Student Teaching edTPA Lesson Plan

Subject: Social Studies Central Focus: Ancient Egypt

6.H.1 Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

Use historical thinking to understand the emergence,
expansion and decline of civilizations, societies and
Date submitted: Date taught:
regions over time.
6.H.1.3 Use primary and secondary sources to
interpret various historical perspectives.
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will know how to determine the validity of data within various documents and be able
write answers to prompts on a graphic organizer in which they determine if Cleopatra died from a snake bite; students will
work independently and must achieve 80 percent accuracy to achieve proficiency.
21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
Vocabulary):

Prior Knowledge:

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

1. Focus and Review
2. Statement of Objective
for Student
I’ll be dressed as Cleopatra as students enter the classroom. “Good morning
scholars. I know you’ve been studying ancient Egypt with Miss Linker. I’m a
very important person from that very era and thought I would bestow a great
honor upon you all by paying you a visit and telling you about myself. Who
would like to tell the class my name? Exactly- I am the one and only,
Cleopatra.
“Today you will be learning about my life and death in ancient Egypt. By the
end of the lesson you’ll know how to tell if the information you get from
different sources is reliable for answering the questions surrounding my
death.”
“I’m going to start by telling you about when I was born. It was the year 69
BC also know as BCE, Before Common Era. That means I was born more
than two-thousand years ago. I look pretty good for a two-thousand-year-old
woman, right? Anywho….does anyone know anything about me?”

I’ll write any facts the students relay onto the whiteboard.

3. Teacher Input
“Well that’s a start, but I’ve led an amazing life and I think everyone should
know a little something about me- after all, I was only one of the most famous
female rulers in all of history. I was the last ruler of the Macedonian dynasty
that took over the rule of Egypt. Fun fact- I was an Egyptian queen, but I
wasn’t even Egyptian- I was actually Greek! Now, I’m not one to kiss and tell,
but has anyone heard of Julius Caesar or Mark Antony? Well, let’s just say,
Julius AND Mark were both my baes. Mind you, not at the same time, but
after Julius’ death, I needed a powerful man to take his place and who better
than another Roman military leader. I had Mark Antony wrapped around my
little finger so much so that when he heard of my death, he offed himself.
Speaking of my death, there’s been lots of questions surrounding it. Some say
I died by my own hand from the bite of an asp. Does anyone know what an
asp is? It’s a snake, ya’ll. Today we’re going to look at documents and other
sources of information to figure out if they’re reliable. When I say reliable
sources, I’m talking about whether or not you can believe what the author
says. Some of the questions you should ask when you’re trying to figure if a
 source is reliable are: [I’ll write these on the board] WHEN the information
was written. If some random person writes about my death a loooong time
after I died and they’re not a historian or some other scholarly type, you
should be skeptical of the information. Does anyone know what I mean by
skeptical? Another question you should ask is: WHOM the person is. If
they’re the artsy type who wrote a play about me or painted a picture of me,
then you should be skeptical. After all, the author of those type of documents
are more interested in creating an exciting work of art than the actual,
historical truth. Next, ask WHY the person wrote about me. Everyone knows
the victor writes the history. These authors will usually try to make
themselves look good and the conquered look bad. BUT, if the author is a
historian or some other academic type, they will probably have done the
research needed to find information that is correct. These authors are usually
reliable sources of information.
Now that we’ve gone over how to decide if a source is reliable, I’d like you to
open your folders. There is a graphic organizer for each of you, but two of you
4. Guided Practice will need to share the group of documents we’ll be looking at to decide if I
died by a snakebite or not.” We’ll talk about the validity of document A and B
and complete the graphic organizer together.
“Now that’s we’ve gone through a couple of documents and you have a better
idea of how to figure out if a document is a reliable source of information, I’d
5. Independent Practice
like you to try it on your own with the last three documents. I’ll be walking
around answering questions that may come up while you’re working.”
Students will complete a graphic organizer in which they examine documents from three
6. Assessment Methods of
different sources to determine the validity of the information and whether Cleopatra died
all objectives/skills:
from a snake bite.
“Let’s reflect on what we’ve learned today. First, you learned a little about the
life and times of, well, me. Next, we learned how to figure out how to look
critically at the information we see and read to tell if it’s a good source of
7. Closure information or not. Finally, you used that information to make an educated
guess about my death. I hope you carry this lesson into the future and don’t
believe something just because you read or hear it- there are many other
things you need to consider to know if the information is correct.

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:

Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations

Materials/Technology:

Reflection on lesson:

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