Understanding By Design Lesson

Title: Causes of the French Revolution

Stage 1: Desired Results

Understandings
 What will students understand (about what big ideas) as a result of the unit? “Students will
understand …”

Main idea:
 How causative factors combined to result in the French Revolution (Causation)

Supporting ideas for main ideas:

1) How economic factors caused French Revolution (ex. lavish spending by the king, war debt, etc.)

2) How political factors led to French Revolution (ex. French Monarchy, Manorialism, etc.)

3) How social factors contributed to the French Revolution (ex. class division, inequality, etc.)

4) How intellectual factors helped create an anti-monarchy movement that spurred the French
Revolution (related to Continuity & Change and Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen)

5) How environmental factors such as poor harvests/droughts contributed to peasant unrest which
laid the foundation for revolution

6) The lasting impact of the French Revolution which eventually led to France becoming a republic
instead of a monarchy (Continuity & Change)

Essential Questions Knowledge & Skill

What arguable, recurring, and thought- What is the key knowledge and skill needed to
provoking questions will guide inquiry and develop the desired understandings?
point toward the big ideas of the unit?

1. What causes were most significant in The key knowledge needed to develop the desired
beginning the French Revolution? understanding is knowing how all significant factors
2. Was overthrowing the French combined to cause the French Revolution.
monarchy justified?
3. Why did the monarchy fail to stay in The key skill needed for this lesson is the historical
power? thinking skill of causation. This skill involves:
4. What role did progressive ideas have
in fomenting the revolution?
1. The ability to identify, analyze, and
Each of my questions point to the big evaluate multiple cause-and-effect
___ideas of my unit and lesson as seen below: relationships in a historical context,
 distinguishing between the long-
1. Determining the most significant term and proximate
causes of the French Revolution
guides inquiry toward the main 2. Describe causes or effects of a
idea: “The causative factors that specific historical development or
combined to result in the French process
Revolution.” Additionally, as the
most essential question of this 3. Explain the relationship between
lesson, it is grounded by causes and effects of a specific
supporting ideas 1-5 which historical development or process
provide further insight into this and the reason behind this
line of inquiry. relationship

4. Explain the difference between

primary and secondary causes and
2. Inquiry into Question 2 is between short-term and long-term
intended to reach a reasoning effects
target. The question is arguable
and requires students to use their 5. Explain the relative historical
judgement concerning the significance of different causes 
evidence to decide if the French
people made the right decision, or A secondary skill in this lesson is the historical
could have found another way to __reasoning skill of continuity and change. Students
achieve their goals. Also, this __should be able to realize when some circumstance stay
inquiry guides students to use __the same while others change and the significance of
evidence gleaned from supporting __these outcomes. For example, progressive thought in
ideas to support their answers to __this era can first be identified as a change from the
the question. __thinking of the Ancien Régime which viewed
__government more traditionally as being led by a
__monarch. In this context, this skill guides the students _
_ to realizing the importance of certain changes to affect
3. Addressing why the monarchy __political/social/economic outcomes.
failed to stay in power also entails
the students utilizing supporting Furthermore, a significant amount of information is
ideas from the text/notes to __necessary to understand the conditions that gave rise to
support their answers to the __the French Revolution and its ideals. The reading titled
question and ultimately leads back __(Causes of French Revolution - Reading) would be
to the most essential question of __assigned before class and students would be given the
most significant causes that __instructions to highlight ten parts of the text that
caused the revolution which __capture the key details of the French Revolution.
brought about Louis XVI’s __Additionally, the power point below would be
demise. reviewed in class to support answering the essential
__questions:
__https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r0g5DfRF18te3-
BiJUYe6Tx8GThYiPVZ/view?usp=sharing
__ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r0g5DfRF18te3-
BiJUYe6Tx8GThYiPVZ/view?usp=sharing
2. What knowledge and skill relates to the
content standards on which the unit is
focused?

4. Considering the role of From the Massachusetts history and social

 __science curriculum framework:
progressive ideas in fomenting the
revolution is an important line of Topic I: Absolute power, political revolutions, and
inquiry as it points to a very __the growth of nation states, c. 1700–1900 [WHII.T1]
important supporting idea of
intellectual factors that caused the Specifically, Part 4: “Summarize the main events of the
French Revolution. Yet this __French Revolution …”, Subsections a., b. and c.
question goes beyond the skill of
causation that the previous three a. The Estates General and the National Assembly
questions assess and also invokes b. The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and
the historical reasoning skill of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
continuity and change, as these c. The execution of Louis XVI in 1793
progressive ideas of government
where very different than the ideas __This knowledge is addressed in the main reading,
that had proceeded them! __“Causes of French Revolution,” as well as the
__PowerPoint presentation (see above). Additionally,
__understanding this knowledge relies on the key
__causation/continuity and change reasoning skills
__discussed in the evaluation of the essential questions.

