Lesson Planning Form for Differentiating Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher
Date

Subject/ Topic/ Theme

Week 1 Day 1

I. Objectives
What is the main focus of this lesson?

Students will look at newspapers to examine different genres of writing.

How does this lesson tie in to a unit plan? (If applicable.)

This is the first lesson in a four week series of lessons on creating a classroom newsletter
What are your objectives for this lesson? (As many as needed.) Indicate connections to applicable national or state standards.
If an objective applies to only certain students write the name(s) of the student(s) to whom it applies.

1) Students will be able to identify different genres of writing

2) Students will be able to define genre and identify different styles of writing with criteria.
3) Students will be able to match criteria to a certain genre by looking at articles
Etc.
II. Before you start
Prerequisite knowledge and skills.

Assessment
(formative and summative)

Students will have a basic understanding of writing and reading. In the weeks
prior students will be learning about the different genres of writing and will be
able to identify them by specific qualities.
Students will have a rubric to fill out based on what they see in the newspaper

Identify those students

(individuals or groups) in your
class who will need special
attention and describe the level of
support you plan on giving them.
Refer back to the survey you did
of your class.

N/A

Materials-what materials (books,

handouts, etc) do you need for this
lesson and do you have them?

Newspaper
Rubrics
Pencils

Do you need to set up your

classroom in any special way for
this lesson? If so, describe it.

Students will be set up in groups; the desks will be arranged for group work.

III. The Plan

Time
Parts
15

Motivation
(Opening/
Introduction/
Engagement)

The description of (script for) the lesson, wherein you describe teacher activities and student
activities

Mini Lesson:
I will ask students if they remember learning about different genres of writing. I will call
on one student from each group of desks to give an example of a genre of writing. They
will be sitting at their own desks working with their partners around them.

After I have written all of the examples (summarizing, reporting, interview, pictures,
book reviews, and demonstrations-words or drawings) on the board I will ask if the
students need a quick refresher on remembering what all of the genres mean. If students
need a refresher we will talk about what makes each one different from the other. After
students are clear I will introduce the newspaper and worksheet.
I will explain to the students that they may use our helping sheet a piece of paper
that has the name of the genre in a column and the definition that we came up with
together in class in another column (Ex- report: a title that tells what the report will be
about, a topic with supporting facts from research, pictures and drawings with labels, the
text matches the pictures) -that we filled in with key qualities of each genre in the weeks
prior to this unit. This Helping sheet will give students a quick reference when they
are stuck on an article in their newspaper.
I will handout a newspaper page (that I have reviewed and dissected prior to this activity
in class) to each of the groups and will ask them to dissect the newspaper like they
would a bug.
As students work, I will walk around the room and ask questions like What genre do
you see the most of so far? Why do you think that is? this will allow students to talk
amongst each other and stay on task
When the groups are done with the newspapers each group will report to the class which
genre was the most popular in their newspaper and how they knew that the articles
were from that specific genre. When students report back I will be looking to see if each
of the students in the groups can report something to make sure that they were all
sharing the work equally.
15

Closure

Students will turn in their worksheets and I will grade them with a check or minus
based on their written work. I want students to work on their writing skills and
participating in group projects.

Your reflection on the lesson including ideas for improvement for next time: