Lesson Plan Template V 2.

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1. Context for Instruction and Learning

Students’ Prior Learning: What do students already know about this topic? What data (formal or
informal) is available about their prior knowledge/understanding? How will you use information
about their prior knowledge/understanding for instruction? Consider common pre-conceptions that
may interfere with student learning relative to the learning segment.

The students have prior knowledge with both of these genres, however they have never been
compared or contrasted. For this we will be looking at two texts, one biography and historical
fiction. Students are currently working on text features and main idea through key details. Our
lesson will focus on these two genres and how they both have the same knowledge, but are
different in how they inform us.

Funds of Knowledge: Who are your students? How will you use students’ funds of knowledge?
How does the lesson connect to students’ real lives and cultures?

Our sixth graders are a tough group in terms of behavior management. These students are a
highly diverse, but when they come together, almost no learning happens. They are disruptive, off
task, and lose interest quickly.They are however, extremely creative. We will try to keep our
actual reading and lecture to a minimum so that they can create and have more group time to
help eliminate these behavior issues.

Variability of Learners: Consider the variability of the learners in your class who may require
different strategies/supports to allow them to access the content and demonstrate progress in
their learning (e.g., students with IEPs, 504 plans, READ plans, ALPs). Describe and justify why
your instructional strategies and planned supports are appropriate for the whole class, individual
students and groups of students with specific learning needs.

Our instructional accommodations will include visual aids to assist the students in understanding
the topics we will be reading about. We will provide verbal and visual instructions for the tasks the
students are to complete and repeat directions and expectations as necessary. Additionally, to
provide for our diverse group of learners, students will have choices as to how they will complete
the assessment project at the end of the two-day lesson. That way no one will be limited in terms
of how they will show what they have learned. Finally, interactions and the assessment will be
carried out as partner or group work so that students have the chance to collaborate and help
each other.

Language Demands: What are the language demands for your students objectives? How will the
lesson support students in meeting the language demands? Thinking specifically about your
multi-lingual learners, how does this lesson increase their language learning (i.e. move them to
the next WIDA can do level).
Language Demands
Language Functions: Use language to compare and contrast two types of nonfiction informative
texts.
Language Forms: Recognize differences in types of texts (biography and historical fiction) to
express understanding and application.
● Ex. “A biography is always about a specific person and a historical fiction text may be
about a person, place, or event in history.”
Language Domains:
● Reading: Students will read the notes and questions on the presentation board
throughout the lesson.
● Writing: Students will write a list of text features and use writing to create their final
presentation.
● Speaking: Students will share their ideas during group discussions and present their final
presentations to the class.
● Listening: Students will listen to both texts during the read aloud, and will listen to their
peers during class discussions and presentations.

For our class, we only have a few students who are Level 3 and 4 on the WIDA scale. For this our
lesson will include visual aids, and we will seat them promptly by us so that they can be closer to
the targets who are reading. With support from us and peers, we expect our ELL students to be
successful in class discussions, interpretations of the texts, and implementation of learning which
will assist them as they move to the next WIDA level.

Differentiation: How will you use evidence of students’ learning to adapt student learning
experiences (grouping, learning activity, assessment) based on students’ readiness/interest?
What choices will students have in the process(es) or product(s) associated with this lesson?

Our students are creative, so we will have them create either a poster, comic strip, or
become news anchors to help tell us the main idea of both texts. The choice is theirs so
that they can choose the best option for them to be successful. This will be used as a
formative assessment of the material presented over the two day interactive read aloud.
They will also be able to differentiate the different genres through their presentation.

1. Learning Objective

What learning objectives are addressed in the lesson? Include standard references as
appropriate. What will students know, understand or be able to do at the end of today’s lesson?
For each learning objective specify the cognitive rigor.

Objective: I am learning to compare and contrast two different genres of text that relate to change
of citizens over time.
Standard: CCSS RL.6.9 Compare and contrast texts in different forms of genres in terms of their
approaches to similar themes and topics.
How do your learning objectives relate to the unit learning goals, big ideas and essential
questions for the unit? What aspects of this lesson are transferrable and transformative?

