Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Teachers: Ricardo Rojas Subject: World History

 (Common Core) State Standards: HS.SP3.3 Analyze the relationship between primary sources
and the secondary interpretations made from them including possible limitations in various
kinds of evidence and differing secondary interpretations.

 Objective (Explicit): Students will be able to evaluate 3 different sources and determine the
accuracy of the commonly accepted narrative of the Moctezuma and Cortes meeting by completing
the source worksheet and actively participating in the post class discussion and referring to at least
1 source from the worksheet.

• Evidence of Mastery (Measurable):

□ Include a copy of the lesson assessment.
□ Provide exemplar student responses with the level of detail you expect to see.
□ Assign value to each portion of the response.

Responses added at under the Attachment section of the assignment.

The assessment will be the worksheet which will be given feedback.

Student responses from 2 students will be included.

Sub-objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex):

□ How will you review past learning and make connections to previous lessons?
□ What skills and content are needed to ultimately master this lesson objective?
□ How is this objective relevant to students, their lives, and/or the real world?

Past learning will be reviewed by getting them to refer back to what they learned about primary and
secondary sources at earlier in the semester, and from their OPVL assignment. They learned about
the differences between primary and secondary sources, and how they can be useful in different
ways.
This lesson objective can be mastered once they have been able to make connections between each
of the 3 sources, and then referring to those sources during the classroom discussion. To be able to
make connections, they should see how both source 1 and 2 relate to each other, and also how they
are contradicted by source 3. The students will be working on improving their writing, speaking, and
critical thinking skills.
This objective is relevant to students in the real world because they will live in a world where they
will be met with a blizzard of information that often contradicts each other. They will encounter
certain narratives and stories about people or events that are shaped by how other people talk about
them. In order for them to get a more complete picture, they need to carefully come to conclusions
about the topics after evaluating all sources of information. These concepts can be universally
applied because all students will need to be able to interpret information on a level which will require
them to carefully examine different pieces of information.

Key vocabulary: Materials:

Colonization: Colonization is what happens when 1 PowerPoint
country controls another country in order to gain more Worksheet with Sources
money and resources. Video
Textbook sources

Opening (state objectives, connect to previous learning, and make relevant to real life)
□ How will you activate student interest?

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 □ How will you connect to past learning?
□ How will you present the objective in an engaging and student-friendly way?
□ How will you communicate its importance and make the content relevant to your students?

I start the lesson with pre-activity questions that ask I will get students to watch a video to help
students generally about the topic, and try and have them think about the objective and what it
them to think about potential real-world could mean for the lesson.
connections even before the lesson starts.
I will emphasize the importance of how to read
Past learning will be connected from their previous conflicting pieces of information, and why it is
lessons about primary and secondary sources, important to be aware of biases from sources,
where they learned about what they were more or the truth behind certain words or stories.
generally.
nal Input Instructio

Teacher Will: Student Will:

□ How will you model/explain/demonstrate all knowledge/skills □ What will students be doing to actively capture and
required of the objective? process the new material?
□ What types of visuals will you use? □ How will students be engaged?

I will model the process of source analysis by using They will be working with their peers to
an example from a textbook and talk about what the answer the questions on the worksheet, and
potential issues could be from relying on this one read aloud the various sources to be able to
source, and ask questions about what the source is determine the meaning of them.
telling me.
They will be prompted throughout the lesson
There will be a video and images in the PowerPoint to make connections to the material and real
which provides visuals relating to the historical world possible scenarios with the various
event. discussion questions.

I will “walk” around the virtual classroom and help

students while they are reading the sources, making
sure they are not assuming what one says is the
truth over the other.

I will prompt students with post activity questions

and see what they were able to take away from the
sources.

I will tell students to work in pairs with their

classmates and they will need to work together to
read the sources and respectfully engage with one
another.

I believe there is enough detail in this section. The

teacher reading this will be able to understand that
there are several stages for this activity.

