Lesson Planning

My daily lesson plans are built in three phases: first, in the backwards planned student-facing resource; second, in the intellectual preparation of the resource; and third, in the teacher-facing key that outlines not only the exemplar answers but the teacher moves I will make during instruction. The daily lesson plan is the “Why” and “How” of my curriculum – each resource is created with the end-goal for my students in mind, both in skills and culture. What do I want my students to be able to do by the end of this lesson? What perspective do I want my students to have gained about this topic by the end of this lesson? What impact does this lesson have on my students? If I am unable to answer these questions, then I generally decide that the lesson is not worth teaching. Because of the rigor of my curriculum and the high expectations my school has of both students and teachers, I have to ask these vital questions with every lesson I teach – I must have exemplary plans in order for my students to achieve mastery, and I must be responsive to their needs and performance each day.

Intellectual preparation

To the left is the first and second phase of my lesson planning: The backwards-planned student-facing resource with intellectual preparation. I will be using this resource, R1.15, throughout this page to explain how my lesson plans are written in order to ensure students are successfully mastering rigorous standards. Below are the specific learning goals for this lesson:

• Objective: RL.7.6 – Students will be able to analyze the impact of the author's use of different points of view in a story.

• Essential Question: What is the impact of the author’s use of different points of view in Number the Stars?

Each daily lesson plan includes both the objective and the essential question and begins with a vocabulary-based Do Now, page 1 to the left. The lesson then moves into a Reading Workout, which is divided into three parts:

• Part 1 includes reading and annotating the text.

• Part 2, see page 2 to the left, includes “Quick Questions,” which are comprehension-based and are meant to identify whether students missed a basic, key understanding while reading the text.

• Part 3 includes either evaluative and analysis questions or an evaluative activity. In this case, students are asked to complete a writing task aligned to the objective, see page 3 to the left. This activity helps students’ deepen their understanding of both the characters’ perspectives, as well as author’s craft. The students are asked to re-write a specific scene from another character’s point of view with the use of sensory details. In this way, students were able to practice cross-disciplinary skills from writing class and draw upon their knowledge of that character in the book to create their own piece of writing.

Usually, the final page of the resource is an objective-aligned exit ticket that requires students to answer the same essential question we have been discussing throughout the unit. In this resource, however, the point-of-view re-write activity served as the Exit Ticket for the day. You can see examples of Exit Tickets in the Formative Assessment section of my portfolio. All of my Exit Tickets include in-depth intellectual preparation written in the comments. In those comments, I identify the exemplary answers, as well as the distractors.

teacher key

The teacher key to the right is more indicative of the teacher-moves I make throughout a unit. This key includes the exemplar answers I want each student to work toward, which also helps while I circulate the room and provide students with aggressive monitoring notes. I often print out this key and have a few copies on hand for students with IEPs to use alongside their own work should they become overwhelmed, especially while annotating their books.

To the right is the teacher-facing key of the same resource intellectually prepped above. This key provides the answers to the “Quick Questions,” the annotations I look for students to be making as we read, and then instructional notes for the point-of-view activity.

This key helps me plan exactly how I will execute each lesson. I scaffold the lesson so students feel confident going into the more difficult activities, and I make sure the pre-planned annotations are intentional and will help students answer the questions outlined in the resource. Additionally, this key helps me remember the teacher moves I want to make and helps me improve my own practices.

Student Work

To the left are various examples of student work for the R1.15 point-of-view activity. In this activity, the students were required to re-write a scene from Number the Stars from a different characters’ perspective, and they were then asked to evaluate the impact of each point of view. Students worked first independently, and then we evaluated several pieces of student work on the document camera via show-call.

I have provided student samples from low, to mid, to high, as well as accommodated resources for ESL and IEP students.

• Low Student Samples, including modifications (p. 1-3) – The accommodated resources on pages 2-3 were given to the students with IEPs, 504 plans, and ESL student. These resources had pre-written questions from the teacher, more of a “guided notes” format in the discussion box, and underlined text to help guide their thinking. The lower-level students wrote less in the re-write and did not have a strong understanding of how to use sensory details; however, the students did write in first person and pulled one or two basic details, such as hearing the characters talking, in their work. From these samples, I learned that the students had a basic understanding of the point of view shift but struggled to put that into detailed writing.