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Eric Rosenthal SCED 694 Internship II Professor Moos Sample Lesson Plan and Reflection 1
Crime and Punishment: What’s fair?
Grade Level: 7 Number of students: 12 Time: 80 minutes Topic: This lesson is a pre-reading lesson for the Greek myth: Prometheus. The lesson is
designed to prepare students for the reading of the myth and to activate schemata related to
the major themes of the myth. Rationale: Themes present in Greek mythology still resonate with us today and the reading of
mythology provides an ideal structure to investigate some major questions that humans have
pondered since the dawn of civilization. Prometheus-The Fire Bringer investigates the
justifications of crime and punishment, evaluates what is right and wrong and explores the
notion of sacrificing for the greater good. These are ideals that students my class are frequently
faced with and an investigation will serve to clarify their opinions and deepen their
understandings of the concepts. It is especially important for students to understand that their
ideas can and will change as they develop. In this lesson, students will evaluate various
statements related to these themes and have an opportunity to present their opinions to
partners and later, to the class at large. Students are expected to attempt to clarify their
opinions and will be prompted to do so by the teacher during the discussion. The purpose of
the mini-grammar lesson which covers coordinating conjunctions and the decoding of
vocabulary containing Greek and Latin roots is for students to have explicit instruction in areas
that are often difficult for ELLs. Clear instruction will be given to the student on how and when
to use appropriate coordinating conjunctions in speaking and writing. Since this skill is
necessary in so many facets of expressive communication, it will aid students when they
compose original sentences using newly acquired vocabulary later in the lesson. Knowledge of
Greek and Latin roots is important for students when they encounter unknown vocabulary and
will aid them throughout their reading of Prometheus. The vocabulary hunt activity presents
numerous effective strategies for decoding and remembering unknown vocabulary. When
trying to decode the meaning of new vocabulary, students are prompted to utilize context clues
in example sentences to ascertain meaning. Students are asked to create their own visual
representations of the vocabulary which aids in their understanding and retention of new
vocabulary. Finally students produce original sentences attempting to use the vocabulary
correctly and will be guided to the proper usage. The strength of this activity is the variety of
vocabulary learning strategies that it includes. Prior Knowledge: Students have been studying myths for the past two weeks. They are familiar
with the Orpheus and Icarus myths. Students have brainstormed and discussed common
themes that are often present in mythology, such as Gods/Goddesses, tragedy, explanations of
natural phenomena, creation stories, magical creatures and magical powers. Some of the
students are more familiar with Greek/Roman mythology than others but most have
demonstrated an understanding of these major themes and purposes of mythology.
Furthermore, the value survey in this lesson is worded generally to make sure that students are
able to connect with the statements and draw on some experience that will inform their
judgments. For example, one statement is “All punishments are fair”. I can reasonably venture
to say that nearly all students are familiar with the concepts of punishment and fairness but
what I want to know is whether they agree that all punishments are fair. In this sense, the
major activity of this lesson serves to draw out student’s opinions which are formed from their
prior knowledge to help them evaluate their validity. The content of the lesson appeals to
student’s imaginations because I will be intentionally questioning them in a manner that makes
them imagine a situation where there opinion about a statement might change. For example,
when discussing the statement “Stealing is wrong” I am going pose a situation where one might
be forced to steal in order to provide for their starving family. I will attempt to elicit from the
students, situations that will challenge their beliefs about a particular statement. Pre-Class Assignments: Students have two homework assignments due for this lesson that are
not related specifically to myths. They are vocabulary and grammar development components
that the cooperating teacher has implemented as a mini lesson at the start of each block.
Today the students will hand in a packet of exercises related to five Greek/Latin roots and a
grammar exercise on subject/verb identification.
Seating Arrangement: The students will sit in 4 rows of 3 students. Throughout the lesson there
will be a combination of teacher to individual student interaction, student to student
interaction and pair to teacher interaction. Because I am still learning about individual student’s
abilities, the cooperating teacher will be assisting in seating developing students with more able
peers so that students will have opportunities to learn from one another.
New Jersey Core Standards:
Language:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.4.B Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., belligerent, bellicose, rebel).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.6 Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Speaking and Listening
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Behavioral Objectives Assessments
To activate student’s prior knowledge and During student discussion the teacher will
values related to the themes of the Greek listen for student’s opinions and connections Myth Prometheus; specifically: justice,
with prior experiences or knowledge.
fairness, punishment and human
development.
To determine or clarify the meaning of The teacher will monitor student’s progress unknown and multiple-meaning words using a while determining the meaning of the range of strategies. vocabulary and it will be assessed when as
homework assignment.
To determine or clarify the meaning of The Greek/Latin root homework packet will be unknown and multiple meaning words using collected and assessed one week after this
knowledge of Greek/Latin roots. block.
To engage in a collaborative discussion as During student discussion the teacher will group and to express ideas clearly and listen for the clarity of student’s explanations effectively. of their opinions.
Big Ideas: In Prometheus we see an example of a person rebelling against authority to serve the greater good. Prometheus, however, acted impulsively and paid an immense price for the gift he gave to mankind. Zeus may have punished Prometheus unfairly, but his law was clearly set out and Prometheus transgressed. The concepts of rebellion, sacrifice and fairness are ones that middle school students are wrestling with on a day to day basis. We are able to explore these concepts with a close reading of the Prometheus myth. Students will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts, their consequences and their own personal perspectives through a multi-layered investigation of this myth. Essential Questions: How does this myth explore the idea of rebelling against authority? Does Prometheus think before he acts? What can we learn from this myth about acting on impulse? Are punishments always fair? Why or why not? Materials: Whiteboard, markers and erasers, computer, power point presentation, handouts, opinion statement markers (posted around the room). Pre-Class Assignments/ Prior Knowledge:
Students have been studying myths for the past two weeks. They are familiar with the
Orpheus and Icarus myths. Students have brainstormed and discussed common themes that
are often present in mythology, such as Gods/Goddesses, tragedy, explanations of natural
phenomena, creation stories, magical creatures and magical powers.
