TC Name: Darius Wimby

Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose

Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Lesson and Assessment Plan Context:

“R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Overview
In the lesson, “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence – Writing with a Purpose,” 27 male students in the Ninth Grade
Reading Enrichment class will learn what textual evidence means and how to cite it using visual and printed
texts as our focus for the lesson. Students will also learn how to write constructed responses using the R.A.C.E.
writing method.

Using various pictures and a television clip from black-ish, the lesson will begin with an informal discussion on
how skillful readers use explicit clues and inferences to determine what is occurring in a text. Using the gradual
release model (I do, we do, they do), the lesson will lead into a mini-lesson on how to cite textual evidence and
writing constructed responses using the R.A.C.E. writing method. After the mini-lesson, students will partner
up in small groups to construct a writing response from their assigned question. Students will demonstrate the
objectives by presenting their constructed response to the class, and the students will decide whether it was a
good response or if it needs some additional help.
Student Background, Culture, and Context
The class is a Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment class at Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School in DeKalb County
School District. At the school, it is one of three Reading Enrichment classes for the ninth-graders, in which it is
offered to the students who did not pass the Eighth Grade Georgia Milestones End of Grade test in April/May
2018 (C. Davenport, personal communication, August 18, 2018). The class is designed to reteach concepts from
Furthermore, the class is a co-taught classroom, where the special education collaborative teacher often works
with eight students who have learning disabilities and receive their accommodations according to their IEPs.
Based on the class roster, there are 27 total students, in which 100% are males and 100% identify as
Black/African-American. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2005) report on coeducational vs.
single-gender schooling, it spoke on the benefits of implementing single-gender classes in the school to “lessen
behavioral distractions” in the classroom, particularly in the English/Language Arts and Mathematics
classrooms (Mael, Alonso, Gibson, Rogers, & Smith, p. 36).

At Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, the student body comes from a mostly low-income background, where the
median household income is $25,319 and 93.3% of the student population receive free or reduced lunch
(“McNair High School,” 2018). Within the school, the student-teacher ratio is 23:1, and the school receives Title
I funds for the students and parents in the community (“McNair High School,” 2018). According to Dr. L. Walker
(2018), principal at Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, the school is no longer considered a priority school from
the Georgia Department of Education due to the increase in the school’s graduation rate of 64.3% (personal
communication, August 23, 2018). Demographically, the student body of 683 is 94.8% Black/African-
American; 4.2% Hispanic/Latino; 0.7% Caucasian; and 0.3% Asian/Pacific Islander (C. Davenport, personal
communication, August 18, 2018). In the school, high expectations from the school’s administrative team have
been explicitly expressed to the faculty and staff to implement culturally relevant pedagogy strategies in the
classrooms for the students, so they can become more equipped with recognizing the power they have with
their educations and prepare for life after high school (Ladson-Billings, 1994). According to Brown (2003),
“teachers must make meaningful connections with ethnically and culturally diverse students to positively
increase their academic growth” (p. 278). In the Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment class, students recognize
how the class is structured for them to voice their opinions freely and to ask questions as it relates to various
cultural texts to help them understand themselves and others better.

During the first week of school, students were given an introductory project assignment that gave the class a
glimpse into who the students were, what their interests are, and the goals they wish to accomplish in the

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018
future. Students presented their projects for the Producers of Studio 312 (teachers of Room 312), and the
teachers were able to understand the students better than before. Based on the Mandala projects, students’
personal interests ranged from various genres of music (rap and hip-hop, R&B, and Top 40 music), clothing and
fashion, sports, social media trends, and other forms of popular culture.

Currently, the Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment students are wrapping up their first unit of the semester,
Setting the Stage: Becoming a Better Reader. Students have spent the first eight weeks of the semester reading
and watching various texts that allow them to build their literary skills and knowledge on plot structure and
elements, direct and indirect characterization, theme, conflict, and point of view. In the last two weeks,
students read “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes and focused on identifying characterization and theme
through inferences. As a culminating project for Unit 1, students have been assigned to complete a “Thank You,
Ma’am” Digital Storyboard, in which the students have to create a visual storyboard (either drawn or using
www.storyboardthat.com) using the plot elements (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and
resolution). Students also have to create an alternate ending to the short story, and it has to be shown on their
visual storyboard. As it pertains to this lesson, students will have to type a constructed response using the
R.A.C.E. method to articulate why they chose to create the alternate ending to the short story, and they have to
support their response with evidence from the text. This lesson will be beneficial for the students as we
transition to our second unit, which focuses more on pairing informational texts with literary texts, and the
students will need the skills to cite textual evidence to support their findings.
Rationale

