UWP Lesson Plan Template

Teacher Name: Sam Watkins Grade Level: 7th Grade

Target Content/Lesson Topic: ELA Empathize to Understand Date: 11/21/21

This lesson is for a(n) ___x__ whole class ___x__ small group _____ individual

Planning
Essential Question How can we determine how a character is feeling within a story?
- What is the essential question that
this lesson addresses?
- What is the core purpose of the
lesson that includes the strategies
and skills necessary to accomplish
the deeper learning in the standard?
Sequencing This is one lesson of the lessons amount a larger unit on learning about feelings and characters traits.
- How does this lesson fit into the
larger unit of study?
- Focus on a logical/hierarchical
sequencing of skills (e.g., main
ideas before details, similarities
before differences).
State Learning Standards
List the complete, relevant grade- CCSSR 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of
level standard(s). a text.
Learning Target(s) and Learning LT: I can use a graphic organizer to empathize how the character is feeling in the story.
Objective(s)
- Choose your learning target(s) and LO: Students will be able to use a graphic organizer to empathize the characters feelings and help them to
objective(s) based on the relevant understand the meaning of the text.
state learning standard(s).
- Write focused targets and
objectives that describe the specific

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learning outcome (what students
should be able to do as a result of
the lesson).
- Be sure they are stated in
observable and measurable terms
(e.g., ABCD+T).
Grouping Students will start in a whole class discussion about the feelings of being in a new environment. The
Describe how and why students are teacher will demonstrate on how to fill out a graphic organizer and use it during reading the text as a class.
grouped based on After the whole group, students will break off into pairs to share the last section of graphic organizer on
- homogeneous, heterogeneous, how they would feel if they were the character (empathy). After completion of the graphic organizer,
randomized students will students will work alone on their personal writing piece using the writing prompt given to
- ability, interest, IEP goals, social them.
or social-emotional, behavioral,
language acquisition
Co-Teaching Strategy N/A
Does this lesson involve co-
teaching? If not, state N/A. If yes,
identify the co-teaching model and
what role each teacher will play.
-One Teach, One Observe; One
Teach, One Assist; Station
Teaching; Parallel Teaching;
Supplemental; Alternative; Team
Teaching
Differentiation Content: Some students will be given a different text that refer to empathy if this text is too difficult for the
Describe how you will meet student to read.
individual students’ needs by
adjusting the content, process,
product, and environment based on Process: Students can have the text reread to them for extra support.
their readiness, interests, and
learning preferences.
Product: Struggling students can fill out half of the graphic organizer. Enough to demonstrate they
understand that empathy towards this character helps to understand the text.

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 Environment: : Student will be staying in their assigned seats or moving next to their seat partner when
instructed. Everyone will need to be a low volume talking level. ELL students can be in their own group
for this activity. The ELL teacher will be in the class to assist if needed.

Assessment
Formative Assessment The graphic organizer on empathy will be the formative assessment for this lesson. The graphic organizer
- How will you monitor student will be assessed by using a checklist.
learning throughout the lesson?
- Be specific about how your
practice assessments connect
directly with the lesson objective.
Formative Evaluation Criteria “ The Painting” Feelings Graphic Organizer
- What material(s) will you use to
evaluate learning? The student knew the characters feeling at the beginning, when something important happens, and at the
- Attach a copy of your checklist, end of the story. ___
rubric, observation criteria, or other They student knew why the character feels that way at the beginning, when something important happens,
measure. and at the end of the story. ____
The student expressed how they put themselves in the characters shoes. ____
The student showed supporting details. _____
Score: __/4
Summative Assessment CATEGORY Advanced  Proficient Emerging Beginning
How will students demonstrate Student lists all the The student identified The student identified The student identified
Identifies
mastery of the standard? characters feelings most of the some of the none of the
characters displayed within the characters feelings characters feelings characters feelings
Note: This assessment does not feelings story correctly. correctly. correctly. correctly.
have to occur during/after this
lesson but in upcoming lessons. Understanding Student understands The student mostly The student did an The student cannot
and explains how to understands and okay job put themselves in the
of Empathy put themselves in the explains how to put understanding and characters shoes or
characters shoes. themselves in the explaining how to put express empathy.
characters shoes. themselves in the
characters shoes.

