Oral language development: peer talk

EDIS 4882: English Education

Name: Dominique Matte

Context:
Date and time for which lesson will be taught: 3:00 PM, February
Course name: Honors English 11
Grade level: 11
Length of lesson: 35 minutes
Description of setting, students, and curriculum and any other important contextual characteristics:
The lesson takes place in an 11th grade Honors English class. There are about 22 students. Many of the
students are at comparable readiness levels, with a few exceeding their peers and a few others requiring
a little extra support. This class is the alternative to the AP English 11 class that is offered at R High
School. According to my mentor teacher, a lot of the students excel in other areas of study but just are
not all that passionate about English as a subject. The students have just finished reading The Killer
Angels by Michael Shaara as a whole class read.

Objectives (number each objective to reference in the Assessment section):

SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
1. Students will understand that productive discussions require listening, participation, and helping others expand on ideas.
2, Students will understand that talking to their peers exposes them to new perspectives, allowing them to gain new
information.

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

3. Students will respect the perspectives and ideas of others.

Performance (do):
4. Students will be able to work in a group to close read excerpts from a text.
5. Students will be able to conduct critical inquiry of a text through discussion.

SOLs: [List with numbers portrayed in the SOL document]

(borrowed)
10.1 The student will participate in, collaborate in, and report on small-group learning activities.
10.1 e) Demonstrate the ability to work effectively with diverse teams to accomplish a common goal.
CCSs: [List with numbers portrayed in the CCS document]
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. CC. 11-12
1 .Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 1112 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas
and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
1c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence;
ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and
conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

Assessments: Methods for evaluating each of the specific objectives listed above.
Diagnostic: Students will demonstrate what they already know about by
 Observations from Previous Lesson: Mrs. F and I have noticed the students struggling to sustain discussion. The
students often talk in a round robin style, just giving answers to the questions on the sheet without digging into
them.
Favorite Movie Discussion: This discussion which follows the quick hook activity will evaluate the students views
and understanding of varying perspectives.

(Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)

Formative: Students will show their progress towards by

Discussion: During the discussion, I will go between the groups observing how students are utilizing the graphic
organizer and if they are fully engaging with the discussion or just sitting there complacently. If a student is
struggling to engage, I will make a point to ask them what they think and why they think it.
(Objectives 4 and 5)

Summative: Students will ultimately be assessed (today or in a future lesson) on by...

Exit Slip: The students will answer the two Exit Slip questions and hand it in. This will give both formative
feedback on how the discussion went as well as gauge whether or not they engaged with the idea of exposing
themselves to new perspectives.

(Objectives 1,2, and 3)

Materials Needed:
This is just a list of the materials you will need for this lesson to occur. In the Materials Appendix below, you will include the
actual materials or links to what you will be using.

Instructional Steps (Procedures): Detail student and teacher behavior.

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

Beginning Room Arrangement:

[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]

The room is arranged in six pods. Students will be sitting in their pods at the beginning of the lesson. The
PowerPoint will be projected on the board. The instructor will be near the front of the room at the start of the
lesson.

1. [4 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson:

[PowerPoint slide 1] Hey everyone! Hope you guys are having a good day. So real quickly take out a
sheet of paper. It can be a halfsheet if you want. Okay, without talking to ANYONE else, think about and
write down the top three best movies ever made. I mean the movies that you think everyone needs to see.
If you cant think of a movie, then write down books instead. You have about 45 seconds. [Give them 45
seconds. PowerPoint Slide 2] Eyes up when youre done. Okay so, I am going to give you two minutes to
find someone in the room who has all three of the same movies or books on their list. So get up and get
chatting. [give them 2 minutes] Okay so how many of you had all three the same? Two out of three? One
out of three? How many of you did not have any in common? Wow a lot of you. So why do you think we
do not all have the same taste in movies or books? What is it that makes us view these things differently?
[take a few responses from the students] The reason for this is that when we experience things, like
movies or reading books, we use our own perspective to evaluate them. Our perspective is shaped by our
life experiences. Since none of us in this room have lived identical lives, we do not all have the same
perspective. Even if our lives were very, very parallel, we would still have differences. Alright so today we
are going to be focusing on gaining perspective from our peers through discussion.
 2. Discussion Introduction/Mini-lesson [3 mins.]
[PowerPoint Slide 3] While we discuss, there are a few tips I want to share with you guys so that we
can have some really productive conversations. While we explore perspectives today, what I really want
us to focus on is asking questions of our peers and building on our peers ideas. This is a really good skill
to have for discussions in class as well as outside of school, like when youre getting to know new people.
Today, I want you to approach this with a simple three step system: Listen, note, and react. For listening,
try to just focus on what the person speaking is saying. Take notes of it on the graphic organizer I am
going to hand out. Then, react! Your reaction does not have to just be a reiteration or a supporting
statement of what they said. Use your own perspective to add on to what they said, ask a question about
it, or even disagree. Just remember, whatever thoughts you have just try to back them up with evidence
from the book.

