UWP Lesson Plan Template

Teacher Name: Jessie Marting Grade Level: 8 !

Target Content/Lesson Topic: Thank You, Ma’am by Langston Hughes Date: April 21, 2023

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

Essential Question
- 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
- 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).
Planning
How do character traits influence values and well-beings?
What does kindness mean to me?
How does being kind affect others?
This is a short lesson for a small group of 8th grade students who are shortly moving on to high school. This
lesson focuses on a certain set of comprehension strategies and skills. First, the students will organize their
character traits from the story in a graphic organizer. They will then practice comprehension as sense making by
participating in a post reading discussion with the small group. Giving the opportunity for the students to relate
to the characters not only help them comprehend the story, but they are able to make sense of what the author
was trying to get across by writing this story. I want the students to leave the small group with the message that
moving on to high school means that they will have new opportunities and obstacles to face, and through all of
those they should remain kind.

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 State Learning Standards SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led)
List the complete, relevant grade-level with diverse partners on topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing one’s thinking
standard(s). clearly.

a. Come to discussions prepared, and explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the
topic, text, or issue. Support analysis by making connections, paraphrasing, clarifying, or explaining the
evidence.

b. Set and track specific norms and goals for collegial discussions (e.g., gaining attention in respectful ways,
actively listening, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion), and monitor progress
toward goals.

c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers, and respond to others' questions and comments
with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. Promote multiple perspectives.

d. Evaluate new information expressed by others and, when warranted, qualify or justify one’s own views in
light of the evidence presented.
Learning Target(s) and Learning LT: I can use a graphic organizer to comprehend character traits from a story.
Objective(s)
- Choose your learning target(s) and LO: Students will use a graphic organizer to help them comprehend character traits from the story that will help
objective(s) based on the relevant them analyze the overall message.
state learning standard(s).
- Write focused targets and objectives
that describe the specific 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).

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 Grouping For this activity, I selected the handful of students who completed my student lives survey. Their surveys
Describe how and why students are concluded two things that were the same.
grouped based on
- homogeneous, heterogeneous, 1. They all liked fiction over nonfiction
randomized 2. They all liked working in a small group
- ability, interest, IEP goals, social or
social-emotional, behavioral, language These students also have around the same reading ability and could benefit from a comprehension as sense
acquisition making learning activity.
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

