Concept Unit: Lesson Plan #6

Unit Working Title: This I Believe

Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Status Quo
Unit Primary Skill focus: Questioning, personal essay
Week __2__ of 3; Plan #__6__ of 9; [90 mins.]
Plan type: _____Full-Detail ____Summary
Content Requirement Satisfied: Syntax instruction, Model Text
Unit Learning Objectives:
SWBAT:
Cognitive: None in this lesson plan.
Affective and/or Non-Cognitive: None in this lesson plan.
Performance:
7. Students will be able to explore and develop their own belief systems.
c. Students will revise drafts of their own This I Believe statements.
SOLs:

8.7 The student will write in a variety of forms, including narration,

exposition, persuasion, and informational.
g. Revise writing for clarity of content, word choice, sentence variety, and
transitions among paragraphs.
h. Use computer technology to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writing.
CCSs:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.2c
Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the
relationships among ideas and concepts.

Methods of Assessment:
Diagnostic

Formative

Summative

At this point, the teacher

will have seen 1-2 drafts
that are in progress for
each student. The
teacher also will have
had conferences with
some (if not all) students
during the previous
class. (7c)
Completing the
ratiocination practice on
a model text will help
the teacher see how well
the students can handle
this exercise with their
own work. (7c)

Students will complete

the ratiocination
exercise on their own
work, guided by the
teacher. Students will
save a separate file with
the color-coding so that
the teacher can check
progress and
completion. (7c)
Students will show the
teacher at least THREE
bolded, revised
sentences in their drafts
according to the
sentence starter focus.
(7c)

Throughout the
remainder of this week,
students will have time
in class to continue
discussing ways to
question the status quo
as well as developing
their own beliefs in a
persona, This I Believe
statement. Students will
continue working on
their written This I
Believe statements in
each class period this
week. Students will turn
in a draft of their This I
Believe statements for
teacher feedback. (7c)

Beginning Room Arrangement:

[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]
Students will be seated in their usual base groups. There will not be a Do-Now today.
Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]
1. [__5__ mins] Welcome:
I will take a few minutes to welcome students to class and briefly go over the agenda for
the day. I will tell them that we will start with a mini-lesson for revision of the drafts weve
been working on throughout the week. Then, after we practice the revision technique on a
model text and their own work, we will have another writing workshop to finish and
prepare to turn in a draft. I have printed their drafts so far from their blogs so that they will
have a hard copy for the revision technique today.
2. [__35__ mins] Mini-Lesson on Ratiocination for Sentence Starters:
Explanation & Materials Gathering (5 minutes): I will explain ratiocination to students as a
revision technique that involves color-coding or highlighting your writing to make potential
issues more visible. For our workshop, we are going to focus on how students are starting
their sentences in order to improve the overall flow of the This I Believe statement. I will
tell students that this activity will help them create power sentences that will greatly
enhance the effectiveness of their papers. After I finish explaining, students will come to
the front of the room to get ONE colored pencils.
Practice on Model Text (10 minutes): I will use an excerpt of my own This I Believe
statement that I have been working on alongside students. I will have my excerpt
projected on the white board, and I will use a brightly colored dry erase marker to bracket
on the board. I will also provide students with a handout of my excerpt so that they can do
this alongside me, getting the physical feel for what they will be doing. I will explain that I

am going to read through my excerpt and put brackets around the first word of every
sentence with my marker. I will do this, showing them what they will do alongside me.
After we have put brackets around all of the first words, we will write them all out in a list
to the side. Students will do this below the excerpt on the handout. Then we will discuss
words that are repetitive or that dont make very much sense. I will ask the students what
they notice and how they think I could make my writing better. I will guide them toward a
discussion about transition words and sentence variation. When I notice that Im using
similar words over and over again, I can stop and brainstorm synonyms or just other ideas
that I could use that would be less repetitive, and so on. We will write two power
sentences together that use better starter words for my sentences.
Student Practice on their writing (10 minutes): I will distribute the printed drafts for
students so that they can complete this task on their own work. I will circulate around the
room while they are doing this to help them if they get stuck or are unsure of how to colorcode and list correctly.
Students write power sentences (10 minutes): I will signal that students should be
wrapping up their color-coding and listing and moving on to writing their three super
sentences. I will continue circulating around the class to help students who may need
extra scaffolding to come up with better sentence starters beyond what we have
discussed as a whole class.
3. [__35__ mins] Writing Workshop:
During this time, students will have a large chuck of class to continue writing and revising
their drafts of their This I Believe statements. I will inform students that they need to
submit a draft via GoogleDoc so that I can provide them with feedback before the final
draft is due next week. I will ask them to start that GoogleDoc now, moving their text there
and sharing it with me immediately. I will also ask them to bold face their three power
sentences so that I can check that they have completed those. While students are
working, I can conference with them as needed. I can also monitor their GoogleDocs and
provide comments as they are writing. This will help me give them as much feedback as
possible to assist them through the writing process.
4. [__5__ mins] Wrap Up // Exit Card:
Students will complete an Exit Card letting me know what kind of multimedia project they
are interested in. This will allow me to read through their interests over the weekend and
ensure that I have good examples and packets for them the following week during their
digital workshop time.
Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:
Sam Workshop time can be particularly useful for Sam because it allows him to really
work at his pace, regardless of how fast or slow. Because students are still drafting and
revising, the GoogleDoc feedback option will be particularly useful for Sam because I can
continue prompting him to revise throughout the workshop time.
Materials Needed:
Laptop or tablet
Teachers Model Text Excerpt
Colored Pencils

Teacher Excerpt Handout

Printed copies of student drafts from their blogs
Index cards