10th Grade Thomas Jefferson Lesson Plan (History)

Topic: Thomas Jefferson's impact on the United States

Objectives & Outcomes

• Students will be able to describe the impact that Thomas Jefferson had on the United States.

Materials

• Images of Thomas Jefferson and examples of his writings
• Handouts with quotes and major events in Jefferson's life
• Writing materials for independent work

Warm-up

• Ask students if they know who Thomas Jefferson is and what he did for the United States.
• Write their answers on the board and discuss as a class.

Direct Instruction

• Before beginning the lesson, give students a brief overview of Thomas Jefferson's life and accomplishments.
• Show students images of Jefferson and his home, Monticello.
• Ask students to describe what they see and make any connections to what they already know about Jefferson.
• Have students take out their textbooks and open to the chapter on Thomas Jefferson.
• Begin reading the chapter together as a class, stopping to discuss and clarify any points of interest.
• Emphasize Jefferson's key contributions to the United States, such as writing the Declaration of Independence, founding the University of Virginia, and establishing the first official system of currency.
• Have students take notes on key points from the chapter.

Guided Practice:

• Divide the class into small groups.
• Give each group a set of primary source documents related to Jefferson (e.g. a letter he wrote, a statement he made in a speech).
• Have students read the documents carefully and identify key points or ideas expressed in the documents.
• Have students discuss as a group how the documents support the overarching ideas and accomplishments of Jefferson described in the chapter.
• Have each group present their findings to the class.

Independent Practice:

• Assign a project where students research a specific aspect of Jefferson's life or work and create a presentation on it.
• Students can choose to focus on a specific achievement or aspect of Jefferson's life, or they can choose to conduct a more general research on his overall impact on the United States.
• Students should present their findings to the class using a variety of presentation methods (e.g. PowerPoint, Prezi, Google Slides, etc.).

Closure:

• Review the key points and main lessons learned from the lesson.
• Ask students to share one thing they learned about Thomas Jefferson during the lesson.

Assessment:

• Collect the group presentations and conduct a quiz or test to assess students' understanding of Jefferson's views on government, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance.