Lesson Plan

Your Name: Erin Luma School: Adrian High School Date/Time 9/22
Cooperating Teacher: Ms. Gilmore Grade: 11 Subject: English
Lesson Description/Topic/ Number: Students will begin doing serious prewriting
for their This I Believe memoirs.
Unit Plan: Writers Workshop
Driving question: What is your truth?
Theme/Title/Lesson Number: This I Believe Prewriting

Standards/Benchmarks/addressed in this lessonCCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.5

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing,

rewriting, or trying a new approach.

Student Learning Objective/Outcome: Through these learning activities,

the learner will demonstrate the ability to (compile possible writing topics,
determine the best fit for their purpose, and begin composing)( by looking
through their list of memoir options and beginning to write about one of them.)

Instructional Activities
Introduction- (time: 2)
Engagement/ Activating Prior Knowledge: What have you learned about
memoirs and about This I Believe essays?
Anticipatory set- (time: 3)
Exploration: Pull out your notebooks and begin reading over your list of
possible memoir topics. Feel free to add new choices or edit old ones.
Essential Question(s)-_ Which of these has shaped who you are? Which
demonstrate core beliefs youve developed?
Building Inquiry Skills- Students may wonder which route to take for their this I
believe. Will they want to talk about something sad, happy, funny, or serious? They

may begin to wonder what their core beliefs really are or what their classmates
core beliefs are.
Instructional Activities/Providing Information: (time: 45) Students will run
through their potential topics with rotating partners and then use their discussion
to make a selection and begin writing.
Modeling: I will briefly discuss what I would talk about during partner
brainstorming and how I might take notes to reach a selection.
Guided Practice:Students will be given a worksheet displaying questions they might
ask themselves about each potential choice or important elements of of a choice
they might want to discuss during their outloud brainstorming.
Independent Practice:Students will start at their current table, partner up and be
given 5 minutes to talk to each other about one of their possible memoir choices.
Then, I will ring the bell and tell them to switch. They will have to move to a new
table with a new partner and discuss a different memoir choice. This will continue
for at about 5 rotations and then they will be given time to make a selections and
begin writing.
Explanation: Students will be writing a This I Believe memoir, which is a memoir
that demonstrates a core belief they have. They have already created a list of
possible choices. This activity is designed to facilitate decision making and to
initiate writing.

Interdisciplinary Approaches:

Elaboration: N/A
Accommodations for differentiated instruction for:
Resource Students- N/A
ESL students- We have one student who is new and ESL. He may be a little
behind the others. We will work to get him caught up before hand and suggest that
his partner share first in order to give him an additional model of the process/
Gifted Students- N/A

Assessment/Evaluation:

Formative Assessments: I will be able to observe their understanding by

looking at the notes they take on their brainstorming guides.
Summative Assessment: N/A

Conclusion/Closure: This lesson is the beginning of their summative assessment

for the unit. Students will be able to build off of the work they do today to create
a final product.

Assignment/follow up: N/A

Extension: Students can continue brainstorming and writing on their own

time, and we will have in-class writing days as well.
List of Materials/ Class set up: Printed copies brainstorming guides, journals
Safety/Cautions: Some of our classes are crowded, so we need to give them ample
time to rotate and keep students from running to a new spot.
List of Resources: document camera

Reflection Journal- TBA

1. What went well in your Lesson? Why? The students really enjoyed the
motion. They seemed very ready to discuss with their classmates. I think
that the students who went in with an open mind and a few ideas really
benefited from the process.
2. What did not go well in your lesson? Why not? Transitioning took a lot of
time, and the students tried to stay within their own friend groups as much
as possible. I wish they would have taken the opportunity to partner up with
classmates they did not know as well so that they could get an entirely new
perspective.
What will you do differently next time? I may plan partners ahead of time. I still
want them to move, but I want them to step out of their comfort zones as well.
Perhaps I could assign partners and tables to make sure that they would gain all of
the benefits this lesson could provide.