Topic:Benedict Arnold Lesson Plan
Benedict
Arnold Lesson Plan
| Topic: |
Benedict Arnold – The
Boy, The Traitor and The Hero
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| Time Frame: |
Brainstorming: 5 minutes
Reading: 10 minutes
Discussion and Timeline: 25 minutes
Presentation: 20 minutes
Total: 60 minutes
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| Population: |
4th grade
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| State Standard: |
Social Studies
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate
their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments,
and turning points in the history of the United States and New
York
Language Arts
1. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information
understanding
2. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical
analysis evaluation.
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| Content Area: |
History/Language Arts
|
| Strategy: |
Cooperative
Groups
|
| Objective(s): |
After a small group reading and discussion
about Benedict Arnold (Either The Boy, The Hero, or The Traitor),
each student will be able to report his or her findings to his
or her group. In a group they will construct a timeline with
five events and detailed annotations in their given time period.
They will finish by each writing a one-page biography
of Benedict Arnold each with 90 percent accuracy.
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| Procedure: |
|
| Opening: |
1. As a class, brainstorm information
that can be recalled about Benedict Arnold, making a list at
the side of the chalkboard.
2. Split the class into three groups to each focus on one time period
of Benedict Arnold’s life.
|
| Body: |
1. Each student will read the assigned
story independently.
|
| Closure: |
1. The groups will present the five
events found to the rest of the class, ending with one full
class discussion, comparing and contrasting what was brainstormed
at the beginning of the lesson.
|
| Materials:
|
The Reading for specific groups:
Benedict
Arnold, The Boy
Benedict
Arnold, The Hero
Benedict
Arnold, The Traitor
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| Links to Other Lessons: |
This lesson fits into our Social Studies
curriculum focusing on the American Revolution and its famous
people. It also serves as a reading comprehension activity with
a concentration on time sequence.
|
| Assessment: |
Students will individually write a one-page
biography on Benedict Arnold, including each stage of his life.
The teacher will informally assess the students while they
are working in groups by observing their group progress in developing
their timelines.
|
| Extensions: |
1. Cause and Effect Activity: A class
discussion on how Arnold's earlier years affected the events in his
later years.
2. After the unit on famous Americans, there will
be a convention in which small groups of students will play the
roles of famous people. This will emphasize communication,
dialogue, and speaking from someone else's the point-of-view.
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| Teacher Resources: |
BOOKS
Fritz, Jean, Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold, New York,
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981
Marranca, Bonnie, Hudson Valley Lives, New York, Overlook Press,
1991
Syme, Ronald, Benedict Arnold, Traitor of the Revolution, New
York, William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1970.
URLS’s
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/fall97/arnold.html
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/arnold.html
http://www.battlereports.com/viewreports.php?reportnum=5103
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| Lesson Prepared by: |
Tara Falasco, Meredith Laino and Justin
Lavoie
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