7th Grade Language Arts - Reading Quest

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SAMPLE LESSON PLAN with Commentary from ReadingQuest.org

Lesson Plan Template

SUBJECT :

Humanities

GRADE

7

How Will You Cause Learning Today? TOPIC:

Identifying folk tales

DATE:

November 8, 2007

PERIOD

5

This lesson is built on the following Essential Questions: 1. What is a folk tale? 2. What is meant by motif and which ones are common to folk tales?

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON A statement or statements of what students will be able to do AS A RESULT of rather than AS PART OF the lesson. These should be observable, behavioral, and measurable.

SWBAT:

identify a folk tale, understand (Verb check: “Understand” is not observable, behavioral, or measurable) the term motif and which motifs are commonly found in folk tales.

ASSESSMENT OF THE OBJECTIVES Describe how you will collect evidence that individual students have indeed met the lesson objectives.

Assessment of the objectives will be made by a journal entry at the end of the class. Students will be ask to draw a picture from a folk tale, which they have just listened to, and list some of the motifs present in the tale. Hmmm…I’m not sure I see how this assessment will give you evidence that students can identify a folk tale. Drawing a picture is a different competency. They will not be defining or otherwise explaining the term “motif” and they’ll not be listing motifs commonly found in folk tales…just some from THIS folk tale. They might even choose motifs that are UNIQUE to this folk tale rather than normally occurring in most folk tales. Are you choosing a folk tale that has the most common motifs that ever appear in any folk tale? Now, here’s the other rub: I think you’re saying you’ve got three objectives: 1. identify a folk tale 2. define motif 3. identify motifs in a folk tale Each objective would be a statement of a learning outcome. Each statement of a learning outcome is a statement of what you intend to be different about students, and the way we cause that change to occur is to take them through a Before-During-After progression of events. If you have three objectives, you need to have three Before-During-Afters. Of course, the other possibility is that you really just have one larger objective, related to explaining the characteristics of folk tales, or something like that. That is a lesson focused on a concept (“folk tales”) and you’d be seeking to have students in the position to describe and explain what makes a folk tale a folk tale.

BEFORE READING, VIEWING, or LISTENING TEACHER • focusing attention, laying groundwork, creating interest, sparking curiosity…think of it as setting the stage/setting them up for success • make sure students “get” the purpose (not just agenda) of today; what it will result in or lead to; the “why” of what they’ll be doing

Raymond C. Jones http://www.raymondjones.org

STUDENTS • strategies to get STUDENTS thinking about what they already know • cause STUDENTS to bring to mind similar ways of thinking, an analogous idea, or previously-learned content or concepts • STUDENTS are caused to think about that element of today’s learning that is most close to or familiar to them

8/17/08

ReadingQuest.org http://www.readingquest.org

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN with Commentary from ReadingQuest.org

I will go to the first row, first student and whisper (reading from a slip of paper) “ Rapunzel had blue-green eyes, dirty blonde hair, which was two stories long, and was waiting for her prince in a Chicago tower, pass it on.” The mini tale will be passed from person-to-person around the room. The last person to receive the message will write it down and then read it to the class. The first person will then read the original message from the piece of paper I have handed to him. (That first student is being asked to listen to something, which makes listening to a folk tale a DURING activity. What should he be listening for? What is the purpose of this activity? What should students be thinking about? What keeps students from listening passively? AND what is the prior knowledge that STUDENTS possess in their long-term memory that you will be activating, and bringing into their shortterm/working memory? ) We will compare. (Who? How? Who will participate, and who will not? How will you orchestrate this so that it’s not dominated by a few students, and so that it isn’t a time-consuming and pointless roundrobin sharing. Is there a way to make sure that each student is thinking in the way you intend?)

The stage is now set for the students to learn: “ This is how folk tales are passed on; by word-ofmouth and from generation-to-generation, changing ever so slightly every time they are told. Today we will learn what a folk tale is and how we identify them by their special characteristics known as motifs.” (Your BEFORE portion of the lesson, which should be about what’s in students’ heads ALREADY when they walk in the classroom door, really has two DURINGS: you tell them a folk tale, and then you tell them that folk tales get passed on word-of-mouth over generations and change slightly and what they’re called and that they have motifs. Do you see how much NEW information is coming at them, without them ever having any prior knowledge activated to hook it to? That they are hearing all those things without having any kind of strategy to help them attend to the key ideas? That it’s just being dumped on them, when they may have been thinking about something else entirely? This is a lot of telling, but we want to make sure that we first are structuring or supporting students’ thinking about something they already know....)

