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Task C- Writing Across the Curriculum Lesson Plan

Rationale
This lesson follows a Grade 4 Health unit on feelings. The lesson begins with a video exploring
feelings and the students completing a quick write on how they are feeling that day; “quick writes….
are [an] informal means of engaging students in thinking about an upcoming topic for a lesson”
(Knipper, Duggan, 2006, p. 465). After the quick write the students participate in a series of tasks
following an “I do, we do, you do” style format where the teacher explains the material and the class
participates in two activities as a class, and with one another, leading up to the final task of the students
working on their own. The lesson on feelings explores the idea that feelings can be altered by the
actions of others but that we have the power to manage our own feelings in an appropriate way. The
writing task used in this lesson allows the students to reflect on a past time where they had a certain
feeling, what caused that feeling and how they were able to deal with the feeling, encapsulating the
main ideas from the lesson. I chose this writing activity because it enables the students to put the lesson
concepts into context in their own lives, it may be easy for them to understand the feelings on their
own but connecting it to a past experience can make the ideas seem more real and applicable to them
personally.
Writing reflection type pieces in health class is a good way to have the students connect the
concepts to their own lives rather than simply learning the material. This method encourages the
students to deeply think about ways that they can personally connect to what is being taught and
hopefully it will have a larger impact on them rather than if they were to only learn ways to manage
their feelings. In this case the students could complete their writing and now think about whether or
not their reaction to the feeling was appropriate after learning about ways to effectively manage their
feelings.
In this lesson the writing process is used for the students to write good copies of their reflections
(Language and Literacy,2018, p.160-170). The students in this lesson are writing to learn about a
specific topic they have explored, “writing to learn engages students, extends thinking, deepens
understanding, and energizes the meaning-making process” (Knipper, Duggan, 2006, p.462). It is
important that when students are writing across the curriculum that they are writing to learn, the
students in this lesson are completing a writing activity so that they can further expand their learning
on the topic of feelings. In this lesson the students are given many opportunities to explore the learning,
through formative assessment, so that they are provided enough support beginning the final
performance task.

References
Knipper, K.J., Duggan, T.J., (Feb., 2006). Writing to Learn across the Curriculum: Tools for
Comprehension in Content Area Classes. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204374

Tompkins, G.E., (2013). 50 Literacy Strategies. United States of America: Pearson Teaching Strategies
Series.

Tompkins, Bright, Winsor. (2018). Language and Literacy. Don Mills, Ontario: Pearson Canada Inc.

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LESSON PLAN

Grade: 4 Lesson Title: Feelings Lesson Duration (mins): 50-60

Overview of lesson

This lesson explores the Grade 4 Health Program of Studies centering on the idea of feelings. The students will
experience a variety of activities that will introduce them to the idea of how feelings can be affected by others as well as
ways in which they can monitor and manage their feelings. They will participate in a think, pair, share, with their table
partners as well as a thumbs up, thumbs down activity on whether or not they agree with a variety of statements
regarding feelings. The final performance task for this lesson will have the students reflect on a past experience and
write about a time that they remember feeling a certain way and how they dealt with this feeling. The final task will
encapsulate the SLOs chosen for this lesson as well as follow the steps of the writing Process.

Alberta Program of Study:

GLO /GLE
Relationship Choices
- Students will develop effective interpersonal
skills that demonstrate responsibility,
respect and caring on order to establish and
maintain healthy interactions.
SLO/SLE
Understanding and Expressing Feelings
R-4.1 recognize that individuals can have a positive and negative
influence on the feelings of others
R-4.2 Identify and use-short term strategies for managing feelings; e.g.,
dealing with excitement, anger, sadness, jealousy

Critical Questions
Unit Inquiry Question:
How do the relationships we have with others affect our lives in a positive or negative way?

Lesson Guiding Questions

 How are you feeling right now?
 What different feelings have you experienced before?
 Can your actions affect the feelings of others?
 How can we find ways to manage feelings? What are some of these ways?

Learning Objectives Literacy Progressions

Students will… Literacy Awareness:

 Recognize that each person’s actions can affect  students recognize how literacy enhances learning opportunities
how others around them may feel and provides enjoyment.
 Identify ways that they can manage different
Construct Meaning:
feelings.
 students make connections to background knowledge and, with
guidance, identify gaps to explore new information

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 Students acquire and use precise and descriptive vocabulary,
general academic vocabulary and subject/discipline specific
vocabulary.