__Furthermore, there are 7 standards for History and

__Social Science Practice. Here are three of the standards
__which directly relate to this lesson as they are
__numerically listed in the framework:

(2) Develop focused questions or problem

statements and conduct inquiries

(4)_Analyze the purpose and point of view of

each source; distinguish opinion from fact.

(6) Argue or explain conclusions, using valid

reasoning and evidence.

As students conduct inquiries (2) they

analyze the point of view of the source (4) to
answer essential questions and arrive at
conclusions through valid reasoning (6).

The following content standards are specifically

geared towards my summative assessment:

Grades 9–10 Reading Standards for Literacy in the

Content Areas: History and Social Science [RCA-H]
(This lesson was designed for 9th grade honors history
students)

Key Ideas and Details

a. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis

of primary and secondary sources, attending to
such features as the date and origin of the
 information.
b. Determine the central ideas or information of a
primary or secondary source; provide an accurate
summary of how key events or ideas develop over
the course of a text.

For their essays, students need to be able to cite specific

_textual evidence to prove their thesis from the secondary
_source provided (Key Ideas/Details 1). How students
_determine the central idea of the secondary source –
_causes of the French Revolution – corresponds to how
_well they are able to relate their thesis to the essay
_question (Key Ideas/Details 2).

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

What evidence will be collected to determine whether or not the understandings have been developed,
the knowledge and skill attained, and the state standards met? [Anchor the work in performance tasks
that involve application, supplemented as needed by prompted work, quizzes,
observations, etc.]

The evidence to be collected to determine whether or not understanding has been developed is:
1) “Newspaper” Guided Notes Worksheet on Causes of French Revolution (Formative Assessment)
2) Causes of French Revolution Essay with rubric (Summative Assessment)
3) Option for students to pass in class notes on lesson through Google Drive

Performance Task Summary Rubric Titles

“Causes of French Revolution Rubric”

1) Check for prior knowledge (Based on pre-class reading)

2) Note-taking on French Revolution Slideshow
3) Inquiry Questions during lecture (Conversational assessment)
4) Guided Notes “French Gazzette” (Formative assessment)
5) Short Essay Homework Assignment (Summative assessment)
6) Exit ticket (Each student response should be specific and different than previous student responses)

Self-Assessments Other Evidence, Summarized

Near the end of class, students will be directed to a. Checking students highlighted reading as
Google Classroom, where there will be a link to class begins
submit a lesson reflection form that poses 5 short b. Noticing which student interact/participate
questions related to understanding of the main in Q&A through dynamic slideshow
topic, understanding of important supporting presentation
ideas and understanding of key vocabulary and c. Observing student comments during think-
events in a poll style format. The last question pair-share activity
will be open-ended and allow the student to d. Noting the incisiveness of student’s exit
reflect on the lesson in general and note what ticket responses
material/understanding they would need to
further meet the learning objectives for this
lesson.

Stage 3: Learning Activities

What sequence of learning activities and teaching will enable students to perform well at the
understandings in Stage 2 and thus display evidence of the desired results in stage one? Use the
WHERETO acronym to consider key design elements.

I also numbered specific learning activities to make the overview of this lesson clear for another
instructor*

W (How will you help your students to know where they are headed, why they are going there, and what
ways they will be evaluated along the way?)

At the beginning of the lesson, students will have already read “Causes of French Revolution” (Main
Reading).

1) So, as the class begins, the instructor can check to see if the students have highlighted and
identified at least ten significant causes in their reading and also check for prior knowledge on
the reading.

2) In the opening narrative, the instructor should state the four essential questions and the learning
objectives (with the standards that accompany them) so the students know where they are headed.
Also, the instructor can provide rationale for why achieving these objectives are important:
“Learning about the causes of the French Revolution is not something confined to dusty old history
books. In fact, revolution still occurs today and by studying the causes of the French Revolution, we
gain insight into how some of the same issues lead to conflict today, and what we can do as a
society to create the best outcomes for everyone.”

