Lesson Plan Template

EDIS 5400: English Education

Context:
Course name: Language Arts 7
Grade level: 7
Length of lesson 75 min
Description of setting, students, and curriculum and any other important contextual
characteristics:
Carl Sandburg Middle School is a public school in Alexandria, VA. Many affluent white
students go there, but there is also a heavy minority population (30% black, 35% latino).
Of the latino population, about half are ELLs including 7 in my standard level class. Of
these, 5 are fluent enough to participate in classroom discourse. One (Gabi) sometimes
struggles to communicate exactly what she wants to say. She is about at a level 2 in
speaking and writing, and about at level 3 in reading and listening. Another one, Ming-yee,
is a recent immigrant from China who is about at level 32 across the board. The other ones
are around level 4 across the board.
One student, Lily seems to developing an anxiety disorder. She is very anxious about
doing everything right and gets nervous if she doesnt get direct approval from her
teachers on every part of every assignment.
Another Student, Mikey, is the class clown. He has trouble sitting still, and likes to talk and
joke with everyone. He is very bright, but can be a distraction to other students.
Today I am starting a Gothic monsters unit. Students will choose from among the following
texts:
Today I am starting a unit in which students will read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dracula by Braham Stoker, and Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley. Lexile.com gives this novella a lexile score of 1010, 910, and 1050
respectively. Dracula should be the easiest because it is written at a lower lexile level.
Jekyll and Hyde is about as challenging as Frankenstein, but the latter is much longer. I will
assign books based on interest and readiness level. I will divide students into literature
circle groups of four. My class has twenty students, so I will probably make one group of
the challenging Frankenstein and two groups of each of the other two books. Students
have practiced lit circles. which means that 7th graders will find it challenging but not
impossile. I would be reluctant to give a whole novel written in this style, but this story is
only about 100 pages, so if students read ten pages per day (one chapter) and I work to
build comprehension as students read, we should be able to finish the story in 2-3 weeks.
In this unit I will also be drawing on the previous unit in which I taught the elements
of story recommended by the SOLs: setting, character, plot, theme, and conflict.
Virginia SOL(s):
7.5: The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts, narrative

nonfiction, and poetry.

f) Use prior and background knowledge as a context for new learning.

l) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process.

Common Core State Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Objectives (KUD format):
Students will understand that:
Reading is an interactive process between text and reader (U1)
Background knowledge is part the texts meaning (U2)
Students will know:
How to think about what they already know about a text before reading. (K1)
That they can use what they know about the elements of a story (plot, character,
setting, theme, and conflict) to spark and organize pre-reading brainstorming. (K2)
How to generate pre-reading inquiries based on gaps in their prior knowledge. (K3)
How to connect the text to pre-reading preparation while they read. (K4)
Students will be able to (Do):
Recall background knowledge about a storys plot, character, setting, theme, and
conflict. (D1)
Generate pre-reading questions based on gaps in their prior knowledge. (D2)
Find and communicate connections between the text and their pre-reading
brainstorming while they read (D3)

Assessments: Methods for evaluating each of the specific objectives listed

above.
Diagnostic:
My KWL will serve as both a diagnostic and a formative assessment. I will use it to assess
the degree to which students already know how to activatee background knowledge and
formulate questions.
Formative: Students will show their progress toward today's objectives by
Keeping a SSL (Say Something Log) that tracks their comments and partners responses to
questions (SOL 7.5l, D3, K4). I can look at this after class and judge the quality of
comments. I expect a mix. Some students will be able to connect easily to the KWL, but
some I will need to pull aside for a mini-lesson the next day while other students work. I
will probably have a session where I do a say something on my own, and make my
metacognition very clear. For example, I can say this is surprising. Im going to check my

