their leader to the famous one they learned about in this unit. Also, it says that one of the objectives is to have the students understand that “leaders exist in American today and existed in early American history as well”. So, I would have the students think about what qualities the leaders in history had and how those qualities helped the leaders today be great leaders. This would demonstrate a higher level of thinking by having them relate the past and present. **===

Virginia's Summary:
==== This lesson plan would be a great one to use with 3rd graders. It would help introduce and familiarize them with leadership and what a leader is. I would replace step 2 with something more fun and inclusive for the students. Have them journal about a leader, fictional or real, and the teacher would then list them on the board. After that, as a class list characteristics of those people on the board and discuss them. Maybe if there is time have them journal about which of those characteristics they think they do/don't posses. In teaching the students about the historical American leader it would be fun to show a movie depicting their stories. This would help keep them engaged and makes it easier on the teacher. ====

Lyttia's Reponse:
==== I really like that this lesson introduces historical leaders by first relating the kids to leaders of their time. I think it makes the history part much more interesting to them and gets them thinking about why history is important and relevant rather than a waste of time. The lesson almost seems too focused on leadership however. I think the kids should have a deeper understanding of the events and stories of each historical character. I really like the idea of having the kids watch a movie depicting their stories because I remember that the only time I liked history was when I watched exciting videos about it. To evaluate the students' understanding of the events and to help them remember the information, I would suggest having groups of students create and perform a small skit depicting one of the historical leaders' stories. ====