The instructor can also mention that students will be informally evaluated through formative
assessments such as their Guided Notes French Gazette Worksheet, a Think-pair-share and a short
five paragraph essay.

H (How will you hook and hold students’ interest and enthusiasm through thought provoking experiences at
the beginning of each instructional episode?)

3) As a highly engaging teacher with a penchant for the dramatic arts, I would get into character, as a
member of the National Assembly, and describe the events of the French Revolution with a
sympathetic bent toward the peasants. This part of the lesson would be accompanied by the
aforementioned PowerPoint (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r0g5DfRF18te3-
BiJUYe6Tx8GThYiPVZ/view?usp=sharing). A substitute teacher could attempt this or merely go
through the PowerPoint presentation normally. The scope of this character arc would begin with a
discussion of the Estates General and the National Assembly as well as the storming of the Bastille
all the way through the execution of Louis XVI is 1793 (Touching on all the relevant framework
standards). By this point, the students have gone through a dynamic slideshow and have been asked
check for understanding questions along the way).

E (What experiences will you provide to help students make their understandings real and equip all
learners for success throughout your course or unit?)

4) Before the summative activity, an engaging TedTalk, can be played summarizing causes of the
 French Revolution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv0lxWGF8b8) to provide an overview.

5) Still in character, I would tell my students (who play the part of literate members of the National
Assembly) that I had hurt my hand in a duel (for the cause of liberty of course) and need their help
in completing my summative newspaper article for the French Gazette on the causes of the
French Revolution and what has happened over the last five years. Now the students are ready to
complete the major formative assessment of the lesson (Included below in its entirety as “French
Gazette Worksheet” (Formative Assessment). The students will not only have their notes and my
lesson to inform their completion of the worksheet, but the “Causes of French Revolution -
Reading” which contains all of the answers. Note: They were instructed to complete and highlight
important passages from the reading before the beginning of the lesson.

R (How will you cause students to reflect, revisit, revise, and rethink?)

6) Once students complete the worksheet activity, there will be a five-minute review period where
students take turns verbally stating the answers from the fill-in-the-blanks on the worksheet.

7) Then, each student will be assigned a partner for a think-pair-share activity related to “Causes of
the French Revolution.” A think-pair-share (TPS) is a collaborative learning strategy where students
work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. The student must
first think about the topic or question independently, then students are assigned a partner and work
in pairs to solve the problem/explore the topic. Finally, the students share their ideas with the rest of
the class. This formative assessment will work well with “Causes of the French Revolution” because
there are so many factors that students can utilize in the questions they pose to explore this topic.

8) Students are then given time to fill out a form with a brief reflection on how well they understood
the topic (causes of the French Revolution).

9) Closing Narrative by instructor restates major causative factors of the revolution and the short
essay (formative assessment) is given for homework. Instructor should explain rubric criteria
(included below in this document).

10) Exit ticket (formative) given to students who must share one cause of the French Revolution (Each
cause should be specific and different than previous student responses)

E (How will students express their understandings and engage in meaningful self-evaluation?)

On Google Classroom, there will be a link to submit a lesson reflection form that poses 5 short questions
related to understanding of the main topic, understanding of important supporting ideas and understanding
of key vocabulary and events in a poll style format. The last question will be open-ended and allow the
student to reflect on the lesson in general and note what material/understanding they would need to further
meet the learning goals for this lesson.

T (How will you tailor (differentiate) your instruction to address the unique strengths and needs of every
learner?)

Students with reading difficulties would be provided an additional note sheet with key terms defined and
the major factors for revolution separated with bullet points underneath them enumerating supporting
information for each. I would expect the honors class not to need this note sheet, but it is also helpful for all
students to view the information in a different format. In the reading, I made sure to bold keywords anyway
and define (in parentheses) any vocabulary that I thought might be unfamiliar to a 9th grader).
 Allowing some students to work in pairs for the worksheet is another differentiation option. In addition, I
could create an audio recording of the main reading for students more inclined to an auditory learning style.
I could also differentiate this lesson by creating an additional review slideshow with a picture on one slide
and its definition on the next slide as a way for students to review key people, places and events. In a
similar vein, I could create an alternate formative assessment for some students where they match key
people, places and events to corresponding images.

O (How will you organize learning experiences so that students move from teacher-guided and concrete
activities to independent applications that emphasize growing conceptual understandings as opposed to
superficial coverage?)

