Lesson Plan Template

Subject: ______Social Studies___________________ Grade: ______9________

Teacher: _________________Tiffany Izzo_____________________

Thinking About Planning:

1. Pre Planning Information:

It is important for the student to understand the concept of war as well as the purpose of speeches. Some basic knowledge of the American Civil War

and World War II would be helpful in understanding the context of the speeches. The student should know who Abraham Lincoln is and that slavery

was a primary cause for the Civil War. A short video will be shown with some minimal background on World War II, but the student should also be

familiar with this war.

The student struggled with phrasing when reading aloud in the reading assessment. When going through the text, emphasis should be placed on

pauses. Also, text structures such as transition words that indicate changes in meaning or time are important in the chosen texts. This is also something

the students stumbled on.

2. Common Core Learning Standard(s) Addressed:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

3. Learning Target(s): (What will students know & be able to do as a result of this lesson?)

Objective: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary source. Goal: Use a close reading strategy to annotate a primary text in order to sort the information provided.

4. Content Information: Based on the basic reading assessment given to the student, this strategy of close reading and annotating will address areas of opportunity that the student displayed in reading and comprehension. This includes recognizing text structures and identifying factual information found in the text. Within the content area, the strategy will help the student analyze and determine meaning from a primary source text. The texts chosen address content-area-specific concepts such as war, liberty, and nation. In examining these texts through annotation, the student will be able to identify these concepts within the texts and recognize them as the central ideas presented by the author.

5. Language Information

This lesson will ask the student to identify important words and ideas within a primary source text. The language of primary sources is often

different than what a student may be used to reading. This exercise will help the student determine the authors meaning by subdividing the

sentences and paragraphs into smaller sections and examining them within the context.

Most of the language can be inferred through context clues. The text has some footnotes to provide definitions that might not be able to be figured

through the text. Part of the lesson will be to identify footnotes and use them to understand the text.

The student will be asked to question why the author chose a specific word or phrase. When necessary, we will refer back to earlier annotations to

aid in explaining what is being said.

When finished annotating the text, the student will be asked to refer to his annotations and explain what he thinks is the purpose of the text.

At the end of the lesson, the student will be asked to compare and contrast the two texts.

Thinking About Instruction

6. Engagement/Motivation

The student has previously expressed that he enjoys reading and also enjoys the incorporation of technology. The addition of a video is to help with his

engagement. The texts chosen have to do with the concepts of war, liberty and nation. He should have some familiarity with these from his social

studies classes. Familiarity will increase engagement.

For motivation, I will ask the student how he feels about reading primary texts and use that to explain how this strategy will help him with reading

primary texts in the future and perhaps make it easier for him.

7. Explicit Instruction

● Direct Instruction-

• I will start off the lesson by saying, “Today, we are going to learn a close reading strategy that will help you understand a text. We often look at primary documents in history, but they can be difficult to understand. Sometimes, there can be language or ideas we might not understand. This strategy will help you pick out important pieces of a text so that you can find meaning.” • Next, I will explain the strategy with “One way that can help us in looking at a text is to annotate the text. ‘Annotate’ means underlining or highlighting key words and phrases as well as making notes in the margins. I am going to demonstrate this strategy to you. We are going to underline anything we find striking or significant. We will highlight what we recognize as a key concept. In the margins we will note any observations we make. We can also circle words we identify as important and put question marks next to something we do not understand. We also want to look for repetitions, contradictions or similarities. We can write these in the margins as well.” • I will introduce the text we are going to annotate: President Abraham Lincoln’s speech, “The Gettysburg Address, 1863” I will give a copy to the

student along with a highlighter and pen. • I will say, “First, let’s make sure we know what we are reading,” and I will read the title, pointing out that it is dated 1863. • I will say, “Sometimes it is helpful to read the text out loud before we begin annotating.” Next, I will slowly read the speech out loud to the student paying attention to phrasing. • Next I will re-read the first sentence, which makes up the first paragraph, and think aloud while I make notes. I will put a question mark next to “four score and seven years ago” because I am not sure yet what this means. The copy I have chosen has a note that “score” means “twenty” and I will walk the student through how I will follow the footnote and figure out that this means 1776 and note this in the margin. • I will say, “I think there are two important pieces to this sentence/paragraph. I am going to underline these.” • I will continue into the second paragraph, thinking aloud as I go. I will point out the repetition of “nation” and circle the times it has already been used. I will ask myself, “Why do I think this is important?” and write down “Nation is important because it is divided right now and Lincoln wants to bring it together.” • Continuing, I will highlight, “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field” and explain, “This seems to be a reason for the speech.” I will finish the paragraph while underlining and making notes. • This part will be for the student to observe me and make notes of what I am doing.