Communicate Meaning
 Students present ideas or information in a logical and clear
manner and begin to use effects to enhance communication.
 Students organize texts according to their purpose or intent.

Assessment
Assessments
Formative: A further break down of the formative assessment can be seen in the body section of the lesson plan.
Observation

Summative Assessment:
Rubric for writing task: can be seen at end of lesson.

Learning Resources
Resource #1: YouTube video “Inside Out: Guessing the feelings” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOkyKyVFnSs

Resource #2: Feeling management poster/handout (Inside out theme) https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/253257179026475997/

Material and Equipment

Smart Board or Projector

Lesson Procedures

Introduction (50-60min.):
Hook/Attention Grabber: (5min)
Show “Inside Out: Guessing the feelings” video on YouTube. (3min16sec)

While the video is playing stop the video after every scene so that the students are able to guess what the girl in the video is feeling
at that time. This video will be shown to the entire group on the Smart Board. Students should sit at their desks facing the front of
the classroom making sure that everyone can see. The video will be prepped and ready to go so that the lesson can begin as soon as
the students are quiet and ready. This video will act as an introduction to the main lesson for today.

Assessment of Prior Knowledge: (5min)

The entire class will have the opportunity to participate in the video activity, guessing what the character is feeling, if the students
are guessing the feeling correctly then they will have a solid understanding of the prior knowledge needed for this lesson.
After the video the class will take out a piece of paper and write down how they feel today; quick write (Knipper, Duggan, 2006, p.
465). They should write this in paragraph form and think about what made them feel that way. This will act as a prewriting strategy
for the writing activity they will complete later in the lesson (Personal Journals p.218 Language and Literacy).

Expectations for Learning and Behavior:

 Students should be open to the ideas and creativity of others.
 Students should respect the thoughts, opinions and feelings of others.

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 All students should contribute to classroom discussions to the best of their ability and they should be open to trying new
things, even if they feel uncomfortable.
 They should be respectful when others are speaking by remaining quiet and having their attention towards the speaker.

Advance Organizer/Agenda:
 Before students enter the classroom have the video ready on the Smart Board.
 Greet students at the door as they enter the classroom. Have them sit down at their desks and pull out their Health folder
and a pencil.
 Viewing of video on feelings – students should be seated at their desks facing the front, not distracted by anything on their
desks and they should participate in the interactive guessing of the feelings.
 When the students guess a feeling it should be written on the board so that there is a list of feelings by the end of the
video.
 After the video students should open up their folder to a blank page and begin writing their paragraph on how they are
feeling today.
 While students are sharing their work the others should be attentive and listening to the speaker, not writing anything
down or being distracted by other things at their desks and not talking to the other students next to them.
 While the teacher is giving the examples of the feelings on the board the students should be listening to her as well as
trying to contribute when she asks for any more that are not written up there.
 Students should participate during the thumbs up/thumbs down activity and should be using their own opinion not copying
the hands of their peers.
 During think pair share the students should be participating and talking with their partner as they may be called upon to
share with the class. The teacher should be watching during the pair part to see who may not be focused and give them a
prompt to guide them on the right track.
 During the writing activity the teacher should circulate around the classroom, the students can ask the teacher for help but
should not be talking to those around them as it is a personal reflection.

Body (35min.):

Teacher Input (5 minutes)

The following activities will act as a prewriting (generating ideas, identifying purpose) portion of the writing process. (Language
and Literacy, 2018, p.160-162)
If some students would like to share to the class their writing on how they feel today they will do this now, standing up at their desk
and reading their piece the other students are listening attentively and showing respect for the speaker.
The teacher introduces the topic on feelings and points towards the list of feelings that are written on the board. The teacher asks
the class to brainstorm any feelings that they may not have been shown in the video. The teacher explains each feeling and relates it
back to an example for how she may feel that way. For example
 Sadness – I feel sad when my pet fish died.
 Happiness – I feel happy when I get hugs from people I love.
 Angry – I get angry when someone steals my favourite pen.
 Scared – I feel scared when I go into a haunted house.

