Annotation: This lesson will take a look at the History of Baseball, and how the sport was made popular in America.  I will read an excerpt from Baseball's Greatest Hitters about the great baseball player Ty Cobb.  This excerpt talks about Ty's personality and tactics.  We will talk about why these factors made Ty Cobb such an interesting player to watch.  We will also discuss how Ty Cobb helped make baseball America's favorite pastime.  I will ask the students to think about what makes someone an expert at something.  I will ask the students to write a 3 paragraph journal entry describing a skill or hobby that they do well, how or when they learned it, and what makes them good at this particular thing.  Then, we will play academic baseball using questions to review for the test on U.S. Immigration.

Primary Learning Outcomes:  The students will gain a greater knowledge of the History of Baseball and the impact that Ty Cobb made on this sport.  The students will be able to recognize something they are good at and write a 3 paragraph journal entry about their skill or hobby.  The students will understand social studies material for their test on U.S. Immigration by reviewing with an academic baseball game.

Materials:
Each student will need a pencil.
1 copy of Baseball's Greatest Hitters.
Each student will need one sheet of notebook paper.
48 questions written on slips of paper.
1 baseball cap.

Technology Connection: The students will visit this website to learn more about the Origins of Baseball.

Baseball Origins
 
 

Procedures:
1.  Read an excerpt about the baseball player Ty Cobb from the book Baseball's Greatest Hitters.

2.  Have the students discuss some of Ty Cobb's personality traits and some of his tactics.  Ask students to discuss why his tactics helped make baseball an interesting sport to watch.

3.  Have the students take out a sheet of paper.  Ask the students what they think makes a person an expert at something.  Have the students write a 3 paragraph journal entry about a skill or hobby that they are good at.  (The first paragraph will describe the skill or hobby, the second paragraph will tell how or when they learned it, and the third paragraph will tell why they are good at this particular thing.)

4.  The students will share their writing with the class.

5. The students will have an opportunity to look at information in pairs on the Internet,  on the origins of baseball from a pre-selected website that was mentioned earlier in the lesson.

5.  I will break the students into 2 teams.  I will tell the students that  we are going to play baseball, except we are going to play it using questions to review for the upcoming test on U.S. Immigration.  I will remind the students that Immigration was still going on during the high point of Ty Cobb's baseball career.   (Each student will have a chance to answer a question for their team.  We will use a coin toss to see which team goes first.  A member of that team will draw a question from my baseball cap.  Each question will be labeled 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or Homerun according to the level of difficulty.  Each correct answer is worth one point.  Each missed question is an out.  That team loses its turn, and the opposite team gets to answer the question.  The team with the most points wins the game!)

Assessment:
1 completed journal entry of 3 paragraphs about a skill or hobby the student is good at.

Participation during the baseball game on questions for the test.

Accomodation: Some students will write 1 paragraph instead of 3 on the skill or hobby they are good at.

Modification: The academic baseball game can be used for any subject area.