Lesson Plan on Easter Island

Teacher: Katrina Mobley Subject: Social Studies
Grade Level: 5  Date  August 8, 2002

Strand: People, Places and Environments

Standard: The student understands the interactions of people and the physical environment.

I. Content: I want my students to understand the geographical location and the physical environment of Easter Island.

II. Prerequisites: The students should know the definition of an island, how to use different resources for research and locate places on a map.

III.  Instructional Objective: When requested, the student will describe the location and physical environment of Easter Island. This description will include: identification of the closet continent to Easter Island, ocean in which Easter Island is located, and some geographical features of Easter Island including volcanoes, lava fields, statues, ceremonial sites, and the two habitation caves.

IV. Instructional Procedures:

Lesson Initiating Activity: The lesson begins with the teacher asking the students to locate Easter Island on a map. Students will then read handouts containing background information from Island at the Center of the World by Father Sebastian Engeert and The Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific by William Mulloy and answer questions from the handout.

Core Activities: Next, the teacher will discuss with the class key terms found throughout the information handouts such as "Polynesian Triangle", "Rapa Nui", "totara", "Roggeveen", "Felipe Gonzalez", "Alexander P. Salmon", along with others. Students will use these key terms as aids to create a story entitled "My Voyage to Easter Island" that discusses, at least, a three-day experience of their time on the island. Within the story, students must include at least one geographical feature they came across, descriptions concerning the physical environment and location of Easter Island, contributions they made to the island during their stay, how they survived their time on the island and interactions they made with citizens of the island. This assignment can be written in either essay or diary/journal format.

Closure Activity: The lesson concludes with each student reading his/her essay/journal to their classmates. After all assignments have been read, the teacher will conduct a review of what was covered throughout the lesson and a brief introduction concerning who made the statues of Easter Island, when they were made, how the statues were constructed and where they are located.

ESOL Considerations: The teacher will provide both written and pictorial examples of all key terms. If necessary, students will be allowed to draw pictures in their journals/essays as an explanation as to what they experienced instead of using words. The teacher will use hand gestures to stress key points as well as write key information on the board.

V. Materials and Equipment: The materials for this lesson include: Easter Island handouts, paper, pens/pencils, chalk or dry erase markers.

VI. Assessment: Students will be assessed on their written journals/essays.

VII. Follow-up Activities: For homework, students are asked to think about the who, what, when, where and how of the statues and come up with an idea of why the citizens of Easter Island decided to construct the statues and the significance that they think the statues serve.

VIII. Self-Assessment: The teacher will review the final student assessment to determine if the actual outcome differed, either positively or negatively, from the intended outcome.

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