Descriptive Course Data

Instructor(s): Andrew Haynes and Jon McKinney Course: Social Studies/History

Period: Fourth
Grade Level: 8th
Day of Week: Friday
Alabama Standard(s) Met
12.) Describe China's influence on culture, politics, and economics in Japan, Korea, and
Southeast Asia.
Examples:
- culture-describing the influence on art, architecture, language, and religion;
- politics-describing changes in civil service;
- economics-introducing patterns of trade
16.) Describe major cultural changes in Western Europe in the High Middle Ages (10001350).
Examples: the Church, scholasticism, Crusades
Describing changing roles of church and governmental leadership
Comparing political developments in France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire,
including the signing of the Magna Carta
Describing the growth of trade and towns resulting in the rise of the middle class
Learning Objectives
1. Students should be able to summarize and compare the key elements of Medieval
Japan and Medieval Europe including religion, art, architecture, agriculture, and
armory.
2. Students should be able to consider and relate the cultural significance of different
elements.
3. Students should begin to construct their understanding of what life was like in
medieval times.
4. Students should be able to work well with others.
Instructional Model The Integrative Model
The integrative model helps students understand organized bodies of knowledge, topics
that combine facts, concepts, generalizations, and the relationship among them. It also
emphasizes critical thinking. The model was implemented into the lesson by organizing
bodies of knowledge on Medieval Europe and Japan and then comparing and contrasting
the two different places during that time period. We asked questions that promoted
critical thinking and tried to prompt students to ask questions of their own.
Materials/Vocabulary
Dry erase markers

Dry erase board

Computer
PowerPoint with similarities and differences shown between Medieval Europe and Japan
Pen (or pencil) and paper
Matrices handout comparing Europe and Japan
Procedures (55 minute block)
Hook - (5 mins) Enthusiastically begin talking about medieval times and get students
thinking about it. Freewrite: Students will write for 5 minutes about what they think their
life would be like if they lived in medieval times. While they are writing offer prompting
questions. [We got some pretty good responses. They seemed quite engaged]
(5 mins) Students will share their freewrites. We lead the conversation constructively.
(15 mins) PowerPoint and lecturing time in which questions are encouraged. [We both
contributed slides to the PowerPoint and interchanged them in such a way that while we
were lecturing we would swap back and forth between who was teaching.]
(1 min) Students separate and settle into small groups for group work.
(9 mins) Students work together to fill out the handouts while we answer any questions.
[During this time we walked around the room talking to individual groups to see if they
were understanding and we also answered questions.]
(5 mins) After everyone has finished we pull the information together and write it on the
board in a matrices of our own. [To allow for more student engagement we also let
students come up to the board to write what they had written down on their individual
handouts.]
(10 mins) Review for key concepts and information.
(Last 5 mins) Allow time for and encourage students to ask any questions they might
have over the material. Expound upon any questions. Give students the remaining time to
work on other school work or get ready for their next class.
Assessment
We walked around talking to groups individually while checking for understanding
through what they had on their papers, the conversations we were having with them, and
facial expressions among other indicators of whether or not a child understands the
material. The freewrites allowed for an indication of their base understanding. It was
interesting to see what their ideas of medieval times were. The final paper assessment
was the matrices we got them to fill out. Through a sharing and collaboration of ideas the
students began constructing a more refined notion of what the medieval times were really
like.