Lesson Plan #5

Unit Working Title: Reading the Reflection

Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Developing Self-awareness through reading and writing

Unit Primary Skill focus: Reflective Writing

Week 2 of 4; Plan # 5 of 12; [90 mins.]

Plan type: _X_Full-Detail ____Summary

Content Requirement Satisfied: Writing Instruction, Mini Inquiry, Short Text as a Model

Big Question: Who do I look up to?

Critical Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Unit Preface], followed by Specific
lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:

SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
3. Students will understand a wider purpose for reading and education as a way to learn how to
live more fully and consciously.
a. Students will make text-to-self and text-to-world connections.

Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:
4. Students will develop a more complete awareness of themselves, including their strengths,
weaknesses, tolerances, and prejudices.
a. Students will be able to evaluate their own views of their mentors.
b. Students will be able to explain why they admire their mentors.

Performance (do):
9. Students will be able to use creative means to share how their in-class learning draws from, or
affects, their personal lives.
a. Students will use narrative to demonstrate their growth or learning in a context outside
of school.

SOLs:
8.7 Writing
The student will write in a variety of forms, including narrative, expository, persuasive, and
informational.
b) Organize details to elaborate the central idea.

CCSSs:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.3.A
Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a
narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.


Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]

- Sentence Starter to start the day (online)
- SSR (I read their sentence starters)
-Bad Boy Excerpt
- RAFT Letters

Beginning Room Arrangement: Outlined in Intro Week

1. [ 5 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson: Greeting

Outline written on the board
Sentence Starter
SSR
Bad Boy reading and model text
RAFT Letters

On the board: Open your journals and start a new page. Write out this statement and complete
it: Someone older than me who I admire a lot is ___________, because __________. Be sure to
provide an explanation why. Work quietly, and you may start reading once you are finished.

2. [ 5 mins] Sentence Starter, continued
I welcome students on their way into the classroom, and before going to their seats they grab
their journals from the crate, sit down, and turn to a new page.

After everyone is in the room Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for working in
your journals quietly. Real quickly, I want to go over our agenda for today. Remember, last class
we talked about the questions Who am I now and Where do I come from? Today were going to
go a step further and think about Who do I look up to? Thats what this opener is all about.
Then, youll have to chance to read the book youve been bringing or borrowing. I know you just
started writing your What My Childhood Tastes Like pieces yesterday, but while thats in
progress were going to start a new piece of writing today as well.

So take two more minutes to respond to the sentence starter on the board. When you are finished,
you may take out your book and continue reading. (Pass out sticky notes.) You have one task for
reading today which is to use a sticky note, write your name on it, and write down two words
from what you read in your books today that are either unfamiliar to you or you know the
definition but they are still challenging. By the end of the twenty minutes, you need two words
written down.


3. [ 20 mins.] SSR
Okay, if you havent already, close your computers, take out your book, and find a place to sit
comfortably and read. While you read, Im going to look at what you all shared in your journals
this morning. (Collect student journals, try to give quick feedback to all of them; check
approximately half of them.)

On top of their personal Read-Next Lists, I will have a list of recommended readings based on
topic and genre that we will keep in the front of the room. These will all be books that I have
available in my classroom and that students can read in between other books.

4. [ 10 mins.] Debrief Sentence Starter and SSR

Students put books away.
I have spent the last twenty minutes looking at your sentence starters, and I was really
impressed. It is fun to learn about who you all learn from and respect. Would anyone like to
briefly share who they wrote about and why? (Take two or three volunteers depending on the use
of time.)

Thank you all for sharing. I would have written about my two older brothers, because they have
always set a good example of me, and pick me up when Im having a hard time dealing with
something or when I need advice from someone I trust.

5. [ 20 mins.] Bad Boy excerpt reading and discussion, intro to RAFT

Speaking of people to look up to, were going to read an excerpt from the beginning of a book
called Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers. Some of you may have read one of his other books,
Monster. This book is partially a memoir so its about things from the authors own life and
the part we will read comes from the section with his perspective as a child growing up in
Harlem with an adopted family.

(Pass out copies of excerpt.) Lets read it together and see what your impressions are. (Read.)

What happens in the passage we just read? (He talks about his adopted mother, how she works
as a housekeeper for a living to provide food, money, and the things he needs.) What does this
passage tell you about the narrator? What does it tell you about his mother? Where do you see
evidence of this in the text? (It shows that he and his siblings are dependent on their mother for
many things, and he admires her for her hard work.)

More broadly, how would you define a hero, mentor, or a role model? Are they all the same
things? Why or why not? Can you give examples? (Students discuss these figures as people who
are worth emulating because of the good deeds they do or because of their character. They may
name people like President Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, or someone
known only to them.)

6. [ 28 mins.] Work on RAFT Letters

A. Explain Assignment 8 minutes
(Pass out rubrics)

As I said earlier, even though we just started the What My Childhood Tastes Like assignment
yesterday, were going to go ahead and start another piece of writing called a RAFT.

(Pull up website.) A RAFT is just a fancy name for a creative writing piece, and as the name
says, it outlines the components of the piece itself, which can be changed.

(Use example description from the website.)

Role of the Writer
Who are you as the writer? Are you Abraham Lincoln? A warrior? A homeless person?
An auto mechanic? The endangered snail darter?
Audience
To whom are you writing? Is your audience the American people? A friend? Your
teacher? Readers of a newspaper? A local bank?
Format
What form will the writing take? Is it a letter? A classified ad? A speech? A poem?
Topic
What's the subject or the point of this piece? Is it to persuade a goddess to spare your
life? To plead for a re-test? To call for stricter regulations on logging?