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Day 1: Lesson and Assessment Plan
Purpose of the Lesson: Central Focus
• What is textual evidence and the R.A.C.E. writing method?
• How do skillful readers create meaning from literary texts?
• How do writers clearly communicate their ideas and findings?
Learning Objective(s)
• Students will CITE and USE textual evidence from various texts to support their analysis of the text.
• Students will INTERPRET and ANALYZE explicit and inferential meanings in various texts.
• Students will WRITE a R.A.C.E. constructed response
GSE - Georgia Standards of Excellence
ELAGSE9-RL1: CITE strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
as well as inferences drawn from the text.

ELAGSE9-W4: PRODUCE clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
ISTE Technology Standard
6C: Students COMMUNICATE complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital
objects such as visualizations, models, or simulations.
SPLC Anti-bias Framework Standard
Diversity #6: Students will EXPRESS comfort with people who are both similar to and different from them and
engage respectfully with all people.
Formal & Informal Assessment
The assessments for this lesson are as follows: daily warm-up question from USATestPrep (passages are
selected based on the standards we are focusing on for the week, which will be ELAGSE9-RL1), Visual Literacy
inferences discussion on NearPod, guided R.A.C.E. constructed response, and a group R.A.C.E. constructed
response. All four of the assessments are formative assessments; however, the Visual Literacy inferences and
the guided R.A.C.E. constructed response are the informal assessments while the daily warm-up question and
group R.A.C.E. constructed response is a formal assessment. During this lesson, students’ understanding and
fluency of the academic language will be shown through building of the assessments. When the students
complete the visual literacy discussion on NearPod, they will see how the inferences they make when they look
at pictures and they find textual evidence to support it are natural things they do every day. As we work on the
guided R.A.C.E. constructed response on ways to make the school better, it will provide a model for the students
to then use when they work in groups to complete their R.A.C.E. constructed response based on “Thank You,
Ma’am” by Langston Hughes.
For the Visual Literacy inferences discussion, the evidence of student learning will be shown as a typed visual
response on the NearPod platform. Students will use the code to access the NearPod to type their responses to
the pictures and the video clip. For the guided R.A.C.E. constructed response, it will be a written and spoken
responses. Students will share their responses and evidence on ways that they, as students, can improve the
school. I will write their responses on the whiteboard using the R.A.C.E. organizer to organize the students’
thoughts and allow them to see how to organize their thoughts. For the group R.A.C.E. constructed response
based on “Thank You, Ma’am,” each group will show their evidence through a visual representation using chart

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018
paper and chart markers. Students will use the R.A.C.E. organizer from the whiteboard to use as a model to
complete on chart paper.
These assessments align with the learning objectives through using their inference skills to support their
evidence while also using explicit text to support their evidence as well. Furthermore, the students will be
citing textual evidence throughout the course, so it is important to constantly reinforce those skills each time,
so they can get better as they progress throughout their high school years. Finally, using the balanced literacy
approach of reading to write, students will be assessed through their writing of the R.A.C.E. constructed
response to ensure they understand how to cite textual evidence and use that to support their claims.
For the informal assessments, those items will not have a rubric or a scoring guide; however, it will be moreso
of a check for understanding and addressing any misconceptions through conversations and observations of
the student groups. Upon completing the group R.A.C.E. organizer, we will use the writing rubric from the
DeKalb County School District curriculum to check our work. For the group R.A.C.E. constructed response,
students will use their writing rubrics from their Unit 1 Culminating Project to assess their constructed
responses to see if they did well or need improvement.
For the group R.A.C.E. constructed response, when each group comes to the front to present their responses, I
will provide verbal feedback to the students after each presentation as well as writing the feedback on the Dr.
Ronald E. McNair High School feedback form, so they can use in the future for other assignments.
Using the feedback from the formative assessment, students will use it to complete their Unit 1 Culminating
Project, where the students have to create a Digital Storyboard based on the story, “Thank You, Ma’am.”
However, students will have to create a different ending to the story. Furthermore, students will have to write
a constructed response showing why they chose to the end the short story in the manner that they did, and they
have to support their ending with evidence from the story.
Facilitation & Safety
The classroom community in Studio 312 is a student-centered environment, which allows the students to voice
their concerns about things that may be transpiring in the classroom. In this student-centered environment,
the role of the teachers is viewed as facilitators of educating the students using various strategies to deepen
their learning knowledge of the concepts, so they can apply, synthesize, and evaluate a text as we progress
throughout the school year. In the classroom, the teachers promote positive speaking amongst everyone in the
room to show that we respect each other without having to demoralize another human being. This class period
occurs during our second block of the day (9:50am – 11:20am). When the students come into the classroom,
they will see their daily warm-up on the board as well as today’s agenda on the whiteboard near the door.
During each class period, I normally assign a student to be responsible for the class timer to ensure we are
making most of our time in class. Periodically, I will make announcements to let the students know how much
time is left with completing assessments in class before we transition to the next activity, in which I also make
announcements about transitioning in the lesson to ensure students are staying on task and are engaged.

When participating in a classroom discussion, students must raise their hands in order to be acknowledged and
given the floor to speak. I will remind the class to raise their hands. If the classroom becomes hectic and
chaotic and the students are not being respectful to another student’s commentary, I will use zone of proximity
to stand near the student’s desk and make a private comment to that particular student. To ensure students
understand the instructions, I will have two students to repeat the directions in their own words, so the
students can have a better understanding of what they are expected to do in class.

Finally, the physical components of the classroom are the students’ desks arranged in rows (nine desks facing
the classroom door, ten desks facing the Promethean Board, and nine desks facing the two teachers’ desks). All
of the desks are set up so they can see the Promethean Board; however, if they need to move up to the front,

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018
then they are able to move to a closer desk. During our small-group activities and discussions, the desks can be
moved to create a small group, so everyone can hear each other and share their thoughts. Since many of the
students have Chromebooks, they will be encouraged not to plug up their battery chargers in the wall to
prevent people from tripping over cords in the classroom. As it pertains to classroom supplies, students should
have a copy of “Thank You, Ma’am” in their notebooks; however, if students do not have a copy, I will provide
them a hard copy of the story or direct them to the link where it can be found online. For the NearPod
interactive activity, if students do not have their Chromebooks or their cell phones for the activity, they will be
allowed to use the student computer, located at the back of the classroom, to participate in the opening activity.
Academic Language
Language Function
Students will be able to use the verb, EXPLAIN, to demonstrate their ability in citing textual evidence in various
texts and supporting their findings to shape their reasoning in vast applications to literary, visual, and
informational texts as well as their life in the real world.
Vocabulary
Lesson Vocabulary: Cite, Textual Evidence, Inference, Proof, Restate, Answer, and Explain
Syntax or Discourse
In this lesson, the discourse will be the text structure for writing constructed responses using the discussion
questions provided from “Thank You, Ma’am.” Students will demonstrate their understanding of the discourse
by composing their constructed responses in their small groups using their short stories. As students answer
their assigned discussion question, they will have to show their annotating of the text to support their evidence
when writing their constructed response. The instructor will support the students through modeling of a
written constructed response as well as one-on-one or group conferencing to ensure students are
understanding the concept. As it relates to the syntax, students will demonstrate their use of writing
constructed responses through sentence starters (or sentence frames). These sentence starters will help the
students to construct their responses and also allow them to see the importance of citing their evidence to
make their points stronger.
Instructional Strategies & Learning Tasks to Support Diverse Learners’ Needs
Introduction – 25 Minutes
During the pre-instructional activity, students will complete their daily warm-up on USATestPrep, in which the
passage is focused on the standard, ELAGSE9-RL1. Students will be given ten minutes to complete the daily
warm-up individually. Upon completing the warm-up, the students and teachers will go over the passage and
question together to determine if the students had the correct answer. This warm-up activity is the basis for
how our lesson will begin in class.

During the introduction, I will have students to look at various pictures from popular television shows and
movies as well as excerpts from the short story, “Thank You, Ma’am” to answer questions about the text.
Students will use their inference skills to record their findings on the NearPod online interactive platform.
Teacher will also give students various sentence frames and starters to begin constructing their responses.
Body – 55 Minutes
Students will begin working on their constructed response for their Unit 1 Culminating Project. Teacher will
conduct one-on-one conferences with students and address any concerns they see in the students’ writing as
they complete the R.A.C.E. constructed writing response. When students have finished working on their drafts,
students will share with their peer to evaluate their writing response.

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Closure – 10 Minutes
Students will present their R.A.C.E. constructed writing responses to the class. Teacher will address any
clarifying questions and misconceptions about R.A.C.E. writing response. Students will present their rough
draft to the teacher to receive feedback before the final draft.
Differentiation, Modification(s), & Accommodation(s)
In the Ninth Grade Reading Enrichment class, students were placed in the class because they were identified as
“transition” due to earning a Beginning Level score on the Georgia Milestones End of Grade Assessment when
they were in the eighth grade. These students have also been placed in the class based on their other
standardized test scores, Lexile scores, and previous academic performance in elementary and middle school.
During the first two weeks of school, I gave my students a Multiple Intelligences survey to understand what
type of learner best suits them in class. About 78% of the class are kinesthetic and visual learners while the
other 22% of the class are auditory and creative learners. In this particular lesson, I am differentiating through
how I deliver the lesson to my students by using the type of learners they are and tailoring my lessons around
their needs.

For the students who are the visual and auditory learners, the NearPod presentation will be on the Promethean
board as well as on the students’ Chromebooks and cell phones so they can have access to the notes and take
notes on their paper. During our class model of the R.A.C.E. constructed response, I will be sure to write it
legibly on the whiteboard as well as verbalize to the class what we went over to support their notes. To
accommodate the students who have vision problems, I will have those students to sit at the front of class
during the beginning of class, and students will have access to the NearPod presentation for 14 days, so they
can review their notes to support their Unit 1 Culminating Project constructed response.

With 27 students in the classroom, eight students have been identified as having an Individualized Education
Plan (IEP). Four students have been identified as having a specific learning disability; thus, when teaching a
whole-class setting, I make sure to chunk the material for every student in the class. I will model techniques
through think-alouds and writing models for them to refer back to at a later time. I will also make sure I
provide a model after class for the students who have a specific learning disability to ensure they refer back to
as they complete assignments at home. Finally, when working with the students with a specific learning
disability in a large class setting, small group, or one-on-one, I ensure that I allow them extra time for
processing and responding while also having them to restate information back to their peers or to me to ensure
they are clear on their directions.

Four students have been identified as having ADHD; thus, throughout the lesson, I have to use my proximity to
ensure that the students are staying on task at all times. Furthermore, most of the students sit near my desk, so
if they become distracted by various behaviors in the classroom, I can redirect them to get back on task.
Throughout this particular lesson, I will give those students extended time to complete the formal assignment
because they each take medicine, and during my class period, the four students often will have to take breaks
due to how the medicine makes them feel each day. I will also check in frequently to make sure they are
understanding the concepts of the R.A.C.E. writing method as well as the directions for the assessment. Finally,
I will use the chunking concepts to help the students better understand the longer and challenging passages.

Lastly, one student in the class has been identified as having a 504 plan. According to the student’s 504 plan
documentation and the 504 meeting, this student must have preferential seating near my desk or my
collaborative teacher’s desk to assist him whenever he needs help. Due to his anger and frustration issues, if
the student needs to take a break to walk around the school, he has to hold up three fingers to be acknowledged
by me. Then, I will give him the hall pass, so he can walk around the school for five to ten minutes, then he can

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “R.A.C.E. to CITE Seeing Evidence” – Writing with a Purpose
Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018
return back to the class. Thus, he will need additional time to complete in-class assignments when working in
small groups or on his own.
Materials
The following materials will be used for this lesson on citing textual evidence:
• Computer
• Projector
• Whiteboard and Dry Erase Markers
• Promethean Board
• NearPod Interactive Presentation on Citing Textual Evidence (Teacher-Created)
• Internet (access to USATestPrep for Daily Warm-Up)
• Student’s Chromebooks and Cell Phones (for NearPod Interactive Activity)
• Notebook Paper and Pens/Pencils for students who may not have their supplies for class
• Post-It Chart Paper
• Permanent Markers
• “Thank You, Ma’am” Short Story -
http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/english%20department%20lvillage/rt/Short%20Stories/Thank%20You,
%20Ma'am.pdf
References
Brown, D.F. (2003, Autumn). Urban teachers’ use of culturally responsive management strategies. Theory Into
Practice, 42(4), 277 – 282.

Davenport, C. (2018, August 18). Personal communication.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.

Mael, F., Alonso, A., Gibson, D., Rogers, K., & Smith, M. (2005). Single-sex versus coeducational schooling: A
Systematic review. (U.S. Department of Education Document No. 2005-01). Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office.

McNair High School. (2018). Retrieved from

http://www.schooldigger.com/go/GA/schools/0174000712/school.aspx

Walker, L. (2018, August 23). Personal communication.

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