Unit Working Title: Who Am I?

– Harnessing Identity Through Language

Unit “Big Idea” (Concept/Theme): Reclaiming Identity in Language Variations

Unit Primary Skill focus: Code-Switching

Week __1__ of 4; Plan #__2__ of 9; [90 mins.]

Plan type: Full-Detail

Content Requirement Satisfied:

(Note: Refer to the list in the document called “Concept Unit Lesson Plans”)

Unit Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Backwards Design Unit Document],

followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:

Cognitive (know/understand):

2. SW understand that they can adapt language for different purposes and audiences.

f. Students will understand that Standard English is not the only appropriate manner of speaking
and writing.

3. SW understand that language variations provide rich resources for a community.

g. Students will know that language variation can be used to empower the writer and convey a
message to the reader.

Performance (do):

6. Students will be able explain how their language is a part of their identity.

h. Students will value their individual language variations as a sign of individual identity.

5. Students will be able to purposefully code-switch in their writing and speaking.

i. Students will be able to select vocabulary, tone and style, with audience and purpose in mind.

Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:

SOL’s:
7.1 The student will participate in and contribute to conversations, group discussions, and oral
presentations.
d) Use language and style appropriate to audience, topic, and purpose.

CCS’s:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.B
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences,
events, and/or characters.

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.

Diagnostic Formative Summative

Title of assessment tool: Title of assessment tool: Title of assessment tool:

Do Now and class reflection Anticipation Guide “Into the World” project

Students will demonstrate
what they already know
about code-switching by
completing the Do Now
journal prompt, which has
them think about language
variations. Then as a whole
class I will be asking them if
they can remember our
conversation about code-
switching from the day
before, and to remind their
peers what it is.
Criteria:
I will look to see that
students are able to give a
brief and accurate definition
or explanation of what code-
switching is. Specifically
mentioning that it is a
translation from one
language variation to another,
in order to fit a certain
audience.
How data will be used:
The data will be used for me
to gauge how much the
students remember, and what
it is that I need to go over
Students will show their
progress toward their
understanding of language
variations and code-switching
by reflecting on how the
reading and anticipation guide
they did demonstrated how
important language varieties
are to an individual’s identity.
Criteria:
Students will be able to
discuss how language
variations are a part of
individual or group identities.
They will also be able to see
different language variations
that are not “standard” English
as different variation, and not
simply incorrect.
How data will be used:
I will be using the data to
gauge whether or not the
students are getting the
information that I want them
to get out of this lesson. It will
allow me to see if I need to
review anything before we
move on during the next class.
Students will ultimately be
assessed (today or in a future
lesson) on their ability to code-
switch for the appropriate
audience by creating a “text” of
their choosing in which they
demonstrate their ability to
code-switch in different
language variations depending
on their audience.
Criteria:
Students should be able to
code-switch using the proper
grammatical patterns of the
specific language variation
chosen, as well as being
mindful of their audience, and
demonstrating respect towards
the different language
variations.
How data will be used:
The data will be used to see if
the students have reached the
unit objectives, and will
constitute 50% of their final
unit grade.
How students will receive
feedback:
 before we get started with How students will receive Students will be presenting
today’s lesson. feedback: their final projects at a gallery
The students will receive walk on the last day. They will
How students will receive written feedback from me as I be receiving feedback from
feedback: will be handing these back in two of their peers, as well as
The students will be getting during the next class. myself after their project
oral feedback from me presentation.
immediately follow the
answers they provide me. I
will be letting them know if
their answers are correct, and
explaining to them the
correct answers if need be.

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled students—identify them by name).
What have you done (visible in the lesson plan procedures) that differentiates for the a)
readiness, b) interests, and/or c) learning environment for your profile students.

Student Name Readiness Interest Learning

Ilyas On grade level (7th Ilyas is a very dynamic
grade). student, that is interested inavailable for him. I
participating in the class
discussion, and chatting
with his fellow students.
This supports his class
participation and group
learning. It can also be
challenging because at
times his enthusiasm turns
into him calling out in
class.
I help support him by
reminding him that he
needs to raise his hand to
participate in whole class
discussions, and also build
in a lot of group discussions definitions for any of
for him to participate in.
Environment
Flexible seating is
also make sure to
provide visuals with
instructions about
what to do.
I equally go up to him
and check in to make
sure that he fully
understands the
activity and see if I
can do anything to
further clarify for him
or help in any way.
Throughout the
lesson, I always
prompt for questions,
and make sure to give
extra time and
the new terms we are
learning.
Procedures/Instructional Strategies
Each step should have bolded heading that identifies the activity, and then is followed by the
teacher scripting, student and teacher actions, and a description of the activity.
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]

Beginning Room Arrangement:

[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]

Students will be expected to come in and sit at their assigned seats, there will be no changes in
the seating today or throughout the lesson. The seats are arranged as base groups with the
students in six groups of four students. The classroom is arranged in this manner, so that the
students always have an elbow-partner to work with, and are easily be able to do group work,
without disrupting the class’ seating arrangement, or getting up. I will have hand-written the “Do
Now” on the board (see Appendix A), before the students come into the classroom. This way, I
can focus on being present and greeting them as they enter the room.