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 Differentiation
Describe how you will meet
individual students’ needs by
adjusting the content, process,
product, and environment based on
their readiness, interests, and learning
preferences.
September 2021
Content: The students will have the graphic organizers already made for them printed off by the teacher. If
they take their notes online, a document version could easily be made as well. The text is also available online if
students would prefer to read on their computer or iPad, instead of a printed document. The text is at grade
level and the teacher will help lead the discussion and model how to fill in the graphic organizer.
Process: The students will sit in a small group with the teacher. The students will read together “Thank you,
Ma’am.” The teacher will read the story out-loud and the students will follow along. This will give no pressure
on the students to read out-loud in front of their peers. Then the teacher will explain the goal and present the
graphic organizer. Once the graphic organizer is completed, the students will participate in a comprehension as
sense making post reading discussion. This is a stress free discussion where the students will share out their
traits and their text evidence. The teacher will ask OPEN ENDED questions that could have multiple answers.
This will show that the students can comprehend the story, and that they are able to make sense of what the
author was trying to get across by the traits of the characters. Leaving the table open for discussion allows the
students to understand the overall message.
Product: graphic organizer available hands on and online, and participation in post reading discussion that is
teacher led. Students will build off of each others ideas and the traits that they have analyzed through the text.
Environment: Small group environment with teacher led reading, teacher model and guided practice, guided
and stress free group discussion
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Formative Assessment
- How will you monitor student
learning throughout the lesson?
- Be specific about how your practice
assessments connect directly with the
lesson objective.
Formative Evaluation Criteria
- What material(s) will you use to
evaluate learning?
- Attach a copy of your checklist,
rubric, observation criteria, or other
measure.
Summative Assessment
How will students demonstrate
mastery of the standard?
Note: This assessment does not have
to occur during/after this lesson but
in upcoming lessons.
Summative Evaluation Criteria
- What material(s) will you use to
evaluate learning?
- Attach a copy of your checklist,
rubric, observation criteria, or other
measure.
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Assessment
Graphic Organizer
- I will monitor student learning throughout the lesson by:
- First: demonstrating and modeling how to fill in the character trait graphic organizer.
- Then: The students will complete the graphic organizer on their own.
- Finally: We will go over the traits the students observed and have a collaborative discussion.
To receive full credit, the students will need to have 3 traits for each character, along with text evidence to
support their traits. The students will share out their ideas, to demonstrate that they have met the standard by
engaging in a range of collaborative discussions. The students will build off of one another’s ideas.
I would use a book read check for a chapter of the book they are reading. To engage the students in
collaborative discussion, I would have them summarize main ideas of the chapter after they had read it. This is
an effective way for the teacher to see who has read and who hasn't, and cover misconceptions or point out
important details to the entire class. Students could also use their knowledge of their formative assessment
strategy by pointing out specific character traits or what they think is going to happen in the story based on the
characters they have read about. This is a very inclusive classroom discussion and would be considered a
summative assessment because we would be moving on to the next chapter or topic after.
I would check off by each students name how many things they shared out or participated in the discussion.
3 checks: 100 - the student demonstrates that they have read the chapter
2 checks: 75 - the students demonstrates they have read some details but may have missed an important part or
character trait/development.
1 check: 50 - the student demonstrates that they have read few details of the chapter or share out unimportant
details ( for example: “I liked the chapter because it was good.”
0 checks: 0 - student does not participate in the discussion
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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!
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Procedures
Pre-reading Question for the Table:
Should people be given a second chance after doing something wrong? Why or why not?
Introduce the short story
- Title
- Author
- Short Intro to the story: it describes a universal social crisis of children in poverty and shows how one person
can make a difference.
Expectations:
- Each student has a piece of paper with a graphic organizer.
- While reading, the students will select words that describe the character. These are character traits.
- “Take notice on how a character acts in once situation compared to another. Try to use multiple words that
are not synonyms to describe the character.
- Use text evidence to support your trait.
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 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. 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.
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During Reading Strategy: Complex Characters- the reading strategies book 6.18
Teacher Model:
- Looking at our graphic organizer, we have two characters listed.
- For each character, you will come up with traits that describe that character. You will write down text evidence
to support your trait.
- Let’s read the first page together.
- From the first page, I noticed multiple character traits for Rodger. The first trait I noticed, was that Rodger
was homeless. The text evidence from this is, ““Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash
your face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?” “No’m,” said the boy.”
- We can also use descriptive words to describe what we understand from each character. For example, we might
mention that Mrs. Jones is an older women and Rodger is a young boy.
Guided Practice:
- While reading, students will fill continue to fill out their graphic organizer. The students will write three traits
of the characters Mrs. Jones and Rodger.
- The traits will be supported by text evidence.
- Students will work independently at the table, and then will share out their traits amongst the group.
* This strategy is important for comprehension because the students are able to see how characters evolve over
time and are able to compare and contrast. They can also then use context from the characters to understand
the overall message of the story, and relate to the characters within themselves. This is especially important to
note when we go into our comprehension as sense making post reading discussion.
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 Closing: Wrap-Up and Extension Purpose for Comprehension: Post Reading Discussion
End the lesson with a final review of
key ideas and knowledge. This is Comprehension as sense making - relating the character traits to the individual student.
where you have students talk about
their thinking and share strategies Teacher asks open ended questions:
with the whole class. It’s important to • Based on Mrs. Jones’ character traits, explain why the character acted the way she did.
name strategies and use academic • If you were Mrs. Jones, how would you have reacted?
vocabulary here, extending the lesson • If you were Rodger, would you have ran away? Why or why not?
to broader ideas. • Do you consider yourself to have more of Mrs. Jones’s traits, or Rodgers? Or neither?
! Promote a community of • What do you think the authors message is?
learners.
! Listen actively and probe Giving the opportunity for the students to relate to the characters not only help them comprehend the story,
thinking without evaluating or but they are able to make sense of what the author was trying to get across by writing this story. Leaving the
telling them how you would table open for discussion allows the students to understand the overall message that kindness goes a long way.
do it. One act of kindness can change a person’s life forever. Even though Rodger was trying to rob Mrs. Jones in the
Summarize main ideas and identify beginning, his character develops overtime due to the kindness and care of Mrs. Jones. The message I want to
future problems that they would be send these 8th graders, is that as they transition to high school and away from their friends, it is important to be
able to solve using the thinking you a kind person and open their eyes to traits they relate to within themselves.
have discussed. Provide a brief
preview of what the next lesson will
include.
Curricular and Instructional - Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes PDF
Resources or Materials - Graphic Organizer ——-> similar to 6.18 Complex Characters from the Reading Strategies Textbook
- List and provide a brief rationale
for all necessary lesson resources and
materials. If not original, cite 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.