The overall goal for this unit is that students will be able to use what they know about different
genres of text to identify similarities and differences between informational texts. Our learning
objective addresses two types of informational texts including a biography and historical fiction
that will jumpstart the students’ learning about this topic. After completing this lesson, the students
should be able to transfer their understanding of informational texts to other subject areas
including science and social studies which are areas that require a lot of reading. Additionally, the
lesson is transformative in a sense that the texts used address the Civil Rights movement in
American history, which is a topic the students should be able to relate to what they will be
learning later on this school year in social studies.

This lesson is part of a five day interactive read aloud.

Day One: Students are exposed to nonfiction texts. Students brain storm in groups what a
nonfiction text is, how it compares to fiction texts, and what we might use nonfiction texts for.
They will discuss the different types of texts they think might be considered nonfiction and the
various topics a nonfiction text may be about. Students will be able to research nonfiction texts in
the library or on a computer.

Day Two: Students will move through stations to get exposure to various forms of nonfiction
(recipe, persuasive essay, memoir, journal article). Students will use a graphic organizer as a
note catcher to write own their observations and opinions of the different types of texts.

Day Three: Students will listen to an argumentative essay and a diary or memoir and discuss the
aspects of each with a partner. Students will engage in a class discussion to compare their
thinking.

Day Four: Interactive read aloud and comparison of biography and historical fiction. This lesson
plan. (Taught in class during internship.)

Day Five: Assessment. (Next lesson to follow, taught in class during internship -- lesson #2)

1. Assessment
What formal and informal evidence of student learning will you collect as part of the lesson? The
types of evidence collected should be varied. What will it look like for students to meet the lesson
objectives (success criteria) and language demands?

Students have the option of three different assessments. They will work in groups and choose to
create a poster, comic strip, or mock news cast as “news anchors” in order to show what they
have learned about the similarities and differences between biographies and historical fiction texts
on the same topic. These projects will be presented and collected as a formative assessment.

Emerging: Students fail to complete project, note any similarities or differences between historical
fiction and biographies, and provide no evidence from interactive read aloud.
Developing: Students include only one similarity or difference between historical fiction and
biographies and do not justify reasoning with examples from the interactive read-aloud.

Understanding: Students clearly can state and explain 2 or more similarities and differences
between historical fiction and biography. Students include examples from the interactive read-
aloud to support their response.

Time
1. Lesson Component required

A. Lesson Introduction: ‘Hook’ students into content. Address objective, rationale, and 5-10
assessment. mins.

Class discussion: “What do we already know about non-fiction texts?”

“What do we already know about the Civil Rights movement?”
“What do we already know about Martin Luther King, Jr.?”

Introduce overview of read aloud, topic, expectations, and success criteria.

B. Body of Lesson
Learning Teacher Does: Students Do: Learning Evidence: 20-30
Objective(s): mins.
Begin read-aloud While teacher is reading Informal
(Biography: students are listening. observations and
I am Martin’s Big listening to groups
learning to Words, The Life of Turn and talk: Students are discuss will provide
compare Dr. Martin Luther discussing with a partner what evidence of students
and King, Jr.). is similar between what is learning. If students
contrast happening in the story and are unable to find
two Half way through what is happening in America connections between
different ask students to today. the story and
genres of turn and talk, America today, we
text that “Thinking about Students share out during will talk about it as a
relate to what you may class discussion. class. If students
change of have been hearing have a hard time
citizens on the news lately Students listen to the rest of deciding the
over time. and what is going the book. characteristics, or
on in our own text features of a
country what is Students find a new partner to biography, we will
similar between create a list of the features discuss as a class. If
what we just read they think a biography might students appear to
about Martin have. have an
Luther King Jr.’s understanding of
life and what is Students share out during each, we will move
happening in class discussion. on to the next text.
America today?”
Students find another partner
Have students to discuss features of historical
share out fiction.
responses.
Students share out.
Finish read aloud.
Students finish listening to the
At the end of the historical fiction text.
book have
students partner
with a new partner
to create a list of
what traits a
biography might
have (true facts, in
order of
occurrence, about
a certain person).

Have students
share out
responses.
 Move on to
historical fiction
text read aloud.