1. [_10_mins.] Opening to lesson: Do Now Journal Entry

Students will take about 10 minutes, like they do every morning, to write in their journal in
response to the prompt I will have written out on the board (See Appendix A). I give the students
this much time in order for them to come in and get writing at their own pace. It also allows me
to great the students as they enter the room.

Hi y’all, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day so far. I am really looking forward to the
lesson today, and I think y’all will enjoy it too. Before we dive in though, please have a seat and
get started on your “Do Now”. The journal prompt is on the board, so please settle down and
get started.

While the students are getting to work, I will be walking around and greeting the students that
are still coming in and getting settled down. This is an opportunity for me to check-in briefly
with some of the students. I will also be circulating the room to make sure that everyone
understands the prompt, but there should be no issues.

2. [_5_mins.] Sharing journal entries

Alright y’all, as I was walking around I saw some really fantastic responses to the journal
prompt. I would like y’all to take about 3 minutes to share what you wrote with an elbow
partner.
Here I will give students about 3 minutes to share with their elbow partners. This is especially
good for the students who may be too shy or uncomfortable sharing out to the whole class.

Thanks, y’all. I heard some wonderful responses. Now does anyone want to share to the whole
class what they wrote? No pressure if you do not want to, I just want to give y’all that
opportunity.
Here I will call on 1-2 students who have volunteered to share. I only want to spend 5 minutes on
this sharing portion of the lesson, but I want to give students who may want to share to the whole
class, to do that. It is going to be a tough topic, so I want to get the students engaged, and ready
to participate.

3. [_10_mins.] First Pre-reading Activity – Anticipation Guide

Thank you to everyone who shared! Yesterday we talked a little bit about what we thought
“good” and “bad” English is. We also discussed “code switching”. Can anyone remind me
what code switching is?

John: It’s when people alternate between two or more languages or varieties of language in a
conversation. Like, they can change the way they speak depending on the audience.

Great, John. So, with that in mind we are going to answer a few questions in our anticipation
guides before we get started. I will be passing out the guides as I continue to give instructions.

As I pass out the guides, you will see that I have asked you to “A” agree, or “B” disagree with
the statement being asked. And for some of these, it’ll be a really quick agree or disagree, but for
some of the questions, I know y’all will be tempted to say “it depends”. The focus of this exercise
it to get y’all to really think about the tough questions, and make this divisive decision. Does
anyone have any questions?

Ella: What if we really can’t answer the question? Can we circle both and explain?

Great question Ella, and I’m going to say no to that. I really want you to think about which one
you would pick. It’s not something you need to stick with, and you can change your mind, but I
want to challenge y’all to answer these questions. Anyone else? Alright, let’s get to work then!

As students complete the anticipation guide, I will be walking around and making sure that
everyone is able to understand the questions, and is completing it. I will also be making sure that
the students who sometimes have difficulty staying on task, remain focused.

4. [_15_mins.] Second Pre-reading Activity – Probable Passage

Alright y’all. Thanks for working so diligently on that anticipation guide. You can go ahead and
store those in your folders for later. I hope this got y’all thinking about what the story is going to
be about, and to really push your thinking in the right direction we are going to do something
called a Probable Passage. Could I get a show of hands for how many people have done this
activity before? (Most of the class raises their hands.) Great. Would anyone want to explain to
the class what a Probable Passage is?

Kaitlyn: A Probable Passage is an activity we do before reading. We have to focus on characters,

setting, vocabulary, and what we think the story will be about, before actually reading it.

Yes, that’s correct. The point of the Probable Passage is to get y’all to make predictions on what
the story is going to be about, especially in connection with out theme of “code-switching” and
identity. I am displaying a list of words on the board that come directly from the story we are
about to read. (See Appendix C) Using the graphic organizer I am passing out, you will be
grouping these words into three categories setting, character, and problem. (See Appendix D) In
the “To Discover” section, you might write down questions you have about how these words
relate to each other or what you specifically want to know about what will happen in the story.
There is also an “unknown words section”, so make sure that you go ahead and write down any
words you don’t understand so that we can discuss them later as a class. I am going to give y’all
about 6 minutes to do this.

While students work on this first part, I will be circulating the room, making sure that all of the
students understand what they are supposed to be doing, and providing support to those who
need a little extra help.

Alright, let’s come back together for this next part. We are now going to make a short “gist
statement” to describe what you think the story is about, or its major focus or main idea. Are
there any questions? Alright, seeing no questions I want y’all to get started working on this with
your group of three.

Here I will be circulating the room to make sure students are able to write their gist statements. I
will check in with students like Ilyas or Neela, who may be having issues with comprehending
what “gist statement means”.

Ilyas: I am still confused at what you mean by “gist statement”.

Thanks alright, what a “gist statement” really is, is just the main idea of the story. What do you
think the key points are going to be in this story, based on the information you have? Does that
make more sense?

Ilyas: Yeah, I get it now!

I will continue to circulate the room, as the students wrap up this part of the lesson.