DURING READING, VIEWING, or LISTENING • •

strategy(ies) for active engagement with the new content that’s coming what are students doing WHILE reading, viewing, or listening?

I have placed students in pairs and have given them each a Concept/Definition Map (of which they have prior knowledge) for folk tales. The boxes which ask “What is it like?” are where the students will list the characteristics or motifs (ex: magic, hero goes through a trial, grateful beast or benefactor, mean parents, brave youngest sons or daughters). I instruct them: “Please read pages 696-697 and complete the map based on this reading and what you may already know about the literary style, folk tale.” (This is an appropriate DURING activity. Students are clearly active and they are the ones thinking about what would satisfy the definitional elements of this concept of definition map.)

The bottom boxes labeled “examples” is where prior knowledge is activated and they will recall stories (Hey now! There’s some prior knowledge that I think you meant to activate. Except…if they could recall them as folk tales, does that mean they already know what folk tales are?? OR do you mean for them to move into the AFTER and to think about all the stories they’ve read and to see if they can figure out which ones MIGHT have been folk tales, now that they know what a folk tale is?) such as

Cinderella, Jack-In-the-Beanstalk, and Beauty and the Beast etc. When they have completed this task: “Now it is time for your group to pull all of the new information together in a ‘So what?’ statement and enter it in your journal (That feels like an AFTER activity) under today’s date.” Each pair will share their statement with the class. They will return to regular seating. Raymond C. Jones http://www.raymondjones.org

8/17/08

ReadingQuest.org http://www.readingquest.org

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN with Commentary from ReadingQuest.org

I begin: “Story telling is an ancient and wonderful custom. Turn your books to page 700 and follow along as I read to you a Nigerian folk tale titled Oni and the Great Bird. As you listen make note of the characteristics which would help you identify our story as a true folk tale and jot them down in your journal as you hear them.” (This would be an AFTER activity. Do you know why? You have asked them to consider the concept of a FOLK TALE and now you’re going to give them a chance to try out their understanding by looking for those definitional/conceptual characteristics of a folk tale in a story they will hear. That means you are asking them to apply some new understandings, even though you will be ‘reading’. Here, the reading is clearly an AFTER, since it is an opportunity for them to see if they got the new information about what a folk tale is.)

AFTER READING, VIEWING, or LISTENING • how will students apply new knowledge in a new way? • how will students check to see if their understanding is correct? • how will students be prompted to reflect on what they learned? • how will students be prompted to reflect on how they learned it? [Also, Please Note: The Assessment Occurs in the After Phase]

Students are now working as individuals. In front of them they have their Concept/Definition Map and journal entry. They have just listened to a classic folk tale exemplifying many of the characteristics found in their earlier reading. As they work on the assessment phase of the lesson, they are able to check their conclusions (In what way? What are you asking them to do? How will you see them doing it? What is the strategy that makes that mental activity OCCUR and that makes it VISIBLE?)

against those on the map and what they have written in their journal. ASSESSMENT: “On the next page in your journal draw a picture of a scene from Oni and the Great Bird which shows a motif. Under the picture describe what the motif is and name two more examples of motif which prove the story is a folk tale.” (Notes on assessment made already; see above.)

RATIONALE • Why teach the lesson THIS WAY? • Why, given this lesson’s objectives, are THESE the best strategies to choose and use? Be specific! • Explain why this sequence of activities best leads to cultivating the behaviors or performing the skills or displaying the knowledge called for by the objectives.