This lesson plan accounts for gearing the learning experience toward independent application from before it
even takes place. By instructing the students to highlight ten specific causes of the French Revolution
(people, places, events, significant factors) in the pre-class reading ahead of time, the students should
already come into class with an adequate conceptual knowledge of the causes of the French Revolution.
Therefore, as we go through the lesson, there is the opportunity for them to ask questions that may go
beyond the basic understanding and approach a more nuanced and creative analysis on the topic. While the
lesson is very structured, it eschews superficial coverage and depicts a complex picture of how the caused
combined to cause the French Revolution. Moreover, the think-pair-share activity engages students’
independent application of knowledge as they come up with their own lines of inquiry to analyze the topic
on their own terms.

Time Required: 75 minutes (1 lesson)

1. Informal review of students’ highlighted reading: 1 minute

2. Opening narrative: 3 minutes
3. Interactive slideshow presentation: 24 minutes
4. Short summative video on topic: 5 minutes
5. Formative assessment (Newspaper article): 18 minutes
6. Class review of summative assessment: 5 minutes
7. Think-pair-share: 5 minutes
8. Student reflection: 5 minutes
9. Closing narrative/Homework assignment (Summative): 5 minutes
10. Exit ticket & Dismissal: 4 minutes

Additional considerations:

English Language Learners (ELLs) are an extremely small minority at my school, but I can prepare some
resources that can support them with learning resources such as:

 Emphasis on productive language with resources in multiple formats (audio, visual, verbal)
 Utilizing 4 Square Vocabulary Organizer to contextualize terms (ex. National Assembly)
 Maintaining a culturally responsive curriculum, including paying attention to visual cues and
responding as needed to student interest level and content comprehension
 Promoting visual learning through interactive French Revolution timeline

Causes of French Revolution (Pre-class Main Reading)

Instructions: Highlight 10 people, places and events that you think are most significant to causing the
French Revolution. You are also welcome to make additional notes in the margin identify which type
of factor is related to your highlighted text (see factor types below).

The French Revolution had many longstanding economic, political, social, environmental
and intellectual causes.

Politically, there was a deep resentment of the monarchy and nobles by the vast majority of
the lower class that led to the French Revolution. Yet these political problems were deeply tied to the
economic problem of near bankruptcy brought about by Louis XVI and his predecessor who left the
royal coffers depleted from overspending on their lavish lifestyles. Additionally, France’s costly
military campaigns in the American Revolution (1775-1783) against Great Britain also drained the
French treasury. Ironically, France would soon be dealing with its own revolution in 1789!

“Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but two decades of poor harvests, drought, cattle
disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many
expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes – yet failed to
provide any relief – by rioting, looting and striking” (History.com Editors). These economic factors,
driven by great social inequality, created a desperate situation for many peasants who saw violent
action as a way secure more political power and better lives.

As revolution brewed, there were calls for financial reforms and a subsequent meeting of the
Estates General. “The representative assembly of the three “estates,” or orders of the realm were:
the  clergy (First Estate) and nobility (Second Estate)—which were privileged minorities—and
the Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people (Britannica, 2021). The first estate of
France consisted of the clergy (1% of population and the second consisted of the nobles (2% of
population). These two smaller richer groups had shared interests and could always outvote the third-
estate, the vast majority of the people whom they often disagreed with. Indeed, the clergy paid no
taxes and the rich paid little while the majority of people bore the brunt of the tax burden!

France’s Three Estates (1614-1789/1799)

Image source: http://francinemassue.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/0/9/13091251/5124372_orig.png

 With general outrage mounting (increasing), the Third Estate had finally had enough and got
together apart from the other two estates to swear the Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to disperse
from the parliament until constitutional reform had been achieved on June 20th, 1789. This event also
saw the Third Estate take on a new name as the National Assembly.

From economic inequality and an unjust class structure, the National Assembly sought to
change the status quo of the ancient régime, the political and social system of the Kingdom of
France from the Late Middle Ages until the French Revolution.

While the National Assembly was still meeting, an angry peasant mob attacked the Bastille
on July, 14th, 1789. The Bastille was a state prison in Paris to obtain ammunition. This event marked
the beginning of the French Revolution. King Louis XVI was forced to acquiesce to (give into
demands of) the new National Assembly and the Three Estates were dissolved and incorporated
(included) into the new National Assembly. However, fear and rumors of a military coup prevailed.