● Guided Practice-

• We will have finished the first two paragraphs and will do the third paragraph together. I will say to the student, “Let’s try the next sentence together”

and I will read this sentence out loud. This copy also has a note for the word “consecrate” and I will ask the student if he knows what this means. We will

note this.

• I will ask the student, “Do we know why Lincoln says ‘we can not dedicate- we can not consecrate- we can not hallow’ when in the last paragraph he

said ‘We have come to dedicate’ ?” He will most likely not know as it has not been explained yet in the text, and I will ask him, “So what should we put

here?” He should say to put a question mark. If he does know why, we will note this together in the margin. The reason is explained further in the next

sentence, and, either way, we will be able to note it when we go through the second sentence.

• I will also ask if student knows complicated vocabulary, such as “hallow” and “detract.” We can write question marks or make notes as needed.

• I will ask the student to read the third sentence aloud. After he is finished, I will ask, “Is there anything you think we should annotate in that

sentence?” He may or might not have something yet, but that is okay. I will think aloud again with this sentence if the student does not see the process

yet.

• We will continue through the rest of the third paragraph together. I will continue to guide the student through the close reading process.

• As we continue annotating, I will pause at key points and ask the student probing questions. For example, “Do you notice any words that Lincoln is

repeating?” An example in this paragraph would be “dedicate.” I will confirm his understanding of the process by asking him to explain it back to me.

• To push the student’s analysis, I will ask him questions such as “Why do you think Lincoln keeps using dedicate?” and have him not his thoughts in the

margins.

• The last sentence of the speech is the longest, but brings together all the ideas. There are a lot of pieces and I will guide the student through it. I will

say to the student, “If we go back to the notes and observations we made earlier through close reading, we can really understand what Lincoln is saying

in this last sentence.”

● Independent practice

• I will introduce the student to a short text to do on his own: “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940” by Winston

Churchill. The context of the speech is similar in that it is also given during war.

• I was able to find a short one minute clip of this speech. Time permitting, I will show it to the student to activate his background knowledge. His survey

also showed he was interested in technology, so it will increase his engagement in the text.

• After the student has annotated the text on his own, I will ask him to describe the choices he made and explain why. Examples of some things he might

pick out are repetitions of the words “war” and “victory.” This will demonstrate his ability to annotate the text.

• To show his ability to pull critical ideas and meaning from the text, I will ask him what he thinks about this speech compared to the one by Lincoln,

“What is different? Is anything the same?”

Closure: • I will finish the lesson by recapping the strategy and what it allowed us to gain from the text. • I will ask the student to keep this strategy in mind when he is faced with a difficult text. The strategy of close reading/annotating can be used in other subjects as well. I will explain that it might take time and practice, but this can be very helpful in understanding a difficult text.

Thinking About Assessment:

8. Type of assessment The assessment for this lesson will be formative. The student’s understanding will be assessed throughout the lesson by asking the student what steps

we should take during the guided practice. The student will demonstrate his ability to understand the strategy by giving a response that relates to the

strategy of annotating. Also, I will assess his ability to use the skill on his own on the second speech. After he does it independently, we will review his

notes and try to come to some conclusion based on what he identified in the text.

At the end of the lesson, the student will be asked to pick out something he found similar in the texts. I will ask him what he thinks these similarities

might mean. Any logical answer that refers back to the text and the notes made will show his ability to understand the strategy.

4. Resources/Materials:

The first text will be “The Gettysburg Address, 1863” by Abraham Lincoln. I will show a video of the speech, “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940” by Winston Churchill and the student will have a copy of the text to annotate on his own. The video has been downloaded on my Kindle so that an internet connection will not be required. Pens and highlighters will be needed as well for each of us.

6. Reflection:

This text proved to be challenging for the student, but he learned a new strategy and was able to demonstrate it on his own. Before modelling the strategy, I asked the student some questions in order to show him how it might be helpful. I asked [Student A] if he had read primary texts before in class and he said that he had. I asked him if he enjoyed them and he seemed to have mixed feelings. I explained to him that primary texts can be difficult, particularly when the authors might write differently than we are used to. Also, there might be information that we might not know when reading them. I provided the example of reading someone’s journal that we might not know much about. [Student A] understood this example and I was able to use it to explain how close reading by annotating can help us break down the information into smaller parts so we can figure out what the author

is trying to say. [Student A] appeared interested in learning the strategy once his recognized how it might help him with primary texts.

I explained the strategy and affirmed that he understood before we began reading the text. I prefaced reading the text out loud by saying that the reason was to become familiar with the text even though we might not understand yet what it is about. After reading it out loud, I recognized that there was a lot of information for such a short speech and that I am not yet sure what it all means yet. [Student A] related to this and when I reminded him that this was the reason for using the strategy, he smiled, nodded and seemed to relax. This was when I realized that he really understood how this might be helpful to him. His engagement was noticeably increased.