I had to scaffold my lesson in such a way as to introduce a new concept and expand student understanding of this concept so that they can recognize it when they see it. First, I piqued the student’s curiosity with the pass-it-on demonstration. (Ah, but we needed a way to activate PRIOR KNOWLEDGE!) Then, I made my objective clear by telling them that folk tales are passed on in this same way and that today they would learn about folk tales, and how to identify them by their special characteristics (introducing the term motif). (Sometimes it’s tricky to avoid turning the purpose setting into a TELLING time…perhaps you might think about how to give students the purpose of the lesson in the form of a question, or you could even tell them what the objective is: what they will BE ABLE TO DO as a result of the lesson…what you’re planning to make different about them!) The Concept/Definition Map reinforces my objective (Well, the one that relates to the definition specifically of “folk tales.” But I think that’s a clue that your single, unitary intended objective might be that students should be able to explain what a folk tale is, or something like that). As they fill out the

first two sections they will clearly see what a folk tale is and what unique characteristics it possesses. Both comprehension of the concept and activation of prior knowledge are used as they fill in the “example” boxes. (They aren’t asked specifically to attend to “motif” and what it means; that seems buried in all this.) Raymond C. Jones http://www.raymondjones.org

8/17/08

ReadingQuest.org http://www.readingquest.org

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN with Commentary from ReadingQuest.org

At this point, both the pass-it-on activity and the recalling of familiar folk tales, provide a hook. This hook gives relevance to the new information thus transporting it from working memory to long-term memory. Working in pairs will promote higher order thinking (Careful…that’s not a given. Working in pairs does not by definition or by Holy Mandate promote higher order thinking!). As the students pull together a “So what?” statement there will be an integration of new knowledge and knowledge prior. While students hear the story they listen for the characteristics they have just learned (Yep, you intended it to be an AFTER…see?). They will jot these down further reinforcing the concept. Metacognition is encouraged and reinforced as they can check their answers by matching them to the Concept/Definition Map. The assessment gives them an opportunity to reflect, be creative, and independently apply the new information in a picture they have drawn with an explanation in their own words.

REFLECTION Was the lesson successful? How do you know? What would you do differently next time?

My lesson went well. The students enjoyed the Before, During and After. All laughed as the final student retold the story I had started – it had indeed changed. All of the students had prior knowledge about folk tales/fairy tales from their childhood. (That may have been drawn out to an extent in your discussion in the BEFORE portion, after this “telephone” activity [is that what we used to call it?]. Of course, I’m not seeing in the plan where you used a strategy to get students to think about folk tales, and I also worry whenever we think “all the students” had prior knowledge especially if you’re depending on a whole-class discussion to make you think this. Think about that PPT presentation I had you guys look at last week…whole-class is seldom “whole” class, and it’s seldom a “discussion.” It’s a few students and the teacher, mostly. One student talking at the time, all the other students mostly passive and unthinking.) As I read Oni and the Great Bird all (How do you know this? How can you claim this? My fear is based on what I see in a LOT of classrooms…the teacher stops and talks about things as she goes along, and students just write down what she says. Or they copy down what someone else called out. That’s not the same thing as EACH student independently picking out key characteristics and making a note of them. I raise the question because you said this happened “As I read…” rather than telling me you saw it later in their journals, without teacher intervention. So, are you sure you really know that all students, of their own accord, picked up on at least three examples of motif?) of the students picked up

on at least three examples of motif. The pictures were interesting to say the least. The pictures contained beasts and evidence of magic or Oni going through the trial and acquiring riches from a benefactor after the trial. The assessments told me that they did understand the concept of folk tale and motif. (Well, probably not, because the assessment was not designed to give you convincing evidence of that.)

I had 10 minutes left for the students to do their assessment. This is where I ran into trouble as several really got into the artwork. I had five students who did not finish in class and took their journal home returning the next day with the assignment complete. I guess my pass-it-on demonstration could have been shortened if they had passed it back from front of row to back of row instead of around the room. (It’s great to note things that may have been tricky or problematic! I’d suggest the picture was unnecessary…it’s not best evidence given your objective. So that would take care of that dilemma.) Template may be downloaded from http://www.readingquest.org/pdf/

(Overall, you’ve put together a nice progression that earnestly sought to honor the Before-During-After framework. The dilemmas in this first attempt at a full lesson are not insurmountable and are actually pretty easy to fix. Remember that I’m looking for evidence that you are getting and internalizing the concepts of our course, and that’s why I want to see an OBJECTIVE that meets our definition of objective, and a BEFORE that meets the definition of what we’ve told you the BEFORE is for, and so on. See if my notes will help you zero in a bit more on those sorts of things, and then put that expanded understanding to work in your subsequent lessons… Thanks much!) Raymond C. Jones http://www.raymondjones.org

8/17/08

ReadingQuest.org http://www.readingquest.org