“A wave of revolutionary fervor and widespread hysteria quickly swept the

countryside. Revolting against years of exploitation, peasants looted and burned the homes
of tax collectors, landlords and the elites (History.com Editors, 2020). This revolt was a long time
coming! The elites, or lords, had held land and maintained power through allegiance to the king in
this semi-feudal system for noble privilege in France. This system, known as manorialism as
well as seignorialism was almost entirely economic in its intent. It required peasants who
occupied the land owned by a seigneur (lord) to pay feudal dues to the seigneur (lord). As
you may expect, this arrangement was a significant source of dissatisfaction and cause of
grievance for the peasants in the late 18th century. This significant source of tension
contributed to the revolution. Starting in mid-July, the Great Fear (la Grande peur), an agrarian
insurrection (violent uprising) hastened the growing exodus of nobles from the country and inspired
the National Assembly to abolish feudalism on August 4, 1789, signing what the historian Georges
Lefebvre later called the “death certificate of the old order” (History.com Editors, 2020).

Then, “On August 4,1789, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen), a
statement of democratic principles grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of
Enlightenment thinkers like Jean- Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire and the Marquis de
Lafayette. The document, driven by the progressive intellectual ideals of the age, proclaimed the
Assembly’s commitment to replace the ancien régime with a system based on equal opportunity,
freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government” (History.com Editors, 2020).
The call for liberty, equality and fraternity had been heard and there would be no substantial return to
the absolute monarchy that had previously dominated France.

Louis had resisted the advice of constitutional monarchists who sought to reform
the monarchy. Perhaps this would have saved the monarchy, but K ing Louis XVI did not
listen and now it was too late! Many events unfolded between 1789 and 1793, but by January 21st of
1793, Louis XVI was executed; ushering in the eventual end of the monarchy and beginning the reign
of terror!

Postscript (Not included in Gazette but added to the end of the reading)

The French Revolution turned more radical in 1792 with declaration of war against Austria and
Prussia and the intention to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare. Louis
XVI was executed in 1793 and the Jacobin faction seized control of the National Convention
that July to initiate the Reign of Terror. This sad chapter of French history ended with the
execution of Maximillian Robespierre, who lead the Committee of Public Safety until his
own execution is 1794. Eventually Napoleon would gain control of France for approximately
15 years, but upon his defeat in 1815, French monarch Louis XVIII was placed on the thrown
and it would be another tumultuous (disorderly) century until a more democratic republic
(The French Third Republic) was established in 1870. This Republic finally put an end to
monarchy in France once and for all

Assessment Tool 1: Formative - French Gazette Worksheet

The French Gazette

January 22nd, 1793

As you know, fellow countrymen, many changes have swept through our country in the last five
years when the French Revolution began. The economic, political, social and intellectual factors that
caused these sweeping changes are important to understand to create a more just government and
economy as well as to prevent further upheaval in the future.

The ________ against Great Britain drained the French treasury along with the lavish spending of

King _____________ who imposed heavy _________ on the people without providing financial
relief.

At the same time, _____________, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices caused the
peasants and urban poor to become restless and desire political change to improve their dire
economic circumstances.

Part of the Estates General saw the need for reform, but the _________ (1st Estate) and ________ (2nd
Estate) would outvote ___________ (3rd Estate) because of their shared interests; thus preventing any
meaningful change.

However, the power of the 1st and 2nd estates was irreparably weakened when the Third Estate broke
away to become the __________ when they took the _________ on June 20th, 1789; vowing not to
disperse from the parliament until constitutional reform had been achieved.

This group intended to reform the _________; the political and social system of the Kingdom of
France from the Late Middle Ages until the French Revolution.

But by July, 14th, 1789, the urban poor had had enough, and an angry peasant mob attacked the
________, a state prison in Paris to obtain ammunition; thus, sparking the beginning of the French
Revolution.

One economic factor that the peasants protested was ____________; an economic system that
required peasants who occupied the land owned by a lord to pay feudal dues to that lord.
This system was a major cause of the economic issues that caused the French Revolution.

Starting in mid-July, an agrarian insurrection (violent uprising) called the _________ caused growing
concern for the nobles who saw that the peasants, inspired by the revolution, were finally rebelling!

This uprising led the National Assembly to abolish ____________ on August 4, 1789.
Intellectual ideals of the Enlightenment progressed the situation even further. On August 4,1789,
the National Assembly passed _________________, a statement of democratic principles
grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like _____________,
Montesquieu, Voltaire and the Marquis de Lafayette.

The execution of _________________ on January 21st, 1793, signaled a violent period in the French
Revolution (note to students: monarchy would continue on and off in France until 1870). Now there
is talk that things are getting out of hand as many people struggle for power. There is talk of a reign
of terror where no one is safe from radical revolutionaries! If our glorious new republic is to survive
we must remember the injustices that caused us to begin the revolution and stay true to our ideals of
liberty, equality and fraternity! Vive La France!

Assessment Tools 2: Summative Assessment

In the closing narrative, the instructor restates major causative factors of the revolution and explains
the homework: a summative assessment posing a straightforward essay question (that has somewhat
of a complex answer). The question is simple:

What are the three greatest factors that caused the French Revolution? Be sure to rate how
significant each one was in contributing to this historical event.

Your essay response is required to follow the standard short five paragraph essay form:

A. Thesis Statement (1 sentence): Answer the prompt above in one clear sentence, listing three
factors that caused the French Revolution in order of their significance.

B. Using evidence (3 short paragraphs/3-4 sentences each): For each of the reasons in your
thesis, support it with relevant evidence from the reading in a short paragraph. Be sure to
focus on the degree of significance for each factor.

To review: Paragraph 1 will contain the thesis and a brief context on the topic, paragraphs 2,3,4 will
contain the evidence, and paragraph 5 will contain a brief conclusion.

Students will have time during the next lesson to work on their essays and the assignment will be due
the following week.

Note: This assignment presupposes that students have been taught the five-paragraph essay format
and have familiarity with effective thesis writing*
 Causes of French Revolution - Short Essay Grading Rubric:

Letter A B C D F 
Grade
Essay Response includes: Response includes: Response partially Response partially: Response lacks:
Criteria  includes:

1. Defendable, 1. Thesis is mostly 1. Thesis lacks 1. Thesis is 1. Thesis is misguided

clear thesis clear structure/unclear incoherent and does not address
question

2. 3 well-reasoned 2. 3 acceptable 2. Some supporting 2. Most supporting 2. No supporting

supporting supporting evidential factors evidential factors factors and lacks all
factors as factors as are insufficient are lacking along elements of five
evidence evidence but others are with most paragraph essay
(follows five (follows five used correctly elements of five format
paragraph essay paragraph essay (partially follows paragraph essay
format) format) five paragraph format)
essay format)

3. Excellent level 3. Good level of 3. Adequate level of 3. Below average 3. Insufficient level of
of analysis analysis analysis level of analysis analysis and no
historical reasoning
skills used

4. Highly creative 4. Moderate level 4. Adequate level of 4. Lacks creativity 4. Lacks creativity
and of creativity and creativity and and demonstrates and/or original
demonstrates demonstrates demonstrates little to no original thought
original thought original thought some original thought
thought

5. Well-written 5. Moderately 5. Adequately 5. Essay is unclear or 5. Response is

response with well-written and written but poorly written; extremely unclear;
exceptional most grammar containing lacks proper poorly written and
grammar and and punctuation significant grammar and contains many
punctuation are used grammar and punctuation grammatical errors
correctly punctuation
errors

Sources:

DESE (2018). Massachusetts history and social science curriculum framework. The Massachusetts
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

History.com Editors, (2009, November 9). French Revolution. History.com.

https://www.history.com/topics/france/french-revolution.

Britannica (2021, June 4). Estates-General. Encyclopædia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Estates-General.
Feedback to Peers

1) Claire Price

Lesson: Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall. Genre: Fiction, Guided Reading Level

Dear Claire,
 
I enjoyed reviewing your UbD lesson plan on Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall. I thought that this was
an appropriate book choice for a second-grade guided reading group lesson, as the lessons I
researched on it were geared to first, second, and even third grade students. Since second graders are
usually between 7-8, I thought this reading is easy enough for them to understand, especially in a
guided reading format.
 
In reviewing your less plan from the criteria for evaluation checklist, I first turned my attention to
criteria related to having a detailed lesson plan.
 
Detailed Lesson Plan (20 points)
 
Criteria: “You have created a lesson plan using the Understanding by Design lesson planning
template. Your lesson plan is so detailed that another teacher of your grade level could pick it up and
do the lesson with not additional information from you.”
 
You definitely used the UbD template and provided many details to help any instructor teach the
lesson. The “understandings” were certainly very clear and well-related to the essential questions.
One essential question I would add (to specifically touch upon the “Text-to-Self Connections”) is
“How does Jabari’s story relate to your life.”
 