W questions to see if I had any thoughts about this before I started reading because I dont
quite remember.
Students will also attempt to complete an individual KWL before we create our communal
KWL. (Appendix check number). That way they will have a worksheet in front of them to
guide note taking. While we fill out the KWL, I will go down the rows and call on each
individual to contribute either a K or a W. Those who cant think of any may need to be
pulled aside for a separate mini lesson. Also, I can ask students to number the items in
their KWL so they can refer to specific numbers when doing their SSL. (SOL 7.5f, K1-3)
Summative: Students will ultimately be assessed (today or in a future lesson) on these
standards by...
Students will choose among an analytical task, a practical task, and a creative task.
Analytical: Write a 3-4 page reflection paper comparing your preconceptions about your
book to what the text actually offered. Be sure to attach your numbered KWL. You should
cite at least three items from your KWL and support your comparison between text and
preconception with direct textual evidence. You should include information about plot,
setting, character, and conflict.
Practical: Write an anticipation guide for another class reading your book. Outline the
preconeptions you think students will have about this book and what questions you would
recommend they ask themselves while reading.
Creative: You have just finished reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and
you think it would make a great movie. Luckily, you are an established screenwriter. You
have a few ideas for a script, but before you start working you want to pitch your movie
idea to the CEO of Universal Studios. Your pitch should cover the following:
What are common pop culture portrayals of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
(Hint: check the Ks on the KWL) (K1, D1)
How does the book vary from those portrayals? (K4, D3)
What elements of the story (plot, setting, character, etc.) are important to
communicating the story? (Connects Ks and Ds of previous unit).
Your pitch should be faithful to the Stevenson story.
Assessments still need a little work
Materials Needed:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson. This
may be in hard copy or digital depending on the resources of the school. The
hyperlink is in the appendix
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Fast Tracks Classics version)Dracula by Braham Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Say Something stem starters

Say something rules
Instructional Steps (Procedures): Detail student and teacher behavior.
Beginning Room Arrangement:
Desks will be arranged in paired rows with an aisle down the center so I can
easily access each pair.
I.

Welcome/greeting/announcements (2 min)

(As students are coming in) Come on in, guys. Sit with your 3:00 partner today. The
3:00 partner is one that Ive assigned based on MAP scores and my own observations.
These partners have similar reading abilities. Weaker ELLs are paired with strong ELLs so
they can speak in their native language if they have to. The desks are arranged in pairs so
students should be able to find their 3:00 partner easily.
Before we start, remember your vocab homework is due tomorrow at the
beginning of class.
II.

Hook/ bridge/ opening to lesson (23 min)

Today, were going to start a story that most of you have heard of. Its called
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I know
I asked this last class, but raise your hand if youve heard of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde before. I cant remember how many of you said you had. I anticipate that
at least 80% of the class will raise their hand, but just in case no one knows it I
made sure to gauge student familiarity with the text in the previous class. My
guess of 80% was actually a little low. Jekyll and Hyde and are still part of pop
culture.
Great. Now keep your hands up if you have actually read it. Probably, no
one will raise their hands. If one person does, I will say excellent! Would you like
to come up here and be my scribe? You know my handwriting is garbage. It will
be hard for that student to do a KWL for this text, but he/she can still
participate in the say something. If two people have already read it I will make
sure they are reading partners. I would be astonished if more than two kids
have read the book.Today, were going to start our unit on Gothic monsters. The
three books were reading, Jekyll and hyde, Dracula, and Frankenstein, are
considered Gothic novels because they were written in the nineteenth century
and have a sort of ornate but dark style. All of you should be at least vaguely
familiar with all of these monsters, though maybe Mr. Hyde is a little more
obscure
Great. Now that weve got that established, I want to do a quick KWL.
Another show of hands: how many of you have done a KWL before with previous
teachers? Some students raise their hands. Those of you with your hands raised,
how do you like them? Can you give me a thumb dial? I honestly dont know what Ill
get from this, but Ive heard that students dont particularly like KWLs.
Thats kind of what I thought. So Ill modify it a bit, just to make it
unusual.Before we start, I want to do a prereading activity. Show of hands, how

many of you have done a KWL before? My lesson wont change based on how many
hands go up. This is just to get students in a frame of mind and help them recall what they
may have learned doing KWLs in previous classes. For those of you dont know, KWL
stands for know, want to know, and learned. Ill draw some columns on this
poster paper here I draw columns and well do the first two before we start
reading. make two columns on my document here (KWL will be typed and projected
because my handwriting is not very pretty). Now I label the left column Think I Know and
the right column Want to Read. Now normally, theres three columns, but Ill do the
learned column later. Youll notice that the headings are a little different. Thats
because what you know about Jekyll and Hydethese stories is seen through the
lenses of other sources so the story you know might not be the same story as
what Stevenson these authors wrote. Hollywood has gotten its hands on each of
these books and has changed parts and added parts. So what you know might
not be what you really know about the real story; its probably just what youve
heard about it. The next column is questions that you have about the story that
you hope to find out when you read. That ones pretty much the same as the
normal W column. Before we start, please make a copy of this chart. All you
have to do is draw a vertical line down the middle of your paper and label it the
way I have here. If you want, draw a horizontal line across the center so you can
separate your individual KWL from the class notes. You dont have to take notes
because the class copy will be on blackboard, but if you do it would behelpful
for me if you separated your own ideas from your classmates. Please take 5
minutes to brainstorm on your own and then well work on a class copy.
After 5 minutes: Ill take thoughts for column one.
Students will raise their hands with Jekyll and Hyde references from cartoons, movies, and
books. Some might have seen a Frankenstein or Dracula movie. Some examples might be
Arthur, Spongebob, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and others. Students will
probably know that Jekyll is a scientist who makes a potion that turns him into the monster
Mr. Hyde. They will know that Frankenstein is monster and Dracula is a vampire. Here are
some follow up questions I might ask: any time a student says xxx happened I will ask
why do you think that happened, for example: why did Frankenstein create a
monster and bring it to life? Or how did Dracula become a vampire in the first
place?
Once the flow starts to stall, I will say, lets pause for a second. I want Lets try
to connect these Knows to our elements of a story that we learned last week.
Who remembers what those are?
Students will identify setting character, plot, theme, and conflict. Then, I will say,
great! Why dont you take a minute to brainstorm with the your partner. Think
about what you know about these elements and what you dont know.and fill
out more of your chart. Think about your knowledge and the gaps in your
knowledge These prompts should elicit a few more comments in the Know column.
Alright, lets shift to the right column. There may already be some comments
there. I did not tell students to only comment on the left side. If Students have no ideas for
this column, I sill say Well, looking at our elements of story, there are a few things
I dont know about. What about that first one, setting. I dont know where this
story is set, or even when. I bet Ill find out when I read. I will write where/when?
in the right hand column.
If students are still struggling, Ill say, Also, we can use what you already know
as a springboard. Lets take something from the left column and go a little bit
deeper. Janice, you said that dr. Jekyll made this potion to turn him into Mr.

Hyde. I wonder how that potion works. Whats in it? Why did Dr. Jekyll make it? I
hope this will spark a few more questions as students examine the left column for gaps in
knowledge.
Eventually (after about 15 minutes, maybe less if students arent feeling talkative;
any extra time can be added to the Say Something) I will call a cease to the KWL. Thats a
pretty good list, guys. If it isnt a pretty good list, I will say our KWL skills need some
work. I think well try to improve this list after reading the first chapter.
Everyone stand up and wiggle around. Get ready to transition to the next
activity. I am going to get Ms. Anthropy (a colleague who happens have a planning
period this block) to help with the next part. While I do that I want each of you to
come up here and grab a copy of Jekyll and hyde. Try not to hurt each other.
I will allow 5 minutes for transition as I collect my assistant and position the text on
the projector. The text is the first paragraph of Jekyll and Hyde.
III. Instructional steps (50 min)
Okay simmer down. Simmer down. Breaks over. Time to refocus. Ms.
Anthropy here is going to help me model an activity called Say Something. Its
really easy, but really important. All were going to do is read a passage with
our reading partner and reflect on it. While youre reflecting, try to keep our
KWL chart (and your personal copy) in mind. Try to answer the questions in your
W section and reflect on how accurate your knowledge in the K section was.This
exercise should help you better understand the text and maybe help you
identify questions you might have. After we read for a while, we will return to
the KWL and reflect on how we can answer those questions in the W column or
add more.
The first step is to decide with your partner how much you want to read
between speaking. I usually like to do a paragraph at a time at a time, but for
the purposes of showing you how its supposed to look, Ms. A and I are only
going to read a couple sentences between comments. Ms. A, do you want to
start reading?
A: sure. Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance

that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in

discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet
somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his
taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something
indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only
in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and
loudly in the acts of his life.
Me: well stop there.
A: Thats a really interesting description. Stevenson drops a lot of
negative adjectives on Mr. Utterson, but then he calls him lovable. I dont
think I would love someone like that, do you?
Me: Maybe he will. My thought was, where is this Mr. Utterson guy on the
KWL chart? If hes important to the story, how come I havent heard of
him like Ive heard of dr. Jekyll? And if he isnt important, why does the
story start with him?