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 Teacher Will: Student Will:
Guided Practice □ How will you ensure that all students have multiple □ How will students practice all knowledge/skills
opportunities to practice new content and skills? required of the objective, with your support, such that
□ What types of questions can you ask students as you are they continue to internalize the sub-objectives?
observing them practice? □ How will students be engaged?
□ How/when will you check for understanding? □ How will you elicit student-to-student interaction?
□ How will you provide guidance to all students as they □ How are students practicing in ways that align to
practice? independent practice?
□ How will you explain and model behavioral expectations?
□ Is there enough detail in this section so that another person
could facilitate this practice?

They will be able to practice their writing and They will practice all skills so they can further
speaking skills, their critical thinking skills strengthen them in time for the possible sub-
throughout this activity. Each stage of this objectives.
assignment let’s them do so.
They will be engaged, as I have mentioned
“What do you think source 1 is saying?” “How does several times, by the possibility of learning of
source 3 contradicting sources 1 and 2?” seeing real world connections.

I will check for understanding at when students are Students will be able to work with peers
working with their partners and when the classroom during the worksheet part of this activity.
comes back together for the post activity
discussion. They are practicing working with peers and
alone to fill out worksheets which involve
They will be given guidance in that I will provide reading.
them some leading questions that they can focus
on while I communicate with them.

I will model expectations in the beginning with the

first teacher led example.

I think there is enough detail.

ent Independ

Teacher Will: Student Will:

□ How will you plan to coach and correct during this practice? □ How will students independently practice the
□ How will you provide opportunities for remediation and knowledge and skills required by the objective?
extension? □ How will students be engaged?

I will walk around and guide students with what They will practice these skills by completing
their focus should be on. the worksheet on their own and be ready for
the class discussion.
Students can create their own questions and ask
them during the classroom discussion. They will be engaged by getting too “correct”
a myth about history.
I will model behavior from the pre activity example.
They are practicing answering questions in
I provided enough detail. writing that will help them with the written
assessment. The base assessment will be the
worksheet, with a potential writing assignment
to be given later on.

I am supporting students by letting them

interact with one another and letting them call
on me when they need more guidance.

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 Closing/Student Reflection/Real-life connections:
□ How will students summarize and state the significance of what they learned?
□ Why will students be engaged?

They will be able to form a complete response in writing as to what they believed happened between
Moctezuma and Cortes by citing information from the sources, and how they support their
conclusion.

They will be engaged because they get to form and defend their own opinion.

Co-Teaching Strategy
□ What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement in this lesson?

I will use a One Teach-One Assist strategy. The lead teacher will deliver the lesson and the primary deliverer
of information. The co-teacher will also walk around and provide feedback to the students if they need
clarification on anything.

Differentiation Strategy
□ What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students in this lesson?
□ How will you support students that need an additional challenge?

Accommodations will be provided to students in the following ways; students with difficulties reading will be
paired with students who can read to their partner. Students with difficulties writing can deliver their
responses to the teacher independently. Students that are hard of hearing can be given an opportunity to
work with an interpreter so they can deliver their responses.

Students who need more challenge can be given the option to write a short story which follows what they
believe happened during the meeting between Cortes and Moctezuma.

Post Lesson Reflection

After having actually conducting this lesson, I was able to learn a lot about what

sort of questions and activities resonated with the students. While I ultimately think

that this lesson went well, there were some places of improvement. My goal was to

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 make sure that the students were able to make connections between each source,

and also from their background knowledge, and I believe this was successful.

The planning process for this lesson involved a lot of determining what questions

were effective and what were not helpful in promoting student learning. These

questions needed to be thought through and redone some times to make sure that

they all felt relevant and important to the overall goals of the lesson.

I was deeply involved in the design and implementation of the lesson. The only

area I had my mentor teacher assist with was making sure that the students were

paired together when they entered their breakout rooms. From each level of the

lesson, I was there to make sure that it all went smoothly. The worksheet was created

by me, with sources being taken from online resources, where the questions were

formed by me. I followed some principles of guided notes, with the activity essentially

forming a shell of different questions they could take notes on (Boyle 94). Some

strategies I employed included asking questions back to the students before the

lesson began, reading out difficult words so that students could know what they were

in context if they needed help, and I worked independently with them while they were

in their breakout rooms to see how they were doing.