Before beginning the direct instruction, I pointed out that I found it helpful to write notes about what the author is directly saying in the left margin and what I think that might mean on the right. [Student A] liked this suggestion.

There were parts of the strategy that [Student A] seemed to pick up right away. Following the footnotes seemed to be fun for him. On the second footnote, I was still in the direct instruction part of the lesson, but he jumped right in and read the footnote out loud before I prompted him to do so. He also picked up on circling words that were repeated. I had circled the word “nation” in the first and second paragraph and he referred back to it when he saw the word being used again. Also, I had noted in the margin that I thought “nation” was important because it was divided and that Lincoln wanted to unite it. He referred back to this note later during the guided practice.

When I asked [Student A] why he thought Lincoln said “we can not consecrate,” he referenced how earlier in the text Lincoln had said that he was at a battlefield and suggested that maybe there were too many bodies around. This was an example of how a student might give an answer that is unexpected, but still valuable. It showed that he was relating different pieces of information to make an inference. It also shows that he was taking the time to visualize what he was reading.

[Student A] had difficult with the word “hallow” and thought it mean shallow water. I am glad I asked if he knew what the word meant because I was able to show a way to use context clues. I related the word to a word I already knew, “Halloween” and pointed out that he was talking about the ground where the men had died. From this, I referenced a graveyard that is used to honor people who have died and related it to other ideas that had been said in the text.

At the end of the first speech, [Student A] was able to synthesize different ideas that we made notes on to come up with an explanation of what Lincoln was saying. He saw how the strategy allowed us to find a meaning that was not said directly. Specifically, he recognized that Lincoln wanted to unite the country, but he was also talking about something more than that. He was saying that they must fight for freedom and equality as well.

The sound on the video was a little low for the noise level in the room, so I noticed [Student A] was reading along on the speech as opposed to watching the video. This was kind of a “technical failure,” but did not affect the lesson significantly.

In the independent practice, [Student A] understood the process and applied it. I explained that we could both try it on our own and then afterwards we could use our notes to figure out the purpose of the speech. He initially hesitated, but he eventually made annotations that were in line with strategy. He did not use the highlighter on his own, but he did use the other techniques I outlined. When we discussed his notes afterwards, he had noted things that I had not anticipated. For example, he noted that the speaker was talking to the government and suggested that he was asking for supplies to go to war. This was not something I would have recognized because I knew who Winston Churchill was, but it became obvious that [Student A] did not. In the end, it worked out, because he was able to find meaning without background knowledge. I had to provide some scaffolding to help him connect the annotations that he had made together. In the end, he successfully used the strategy to find facts and ideas within the text, but lacked the background

knowledge to synthesize some of it together.

I chose this strategy because [Student A] had some difficulty with fact-based questions in the basic reading assessment. He read the passages quickly and brushed over some key facts even though he showed strong comprehension. I thought that close reading would slow him down and help him to retain information in the text. In this way, I think the lesson was successful. Also, the time management of the lesson was effective as the lesson was completed within the allotted time. It was helpful to use short texts in this particular case.

In the future, I will have to adjust the lesson plan to incorporate some of the unexpected struggles. Next time, I might consider providing more background knowledge when necessary. It was not much of an issue in this lesson, but something to keep in mind when planning future lessons. Also, it could be beneficial to include some vocabulary strategies in upcoming lessons.

The direct instruction part of the lesson was very successful. The student followed along and was able to contribute in the guided practice. However, in the shift from guided to independent practice, [Student A] had some hesitation. I think it would have been beneficial if he had been using the highlighter and making the annotations on his own paper. He made minimal notes during the guided practice. If I were to do the lesson again, I would change the format slightly. Perhaps, it would be beneficial to use one copy the text and have the student gradually make the annotations himself as we move through the guided instruction section. This might have helped the student become more comfortable with using the highlighter as [Student A] did not use it during his independent practice. Also, further explanation of the purpose of the highlighter and emphasizing when it is appropriate could enhance the lesson.

Overall, the lesson was successful as far as student engagement and adaptation of the strategy. [Student A] had some interesting contributions about war and liberty at the end of the lesson that reflected his understanding despite vocabulary issues and lack of background knowledge. He also seemed to genuinely enjoy the strategy and he said he thought he would use it when faced with primary documents.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Speech The Gettysburg Address, 1863

Four score1 and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war2, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate3 —we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain4—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

____________________________________________________

1 score: twenty 2 civil war: a war between citizens of the same country 3 consecrate: declare a place sacred 4 in vain: without accomplishing anything

Churchill, Winston. “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940.”

I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have

nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of

the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and

suffering.

You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with

all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against

a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of

human crime. That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all

costs - Victory in spite of all terrors -Victory, however long and hard the road may

be, for without victory there is no survival.

I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be

suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the

aid of all and to say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united

strength.”