High Impact Teaching Strategies

Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Elisha McLaughlin

Lesson Title: Identifying Point of View: Identifying Point of View

Grade Level and Course: 7^th Grade Social Studies

Time Segment of Lesson: _90_ minutes

Standard(s) Addressed in Lesson: 

RH.6-8.6: Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

Student Diversity and Differentiation of Instruction

Student Diversity	Differentiation of Instruction
English Language Learner	Give text with simplified language; Chunk text to aid in comprehension.
Dysgraphia	Allow students to dictate answers using Google Voice or another recording tool. If this technology is unavailable, have a TA record dictated answers on paper.
High Achieving	Students will be given a more difficult passage to determine point of view. The use of loaded language and inclusion/avoidance of facts in their passage will be subtler than in the passage for the rest of the class.
ADHD	Chunk assignments to help lower distractibility; provide cues to students to help keep them on task.

 

Objectives with Formative and Summative Assessments

Measurable Objectives to be Addressed	Formative and Summative Assessment
Identify facts that are included or avoided in a text based on prior knowledge of the topic and determine how these facts (or lack there of) support the author’s point of view.	Formative 1: Students will work independently to find evidence of an author’s point of view. Formative 2: Students will discuss with a small group and determine the author’s point of view using evidence they found in formative assessment 1 Formative 3: As homework, students will identify point of view in four passages.

Big Ideas to be Addressed in the Lesson:

1.     By identifying use of loaded language and inclusion or avoidance of facts, one can determine the point of view of an author.

 

Teaching Strategies and Related Student Activities (Include Web 2.0 activities as appropriate):

Teaching Strategies and Activities, Teacher/Student Input, and Review

·      Because this is not the first lesson in the unit on the civil war, students will already have a background on the content area to which they will be applying the skill of identifying an author’s point of view.

·      To start the lesson, the teacher ask students for their point of view on an issue that is important to them. For this class, the issue is where to eat lunch: at the hallway tables or in the classroom. Before students answer, teacher will ask students to come up with either a use of loaded language or a fact that supports their position without saying what their position is. Students will have four minutes to discuss with their neighbours.

·      When four minutes have elapsed, teacher will start discussion by giving an example (When students eat lunch in the classroom, their teacher allows them to watch a movie). Teacher will then ask for three student volunteers to share what they came up with on the board. The class will then discuss each answer and try to determine if the point of view (pro-hallway or pro-classroom) of the student.

·      This will be the jumping off point for the introduction to identifying an author’s point of view. Because students have already been introduced to this through their work with loaded language and inclusion/avoidance of facts, this will be a short introduction.

·      Teacher will then introduce an example from the current topic (the Civil War) using a passage that the students have previously read.

·      *Teacher will start by identifying facts and loaded language in the first paragraph of the passage. When she gets to the second paragraph, teacher will ask for student input. **For the final paragraph, students will identify facts on their own.

·      **Teacher will then place students in groups of 4-5 students for collaborative learning. Students will work through the final paragraph again, making sure they did not miss any important indicators of point of view.

·      Students will discuss similarities and differences between what they found when working alone and what the other students found in order to deepen their understanding of determining point of view.

·      Students will discuss their evidence that they have found and will begin thinking about the point of view of the author.

·      After fifteen minutes, teacher will bring all students back together and the class will decide as a whole whose point of view the passage was written from.

·      **After a five minute discussion, teacher will hand out additional practice and assign it as homework. The students will be allowed to work on their practice for the rest of class, either independently or with a partner of their choosing. The practice will be four short paragraphs written from different perspectives on the same topic (the Civil War). Students will be asked to identify loaded language by circling it and important facts by underlining them. At the end of each paragraph, students will be asked to identify the author’s point of view. Any work that is not completed at the end of class will be homework.

*This activity is an “I do it,” “We do it,” “You do it” type of activity.

**Formative Assessment

***Summative Assessment

Discussion Topics

Write out topics that you would like students to discuss in class, before class or after class because they are interesting, difficult to grasp or for any other reason that would make for a lively and engaging discussion. If discussions must happen outside class, what tool will you use to facilitate the discussion (e.g. Twitter)?

1) As a Class: How can we use loaded language/inclusion avoidance of facts to determine point of view?

2) Small Group: Which facts/loaded language instances are important in this case? How do we know that?

Materials and Resources for Lesson

Materials, Technology, and Websites	Required Preparation
1.   Copy of Articles	Print 26 copies of each
2.   Copy of Homework	Print 26 copies
3.   Whiteboard/Markers	Check to be sure the markers are working