In our case, here is how the pieces stack up:

Roleof the writer: you will be writing as if you are an inanimate object or thing
Audience: someone you consider a role model or mentor
Format: a letter, can be informal (letter or e-mail message)
Topic: your purpose is to, from the perspective of an inanimate object or thing, explain why your
mentor or role model is worth admiring. Additionally, you must show some evidence of research
as you look for information about your role model that can be helpful (i.e. stories from friends or
family, evidence in photographs, old letters, books, newspapers, etc.)

This may be confusing, so here are a few examples:
1. You write from the perspective of your grandfathers old shoes to tell him how much you
appreciate memories of him walking miles to work each day so one day his grandchildren could
afford to go to school.

2. You write from the perspective of a protest sign thanking your great-aunt for holding it while
standing in line for voting rights for African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

3. You write from the perspective of your brothers basketball, thanking him for passing it down
to you along with other hand-me-downs that have given you an appreciation for his wisdom and
the ways he has prepared the way for your success.

B. Writing Time 20 minutes
Dont be afraid to ask questions. That is okay. This might take a little more brainstorming time
than the last assignment, but go ahead and open Google Docs on your computers, open a new
file, and begin writing. You will have about twenty minutes today, and you should first think
about who you want to write about and how you can do some research to gather information
about that person. We will also have time tomorrow for meet with everyone briefly to discuss
both of your writing pieces so far.

Students have the rest of the block to work while I walk around the room answering questions
and clarifying their ideas.

7. [ 2 mins] Closure:

Okay, go ahead and pack up your things. Make sure your computers are back in the laptop cart,
and if your journals are still out, they are put away in the bin.


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:
1. Sentence Starter: (3a, 4a, 4b)

Formative:
2. SSR Debrief: Using SSR to relate to the lessons content: (4b)
3. Bad Boy Discussion: (3a)
4. RAFT Writing: (4a, 4b, 9a)


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)

Stacey Stacey is very proud of who she is and the people she cares about in her life. Often it is
difficult for her to remain focused on a task, but the RAFT assignment will ask her to express
proudly who she is and to celebrate the people who have supported or influenced her. For this
reason, I think she will be diligent in her work and also could be asked to assist other students in
their brainstorming. This lesson gives her an assignment she can rally behind.


Materials Needed:
-Sticky Notes
-Bad Boy excerpt (found in Appendix)
-RAFT Website w/ Explanation: http://www.readingquest.org/strat/raft.html
-RAFT Rubrics
-Laptops

Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,
handouts, etc.)

Reading Excerpt from Black Boy by Walter Dean Myers (pgs. 8-9)

What life was about for me in those early years was being with the woman I was learning to call
Mama. When Florence Dean was home, I would follow her from room to room as she cleaned,
talking about anything that came to mind, knowing that she would always listen. Any house in
which she lived was kept spotless. Mama had a time to sweep the floors and a time to mop them.
There was a time to wash clothes and a time to iron them, fold them, and put them away.

Each holiday meant taking all the dishes down from the shelves, even the ones we never used,
and carefully washing and drying them, as well as the windows of the dish cabinet. Mama didnt
work outside the house when I first arrived in New York, but that changed from time to time. I
remember that when I was four, a woman in the building was taken on as my caretaker during
the days when Mama worked. Mama did what she called days work, meaning that she cleaned
other peoples apartments and was paid by the day. The woman who took care of me gave that
chore to her children, who delighted in torturing me by hiding in the closet and making believe
they were ghosts. I was a bawler, screaming in fear at all the appropriate moments, which
delighted them. I learned how mindlessly cruel some children could be.

We were far away from credit cards in those days, and the equivalent was an account at the
corner grocery. Mama, who was determined that I should never be hungry, arranged with the
grocer to give me food if I was hungry and to put it on her account. What I actually did when I
had the chance was buy penny squares of chocolate. Soon every kid on the block knew that I
could get free chocolates. One weekend both the grocer and I got a good talking-to, and my
account came to a crashing end.

Rubric G. RAFT Letter 4 points total; Revised grade is official grade
Criteria Points: , , , 1 Teacher Feedback
1. Grammar, mechanics, and
letter format support reading



2. Shows evidence of inquiry and
minor research.



3. Maintains adopted role of:

__________________________



4. Demonstrates to the reader
why the person is a role model to
you by describing specific
experiences and details







RAFT Letter Assignment:

Role: Someone who knows the relationship between you and one of your role models OR
someone who also shares sees this person as a role model
Audience: One of your role models; someone you look up to and admire
Format: Personal Letter
Topic: An explanation of why that person makes a good role model or why he or she is
admirable. It should incorporate real stories and experiences by you or others.

*This is a Mini-Inquiry project, and therefore requires some research. You should talk to people
in your family, your friends, or people who know/knew your role model well. Think of this as
your own detective work presented creatively through this letter.


Rubric G. RAFT Letter 4 points total; Revised grade is official grade
Criteria Points: , , , 1 Teacher Feedback
1. Grammar, mechanics, and
letter format support reading



2. Maintains focus of your
mentor as the audience



3. Maintains adopted role of
someone other than yourself who
is writing to your role model



4. Demonstrates to the reader
why the person is a role model to
you by describing specific
experiences and details