3. Discussion Instructions [2 min]

In order to maximize our number of conversation partners today, and therefore the number of
perspectives we are exposed to, we are going to be swapping seats. Because of this, please have out only
your book, some scratch paper if you want it, and the graphic organizer I gave you. If I put a blue sticky
note on your desk, you will be moving seats. Please raise your hand if you have a blue sticky note on your
desk. Great, thanks. We will go around the room in a clockwise direction. Please point to the pod which is
clockwise from where you are sitting. I want you to take one minute to process this activity. Please raise
your hand if you have a question. [give them one minute and field any questions]
4. Discussion Round 1 [5 mins.]
[PowerPoint slide 4] So, with the partners you are currently sitting with discuss the first set of questions.
You have five minutes.
5. Discussion Round 2 [5.5 mins]
[PowerPoint slide 5] Okay those of you who are moving, gather your things. You have 15 seconds to get
to your next seat! [Teacher should help direct students at this time and make sure they go the right way]
Now that you are all seated, approach the second set of questions.
6. Discussion Round 3 [5. 5mins.]
[PowerPoint slide 6] Great talks, everyone. Lets move one last time! [Give 15 seconds for students to
switch seats again] Okay, get started on the last set of questions!

7. [ 5 mins] Closure:
Lets come back together everyone! Lets go ahead and chat about some of these questions. Which of the
questions did you find you had the most differences in your answer compared to your peers? [Spend a
few minutes sharing responses to each set of questions] It was great hearing the different answers that
you all managed to come up with. So I am going to go ahead and hand you all a half sheet of paper. On
it, I would like you to write down two things [final PowerPoint Slide] First, I want you to write down if
you thought focusing on reacting to your peers thoughts improved your discussion or hindered it. Second,
I would like you to write down one of your perspectives on the questions that differed from one of your
classmates.

Attention to Individual Student Needs: (Differentiation):

Detail specific actions/materials you will use to differentiate instruction in this lesson for at least one of your three case study
students.
This lesson has been developed specifically to differentiate for this class. The students struggle to
sustain discussion. Because of this, I wanted to try a new discussion structure that also has
accountability (graphic organizer)
There are several students in the class who sit with one partner and do not ever seem to speak openly to
everyone else. In this activity, I will be moving students to different groups so that they have
opportunities to learn from their peers and engage more deeply with the content.
There are several students who do not discuss questions in class, but instead aim to answer them
immediately. The questions for this activity are open ended and do not have any real, solid answer.
Because of this, the students will hopefully engage more fully in discussing the text. In order to keep
discussion flowing, I will make an effort to offer contrary points of view to the students during
discussion so that they have more to talk about if they feel they have finished the questions.
In addition, there are some students who seem like they just do not enjoy talking in this class. For these
students, I will be sure to help guide them with leading questions and directly address them to get their
opinion while I am moving around the room during their discussions.

Technology Use:
Detail specific technology being used in the lesson with explanation for why it is being used.

There is a PowerPoint which accompanies the lesson to help direct the lesson and provide the questions.

Materials Appendix:
Include the actual materials or links to what you will be using. If you are using a handout or a PowerPoint, or giving a quiz,
etc., these documents (or links to them) must be included. (see the list above)

Appendix A: Graphic Organizer

Appendix B: PowerPoint

In Retrospect (to be completed after the lesson has been taught):

Reflect on the lesson after you taught it. Was there anything that surprised you? Discuss your students reactions and
behaviors to the activities you planned. Is there anything that you would do differently if you were to teach this again? What
would you do?
I had several personal goals when going into this lesson. First, I wanted to focus on improving

my directives. During my last lesson, Mrs. R noticed that I always ask the students to do things, I never

tell them to do things. For example, if I need them to take out a piece of paper I will say if you can,

take out a piece of paper instead of just saying, take out a piece of paper. For this lesson, I wanted to

really focus in on directly asking the students to do things. My other personal goal was to assert more of

an assertive role. In the class, I have been a little on the quiet side and my lessons have felt much

rehearsed. I wanted it to be a confident, natural lesson.

The lesson went very well overall. I definitely made progress on both my personal goals. I gave

very solid directives. I told the students where to write the answers to the questions as well as telling

them when it was time to move or participate. I even felt comfortable enough to have two students move

groups without hesitating. As for a natural lesson delivered with confidence, I think that too was a

success. In the recording, I can hear a difference in the tone of voice verses when I recorded my lesson

last semester. I also look more at ease, especially in the way I am moving around the room. The starting

activity was great. The students were really excited to share their movies and to get out of their seats. It

was the most I have seen them talk to each other since I have been observing this class. My mini-lesson

went great. It was short and concise. Mrs. F thought it was an appropriate length for the lesson and

focused on encouraging the students to talk more openly to each other and expand on each others ideas.

Of the whole lesson, the only shortcoming Mrs. F brought to my attention was that after the movie

activity, I should have let the students share what movies they had in common. This way, they would

have been able to talk about the activity they had gotten so excited about.

The lesson did not go completely to plan. The students discussion during class remained quieter

than I had anticipated. The students self-imposed a processing period at the beginning of the discussion
sessions. They all sat quietly as they worked through the problems. The discussion itself was at a very

low tone and the students were very quiet about the way they approached the questions. Although is was

not how the lesson was planned, Mrs. F and I thought that this was what we really should have expected

from this group of students as they are usually quiet and have a very low energy level. We felt they still

engaged in the material and enjoyed their discussions, although it was in a different manner than we

anticipated. Additionally, we ran out of town and did not get to the whole class share out. During the

lesson, Mrs. F asked me to extend the discussion periods so that the students could have more time

engaging with the questions. Because of this, we had just barely enough time to do the Exit Ticket.

However, this was worth it because the students were involved in the activity.