Half-way through
have students turn
and talk about
what they notice
about historical
fiction that may be
different from the
biography
(historical fiction
reconstructs past
events/people,
uses invented
characters/dialogu
e, includes
realistic and
believable details)
.
Have students
share out ideas.

Finish read-aloud.

C. Closing: Review progress toward objective (may include student self-assessment) >5
mins.
Re-cap what we did during this lesson and preview what is to come during the next lesson.
Exit ticket will be the list of features of a biography that students will create in pairs.

D. Extension of Learning (e.g., homework)

No homework will be assigned at this time.

E. Key Instructional Materials and Resources Used (Attach all resources and explain why and
how it will be used)
 Resources Selected Why selected and how used

Rappaport, D. (2001). Martin’s Big Words: The Biography used for read aloud.
life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, NY:
Hyperion Books for Children.

A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson Historical fiction novel for the read aloud.
 REFLECTION

Overall, this lesson went very well. The 6th grade class takes a while to settle down and
get engaged but once we have their attention, they usually follow directions and produce great
work. Before writing our lesson, we decided on the goal for our students, created a learning
target, and decided what success would look like in terms of students learning. With this
information, we constructed a lesson plan and chose our texts lasts due to the importance of
backwards design in lesson planning (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). This lesson involved reading
two short texts including a biography about Martin Luther King, Jr. and a historical fiction about
the Civil Rights Movement. We began the lesson by having a class discussion regarding what
we already know about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Students shared
their knowledge of equal rights, slavery, and protesting. With that background information in
mind, we moved on to the read aloud. Half way though, the students had the opportunity to turn
and talk with a partner about the similarities between what we were reading in the book and
what we hear a lot about on the news today. He students made wonderful connections between
the concept of separate but equal and the abolishment of slavery, and the inequalities of races
we still see in America today. After a brief share out, she finished the book, and the students
found a new partner to work with on their next task. They were asked to create a list of features
of a biography and hand it in. This was used as a quick formative assessment to judge if we
were ready to move on to the next text or if we needed to slow down and re-teach a concept
(Chappuis, 2015). The students did a great job so we started reading the second text.
First, the students shared what they already know about historical fiction and then
listened to the story. WHen the book ended we brainstormed the similarities and differences
between a biography and a historical fiction. The students ended the lesson by forming groups
and thinking about how they wanted to create their final project whether that b a poster, venn
diagram, comic strip, or news report. We wrapped up by summarizing what we did, why we did
it, and what they should expect from the next lesson.
We believe in the power of cooperative learning within a classroom and the importance
of keeping students engaged by providing a lot of movement and choices. We stopped the read
alouds multiple times to have the students chat with a partner, create lists, and share our
thoughts with the class. It helped keep their interest during the reading. We also used this
opportunity to get the students to collaborate with one another and expand each other's
learning. Lev Vygotsky’s Social Constructivist Theory emphasizes the importance of social
interactions with respect to learning (Berk & Winsler, 1995). It is the relationship between the
students and teachers that is crucial for learning to occur. By letting students work together, we
were fostering a social constructivist type of environment in which everyone played an active
role in the learning process. Additionally, we provided various options for them to use to
complete their final project because we know that students show their understanding in different
ways and we wanted everyone to be successful regardless of their learning styles or how they
produce information. Students were provided with visual aids, repeated instruction, and one-on-
one times with a teacher as needed in terms of scaffolding. We made sure to support all of our
learners through meeting accommodations, making modifications, and providing help as
necessary.
 After this lesson, we collected the drafts of the student’s projects in order to decide if we
were ready to move on to the next lesson on day two. The students’ work looked great and met
our expectations. We decided to do a re-teach before the next lesson to refresh these ideas in
everybody’s minds and give them the opportunity to complete their final project.
 References

Berk, L. E., & Winsler, A. (1995). Scaffolding Children's Learning: Vygotsky and Early
Childhood Education. NAEYC Research into Practice Series. Volume 7. National
Association for the Education of Young Children, 1509 16th Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20036-1426 (NAEYC catalog# 146).

Chappuis, J. (2015). Seven strategies of assessment for learning, second edition. New Jersey:
Pearson.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design, expanded second edition. Virginia:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).