Summative Evaluation Criteria

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- What material(s) will you use to
evaluate learning?
- Attach a copy of your checklist,
rubric, observation criteria, or other
measure.
Opening: Introduction and
Connection to Previous Learning
● Anticipatory Activity (Hook)
● Activate prior knowledge.
● Be sure students understand
procedures and instructions for
the lesson.
● Establish clear expectations.
● Model concept.
The groupings/instruction/lesson
progression may look different in
different parts of the lesson!
During: Lesson Progression
In this portion of the lesson, you
will be letting go and letting
students engage in productive
struggle; engaging in gradual
release (“I do, we do, you do”),
inquiry, guided or independent
practice, or other learning methods.
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Procedures
I will begin this lesson by asking students question about how they have felt when being new to something
or have been in a new environment?
This could be going to a new school, new sports team/club, new city/state etc. I will have them share out
any personal connections and responses.
Then, I will ask to follow up questions connecting to the story we will be reading today. How would you
feel if you moved to a whole new country that did not speak your language? How would you feel in the
situation?
I will ask for responses, and I’ll share that we have a couple of those wonderful ELL/bilingual students in
our classroom and throughout our school.
Today, we will be reading a story about a student’s experience in a new country that did not speak his
primary language. As a class, we are going to learn how to put ourselves in another person’s shoes- this is
called Empathy. By putting ourselves in the characters positions will help us to understand the text.
I will begin to do a read aloud of the story: “My Painting” My Painting Fiction 7th Grade (depaul.edu).
During our reading, we will be doing a graphic organizer, to help with student learning.
I will project the graphic organizer on the board, and we will fill it out together as a class.
There are several boxes of questions to fill out and we will pause to answer each question.
Students will be analyzing the beginning of the text, when something important happens, and at the end.
They must write out the feeling the character is displaying, why the character feels this way, and how
would you feel if you were in the shoes of the character.
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Please write what you are looking
for in terms of:
● Students’ thinking and how
they will start the lesson.
● Provide appropriate support
(not explaining how to do
it).
● Provide worthwhile
extensions.
● Provide opportunities for
students to engage in using
the academic language.
This is where you will be
suggesting or modeling specific
strategies and helping students
choose which strategy makes sense
to them. However, you must make
sure ideas come from students.
Closing: Wrap-Up and Extension
End the lesson with a final review
of key ideas and knowledge. This is
where you have students talk about
their thinking and share strategies
with the whole class. It’s important
to name strategies and use
academic vocabulary here,
extending the lesson to broader
ideas.
● Promote a community of
learners.
● Listen actively and probe
thinking without evaluating
or telling them how you
would do it.
Summarize main ideas and identify
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To prompt their thinking and understanding of the text, I will continue to ask questions that connect to the
main characters feelings.
“Can you understand how the character is feeling? Why is the character feeling and acting like that? You
just told me the character ___. Can you empathize?
The last question of the graphic organizer asks students to make a personal connection on how they would
feel if they were the character at each section of the story. Once we get to that part, I want students to talk
with their seat partner about what they wrote down. We will do this for about 5 minutes.
Then, if students want to share, one person from the group can answer what their partner and themselves
spoke. By doing this, we can compare answers and see the amount of empathy we are feeling towards the
character.
After students share out the last section, they will be instructed to turn in their graphic organizer to me.
After turning in their graphic organizer, students will take out their writing journals out to prepare to write a
story on the given writing prompt.
Students will be instructed to take out their writing journals where they will write a personal writing piece
about being new somewhere in their journals. They will use the writing prompt, “You moved away from
your home country where you learned and spoken the same language your whole life. You are now in a
school, with brand new people, and they speak a whole new language. Express your feelings about how
you would feel.”
Using what they learned from the section put yourself in the shoes of the character, students will use details
and express their feelings to help them write a personal story in their journals.
I will be walking around and help students when needed. When completed students must first share with
their seat partner for feedback of the story. Then, they can raise their hand and I will reread their story and
see if there is any error or misunderstandings.
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future problems that they would be
able to solve using the thinking you
have discussed. Provide a brief
preview of what the next lesson
will include.
Curricular and Instructional “ The Painting” Feelings Graphic Organizer
Resources or Materials Pencil
- List and provide a brief rationale Writing journal
for all necessary lesson resources Writing prompt
and materials. If not original, cite “My Painting” My Painting Fiction 7th Grade (depaul.edu).
the source.
- Attach/link a copy of all materials
the teacher and students will use
during the lesson; e.g., handouts,
questions to answer, slides,
worksheets, and so on.
Supplies, Equipment and Document Camera
Technology Projector
- List all other supplies that need to Computer
be available.

“ The Painting” Feelings Graphic Organizer

How does the character feel in different parts of the story?

Character:____________________________________

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When Feeling Why the Character Feels How would you feel
this Way if you were in his
shoes?

