Rachel Cohen

3/16/11

Introducing the Summative Assessment

Grade: 5th

Purpose/Rationale:
The purpose of teaching this lesson is to introduce the summative assessment assignment. The
assignment will demonstrate students’ understanding of historical fiction text and their ability to
analyze how characters’ traits and setting define plot. It also allows them to work on their
creativity and writing skills. When students are reading excerpts from their entries, it will require
the rest of the students to work on their listening skills and apply their knowledge of the
Holocaust to determine the character, plot and setting.

Connections to Standards/Benchmarks/Curriculum:
This lesson is part of the historical fiction Holocaust Unit I created.

What I did to prepare to plan and teach this lesson:

In order to prepare to plan and teach this lesson I chose excerpts from the book The Diary of
Anne Frank that I felt would exemplify to the students what diary entries can look like. The
entries describe where Anne was when she wrote the entry, she addresses her diary as “Kitty”,
she dates the entries, describes her feelings, etc. I created a grading rubric to objectively assess
the students, a worksheet to help the students gather and organize their thoughts, and a checklist
for the students to make sure they include all necessary components.

What connected lesson preceded this lesson and what do you know about students based on
that work that informs this plan:
All of the lessons I have taught thus far connect to this lesson. This lesson will introduce the
final assessment, which will reflect their understanding of historical fiction elements and the
Holocaust. This is the last formal lesson of the unit, but students will have an opportunity to
share their writing with the class at a later time.

Objective(s): Students will…

1. Understand the purpose of diary entries and what to include in their diary entries.

Materials needed to have ready:

1. Diary of Anne Frank
2. Handouts photocopied for students
3. Transparencies of handouts
4. Overhead

Management Considerations:
Before I teach this lesson, I will make sure to have all handouts copied and ready to be
distributed. I will also make sure the students’ desks are cleared before beginning my instruction
on the assignment. I want the students to be focused and listening closely to the assignment and
clearing their desks will help reduce distractions.
Introduction/hook (5 minutes):
Yesterday we finished reading our historical fiction novels about the Holocaust. (We haven’t
had out last discussion yet but I will talk briefly about how they went overall—generally I was
impressed with their thinking and enjoyed seeing them engage with the text/topic.)

Outline of your lesson sequence, including teaching strategies used:

1. Intro
2. We are going to finish our historical fiction holocaust unit with an activity. First, by a show
of hands, who has written in a diary before? What are some reasons people might write in
diaries?
a. Share their thoughts and feelings, help them work through feelings, a way to open up,
etc.
b. Share brief story about how I used to share a diary with one of my friends in middle
school…
3. On the very first day of our unit, we talked about a girl who was famous for the diary she
wrote during the Holocaust. Who remembers her name? What do you think she might have
written in her diary? Why do you think she wrote in it?
For this assignment, you  are  going  to  be  writing  diary  entries  from  the  point  of  view  
of  someone  living  during  the  Holocaust.  For  example,  you  might  choose  to  take  on  
the  character  of  a  Nazi,  an  adult  or  Jewish  child,  a  Righteous  Gentile,  Hitler,  etc.    You  
might  choose  to  be  living  in  the  ghetto  or  a  concentration  camp,  in  Germany,  Poland,  
Denmark,  etc.    So  these  diary  entries  are  going  to  be  historical  fiction.    Since  they  are  
historical  fiction,  what  elements  should  you  include?    (I  will  record  their  ideas  on  
the  whiteboard  to  assess  if  they  can  identify  the  elements.    After  I  generate  the  list  I  
will  reinforce  the  elements  I  want  them  to  attend  to  in  their  entries.)
a. The character should speak and behave in ways true to the time period and the
character’s feelings should be described in detail.
b. The setting should take place in a real time and place in history and the entries should
contain a plot.
c. The conflict should be realistic to the time period.

4. After the entries are written, you will choose part of your diary entry and read it to the class.
The class will then have guess whom the character/voice is, where it takes place, and what
the conflict is.
5. Before you begin writing the entries, you will record elements of historical fiction from the
books you read. If you did the assignments for discussion groups, this should be a piece of
cake since you already have historical fiction elements recorded.
6. If you look at the worksheet passed out, the directions are very clear. First you will find at
least 10 historical fiction elements (3+ related to character, 3+ related to plot, 3+ related to
setting) from the novels and you will write at least 3 journal entries, but are encouraged to
write more.
7. Make sure you include enough information about your character in your diary entries so the
reader knows who he/she is. What might you include?
a. Age, gender, where they are from, where they are when the diary entries are written,
feelings about the Jews and/or the Nazis, what you want to happen, what you think
 will happen, etc.
8. Entries also need to have a clear conflict. So for example, if you decide you are going to be
writing as if you were a Nazi, what do you think an appropriate conflict would be?
9. I also want you to date your entries so they reflect the time period you are writing about.
10. Read 2 entries from The Diary of Anne Frank to give students a better idea of what a diary
entry might sound like.
a. Ask students what they notice about the entries…how she addressed her diary (Kitty),
her feelings she talks about, how it is clear what the time period is, the conflict, etc.
11. Take questions about the assignment and ask students if they have any other questions about
the Holocaust or historical fiction that we have not discussed.
12. Who can quickly repeat the directions of the assignment?

What accommodations did you make to meet the full range of your students?

Auditory learners (Samer): In order to accommodate auditory learners, I decided to read

excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank to better exemplify to the students what a diary entry
might sound like and what to include in the entries.

Kinesthetic learners (Sona): In order to accommodate kinesthetic learners I created the organizer
to help students record and organize their ideas.

Visual learners (Isaac): In order to accommodate visual learners I created a checklist of what the
students need to include in their diary entries. Instead of just stating them out loud, the students
now have a paper copy indicating exactly what they need to include to successfully complete the
assignment.

Closing/wrap up:
I am excited to read all of your entries and share some of them with the rest of the class!

Assessment:
I will judge if the students have attained the objectives I set for the lesson as they begin writing
their diary entries.

Next Steps:
After explaining the final assessment during this lesson, students will begin filling out their
worksheet and then begin writing their diary entries. The learning goals from this lesson will be
used to help the students successfully complete the assignment.