Summary
This lesson is a single-day introduction to key vocabulary related to the Enlightenment period. Students will engage in discussion about general concepts raised by philosophers of the time, sort terms into common themes, and begin to relate them to American life today.
Essential Question(s)
How do principles brought about during the Enlightenment relate to American life today?
Snapshot
Engage
Students discuss five statements related to the Enlightenment using the Always, Sometimes, or Never True strategy.
Explore
In groups, students organize a Honeycomb Harvest composed of Enlightenment vocabulary.
Explain
Students independently justify the connections they made between terms in their honeycomb.
Extend
Students make connections between vocabulary words in their honeycomb and American life today.
Evaluate
As an Exit Ticket, students revisit the statements from the Engage section by connecting them to the Enlightenment period.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Always, Sometimes, or Never True handout (attached; one per student)
Enlightenment Hexagons (attached; one per group)
Food Hexagons (attached; optional)
Honeycomb Harvest Justification handout (attached: one per student)
Poster boards or sticky easel pads
Sticky notes
Scissors
Highlighters
Permanent markers
Glue sticks
Engage
10 Minute(s)
Using the attached Lesson Slides, transition through slides 1–4 introducing the title of the lesson, Essential Question, and Lesson Objectives.
Move to slide 5 and explain the Always, Sometimes, or Never True strategy for a whole-class discussion. Designate three areas of the classroom to represent Always, Sometimes, and Never.
Transition to slide 6 and read the first statement. Instruct students to move to the area of the room that they circled on their handout: Always, Sometimes or Never. After students have moved to an area, have them discuss why they selected that response. Ask for a volunteer to share for each area of the room. Repeat this process with all five statements.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Place students in groups of four to five. Move to slide 7 and pass out a copy of the attached Enlightenment Hexagons handout to each group. Explain the Honeycomb Harvest strategy and have students cut out the hexagons and arrange them based on the connections they have with one another. Provide each group with a piece of poster board and have students glue their hexagons onto it.
Explain
10 Minute(s)
Pass out the attached Honeycomb Harvest Justification handout to each student. Move to slide 8 and instruct students to first choose three terms and write them in the first three hexagons. Between the terms, instruct students to write how the terms are connected. Have students repeat this with five more terms. Students should complete the handout individually.
If time permits, allow a few students to share their rationale.
Extend
5 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 9. As a group, have students identify three terms that connect to American life today and highlight them on their poster. Have students discuss these with their group, and then come up with a rationale to support their choices and write them on sticky notes.
Next, have students place the sticky notes next to the terms on their poster. Ask a few groups to share out the terms they chose to highlight and their explanations.
Evaluate
5 Minute(s)
Display slide 10. Explain to students that they are revisiting the statements from the beginning of class, but are now relating them to what they have learned using the Exit Ticket strategy.
Move to slide 11. Instruct students to select one of the statements previously discussed, and explain how it relates to the ideas from the Enlightenment. Have students write their response on a sticky note, and place it in a common location such as the classroom door or whiteboard on the way out of class so that it can be evaluated as a formative assessment.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Always, Sometimes, or Never True. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/145
K20 Center. (n.d.). Honeycomb Harvest. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/61
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125