Incorporating certain principles of Universal design meant for me it was important

to provide a good model of how the lesson was to be done. There were certain

elements I felt it was important to add most of all, and doing so meant providing a lot

of guided practice, and organizing the lesson in such a way that the expectations for

each part of it were clear and followed closely with one another (Finstein 177). I think

because the expectations were clear and defined throughout the lesson, it had a lot of

value for the students. The feedback I received indicated that they thought this was a

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 strong lesson.

There can be several intervention strategies I could employ in the future to make

sure that this lesson goes even better. Intervention strategies are especially important

because while I didn’t work with students with disabilities for this lesson, I could in the

future. Intervention strategies for students with disabilities are vast (Scruggs 442). I

would modify this lesson by making students with speech disabilities or are ELL by

pairing them with mainstream students who can read well. I will also attempt to

provide an opportunity to make sure that students with writing disabilities can make

their responses verbally to the teacher independently. Something else I would like to

do is make sure that are hard of hearing are able to work with an interpreter to make

sure that their responses in the class discussion are considered.

The most important thing I learned from my mentor teacher for help was to work on

being more confident. This is something I need to do to make sure that the students

feel comfortable that I am able to handle myself. What I learned from this lesson

overall was to make sure that I am prepared at every stage, and that if I encounter

something I wasn’t prepared for, to keep note of it for the next class.

References

Boyle, J.R. (2012). Note-Taking and Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities:
Challenges and Solutions. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 27(2),
90–101.

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 Finstein, R. F., Yang, F. Y. & Jones. Build Organizational Skills in Students With
Learning Disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 42(3), 174-178.
Scruggs, T.E., Mastropieri, M.A., Berkeley, S. & Graetz, J. E. (2010). Do Special
Education Interventions Improve Learning of Secondary Content? A Meta-
Analysis. Remedial and Special Education. 31(6) 437–449.

Attachments
From student Porter. This student was able to address all questions and participated in the
classroom discussion, referring to the text multiple times. This student got full points as a 4.

Source 1: Cortes’s Account

Context: The following is an excerpt of a letter written by Herná n Cortés to King Charles V where

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 he claims that Moctezuma told him the following story about the origins of his people.

After being seated Moctezuma spoke as follows: “We learned from our ancestors that those of us
who inhabit this region descend from strangers who came here from a very distant land. We have
also learned that a prince brought our people into these parts, and then returned to his native
land.
“Much later, the prince returned to this region and found that his people had intermarried with
the native inhabitants. When he asked them to return with him, they were unwilling to go, nor
were they willing to see him as their leader, so he left. We have always heard that his
descendants would come to conquer this land.

“From what you say of the great king who sent you here, we believe that your king is our natural
leader. Especially because of the direction from which you say you have come, and because you
say that you first learned of us a long time ago.

“Therefore, be assured that we will obey you. And you have the power in all this land to
command what is your pleasure, and it shall be done in obedience, and all that we have is at your
disposal. And since you are in your own proper land and your own house, rest and refresh
yourselves after your journey.”

Source: Letter by Hernán Cortés to King Charles V, written in 1520.

1. The recipient of the letter was King Charles V. How might this influence how Hernán Cortés
might be talking about the exploration?
Answer: Hernan Cortes might make things sound better than they are to impress King Charles
V.

2. How could this be a reliable source in understand what happened between Hernan Cortes
and Moctezuma? How might it not be a useful source to understand what happened?
Answer: It could be useful because it’s a primary source, it could not be useful because
Hernan Cortes could be lying or sugar-coating things.

Source 2: The Florentine Codex

Context: The Florentine Codex contains information compiled by fray Bernardino de Sahagú n as
a study of the people and culture of Central Mexico. The following passage contains the supposed
words of Moctezuma to Cortés once they had come into contact with one another.

Moctezuma addressed Cortés in these words: “Our lord, you are very welcome in your arrival in
this land. You have come to satisfy your curiosity about your noble city of Mexico. You have come
here to sit on your throne, which I have kept for you. . . . For I am not just dreaming, not just
sleepwalking, not seeing you in my dreams. I have been worried for a long time, looking toward
the unknown place from which you have come. Our ancestors said that you would come to your
city and sit upon your throne. And now it has been fulfilled, you have returned. Go enjoy your
palace, rest your body. Welcome our lords to this land.”

Source: Excerpt from the Florentine Codex, an account of Aztec life originally written by Mexican
natives between 1570-1585 under the supervision of Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún, whose

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 primary goal was to convert the natives of Mexico to Christianity.

1. This document was written by Mexican natives under the supervision of Bernardino de
Sahagún. How might this affect the accuracy of this account?
Answer: The Mexican natives might have acted differently because they were being
supervised.

2. How is this source similar to the information in Source 1? Does it contradict the information
in Source 1 in any way?
Answer: They’re similar as they both talk about the same account, but they contradict as the
first states they refused his leadership and the second says they accepted it.

Source 3: Historian’s Account

Context: The following excerpts come from historian Matthew Restall’s book, Seven Myths of
Spanish Conquest. The first excerpt focuses on another possible explanation for why Moctezuma
was expecting Herná n Cortés.

[In royal Aztec culture], to be polite and courteous one must avoid speaking bluntly or directly,
which requires saying the opposite of what one means. Thus Moctezuma’s assertion that he and
his predecessors were just safeguarding the rulership of the Mexica empire in anticipation of
Cortés’s arrival is not to be taken literally. It is . . . meant to convey the opposite — Moctezuma’s
stature . . . — and to function as a courteous welcome to an important guest.

Source: Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, written by Matthew Restall in 2003.

Context: The next excerpt describes possible reasons why Spanish priests may have said that
Moctezuma believed Herná n Cortés was Quetzalcoatl.

[The Franciscans’] concerns were more religious than political, and [their] emphasis was on the
legitimacy and divine approval of Christianization campaigns. . . . [Motolinía seized upon the idea]
that Mexico’s natives somehow anticipated the arrival of the Spaniards — an anticipation that
proved the Conquest was part of God’s plan for the Americas. For this reason, Franciscans such as
Motolinía appear to have invented the Cortés-Quetzalcoatl identification after Conquest.

Source: Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, written by Matthew Restall in 2003.

1. What could make this an accurate source if you wanted to know what happened between
Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma? What makes the information in this source different than that
of the first two?
Answer: These sources are both secondary, which could make it more or less accurate.

2. How does this source compare to the Source 1 and Source 2? Does it contradict or support
the conclusions that the others made?
Answer: These sources are secondary sources. The first supports Cortes’s account and the

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 second supports the Florentine Codex.

From student Briseis. This student was able to answer each question and turned it in
on time for the assessment. Overall this student met expectations and got a 4.

Source 1: Cortes’s Account

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 Context: The following is an excerpt of a letter written by Herná n Cortés to King Charles V where
he claims that Moctezuma told him the following story about the origins of his people.

After being seated Moctezuma spoke as follows: “We learned from our ancestors that those of us
who inhabit this region descend from strangers who came here from a very distant land. We have
also learned that a prince brought our people into these parts, and then returned to his native
land.
“Much later, the prince returned to this region and found that his people had intermarried with
the native inhabitants. When he asked them to return with him, they were unwilling to go, nor
were they willing to see him as their leader, so he left. We have always heard that his
descendants would come to conquer this land.

“From what you say of the great king who sent you here, we believe that your king is our natural
leader. Especially because of the direction from which you say you have come, and because you
say that you first learned of us a long time ago.

“Therefore, be assured that we will obey you. And you have the power in all this land to
command what is your pleasure, and it shall be done in obedience, and all that we have is at your
disposal. And since you are in your own proper land and your own house, rest and refresh
yourselves after your journey.”

Source: Letter by Hernán Cortés to King Charles V, written in 1520.

1. The recipient of the letter was King Charles V. How might this influence how Hernán Cortés
might be talking about the exploration?
Answer: Cortes may start to believe that the Aztecs are willing to give the Spanish everything
that they need with no questions asked. Him writing this to the King could also mean that
Cortes would only put the good parts of the greeting in because he wants to assure the King
that the exploration was going well.

