Concept Unit

Lesson Plan Template

Unit Working Title: Building a Community of Individual Voices

Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Unique Voices
Unit Primary Skill focus:

Week:1 of 3
Plan # 2 of 9
Minutes: 90

Plan type: Summary

Content Requirement Satisfied:

- Vocabulary

Unit Learning Objectives and Specific lesson objectives being taught in this lesson:

1. Students will understand that every voice has a right to be heard.

2. Students will understand that people respond differently to different types of writing, but
that no one way of expression is better than the other.
4. Students will be able to listen actively to their peers and the teacher.
7. Evaluate their responses to different voices.
SWBAT:

Cognitive:
a) Students will understand that through ones voice, we are able to communicate our
perspectives and opinions.
b) Students will know strategies to define unknown words in a sentence or phrase (using definitions,
antonyms, synonyms, inferencing, and examples).
c) Students will understand the importance of using context clues to derive meaning out of unknown
words in literature. This skill is one they will have to use continuously throughout their lives

Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:

d) Students will be able to value differences in opinion, recognizing that each persons voice
carries a unique contribution to a community.

Performance (do):
e) Students will demonstrate their appreciation of multiple voices by engaging in small
group discussions with their peers.
f) Students will identify unknown words using the context surrounding the word.

SOLs:
6.4 The student will read and learn the meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases within
authentic texts.
 c) Use context and sentence structure to determine meanings and differentiate among
multiple meanings of words.

CCSs:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.

Diagnostic Formative Summative

In the previous class, students
created visual representations of
a positive community of unique
voices. With the image, they
also provided captions to define
and described what a
community of unique voices
was. I have looked over the
images and will using them to
guide students understanding of
a classroom of unique voices.
3, 5, h,
Students will use discussion from
the previous class to inform their
group discussions today. We will
also be doing a vocabulary
activity. They will be working
with a text that has unfamiliar
words. With their peers, they will
identify words in a text that are
difficult and unfamiliar. they will
try to define the terminology
using strategies various
strategies. We will discuss the
terms as a whole class.
Students will be asked to present
their final presentations in the end
of the unit. The class will then
engage in discussion of their
conversation. Students will then
have to reflect on their growth in
their discussion group throughout
the unit. These reflections will be
collected and will contribute to
the final assessment grade.

Students will also be play 3, 4, 5, 8,h,e,f.

discussion bingo, where they will
be required to use their
knowledge of positive
community of unique voices to
guide their interaction with their
peers.

4, 8, 5, h,e,f

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
Beginning Room Arrangement:
As students come to class, they will sit in their assigned seat. The class is set up in a double U
shape with one inner U and an outer U. In this arrangement, students do a lot of work in groups
of four with the people in front of them or behind them.
[7 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson: Look at Obama

I will have a picture of president Obama posted on the board. We will discuss how Obama as the
president has an important voice in our community. Students will be asked to think of one thing
they like about Obama as a president, and one thing they dont. students will share their ideas
with a partner, but the partner will not be allowed to respond, they can only listen. This will lead
us into a discussion of why everyones voice and opinion is important, even if we do not agree
with them.

[12 mins] Obamas Speech

After our discussion, students will be given the text of President Obamas speech. We will them
watch the video of him delivering it. They will be asked to circle words they do not recognize as
they listen to the speech.

[30 mins.] Vocabulary

Students will be put in groups of four. They will go over the words they identified as difficult.
After identifying the words, the group goes back and uses context clues to infer what the words
might mean. After working in groups, they will write the word, its location in the text, what they
think it means, and how they came to this conclusion. They will then deposit the words into a hat
and we will go over them together as a class. they will write the definition next to the word in the
text.

[30 mins.] Speaking Activity

Before doing this activity, I will go over some expressions for giving opinions, agreeing,
disagreeing, and interrupting. After teaching expressions for agreeing and disagreeing, I will
distribute the worksheet to my students. I will have them complete the first part where they have
to create three discussion questions.
Then they will play bingo with the worksheet given to them. The goal is for them to learn
discussion strategies and lingo. For bingo, they will
1. Use the expressions on the card
2. Use them at a relevant time in the conversation,
3. Follow-up the expression with an idea (ex. I beg to differ. The person who invited the
other should pay the bill on the first date not necessarily the man.)
Each member of the group will have to pose at least two questions during the discussion. They
will be encouraged to play more than once.

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled studentsidentify them by name)

I will be differentiating this lesson by putting students in heterogenous groups to work in.
Samuel and Charnee will be in the same group with two other high achieving students, and Louis
and Natalie will be in a group with high level students as well. This way, when they are going
over vocabulary, they will be able to learn from their peers.

