Lesson Plan for Observation Worksheet

Student Teacher: Alexandra Alfred Cooperating

Teacher: Kristi Berry
Grade: 5th (TAG) Subject: ELA, Poetry Genre
Study
Date of Observation: March 28th, 2011 Time: 9 a.m.

Name of Unit: Poetry – A Means of Expression and A Way of Seeing

The World

Where We’ve Been: We are nearing the end of our poetry unit, and
have discussed poetic devices in-depth through the study of mentor
texts within a Lucy Calkins-based Writing Workshop format. Students
experimented with these devices by writing a Poetry Anthology that
includes at least 10 “polished poems” with illustrations that support
the meaning of the text. This final product of their work was due
Friday, with extra credit poems and a Table of Contents due today,
March 28th. (See our Anchor Charts on the large bulletin board for a
record of the Big Ideas/Reoccurring Themes, and Poetic Devices we
studied.)

Today We’re Working On: Preparing our “polished piece”, and

practicing speaking effectively to an audience at the “Voicing Verses”
celebration of learning on Wednesday.

Where We’re Headed: The “Voicing Verses” Poetry Performance is

on Wednesday, where students will perform the pieces they practiced
today. We will wrap-up the unit following this event with a whole-class
discussion and a written self-evaluation.

Lesson Objective(s):

-To have students read poetry to an audience utilizing effective

speaking qualities in preparation for the “Voicing Verses” poetry
performance.
-To critically listen to a reading, form opinions about a
performance based on criteria, and use a rubric to guide the
process of giving feedback.

How does this lesson align with the district curriculum and
Michigan standards and benchmarks?

Michigan GLCE’s:
W.GN.05.02 write poetry based on reading a wide variety of grade-appropriate
poetry.

W.PS.05.01 exhibit personal style and voice to enhance the written message in both
narrative (e.g., personification, humor, element of surprise) and informational writing
(e.g., emotional appeal, strong opinion, credible support).

S.CN.05.03 speak effectively using varying modulation, volume, and pace of speech
to indicate emotions, create excitement, and emphasize meaning in narrative and
informational presentations.

L.CN.05.03 listen and view critically how verbal and non-verbal strategies enhance
understanding of spoken messages and promote effective listening behaviors during
a variety of class presentations.

Plymouth-Canton Standards:
Metacognition
• Plan and evaluate skills, strategies and processes to construct and convey meaning
when reading, listening, speaking and viewing.
Writing
• Writing includes six essential traits of writing
• Use writing process
Fluency
• Read familiar texts accurately with proper phrasing, intonation and pauses
Critical Standards
• Evaluate appropriateness of shared, individual and expert standard in order to
assess work
Creating Communication Products for Various Purposes and Audiences
• Written and spoken narratives and expository pieces related to universal themes
using focus genres
• Vocabulary that defines critical attributes of key concepts of compromise, courage,
and independence and vocabulary relative to English Language Arts

How are you going to teach this objective? What are the
students going to do?

The following is an explanation of the sequence and strategies used in

this lesson that support the understanding of the objective(s). This plan
includes a description of the focus, and task that the students will work
on in this lesson.

MINI-LESSON (10-15 minutes)

1) Briefly introduce today’s focus:

-Continuing work on reading poetry to an audience with clarity
and emotion.
-Practice for “Voicing Verses” Poetry Performance on
Wednesday.

2) Connect to prior knowledge:

 -Lesson on Friday on performing poetry, qualities of reading
poetry to an audience.

3) Model:
-Have my poem projected on whiteboard.
-Read my poem for “Voicing Verses” to the class while
demonstrating the qualities of an effective and engaging
performance.
-Explain to students that: “I am still experimenting ways of
saying certain lines in this poem. Also, I’m still considering minor
edits/revisions (i.e. whether or not to use “we’re” as a
contraction as it’s written or to say each word) during these early
stages of practice.
-Use poem on whiteboard to demonstrate where I will write notes
about how to say lines, and to make any minor edits.

4) Explain task:
-“Today you will read your poem for “Voicing Verses” to a
partner, while demonstrating the qualities of an effective speaker
and performer of poetry. During this first reading, your partner
will be listening carefully and filling out a rubric that assesses
your volume, speed, eye contact, and emotion. After this first
reading, your partner will explain their responses on the rubric
(put both your name and your partner’s on this please!). Then
the reader will make notations as to how to say certain
words/lines, or make any minor edits – and re-read the poem to
reflect these changes. The listening partner should provide
feedback again after 2nd, 3rd, or 4th readings. Then you will switch
roles and repeat the process. Each partner will have 10 minutes
to read, edit, and re-read their poem. What questions do you
have?”

STUDENT WORK TIME (20 minutes)

5) Student’s time to work on task (in pairs) while teacher circulates

providing feedback, and guiding student’s focus.

SHARING (10 minutes)

6) Share Out: I will prepare students to share by giving them a minute

to choose 2-4 lines to share with the class. Before sharing I will remind
them to use the qualities of an effective speaking performance. Using
a random name generator (pulling name sticks), I will call on each
student to share their pre-selected 2-4 lines of poetry. The audience
will appreciate each speaker with a brief “snaps or claps”. I will
interject at appropriate times with feedback on the content or process
of student’s sharing.

What form of assessment will you use to find out if all students
understand the objective of the lesson?

Formative Assessments:
-The quality of responses in the informal sharing session that
follows student work time on the task.
-Student’s effort, engagement with the task while I circulate
during partner work.
Summative Assessments:
-Anthology
-Poetry Performance
Other Assessments:
-Paper copies of edited poems, notes taken on qualities of a
poetry performance in the margins of student’s printed poems.
-Student’s written responses on completed rubrics for a partner.

Is there other information of specific circumstances that you

would like me to know prior to this observation?

-Homework over the past weekend included choosing and

printing out a copy of the poem they will read for “Voicing
Verses” this upcoming Wednesday.