However, one piece of additional information I would like is a link to Jabari Jumps (or where I could
access the book), as I do not think I could do the best job teaching this lesson without a copy. As an
aside, I would also be curious about the pacing for this lesson and the approximate length you would
envision for each component of the three parts of your lesson.
 
Standard Alignment (10 points)
 
Criteria: You have identified one or two state standards about which your lesson plan will focus.
 
I saw that “Guided Reading Level L” was a standard you used for this lesson. I think some additional
context on this standard and how your learning goals derive from it would be useful for
demonstrating how your lesson fulfills the criteria for this lesson plan assignment. Are there any other
standards that are related to your lesson that you could incorporate?
 
Learning Goals Derived from Standards (10 points):
 
Criteria: “You have created one or two learning goals which are derived from the state standards.
These learning goals focus only student knowledge (as opposed to skills).”
 
In general, your knowledge and skill targets were well-paired. Building knowledge on cause and
effect complements an understanding of sequence of events which reflects changes in characters over
time. Moreover, I think that your lesson theme is an important one that second grade students can
really benefit from. I am curious to learn more how the “Guided Reading Level L” standard relates to
your specific learning goals for this lesson.
 
Assessment Tools (35 points):
 
Criteria: “Formative and summative assessments that capture data about what students know and
can do in your lesson”
 
I identified a number of formative assessments that are aligned with your desired results. For
example, the “Word Web graphic organizer” aligns with your desired result of “Text-to-Self
Connections,” as students can write down words/sentence that remind them of when they felt nervous
to try something new, and what strategies they used to succeed in their circumstances. “Turn and Talk
for Comprehension” is another great formative assessment.  The “Turn and talk” is a great
performance task for this age group and this lesson, so I could definitely envision myself facilitating
this task effectively. The questions for this assessment are also pertinent to the desired results of the
lesson. Also, I would clarify that your “Turn and Talk” is the same performance task as “Think-Pair-
Share (TPF)” which is mentioned in Step 3 of your learning activities to ensure lesson plan
continuity.
 
Both the TPF and word web graphic organizer are great tools that allow the instructor to gather
valuable information about student knowledge concerning the desired results. Having students point
to 2-3 illustrations is another performance task that not only meets the learning targets, but makes me
think of an additional target that could be added to the list: cultivating empathy!
 
Regarding your summative assessment, I thought it really matched well with the “Reflect, Revisit,
Revise, and Rethink” component of the lesson and was very well-organized. I especially liked the
inclusion of a second graphic organizer (Beginning-Middle-End) to give the students a map for how
to craft their own personal narrative reflecting and relating to Jabari’s story. Building in peer
feedback is especially useful and can give students valuable insight on revising their writing pieces.
Celebrating different strategies and creating a running list of them is a great way to end the class. I
would add that the final list could then be shared with the students the next class. I can see how these
writing pieces would constitute an effective summative assessment that provides meaningful data
about the learning targets based on how your directions reflect the learning objectives.
 
 
Additional comments:
 
As Hannah notes, including some differentiated instruction is a great way to help accommodate
all learners in your classroom!

Additionally, under “Stage 3: Learning Activities,” you wrote “Stage Two,” so just change that to
“Stage 3.”
 
I thought defining the acronym “WHERETO” before you broke your lesson down into three parts
was effective; but recommend taking various points from the acronym and contextualizing it within
the Stage 3 learning activities.
 
Under the “Performance Task Summary,” you wrote, “Find and point to 2-3 illustrations that show,
don’t tell how Jabari is feeling, and how this changes over time.” My one addition to this task would
be to describe what “this” is, so I would rephrase it as such: “Find and point to 2-3 illustrations that
show, don’t tell how Jabari is feeling, and how his attitude/feelings change over time.”
 
 
Great job overall and I enjoyed reviewing your lesson!
 
Here is a link to additional teaching ideas for the story you might find useful:
https://schools.lexington1.net/cms/lib/SC50000473/Centricity/Domain/13/3rd%20ELA.pdf
 
I attached an image of the relevant information from this document.
 
Additionally, I found another resource that contains additional assessment ideas:
https://www.rahway.net/cms/lib/NJ01911623/Centricity/Domain/649/Jabari%20Jumps.pdf
 
What I liked about this document was that it contained thought provoking questions as well as
instructional tools related to vocabulary acquisition and grammar skills.