Lesson Plan Template

Pre-Planning:
OBJECTIVE CONNECTION TO ACHIEVEMENT GOAL
What will your students be able to do? How does the objective connect to your
achievement goal?
Students will understand how to write in a The larger achievement goal is for students to
persuasive format and be able to use proper be more involved in their community and
letter format and hook,evidence, and support begin learning self-advocacy tools. As
statements by writing a persuasive letter. 1 students learn the process of persuasive
writing and writing for an audience, they will
be learning new ways to advocate for
themselves and how to find their voice in their
community. 2

PREREQUISITE SKILLS DIAGNOSTIC

What will your students need to know to How will you assess students’ mastery of
master the grade-level objective? these foundational skills?

1
Student goal includes both the final product of the persuasive letter along with the language goal of use
of hook, evidence, and support statements. This allows all students to show mastery even if letters are
not completed by some. Given my student population, this is an appropriate differentiation as all students
will be working in stations through multiple days on this lesson given the resource setting. As students
focus on their final product, progress will be made on tracked on their language function goal as well.
“The language function… determines what linguistic patterns and sentence structures to use.” (Levy
2016).
2
Instructional focus 1 asks for students to see “English language arts for a higher purpose.” As students
work through the process of identifying their areas of concern they will begin discussing issues that are
directly related to the community surrounding them. This will allow students to discuss what parts of their
school, community, and the world show injustice that needs to be addressed and how they can make
those changes are part of the community. This discussions acts as the discovery stage in writing and “is
the most important step in writing something interesting, honest, and lively” (Maxwell 2011 pg 115).
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Students will need to have an understanding Student mastery of skills will be assessed
of business letter format along with an through the final produce of their persuasive
understanding of the following “brick”(Levy letter along with completion of graphic
2016) language: locus of control, hook, organizers and class discussion throughout
evidence, claim, counterclaim, community, the process.
proposition.3

Preplanning
ASSESSMENT
How will you know whether your students have made progress toward the objective? How and
when will you assess mastery?

3
Instructional focus 2 “Effective Instruction of ELA Content: Focus on Writing and Poetry” addresses
students process of learning business letter formating and proper language use in a formal tone. Students
will be working with socially relevant topics and discussing how they have seen these issues occur in the
world around them, but will need to know how to properly translate this discussion into a formal tone for
their letters. This will allow for a class discussion on voice and the chanels in which change can be made.
Christensen addresses this concept in stating “I also need to teach them how and why some languages
have power and others don’t” (Christensen 2009 pg 210). Students will need to learn the proper way to
address their audience and tone words to address the urgency of the issues but also the respectful and
professional tone.
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Students will show mastery of language knowledge and letter formatting in their final product
of their persuasive letter. Mastery of advocacy and critical thinking will be assessed through
class discussion and class participation in a gallery walk to discuss current issues under the
categories of world issues, community, school, and personal. Students will be provided with
sentence stems to allow for strong transition words and an understanding of how to properly
support their claims. Students will participate in a final socratic seminar to discuss the process
of writing letters and how individuals can impact their community.4

KEY POINTS
What three to five key points will you emphasize?

4
Instructional focus 4 “Assessing ELA Learning” encourages students to be assessed in a variety of
ways. As students are assessed through direct work on graphic organizers, class discussions, station
work, and their final product, they have more opportunities to show mastery of content and common core
standards and therefore, are more likely to be successful. “The skills and knowledge captured in the
ELA/literacy standards are designed to prepare students for life outside the classroom.” (Common Core
State Standards Initiative, n.d.). These skills must be looked at through many lenses as students show
mastery in a variety of ways. As a resource teacher, I have found a need to constantly assess student
mastery in diverse approaches to ensure that all students are learning and provided the opportunity to be
successful on every assignment.
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Key points that will be emphasized are writing to an audience with a formal tone, use of
evidence when defending an argument, addressing issues that are current and applicable to
each student, and proper business letter formatting.

Lesson Cycle
OPENING (__ min.) MATERIALS
How will you communicate what is about to happen?
How will you communicate how it will happen?
How will you communicate its importance?
How will you communicate connections to previous lessons?
How will you engage students and capture their interest?
Students will list 5 things they want to see change in their lives over the next Power point
three years. They will then circle items they can change and star items they Do Now paper
cannot change. This will allow for a discussion of “locus of control” and how
we can work towards change that will lead towards bigger changes in the
future.

INTRODUCTION OF NEW MATERIAL (__ min.) MATERIALS

What key points will you emphasize and reiterate?
How will you ensure that students actively take in information?

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How will you vary your approach to make information accessible to all students?
Which potential misunderstandings will you anticipate?
Why will students be engaged/interested?
Students will participate in a gallery walk to add issues and potential Poster boards
audience members for each issue under the categories of “world, community, (4)
school, and personal.” Students will then discuss these layers in a small Markers
group station with the teacher. Discussion
sentence
stems.

GUIDED PRACTICE (__ min.) MATERIALS

How will you clearly state and model behavioral expectations?
How will you ensure that all students have multiple opportunities to practice?
How will you scaffold practice exercises from easy to hard?
How will you monitor and correct student performance?
Why will students be engaged/interested?
Students will work in stations to discuss letter formatting and sentence stems for graphic
creating a letter that contains a hook, evidence, and support statements. Students organizers
will work on graphic organizers to organize claims and begin typing rough drafts of sentence
letters on chromebooks. stems
chromebooks

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE (__ min.) MATERIALS

How will you clearly state and model behavioral expectations?
In what ways will students attempt to demonstrate independent mastery of the
objective?
How will you provide opportunities for extension?
Why will students be engaged/interested?

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Students will complete letters and peer read letters based on rubrics. Students will Chromebooks
discuss ratings on rubrics with peers to fine tune their final letters. Students will Rubric
have an opportunity for a quick teacher/student conference to get more letter
feedback.5

CLOSING (__ min.) MATERIALS

How will students summarize what they learned?
How will students be asked to state the significance of what they learned?
How will you provide all students with opportunities to demonstrate mastery of (or
progress toward) the objective?
Why will students be engaged/interested?
Students will participate in a circle discussion seminar to discuss locus of control Circle desk
and how letter writing can contribute to larger change. Students will discuss future format
issues that they would like to address through class activities and the possibilities Discussion
that could occur through a united class approach to an issue rather than individual sentence
letters. stems.

5
Instructional focus three “ Media Literacy: Negotiating a Media-Rich World” allows students to discuss
relevant topics and incorporate technology in the classroom. Many of my students struggle with use of
technology as many lack experience using computers regularly or have attention deficits that make
computer use a difficult task. By allowing students to use computers to both type their letters and
comment on each others work, students are able to build 21st century skills while receiving personalized
feedback. This feedback from peers and teacher help to encourage each student to see direct changes
they may need to make rather than generic issues in writing. This helps build a better sense of community
as students feel like they are “writers talking to other writers” (Teaching channel n.d.)
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References:
Christensen, L. (2009). Teaching for joy and justice: Re-imagining the language
arts classroom. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.

Common Core State Standards Initiative. (n.d.). English language arts standards.
Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy

Levy, E., Dutro, S., & Macias, E. (2016). Constructing Meaning: Explicit Language
for Conent Instruction. A Handbook for Secondary Teachers (3rd ed.). Rancho
Santa Margarita, CA: E.L Achieve Inc.

Maxwell, R. J., Meiser, M. J., & McKnight, K. S. (2011). Teaching English in middle
and secondary schools (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Teaching Channel. (n.d.). Podcasting to personalize feedback [Video file].

Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-feedback-
through-technology?fd

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