5. [_20_mins] Probable Passage Discussion

Great job everyone, I really appreciate how hard y’all worked on this. Let’s go ahead and have
a quick whole class share time before we read the short story. I think it’s important to spend a
little bit of time comparing each other’s ideas before we continue to the next part. So, for this
sharing part, can I have a member of each group share the “gist statement” their group came up
with? Here I will be going around the room and calling on each group, the group members can
then select the person that will be reading the “gist statement”. Awesome, thanks y’all. Now let’s
take about 5 minutes to discuss the words that you put in each category. I’m curious to see if
there are any differences in the categories each group put the words in. Does anyone want to
start us off with “setting”?

Here the students will volunteer to share the words they put in each box, one by one we will go
through all of the boxes.
If students have different places where they put the words, here are some prompts I anticipate I
might need to use:
o What made you chose to put that word in that category?
 o After hearing about student X’s explanation for why she put the word in a different
category than you, what do you think about your choice?
o I think you may have misunderstood the meaning of that word, it means… Now that you
know the meaning, in what category would you put that word?

Now the last thing I would like to do, is to go ahead and discuss the unknown words. I’d like
y’all to raise your hands if you have any words you wrote down as being “unknown”, and go
ahead and share that word with the class. Then as a class, we are going to work on defining that
word together.

Here we will spend some time defining words as a whole class, there are not very many difficult
words in the passage, so I am not anticipating this taking very long.
Some prompts that I will use to get them to define the words are:
o In what context would you use this word?
o What would you use this word to describe?
o Have you ever heard this word being used? When? For what?

Wonderful, I think we got some really great information out of all of that. Now that you have a
handle on some of the words that will show up in our text—and you have made a prediction
about what will happen, let’s go ahead and move on to the part of the lesson we’ve all be waiting
for, the reading!

6. [10 mins.] Read the short “Obituary”

As I pass out the short story, I want y’all to please clear a small space on your desks, so that you
can really only focus on the reading. (See Appendix E)
Once you get your copy of the short story, I want y’all to get ready to follow along as I read. I
am going to read through the short story called “Obituary”. I am going to stop every paragraph
or so to check that everyone understands what is going on. If something is unclear to you, please
quietly raise your hand, and when I finish my sentence or paragraph, I will answer the question.
If you are afraid you might forget the question, jot it down on the page.
Is everyone ready? Alright.

Here I will read the short story, pausing every paragraph to check for comprehension. When I
read one of the vocabulary words, I will prompt students to think about the definition of the
word, and what category they put it in. I will be stopping for questions, and supporting students
as I read.

7. [5 mins] Return to Probable Passage

Alright, now that y’all have read the story. I would like y’all, with your group members, to go
back and briefly discuss what surprised you. What had you anticipated correctly, and what did
you not anticipate correctly. Then I want y’all to go ahead and revise your “gist” statements.
Get to work!

8. [10 mins.] Closure: Reflection on Anticipation Guides

Based on the fact that I see everyone with revised gist statements, it seems like there is a
consensus that reading the story changed our initial expectations of it. And that’s great! Now, I
want you all to get your anticipation guides back out of your folders. Here, I will wait for
students to retrieve their anticipation guides (See Appendix B). I want you to answer these again.
At the bottom of your guides, answer the questions I have posted there. If your responses stayed
the same, what in your reading convinces you that your first opinions were right? If anyone is
finished before the end of class, please share your answers quietly with your base group. I will
allow students to respond to these questions. This closing activity will last until the end of the
bell.

Great job today everybody! Make sure your names are on the anticipation guides, and go ahead
and put them on my desk on the way out! Have a great day y’all!

Materials Needed (list):

o Journal Prompt – “Do Now”
o Probable Passage
o Anticipation Guide
o “Obituary” by Lois Ann Yamanaka

Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,

handouts, etc.)
Appendix A:

Journal Prompt:

Have you ever been made to feel like you couldn’t succeed because of the way you spoke, or
acted in a certain situation? Think about times when you were perhaps made to feel inferior,
because of the way you spoke or acted.
Appendix B:

Anticipation Guide

Name: ________________

Date: _________________

Write “A” or “agree” if you agree with the statement. Write “D” or “disagree” if you disagree
with the statement.

Before Reading After Reading

1. I could never be ashamed of who I am.

2. I would change who I am in order to succeed.

3. It is better to change and to fit in than to

be yourself and stand out.

After Reading Reflection:

Did your responses to any of the questions change? What about “Obituary” made you change
your mind?

If your responses stayed the same, what in “Obituary” convinces you that your first opinions
were right?
Appendix C:

Probable Passage

Title of Selection _______________________

Author _______________________________

Characters Setting Problem

Gist Statement – Before Reading

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Gist Statement – After Reading

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Outcomes Unknown Words To Discover...

1.

2.

3.

4.
Appendix D:

Probable Passage List of Words:

1. Uneducated

2. Standard English

3. Pidgin

4. Ashamed

5. Portagee

6. Haole

7. Cuz’

8. Pronunciation
Appendix E:

“Obituary” by Lois Ann Yamanaka

https://maestrabernard.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/obituary.pdf