At the
Beginning

When something
important
happens
At the end

Designing Strategy-Based Comprehension Lesson Reflection

For this assignment, I chose to have students read a short fiction passage called, “My Painting”. I chose this reading because I believe it fit the best with

middle school students. This story was about an immigrant student who traveled to America and could not speak English. Throughout the story he expresses his

internal feelings about being a whole new environment and how rarely anyone else spoke Spanish in his classes. Eventually, he was introduced to a Russian

student who originally did not speak English and understood what he was feeling. She wanted to become his friend, so she began by saying Hello. From there

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forward, the teacher saw the connection between the two and sat the students right next to eachother. By the end of the school year, the immigrant student

learned English because the Russian student, his teacher, and lots of after school practice. Therefore, in the story, the boy connects his experience in America

symbolically to painting. He expresses, “ I will put some symbols in my painting that show how I feel about this land. It is a land of helpful people. It is a land of

many heritages. It is a land of collaboration. People here work together to help each other make progress. I'm thinking of putting a flag on the background and

then putting people holding hands in the foreground. I'll make a sketch first and then will paint it. Making a painting is a lot like writing an essay. First you think

of the idea you want to express. Then you think of ways to communicate that idea. I think my painting will be a great way to tell people how I feel about my new

homeland”. I think this text worked very well in my placement because the classroom is very diverse with many cultures, specifically a good amount of ELL

students. Therefore, when it was time to discuss, students were able to share their own experiences with moving to America, or even their families’

experiences. It was very interesting to hear all the different emotions that were felt. The strategy that I chose to implement in this lesson was called “Empathize

to Understand”, while students were reading. This worked well because we were able to stop at each section and reflect on how the boy was feeling during that

time. Many students who had never experienced any type of travel from a whole new country or even speaking a different language, wouldn’t know how that

would make someone feel. However, I was able to express what empathy means and make some connection to other experiences. For example, being in a

whole new school, in this case being in middle school which differs from elementary. My students are in seventh grade, so I had them reflect on how they felt

last year, and many of the shared the worries, anxious thoughts, judgements etc. This helped them to somewhat understand the feelings of the character in the

story. I was able to gear students into putting themselves in other people’s shoes in an experience that they may or may not have gone through. The clear

purpose for comprehension was having this lesson be part of a unit on character traits and learning about feelings. I discussed with the mentor teacher how this

lesson fit very well to what they currently are learning in ELA.

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 The Implementation of the lesson had many students engaged because this was a very heart felt lesson. I was able to make connections for all the

students in the room. By discussing empathy, I thought was something that seventh grade students may not fully understand because of their maturity level.

However, this character in the story sounded like he was around the same age as my students, so they related well to the lesson. Also, the ELL students in my

class explicitly could understand how the character feels, because many of them shared the same experience. As students were discussing with a partner and as

a class, I noticed the listening skills and how they were showing empathy towards eachother and connecting back to how the character was feeling. By having

students share out how they felt in a new environment or situation even if it wasn’t relating to school, influenced other students to be comfortable sharing out

things that they have experienced as well. It was interesting to learn about the students, and they all did very well with being kind to eachother, asking to follow

up questions, and trying their best to empathize with one another.

In terms of incorporation of student discourses, this was something that took me some time to figure out. I originally have my placement in seventh

grade math classroom, but for this comprehension lesson, I felt it would be best if I could teach this in an English classroom. My concern was that I took

student’s discourses from my math class, and I was only in the English room for a good week due to my availability. Therefore, to successfully complete this

lesson, I asked the five students who I surveyed in my math class to join me in the English period during that period. By reflecting on the student surveys, all their

responses were very different. A good chunk of them said they enjoyed reading and writing so that worked well for this lesson because they were able to read a

passage and complete a graphic organizer. Then, students had the opportunity to do a personalized writing prompt at the end of the lesson. Overall, they all

were engaged and had good conversations, while speaking at an appropriate level. When they were given their personal writing prompt, their pencils were

moving fast so I could see they had a lot they wanted to express, which was wonderful.

The major improvement of my incorporation of student discourses for next future lessons, would be to prepare better for this lesson. Although this

lesson did go well, I felt like if I would have had more time to prepare for this lesson, I could have gotten student surveys from the English class and made a

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couple more changes to the lesson. An improvement I could’ve made was for student to write down how many languages they speak, where were they born,

etc. because this would have connected well with the story. I would’ve broken this into a two-day lesson just so I could get to know the students better overall

especially since I originally didn’t have this class as my placement. I also could have seen what students preferred in terms of differentiation for their final writing

prompt. If they liked art, I could’ve had them draw out their feelings towards the prompt, they could’ve made a PowerPoint, or simply just wrote. Overall, I am

glad I had the opportunity to teach this comprehension as sense making purpose-based lesson. I was able to translate my understandings and knowledge from

our EDU class and create a meaningful lesson for my placement.

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