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 Supplies, Equipment and Pencils
Technology Strategies book: During Reading Strategy: Complex Characters 6.18
- List all other supplies that need to
be available.

Reflection:

Being placed in a 8th grade math classroom definitely made this comprehension lesson plan difficult to create. The reasons for this included
the fact that I had no idea what kind of comprehension strategies the students already use or know, the types of books they like to read, and overall
how they would grasp on to this lesson. I knew that my only option was to focus on what their student surveys told me. I only gave the student sur-
veys to a small group of students, so that is how I chose the small group to base this lesson on. I decided to pull an age appropriate short story be-
cause the students had all said that they preferred fiction text. They also said that they liked working in a small group, and I have observed over the
entire semester that they do like to participate in discussions. I chose the comprehension strategy, “Complex Characters 6.18” from our reading
strategies book. This strategy focuses on character traits. I then selected a text that would not only compare two characters, but in some ways relate
to their age and the overall message of being kind. Since these students are only days away from moving on to high school, I thought that the text,
“Thank you, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes would be an appropriate text.

Overall, the students were very engaged in the entire lesson, and the post reading discussion went better than I imagined. I began the lesson
by asking the students, “Should you give someone a second chance after they have done something wrong?” I knew that the students were engaged
because they all wanted to share a time when their friend or sibling did something wrong and they forgave them. When I asked them why, a lot of
said because they deserved it or they were family or it was the first time that they had made a mistake. I could tell the students were engaged when I
started reading the text because they were following along with me. They wanted me to read the text twice to them, so I did that based on their
needs. Then I presented the graphic organizer, and modeled what I wanted to see from them. I wrote down a trait for the boy in the story, and I wrote
down my text evidence to support. The students filled in their graphic organizers independently and it only took them about 10 minutes to complete.
We then shared out what traits we had selected for each character and the text evidence that supported it.

To conclude, the students participated in a post reading discussion. This was where they were going to demonstrate, “comprehension as sense
making.” I asked numerous open ended questions about why the characters acted the way that they did. I asked them how they would have reacted if
they were Rodger. On the flip side, I then asked them how they would have reacted if they were in Mrs. Jones’s shoes. By doing this, they were able
to apply the character traits to themselves, and really demonstrate how they made sense of the entire story and the character traits. They were able to
justify why the characters responded the way they did. After this, I asked the students what they thought the author’s message was by creating a story
with two characters like Rodger and Mrs. Jones. The replies were that sometimes it only takes one person to change your bad habits. I concluded the
lesson by stating that they are moving on to a new chapter of their lives, and it is important to remain kind to everyone moving forward to high
school.
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 Overall, the students were actively engaged in this small group lesson and I was pleased with how smoothly it went and how honest the stu-
dents were with each other. They weren’t scared to make mistakes and they enjoyed the group discussion. To make this lesson even better, I might
take a bigger group and have them split up the two characters instead of doing both at the same time. Then they could compare the characters in a
larger debate/discussion that I think would be interesting to observe.

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