Lesson Plan

Who IS That Woman?

Main Subject Area: Language Arts

Additional Subjects: Social Studies

Duration of Lesson:  45 minutes

Keywords:

• Corps of Discovery
• Golden Dollar
• Lewis and Clark
• Poetry
• Sacagawea

Brief Description:

Students will participate in a jigsaw reading activity about the contributions of Sacagawea to the Corps of Discovery. They will also write a poem to reflect upon what they learned.

National Standard(s):

• Demonstrate competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process
• Demonstrate competence in the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing
• Use grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions
• Gather and use information for research purposes
• Demonstrate competence in the general skills and strategies of the reading process

Additional Subject Area Standard(s):

• Individual Development and Identity
• People, Places, and Environment

Objectives:

Students will analyze the characteristics and contributions of Sacagawea, and will reflect through artistic and written means.

Materials (online):

Materials (offline):

One Golden Dollar (dollar coin featuring Sacagawea)

Several age-appropriate texts about Sacagawea’s participation in the Corps of Discovery

Lined paper

Pencils

Colored pencils and/or crayons

Drawing paper

Coins Used in Lesson:

Golden Dollar

Grade Level(s):   3-5  

Procedures (online):

Procedures (offline):

1. Produce a Golden Dollar from your pocket and hold it up for the class to see. Ask if the students have ever seen this coin. If so, what do they know about it? Who is the woman on this coin? What can they tell you about her and her life?

2. Begin a “jigsaw” activity, where students will explore the contributions of Sacagawea to the Corps of Discovery, by splitting students evenly into small reading groups.

3. Distribute a different story about Sacagawea to each reading group, and direct the students to take turns reading this book aloud. Explain that as they read the text, they are to take notes about Sacagawea’s life, characteristics, and how she aided the Corps of Discovery.

4. After students have read and taken notes on their story, place each student in a second group that contains one member from each of the previous reading groups.

5. In these new groups, the students will take turns sharing the stories that their groups read. They will take turns describing each story’s plot, and will also address the information that they collected while reading.

6. After each group has completed their discussion, regroup the class to conduct a brainstorming activity about their Sacagawea findings. This could involve the class developing a mind map where students can list and link ideas relating to the main topic.

7. Explain that the students will use the information they collected to write a poem (using a familiar style or format) to describe why Sacagawea was important to the development of our country. Students will follow the writing process in the development of this poem.

8. Students will then draw a picture to accompany their poem.

Assessment / Evaluation:

Were the students able to clearly summarize the stories they read in their first groups? Were they able to follow all the steps of the writing process to successfully develop a poem about Sacagawea?

Differentiated Learning Options:

Students could work in pairs to write their poems. They could also choose to write a song rather than a poem.