Damodar R. Sar Desai Prize Lesson Plan Rubric

Damodar R. Sar Desai Prize
Lesson Plan Rubric

Lesson Title: __________________________________________________________________________

 

_____   Follows basic directions: 1-3 class periods, standard lesson format, inclusion of all materials, and proper                 formatting (Proceed to rubric below; if not, stop reviewing lesson)

 

 

0 = not present; 1 = minimal; 2 = partially proficient; 3 = proficient; 4 = advanced proficient; 5 = outstanding

 

Depth of content

_____   Accuracy:  content is factually accurate (in age-appropriate ways)

 

_____   Depth of content:  provides deep and/or complex understanding of South Asia (in age-appropriate ways)

 

_____   Sources & materials:  effective and/or innovative use of primary sources, secondary sources and/or other                 materials

 

_____   Critical thinking:  fosters critical thinking about South Asia

 

_____   Significance:  topic is important and/or relevant (either in its own period or in the present)

 

 

Pedagogical strategies

_____   Questioning:  essential investigation question drives lesson inquiry

 

_____   Content presentation:  content presented clearly and effectively through lecture, reading, film, etc.

 

_____   Guided practice:  teacher models and/or guides students through content

 

_____ Independent practice:  lesson devotes substantive time to student exploration of content alone or with classmates

 

_____ Assessment:  students have ample opportunity to convey substantive learning through effective assessment

 

 

_____ TOTAL SCORE (out of 50)

The History Project & The Yadunandan Center for India Studies announce the 2013 Damodar R. SarDesai Prize for Best Lesson Plan on South Asia

The History Project & The Yadunandan Center for India Studies announce the 2013  Damodar R. SarDesai Prize  for Best Lesson Plan on South Asia

 

The Damodar R. Sar Desai Prize recognizes effective teaching of India and South Asia in K-12 History-Social Science classrooms.

The Yadunandan Center at CSU Long Beach offers a prize of $1,000 to the best lesson plan submitted that deals with the politics or culture of South Asia in history or in the contemporary world.

Transportation costs will be covered so the winner can accept the prize in person at the Yadunandan Center’s annual Uka and Nalini Solanki Lecture, April 24, 2013, delivered by Shankar Vedantam.

The winning lesson plan and a profile of the author will be posted on the Center’s website.

Lessons will be reviewed by The History Project and YCIS faculty, based on the following criteria. 

 

Lesson requirements

  • Lesson will be judged on overall quality in terms of depth of content related to South Asia & appropriate use of pedagogical strategies
  • Lesson should be between one and three classroom periods in length
  • Lesson must follow a standard lesson plan format
  • Application must include all materials related to the lesson
  • A rubric for the lesson plan is provided on the Yadunandan Center’s website: https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/indiastudies/

 

Other details 

  • Applicant must be a current K-12 classroom teacher
  • Entry should be accompanied by the applicant’s name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address, as well as the name and address of the school in which the applicant is employed on a separate page before the beginning of the lesson plan
  • The name or any other identifying information about the applicant should not appear on the lesson plan itself
  • Applicants should include a statement that the essay is his or her own work

 

Submission

All submissions are due by March 10.

YCIS Collaborated with the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies and the History Project

Mrs. and Dr. D.R. Sardesai and teacher participants at the TeachIndia! Workshop.

During the summer and fall of 2012, the Yadunandan Center has collaborated with the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies and The History Project at CSULB to pilot a TeachIndia| project both to promote the teaching of India within secondary schools and to align this instruction with current scholarship in South Asian history and culture. Ten selected middle and high school teachers from Long Beach Unified School have attended a week of workshops where they met with a number of local scholars who presented lectures relating to Indian history and its religious and cultural traditions. The teacher participants also received a read a number of scholarly books and articles pertaining to the history of early and modern India. The participants met with CSULB History professors Arnold Kaminsky and Tim Keirn in a seminar-type format for deep and extensive discussion of these texts. Participants and historians also read and discussed a number of primary texts as well that ranged from the Ramayana to Khushwant Singh’s 1956 novel Train to Pakistan. The teacher participants also worked with David Neumann – the Director of the History Project at CSULB – to consider effective instructional practices to deliver the scholarly content and concepts that were learned into appropriate lessons for middle and high school students.

The ten teacher participants are continuing to meet with Kaminsky, Keirn and Neumann as they develop, modify and perfect the important curricular materials that are the product of this pilot. The teachers are creating a series of curricular maps in history at various grade levels that suggest means for the teaching of India within the perspectives of current scholarship and in broad alignment with the California state social science standards. The curricular maps also show teachers how and where to infuse the teaching of India into their curriculum where it does not currently exist in the state framework. The teacher participants are also creating a resource guide for teaching India at specific grade levels to assist teachers in finding materials and to teach beyond the confines of the textbook. The participants are also creating model lessons aligned to the curricular map for teaching India that provide teachers with all the materials and instructional guides needed to teach a particular topic as it relates to India and a specific grade level.

All these teacher-created curricular will be published at an open-sourced TeachIndia! Website linked to and supported by the Yadunandan Center. This site will be open-sourced and allow teachers from throughout the state and nation to access, modify and utilize the materials that have been created.  In addition, future lesson plans will be developed and published as the project expands to be offered on an annual basis with more teachers participating in the workshops and lesson design process. In addition, Professor Keirn and various teacher participants will be presenting their work and promoting the TeachIndia! Project at the following state and national conferences:

  • The Northwest World History Conference (Portland, OR)
  • The California Council for Social Studies (San Francisco, CA)
  • The National Council for History Education (Richmond, VA)
  • The National World History Conference (Minneapolis, MN)]

 The ten teach participants from Long Beach Unified School District are Anthony Arzate (Wilson High School), Sinammon Carbone (Renaissance High School Academy), Linda Cargile (Bancroft Middle School), Neal Cates (Hoover Middle School), Gail Hamilton (Bancroft Middle School), Gerry Morrison (Hoover Middle School), Tim Mulvehill (Millikan High School), Ann Sourn (Hughes Middle School), Emily Warren (Millikan High School), and Angela Wood (Lakewood High School).