Subject/Grade: Social Studies/6                                  Lesson Title: What is Power                                Teacher: Jayden Tokar-Katz

 

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

Outcome(s)/Indicator(s): OUT: Examine the relationship between an individual’s power and authority and the power and authority of others. IND: a) Illustrate the forms of power (an individual or a group’s ability to influence): force, authority, and influence (voice) with respect to their personal lives (e.g., force: pushing someone, saying something hurtful; authority: being elected class representative, being invited to act or speak on behalf of the group, inviting others to act or speak on behalf of the group; influence: speak out on their behalf or on behalf of others).

Key Understandings: (‘I Can’ statements)

  • I can identify the different forms of power
  • I know ways in which I use power
  • I know how power affects me
  • I know good and bad uses of power

Essential Questions:

  • What is Power?
  • How do I enact power on others?
  • How does power affect me?
  • What is good and bad power?

Prerequisite Learning:

  • None

Instructional Strategies:

  • Brainstorming
  • Set/hook of the lesson
  • Roleplaying

 

Stage 2: Determine Evidence for Assessing Learning

 

  • Journaling (two-sentence wrap-up): Students will be asked to complete a journal entry composed of two sentences. The first sentence will be what the student learned, and the second sentence(s) will be applying this to a real-life example. It could also be a drawing instead of a sentence. (Formative)
  • Roleplay: Students will be asked to apply their learned concept of power to a possible real-world scenario in a roleplay format with their peers (Formative)

 

Stage 3: Build a Learning Plan

Set (Engagement):                               

The instructor will begin the lesson by asking several students to stand up; then, after several students are standing, the instructor will ask the standing students, “Why did you stand up?” This will likely cause a trail of answers leading to “because you’re the teacher” or “because you told me to.” Then, the follow-up question will be, “Why did you do as I say?” This is the first basic illustration of power, and the instructor will say to the students, “you stoop up because of POWER!” The instructor will ask the class, “What is power?” and take several answers from the class and make a mind map using the student’s answers with “power” at the center. (10mins)

 

Development:   

At this point, the instructor will write down the several forms of power according to the curriculum: Force/Coercion, Authority and influence, and briefly define each. the instructor then, with the class, will assign the elements of power the students came up with on the mind map and assign them to the types of power. The instructor will then arrange the students into groups of 6 and assign each group a type of power. Then, for each type, the instructor will ask them to come up with a roleplay scenario of a good and bad example of their type of power. For example, two groups will be coercive power, and of those two groups, one will be a good example, and one will be a bad example. (25 min)

                                         

Learning Closure: 

The instructor will make comments based on the various roleplay performances, praises and critiques or adjustments that could be made. The instructor will ask, “Who likes Spiderman?” then play this video: (51) All three Spiderman, With Great Power comes Great Responsibility scene – YouTube The video is a compilation of dialogue from the Spider-man movies in which a character says, “With great power comes great responsibility” after playing the video the instructor will have the students write in a journal answering the prompt “What did the three characters mean when they told Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility? (10 mins)

 

                                       

Materials/Resources:

 

  • Internet (youtube access)
  • Whiteboard with markers
  • Projector to play video
  • Speakers to play audio

 

Possible Adaptations/

Differentiation: Using auditory and visual examples of the lesson,  active learning tasks, visual organizer, and personal reflection.

 

Management Strategies: Students will be able to collaborate with eachother for this lesson so talking and discussing is encouraged, if in their groups they stray from the subject matter the instructor will ask how that relates to power.

 

Safety Considerations:

 

  • Some students might be too shy to stand up, so check with them first prior to the lesson before asking them to stand up.
  • For the roleplaying activity, some students might have real experiences with bad types of power, and it might be triggering.