2. How could this be a reliable source in understand what happened between Hernan Cortes
and Moctezuma? How might it not be a useful source to understand what happened?
Answer: This may not be useful because Cortes ended up attacking the Aztecs and taking
their leader as a captive but from this letter it seemed as if they looked up to Cortes and
welcomed him. This could be reliable in the Spanish’s eyes because they are hearing that
things are going as perfect as they hoped for.

Source 2: The Florentine Codex

Context: The Florentine Codex contains information compiled by fray Bernardino de Sahagú n as
a study of the people and culture of Central Mexico. The following passage contains the supposed
words of Moctezuma to Cortés once they had come into contact with one another.

Moctezuma addressed Cortés in these words: “Our lord, you are very welcome in your arrival in
this land. You have come to satisfy your curiosity about your noble city of Mexico. You have come
here to sit on your throne, which I have kept for you. . . . For I am not just dreaming, not just
sleepwalking, not seeing you in my dreams. I have been worried for a long time, looking toward

11
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 the unknown place from which you have come. Our ancestors said that you would come to your
city and sit upon your throne. And now it has been fulfilled, you have returned. Go enjoy your
palace, rest your body. Welcome our lords to this land.”

Source: Excerpt from the Florentine Codex, an account of Aztec life originally written by Mexican
natives between 1570-1585 under the supervision of Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún, whose
primary goal was to convert the natives of Mexico to Christianity.

1. This document was written by Mexican natives under the supervision of Bernardino de
Sahagún. How might this affect the accuracy of this account?
Answer: It could affect the Mexican natives because they might be forced to only put the good
interactions with Cortes and how they viewed him as a god. This then would lead to the
accuracy of this interaction to be less true because if they were able to say everything, they
felt of Cortes the message could be very different.

2. How is this source similar to the information in Source 1? Does it contradict the information
in Source 1 in any way?
Answer: This is like source one because they both talk about how Moctezuma welcomed
Cortes as their lord and welcomed him with open arms. There was not much information that
source 1 and 2 had that disagreed with each other it seemed from both sides that Cortes was
the lord they had been waiting for.

Source 3: Historian’s Account

Context: The following excerpts come from historian Matthew Restall’s book, Seven Myths of
Spanish Conquest. The first excerpt focuses on another possible explanation for why Moctezuma
was expecting Herná n Cortés.

[In royal Aztec culture], to be polite and courteous one must avoid speaking bluntly or directly,
which requires saying the opposite of what one means. Thus Moctezuma’s assertion that he and
his predecessors were just safeguarding the rulership of the Mexica empire in anticipation of
Cortés’s arrival is not to be taken literally. It is . . . meant to convey the opposite — Moctezuma’s
stature . . . — and to function as a courteous welcome to an important guest.

Source: Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, written by Matthew Restall in 2003.

Context: The next excerpt describes possible reasons why Spanish priests may have said that
Moctezuma believed Herná n Cortés was Quetzalcoatl.

[The Franciscans’] concerns were more religious than political, and [their] emphasis was on the
legitimacy and divine approval of Christianization campaigns. . . . [Motolinía seized upon the idea]
that Mexico’s natives somehow anticipated the arrival of the Spaniards — an anticipation that
proved the Conquest was part of God’s plan for the Americas. For this reason, Franciscans such as
Motolinía appear to have invented the Cortés-Quetzalcoatl identification after Conquest.

Source: Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, written by Matthew Restall in 2003.

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 1. What could make this an accurate source if you wanted to know what happened between
Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma? What makes the information in this source different than that
of the first two?
Answer: This could be an accurate source of information to explain the downfall between
Cortes and Moctezuma because it shows that when Cortes was being told all these great
things some of the stuff was fake and meant the opposite. The information in this source is
different from all the other sources because the other sources only talked about how polite
Moctezuma was to Cortes nothing about their actual intentions or motives.

2. How does this source compare to the Source 1 and Source 2? Does it contradict or support
the conclusions that the others made?
Answer: This source contradicts the conclusions made in the other sources because the other
sources only looked at the positive side of the greeting. While this source goes into detail why
Moctezuma was already expecting the Spanish and prepared for a nice greeting when meant
the opposite of what he said.

Rubric

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14
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