Accomplishment

April

8th Grade

Accomplishment– Having completed a task that is done well and achieves a goal.

Purpose: This lesson helps students celebrate the accomplishments of others and realize what they are capable of accomplishing themselves.

Materials:

Procedures:

  1. The teachers will ask the students if they recognize and can define the word Accomplishment.
  2. Teacher will ask the following questions to the students to spark discussion.

3.  Choose from the attached prompts to get discussions started

4.  Paraphrase President John F. Kennedy on the occasion of his hosting an official dinner honoring winners of the Nobel Prize. At that time, Kennedy said the White House had not seen such a gathering of talent since Thomas Jefferson had dined there alone.

5.  Proceed to a class discussion of the accomplishments of Thomas Jefferson. The discussion should include at least the following facts:

·  After college, Jefferson became a lawyer.

·  He was then elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

·  He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.

·  He served as governor of Virginia during the Revolution.

·  He served as minister to France.

·  He worked as George Washington’s secretary of state, as John Adams’s vice president, and as America’s third president.

·  He was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.

·  He was a violinist, a horseman, and an inventor.

·  He established the University of Virginia.

·  He was an accomplished architect

6.  Discuss the meaning of an epitaph. Tell the students that an epitaph reinforces the accomplishments of the individual and are always complementary. Some people actually write their own epitaphs as to how they want to be remembered. Read to students the epitaph that Thomas Jefferson himself composed:

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and the Father of the University of Virginia.

7.  Ask students to comment not only on which accomplishments Jefferson included in his epitaph but also on which he pointedly omitted. Give students an opportunity to conjecture how and why Jefferson came up with this particular wording. What does his choice of what to include and what to exclude tell us about Jefferson?

8. To underscore the challenge of writing an epitaph, invite students to write one for one or more of the following public figures still alive in the year 2000:

·  President William Jefferson Clinton

·  Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel

·  President Fidel Castro of Cuba

·  A rock star of their choice

·  An athlete of their choice

·  Another public figure of their choice

Remind students that an epitaph can be neutral or laudatory but is seldom if ever condemnatory.

10.  You may want students to read their finished epitaphs aloud, perhaps having the class vote on the best written, the most poetic, the wittiest, the briefest, the one with the most superlatives, and so on.

Conclusion:

1.  The teacher will ask the students to think about what they want to accomplish

within the next 10 years.

2.  The teacher will ask the students to share some of their ideas


Prompts

¨  Why do you think some people are able to do things well?

¨  Why are accomplishments important?

¨  Tell your own story or have volunteers share their own about an accomplishment achieved.

¨  Tell about how you completed your task.

¨  Tell about a time when you were given praise for an accomplishment.

¨  Write about a time when you accomplished something that you were very proud of.

¨  Write about a time when you helped someone else complete a goal and then let them accept the praise.


Other Famous Epitaphs

Benjamin Franklin

The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer (like the cover of an old book, itscontents worn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding) lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not lost,for it will, as he believed, appear once more In a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by its Author

Sir Christopher Wren – Architect of St. Pauls’s Cathedral. London

LECTOR, SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE . (Reader, if you seek his monument look around you.) (Interred in St. Paul's Cathedral of which he was the architect

Hank Williams - Musician

Thank you for all the love you gave me. There could be no one stronger.
Thank you for the many beautiful songs. They will live long and longer

Sir Isaac Newton – physicist, astronomer, mathematician

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light.

Jack Dempsey – Boxer

A GENTLE MAN AND A GENTLEMAN

Oliver Hardy – comedian

A Genius of Comedy His Talent Brought Joy. and Laughter to All the World.

Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederacy

An American Soldier and Defender of the Constitution

Charles Lindburg – Famous pilot

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea

Frank Sinatra – singer

The best is yet to come

John Brown – dentist

Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity. John Brown is filling his last cavity.


Lesson Plan Evaluation

Character Word______Grade Level______

Objective / Yes / Somewhat / No
Was the lesson easy to read and understand buy the teachers?
Was the sequence of the lesson correct?
Were the activities easy to understand?
Were the students engaged throughout the lesson?
Did the students enjoy the activities?
Were the materials easy to use?
Were the visuals appropriate for the learners?
Were there adequate activities planned?
Was the lesson relevant to the learners?

Comments:

Please return form to Mr. Richardson or Dr. Carsillo