Materials Needed (list):

- computer
- Doc cam
- Handouts
-
Materials Appendix:
- Appendix A President Obamas Speech
- Appendix B Speaking Activity Discussion

Appendix A

Obama's Statement on the Shooting in Oregon

Theres been another mass shooting in America -- this time, in a community college in
Oregon. That means there are more American families -- moms, dads, children -- whose lives
have been changed forever. That means theres another community stunned with grief, and
communities across the country forced to relieve their own anguish, and parents across the
country who are scared because they know it might have been their families or their children.

Ive been to Roseburg, Oregon. There are really good people there. I want to thank all the
first responders whose bravery likely saved some lives today. Federal law enforcement has been
on the scene in a supporting role, and weve offered to stay and help as much as Roseburg needs,
for as long as they need.

In the coming days, well learn about the victims -- young men and women who were
studying and learning and working hard, their eyes set on the future, their dreams on what they
could make of their lives. And America will wrap everyone whos grieving with our prayers and
our love.

But as I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each
time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. Its not
enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does
nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America -- next week, or
a couple of months from now.

We don't yet know why this individual did what he did. And it's fair to say that anybody
who does this has a sickness in their minds, regardless of what they think their motivations may
be. But we are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses or want to do
harm to other people. We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass
shootings every few months.

Earlier this year, I answered a question in an interview by saying, The United States of America
is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun-
safety laws -- even in the face of repeated mass killings. And later that day, there was a mass
shooting at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. That day! Somehow this has become routine.
The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The
conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this.

We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after
Aurora, after Charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other
people to get his or her hands on a gun.

And whats become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common-
sense gun legislation. Right now, I can imagine the press releases being cranked out: We need
more guns, theyll argue. Fewer gun safety laws.

Does anybody really believe that? There are scores of responsible gun owners in this country
--they know that's not true. We know because of the polling that says the majority of Americans
understand we should be changing these laws -- including the majority of responsible, law-
abiding gun owners.
 There is a gun for roughly every man, woman, and child in America. So how can you,
with a straight face, make the argument that more guns will make us safer? We know that states
with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths. So the notion that gun laws don't
work, or just will make it harder for law-abiding citizens and criminals will still get their guns is
not borne out by the evidence.

We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that
almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours -- Great Britain, Australia,
countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it.

And, of course, whats also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama
politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common
life together, to the body politic. I would ask news organizations -- because I won't put these
facts forward -- have news organizations tally up the number of Americans whove been killed
through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans whove been killed by
gun violence, and post those side-by-side on your news reports. This won't be information
coming from me; it will be coming from you. We spend over a trillion dollars, and pass countless
laws, and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And
yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could
potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?

This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in
America. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of
our inaction. When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When
Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are
unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves
lives. So the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and our
Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are
law-abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do
everything they do under such regulations doesnt make sense.

So, tonight, as those of us who are lucky enough to hug our kids a little closer are
thinking about the families who aren't so fortunate, Id ask the American people to think about
how they can get our government to change these laws, and to save lives, and to let young people
grow up. And that will require a change of politics on this issue. And it will require that the
American people, individually, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent,
when you decide to vote for somebody, are making a determination as to whether this cause of
continuing death for innocent people should be a relevant factor in your decision. If you think
this is a problem, then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views.

And I would particularly ask Americas gun owners -- who are using those guns properly,
safely, to hunt, for sport, for protecting their families -- to think about whether your views are
properly being represented by the organization that suggests it's speaking for you.
 And each time this happens I'm going to bring this up. Each time this happens I am going
to say that we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws.
And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress and I've got to have
state legislatures and governors who are willing to work with me on this.

I hope and pray that I don't have to come out again during my tenure as President to offer
my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as President, I
can't guarantee that. And that's terrible to say. And it can change.

May God bless the memories of those who were killed today. May He bring comfort to
their families, and courage to the injured as they fight their way back. And may He give us the
strength to come together and find the courage to change.

Thank you.

Appendix B

Four in a Row Agreeing and Disagreeing

Part 1. Write three questions for discussion with your groupmates based on the speech you read.
The questions should be good for giving opinions and agreeing and disagreeing.
E.g. Do you think the man should pay the bill on a first date?
1.

2.

3.

Part 2. In groups, ask your questions and have a conversation. Try to use the below expressions.
If you use an expression successfully, you can cross it off. The first student to cross off four
squares in a row is the winner.
(Note: After using an expression, you have to say something relevant).