The teacher asks the students if they think that actions of others can affect their feelings and if they think that their actions can
affect the way other people may feel. These are not intended to create a discussion, only to facilitate a transition to the rest of the
lesson.
Once the teacher explains some examples of the feelings to the class she conducts a group activity on exploring these feelings. This
activity shows the students that they have the power to control their feelings and make themselves feel better.

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down Activity (10 minutes)

The teacher has a list of statements for the class. They tell the students that if they agree with the statement they can put a thumbs
up, if they disagree they put a thumbs down. The following are some of the statements used
 When I get angry, it helps me feel better if I yell at my brother. – do you think this is the right thing to do?
 When I feel sad, it helps me feel better if I play my favourite sport

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 When I feel bored, it helps me feel better when I hold my favorite teddy bear
 When I feel tired, it helps me feel better to take a nap
 When I feel mad, it helps if I pick on someone
 When I feel jealous, it helps me feel better if I make someone else feel bad
 When I feel lonely, it helps me feel better if I play with my pet.

The teacher tells the students that we all have the power within us to moderate our feelings and choose the right thing to do. Some
of the statements we voted on may make you feel better but they are not the best thing to do and they can hurt someone else’s
feelings. Some of the things in the statements would make you feel better and not harm the feelings of others.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: If the students are on the right track with understanding the basics of feelings and being able to monitor
them they will show the appropriate thumb up or down for the activity. If they appear to be showing different from the rest of the
class, then they should be watched closely during the rest of the lesson to make sure that they are grasping the concept in the
correct way.

Think Pair Share (5-7minutes)

The teacher tells the students that with their partner they should think about a time where they felt one of the feelings addressed
and dealt with it, either in a good way or a bad way. The students were to share their example with their partner and then one of
them was to present one of the two examples to the rest of the class. The examples were to be short and concise, similar to the
statements observed in the above activity.

After this short activity the teacher pulled up an example of how to moderate feelings on the board and explained it to the class (this
can be found in the resource section of the lesson plan and attached at the end of the lesson). The class had already explored a
variety of ways to manage their feelings so this became a review.

Now that the class had completed an activity as a whole it is time for them to work on their own.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: If the students are working well and understanding the goal of the short activity they will share
appropriate responses.

Writing Activity (Drafting portion of writing process p. 162 Language and Literacy) (15 minutes)
The students are engaging in this writing process to further understand the material outlined by the Program of Study GLO and
SLOs.
The teacher put a prompt on the board and told the students that they would begin to write about this topic. They had already done
a pre-write about how they felt that day, explored a variety of feelings, and looked at ways to manage feelings. The students were to
now write a page on a time that they were feeling something, they were to focus on what made them feel that way and what they
did to manage that feeling whether it was good or bad. The teacher made it clear that they were allowed to ask for help from the
teacher but should not be talking to their peers.

The prompt that showed up on the board is as follows “Write a three to five paragraph story about a time that you were feeling
happy/sad/frustrated/annoyed/mad/excited etc. What made you feel this way? What did you do to manage the way you were
feeling?”

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT – During the writing activity the teacher will monitor the students’ progress through classroom
observations (Language and Literacy, 2018, p.181), they will engage with students and provide support during the writing activity.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT – Once the writing is complete, the students have revised their work in the next class with a partner, and
created a good copy of their story, the teacher will use a rubric to grade the students understanding of the Health lesson topic. This
rubric can be seen at the end of the lesson plan.

Closure (5min.):

Students will reconvene for a final, brief discussion as a class, making sure to answer any questions that the students may have
about the performance task that they are writing.

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Transition to next lesson:

The teacher tells the students that in the next Health class they will be finishing their good copies of this story and handing it in. The
students should have their rough draft ready for tomorrow if they have not finished it in class, as they will be working in groups to
revise their writing and creating a good copy (Language and Literacy, 2018, p. 164-170).

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Writing Task Rubric

Students writing has no grammatical mistakes. The feeling

4 talked about is clear, the writer clearly explains what made
them feel this way and how they dealt with the feeling.

Students writing has few grammatical mistakes. The feeling

3 talked about is clear but how they got to feel that way or how
they dealt with it is a little unclear.

Writing has many grammatical errors. The feeling can be

2 understood but origin or management of the feeling is not
there.

Writing has many grammatical errors. The feeling is barely

1 present therefore the origin and management are not clear at
all, if they are there.

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How to Manage Feelings- Poster