Ms A: Yeah, Im not really sure. Maybe hes sort of a behind the scenes
guy. Sometimes authors like to show the main character from someone
elses perspective. Ken Kesey did that in One Flew Over the Cuckoos
Nest.
Me: Thanks. Good thinking. Lets keep going. He was austere with
himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages;
and though he enjoyed the theater, had not crossed the doors of one for
twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes
wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in
their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to
reprove.
A: Hmm What does reprove mean?
Me: I think it means to get judgy and kind of in-you-face about doing
something wrong. So Stevenson is saying that when his friends did bad
things he would try to help them instead of making them feel guilty.
Ms. A: Thanks.
Me: My thought about these last couple sentences was, I wonder if this
approved tolerance for others is how he is going to relate to dr. Jekyll.
It seems like Utterson would be an accepting friend.
A: Thats a good thought. That kind of ties into what I was saying before
about how maybe Mr. Utterson is the behind the scenes guy.
Specifically, Utterson might end up being Jekylls friend.
Me: Good thinking. Lets finish the paragraph.
A: "I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say quaintly: "I let my brother
go to the devil in his own way." In this character, it was frequently his
fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence
in the lives of downgoing men. And to such as these, so long as they
came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his
demeanour.
Me: I have a question: what the heck is Cains heresy?
A: I dont know. I do know that in the Bible, Cain killed his brother Able
because God liked Ables gift but not Cains. And heresy means having
views that are against religious norms. But I dont know what those two
mean together. You should ask the teacher or google it.
Me: Ok. Ill do that after we finish here.
A: My thought is, Im starting to agree with your last prediction. I think
Mr. Utterson is going to be the last reputable acquaintance of dr. Jekyll.
Me: great. That was fun. Now lets debrief. What did you see there?
Students might say, you asked for clarification on a phrase you didnt know, to
which I will respond yes, and how did my partner try to help me answer that
question? She used her own background knowledge. Students might also say,
you made a prediction. and Ill say, how did I use my background knowledge
to do that? you thought about a character that you knew was going to be
introduced later and you thought where he might fit into the story.
Now, Im going to turn it over to you all. I want you and your 3:00

partner to do a Say Something for the second paragraph. I want to

hear what everyone has to say, so I would like each of you to take out a
piece of notebook paper and draw a line down the middle. I will wait 30
seconds for students to do this. I want you to write a heading that says Say
Something log as the title and then your name, date, and period number
on the top right. Then I want you to label the left side my comments
and the right side my partners comments. It doesnt have to be word
for word, but I want you to write down at least the gist of what you and
your partner say. It should be one or two sentences. Ill be collecting this
for a participation grade at the end of class but Ill give it back to you
soon so you can reuse the log. The purpose of the log is not for me to
grade your entries, but for me to see what youre thinking about so I can
think of ways to enrich your conversations. Now I will project the Say
Something rules (bottom of the doc)
Someone might ask, Do we have to write down the whole conversation, like
the responses to our partner and everything? No. Just enough to give me a
sense of what you were talking about. I do want complete sentences,
though.
Ill give you about ten minutes and if you finish early you can move on to
paragraph 3. Im also going to put up a thinking guide with some
comment stems to help jumpstart your thinking. The first thing you want
to do is decide with your partner how much you want to read between
comments. Id recommend about a paragraph. You can do it every few
sentences like Ms. Anthropy and I did
A student might ask if they are supposed to read aloud or silently. I will say it
might be better to read out loud so youre reading at the same pace as
your partner, but its really up to you. Some people dont like to read out
loud because they dont pay attention as well as when they read silently,
so talk to your partner and find what works for you.
I will allow about a minute for transition, then start the clock for 30 minutes.
I will circulate and listen to conversations. I will encourage students who are
making proficient observations to connect them to the W column in preparation for
the reflection activity. If some pairs start having off-topic conversations or start
distracting other groups, I might move a certain group to the hallway or to another
part of the classroom. Some groups might need me to model the stem starters for
them so they can use them more easily. I didnt model them at the beginning
because I dont want all students to feel bound by the stem starters.
IV. Closing (5 min)
Alright. Everyone should be wrapping up. Finish up your conversation. Finish
what youre writing. I will wait till the conversation dies down. Was that a helpful
activity? Give me a thumb dial. I wait for responses. For those of you who had your
thumbs above center, what did you like about it? I will listen to about 3 responses.
For those of you with thumbs below center, what didnt you like? I will listen to
about 3 responses here.
Thanks for your feedback. Mostly, I will use this feedback to gauge which groups like
the strategy and would continue to use it when we read in class. I might get responses like

