UDL LESSON PLAN - HISTORICAL FICTION
Your Name: ​Bethany Bursak and Aden Bachtel
Subject: ​English Language Arts
Grade Level: ​5th
Teaching Goal(s) for Lesson​:​ (​What you want
students to know/understand/do.)
We will be doing more straight forward approach to
introducing historical fiction to our inclusion students.
By the end of this activity students should have a broad
definition of what historical fiction is.
How will you Provide Culturally Relevant
Instruction​?
Books relevant to our students and community will be
discussed during this activity
Students are free to discuss any school appropriate
books and movies that relate to them
Students will be free to use their home language and
dialect during discussion
IDOE Standard(s) for Lesson​ ​(Write out Standards with
their number):
5.W.4 Apply the writing process
5.RL.3.2 Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point
of view influences how events are portrayed
As you think about your class members, what ​Barriers
to Learning​ might ​individual students​ have during ​this
lesson​?
As a whole class students were to look at different items
which include but are not limited to: articles of clothing,
books, photographs, food, etc. Students were to use these
items to describe a “story genre.” I feel that this is too
complex for our inclusion students, and may cause
frustration. Therefore, we will be following up this whole
class sorting activity, with a small group discussion on
historical fiction vs. historical fact.
Specify how you will support ALL Learners via the ​3
UDL Approaches​:
Engagement:
We will gain student engagement by incorporating a wide
variety of relevant movies, shows, books, and images in
our open discussion and removing distractions by asking
students to only speak when they are holding the talking
stick.
Representation:
A clear definition of “historical fiction” will be written on
an anchor chart before the start of the activity and will be
Action and Expression:
The objective or “goal” of the day will be written clearly
on the board for students to understand. Throughout the
lesson students will be asked to put their thumb up if they
understand, thumb sideways if they get it but want more
examples, and thumbs down if they are completely
 confused. This will stand as a simple progress monitoring
tool that will be used throughout all activities.

Learning Outcomes​:​ ​(Observable/measurable

objectives to be assessed: “Students will…”) Assessment(s)​:
Formative: ​Students will be given an exit ticket and will
be asked to give their definition of historical fiction and
Students will be able to identify the difference between given two examples.
history and historical fiction.

Summative: ​Students will be asked to write their own

historical fiction piece.

Materials​:

● 70 items brought in by students and instructor

○ May be clothing items, books, movies, pictures, and other artifacts of student/teacher choice
● Anchor chart
● Marker(s)
● Project (in case a clip of a movie is needed as a refresher for students)
 Implementation​: ​(Total Time: 90 minutes)
a. Introduction ​(Opening “hook”/How you will introduce the lesson: ​(Time: 10 minutes)
a. Students will have been asked to bring in an item (clothing, books, newspaper, ect.) that they think
describes “historical fiction.” Students will be asked not to look up the definition, just to use their best
guess. The teacher will bring in three examples to show of what they think historical fiction is and
why.
b. Sequence of Activities with time frame for each ​(Time: 70 (40 one day and 30 the next)
a. Students will be put into groups of 3 or 4, and placed at tables with a variety of materials that were
brought in by their peers and the teacher (about 10 per group [about 70 items total will be available]).
Students will work together to sort out what is historical fiction and what is not historical fiction.
b. After 30 minutes each group will present the items that they feel best describe what historical fiction
is.
c. On day two the inclusion students will be pulled into a small group to work another activity to identify
what historical fiction is, while other students will do the sorting activity again with new items.
d. The inclusion students will be looking at an anchor chart with a dictionary definition of what historical
fiction is. They then will look at some teacher examples of what historical fiction is versus facts of
history. Some examples may include the titanic (the story of the titanic is real but not the characters
Jack and Rose), and Number the Stars (The Holocaust and needs for families to flee their homes are
real, but the main character and her family are not). Students then will be providing their own
examples of historical fiction.
c. Lesson Summary, Student Assessment, and Transition to next activity: ​(Time: 10 minutes)

a. Students will be given an exit ticket at the end of the second day where will be asked to describe what
historical fiction is and give some examples.

Reflection:​ ​(Write as a separate document or use as much space as needed: ​Did the lesson go as planned? What went
well? What would you do differently next time? Based on the evidence from the assessments, what are your next steps
in the learning cycle?)

● After the first activity the inclusion students and a few general education students were still very lost on what
historical fiction is. We ended up pulling all students that were confused, not just our assigned students to do
the anchor chart activity. Students seemed very clear on historical fiction is after the small group activity

STUDENT WORK EXAMPLES

 Anchor Chart Filled out by teacher, with examples stated by students, to identify what historical
fiction is.

UDL LESSON PLAN - HISTORICAL FICTION

Your Name: ​Bethany Bursak and Aden IDOE Standard(s) for Lesson​ ​(Write out Standards with
Bachtel their number):

Subject: ​English Language Arts 5.RL.2.1 ​Quote accurately from a text when explaining
what text says explicitly and when drawing inferences
Grade Level: ​5th from the text.
Teaching Goal(s) for Lesson​:​ (​What you want As you think about your class members, what ​Barriers
students to know/understand/do.) to Learning​ might ​individual students​ have during ​this
lesson​?
We will be doing a more visual approach to
student learning of what historical fiction will Some students may struggle to come to the conclusion to
look and sounds like. whether or not a book is historical fiction or not just based
off of some quotes on the books description. Therefore, we
As a whole the students will be sorting books will also be providing picture books for those students who
to decide based on description and information need more of a visual. Digit books will also be available
in the books whether or not it is historical for students that work better with text to speech.
fiction
Specify how you will support ALL Learners via the ​3
UDL Approaches​:
How will you Provide Culturally Relevant
Instruction​? Engagement:
Students will be challenged to look at just right books an
The books provided will be culturally diverse use equity when making book choices. Therefore saying,
describing people of all different backgrounds students should not be picking picture books just because
they “are easy” they should be using them if they need
Students will be allowed to discuss personal them.
information they know about these points in
history. Representation:
Students will be given numerous ways to “track” whether a
book is historical fiction or not. They can use a mind map
that they create, a mind map template that we provide, they
may write it in list form on a list they create, or a temple
we provide, and any other way that works best for
individual students.

Action and Expression:

Assistive technology, audio books, will be available during
this activity so students what need the text to speech
function will have it readily available
Learning Outcomes​:​ ​(Observable/measurable Assessment(s)​:
objectives to be assessed: “Students will…”) Formative: ​Students will be filling out an exit ticket
describing whether certain story elements are historically
Students will have a better understanding of accurate or not in historical fiction. For example: In
how historical fiction looks. This includes historical fiction are characters real or not? Students will
characters, setting (at a real point in history), need to be able access that it can be both a real character
and point of view. This will be a guide for and fictional character.
students to create their own historical fiction
piece Summative: S ​ tudents will be asked to write their own
historical fiction piece.

Materials​:
● Digital Books
● Picture Books ​(6 historical fiction, 6 not historical fiction)
● Chapter Books ​(10 historical fiction, 10 not historical fiction)
● Mind Map Pages
● List Note Taking Pages
● Blank Paper
● Writing Utensils ​(pens and pencils)

Implementation​: ​(Total Time: ​145 minutes - 205 minutes ​) (​approximately 3 days to complete)​
a. Introduction ​(Opening “hook”/How you will introduce the lesson: (​ Time: ​15 minutes)​
a. The teacher will be pulling one historical fiction book and one not historical fiction book. The
teacher will be reading a few pages from each and the introduction for each. Students will
then need to decide which one is historical fiction, and why. Students will need to backup
their information with evidence (How did you know? Was it the character? Was it the
setting?)
b. Sequence of Activities with time frame for each ​(Time: (​70-85 minutes)​
a. Students will be asked to assess at least four books and decide whether they are historical
fiction or not and why. (​30-45 minutes​)
b. Students will get together in randomly assigned groups of 3 or 4 and discuss their thoughts on
the books their reviewed, and whether they agree or disagree. (this will help students mentally
structure what historical fiction is). (​20 minutes)​
c. As a whole class the teacher will be documenting on an anchor chart some noticings about
historical fiction (​20 minutes)​ .
c. Lesson Summary, Student Assessment, and Transition to next activity: ​(Time: ​10-20 minutes​)
a. Students will debrief in a circle with the teacher to discuss any questions they have. (​5-10
minutes​).
b. Students will complete their exit ticket (​5-10 minutes)​ .

Reflection:​ ​(Write as a separate document or use as much space as needed: ​Did the lesson go as planned? What went well?
What would you do differently next time? Based on the evidence from the assessments, what are your next steps in the learning
cycle?)
Students struggled with the identification of whether books were historical fiction or not. So we cut out the
second day of exploring books, and instead did a whole group exploration over picture books. Ms. Bachtel
and Ms. Bursak took turns reading books aloud, and at the end of the story students would give examples to
come to the conclusion of whether the books were historical fiction or not. Students seemed to grasp the idea
better whole group.

STUDENT WORK EXAMPLES - Most Popular Books to assess and discussed amongst
students