it was too long in which case I will shorten the time or give students multiple reading
strategies that they can oscillate between.
To wrap up the class, I want you all to compare the notes you wrote in your
reflection log with your KWLs. take the last eight minutes to see if you can
answer some of your Ws or possibly add some more.Also, as a quick check in, I
want to know how far everyone got. Stand up if youre finished with chapter 1. I
will continue in this vein until I have determine how far each pair has read. This will inform
the pacing of the unit.
Before we move on to the next activity, please pass in your Say Something logs.
Attention to Individual Student Needs: Detail specific actions/materials you will
use to differentiate your instruction to meet various individuals learning needs
in this lesson.
Beers suggests using her list of stem starters on page 108 for students who
cant come up with things to say. I will have about 10 copies of that page to
pass around to any individual or partnership that seems to be struggling with
the activity.
I want to differentiate the text for my two struggling ELL students, Gabi and
Ming-yee. Instead of using the Stevenson version, I can acquire 2 copies of
Pauline Francis Fast Track Classics version, which has a lexile score of 560.
That way, these two students could put more effort into conversation and less
into interpreting a text written in an archaic style that does not match the
language they have been taught. Even though they dont speak the same native
language, they would benefit from working together because they read and
speak at a similar pace. I think I would like to have two or three more copies on
hand in case some of the other ELLs are having trouble. I might simply keep
these extra books up front as a resource for all students. If students are
confused, they can read ahead in the Francis version to get a sense of what they
are reading.rather than dumbing down the text as I attempted to do in my last
draft, my differentiation will be by story rather than by version. More advanced
students will get the harder Frankenstein while my ELLs and other struggling
readers can have the other shorter, easier texts. My groups will be partly based
on interest, so they will be more heterogeneous than I originally intended. I will
make sure that all of my Spanish ELLs have at least one other Spanish speaker
with them to help out. Ming-yee will not have any other Chinese speakers, but I
will probably place him in the Dracula group. His reading partner could be
another ELL or lower level reader so Ming-yee will not slow down his partner too
much.
I want to make sure I give Lily enough attention so she doesnt get nervous. I
will visit her table at least twice while I am circulating during the activity.
I will keep an ear open for Mikeys voice. If he gets off topic I will go over to his
group and ask what he and his partner have been talking about. Hopefully this
will refocus him. My 488 teacher has a student like this. When he starts
distracting other students, she send him to work at another table with more
focused students. I will make sure his 3:00 partner is a generally focused

student, which should keep him in line. I used to be worried that students would
feel singled out if I changed their partners mid-year, but I have seen my 488
teacher do it and there was no problem. If Mikey is distracting his partner, Ill
find him a new one.
Technology Use: Detail specific technology being used in the lesson with
explanation for why it is being used.
I will display the rules of Say Somethings via a projector so that students will be able to
see it on the board. I have a copy of those rules in my Beers book. I will just project that.
How this lesson incorporates specific insights from course readings and/or class
discussion:
I used two lessons from Beers: the KWL and the Say Something.
I chose to make a KWL because I wanted to activate students prior knowledge
about the story. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear frequently in popular culture and
literary references, but rarely in the context of Stevensons story. I modified the
KWL because what students may have seen about Jekyll and Hyde may not be
consistent with the story, but it is still part of their background experience. I
modified the W portion in hopes that students would connect their Ks with the
prior knowledge of story elements. Beers was particularly helpful in telling me
how students usually struggle with this task. They often have trouble coming up
with questions, so I specifically modeled ways to connect questions to their
knowledge, and I activated their prior knowledge (story elements) to guide
them to possible gaps in knowledge.
Next, I used a Say Something because Jekyll and Hyde seems like a challenging
text, and I was afraid that students would expend more energy deciphering the
text than considering the meaning. Say Somethings are intended to encourage
dependent readers to think about what they are reading. Beers recommends
only using it for dependent readers because independent readers already think
about the text on their own. In future lessons, I would differentiate my lesson so
that only the dependent readers in the class used this strategy, but for the first
lesson I wanted every student to learn and try it. Some independent readers
might like the social interactivity of the task and use it on their own. I followed
the procedure that Beers recommends, which is to first model the Say
Something with a colleague, then explain the rules. I stressed that students
should respond to their partners comment and try to answer any questions. I
originally was not sure how long students could sustain a Say Something, so I
asked my 488 teacher. She uses a tactic similar to Say Something and she uses
it for up to 40 minutes at a time and has students read a paragraph at a time.
Also, she said that students dont distract each other when they read out loud,
which was an initial concern of mine.
Materials Appendix:
http://www.online-literature.com/stevenson/jekyllhyde/1/

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Fast Tracks Classics version)

http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/District_8/options/cd/MSWord-StemStartersfor.pdf
(stem starter worksheet

Rules for
Say Something
1.With your partner, decide
who will say something first.
2.

When you say something, do one or more of the

following:
Make a prediction
Ask a question
Clarify something you had misunderstood
Make a comment
Make a connection

3.

If you cant do one of the five things, then you

need to reread.

www.sthelens.k12.or.us/cms/.../Say_Something_Rule
s_and_Starters.doc)