Students have two homework assignments due for this lesson that are not related specifically
to myths. They are vocabulary and grammar development components that the cooperating
teacher has implemented as a mini lesson at the start of each block. Today the students will
hand in a packet of exercises related to five Greek/Latin roots and a grammar exercise on
subject/verb identification.
Lesson Beginning: (5 minutes)
The teacher will greet the class and collect their homework. (5 minutes) Main Body of the Lesson:
1. Mini-grammar lesson– The teacher will direct the student’s attention to the front of the room to view a presentation. The presentation is a mini-grammar lesson on compound sentences and coordinating conjunctions. The students will review independent clauses and the teacher will elicit various responses from the students. Students will be introduced to the acronym FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) which is a good way to remember coordinating conjunctions. After the mini-grammar component, the teacher will review the week’s upcoming Greek/Latin roots homework assignment. The teacher will post three sentences on the screen that contain a similar root. Students will guess the common root and guess the meaning of the roots in Greek or Latin. There are five roots that are covered in the presentation and these are the five that will be explored in the week’s homework packet. 15-20 minutes
2. Prometheus Preparation Activity # 1: Value Judgments –Students will complete a value
judgment survey with seven statements that relate to themes of next myth that the students will read. The teacher will inform the students that they will not be informed of the title of the myth just yet. Students will read each statement and decide to what
extent they agree or disagree with the statement. The teacher will be careful to explain that there isn’t a right or wrong response but that students should be prepared to share their viewpoints and give reasons for their position. Prior to the exercise the teacher will clarify the meaning of the words ignorant and harshly. Students will be given 4-5 minutes to complete the survey before sharing their opinions with the person sitting directly next to them for 3-4 minutes. After each student has had an opportunity to finish the survey and speak briefly with their partner, the teacher will give further directions. The teacher will read each statement and students will move to the section of the room corresponding to their opinion on the particular statement. Posted in each corner of the room will be number that correlates with a degree of agreement (1-Strongly agree2- Somewhat Agree 3- Somewhat Disagree 4- Strongly Disagree). The teacher will take a moment or two for each statement to discuss student’s reasons for their opinions. Throughout the duration of the activity the teacher will elicit a response from each student in the class. (30 minutes in total)
3. Vocabulary Hunt – The teacher will inform the students that before reading Prometheus,
there are some vocabulary words that should be clarified first. Students are given a blank
vocabulary template and informed how to participate in the activity with the person
sitting next to them. The teacher will put the directions for the activity on the white board
(via Power Point) and have the students read them before receiving the vocabulary
packet. The directions are as follow:
a. Read the vocabulary words and count the syllables. Write the vocabulary word
and syllables on your paper. The teacher will monitor students during this step and
clarify pronunciation.
b. Describe each picture.
c. Read the example sentences.
d. Match the words to the pictures. Write the definition on your paper.
e. Draw a picture for each word.
f. Create a sentence for each word. Try to be creative! The teacher will monitor and check to see the students perform the activity correctly. At the
end of the activity the teacher will review the definitions with the class and elicit original
sentences. This will be finished during class but there is a homework assignment on the back in
which students are required to write a paragraph with a central idea using the new
vocabulary. 30 minutes
Closure Activity:
For the final activity, the teacher will act out a charade of the new vocabulary words
and vocabulary from the previous two myths and students will have to guess the appropriate
word. The teacher will also close the lesson with a review of the due dates for the homework
assignments. (5 minutes) Homework:
On the back of their vocabulary sheet students are required to write a paragraph with a central idea using the new vocabulary. It is due for the class meeting block.
Teaching Reflection
To begin with I’d like to say that I’m generally satisfied with the planning of this lesson
and its execution. I’m still learning a lot about the school, the classes and the content for this
course but I found this lesson to be a quality, possibly a little safe, start. Although I am a
student teacher, I am not new to teaching. Going into the lesson I felt reasonably comfortable
and a little anxious. I know that when I teach a lesson there will be aspects that work well and
aspects that need improvement. The students are primarily Vietnamese English Language
Learners. Many of them have been studying in an International School all of their lives so the
exhibit English fluency. Aside from the learning objectives for this lesson, my personal goals
were to establish rapport with my students and to give clear, concise directions.
I’ll look first at some of the areas that I overlooked when planning this lesson. I was
quite excited to include two pre reading activities originally. I wanted to have a student survey
and walk around discussion as well as a story box writing activity to predict the contents of our
next reading. What I didn’t expect, and learned while teaching the first block of the day, was
that I needed more than 80 minutes to properly run through these activities. So I changed the
plan after the first block and spent a little extra time on all three of the learning activities
described above. The result was a more relaxed, manageable lesson. I simply rearranged the
next lesson plan to include the story box writing activity and reading of Prometheus.
Another area that I overlooked when planning the lesson was how explicitly I needed to
direct students that they would be asked to share their opinions about the value judgment
statements. Students were generally willing to express themselves, and some were very
enthusiastic, but others were reluctant to speak before the group. As a scaffold, I told reluctant
students that I would be asking their opinion in a few moments and to prepare their thoughts
while another student shared his/her ideas. This worked fairly well but some of the students
simply echoed the ideas of more confident speakers in the classroom. The next time I do an
activity like this I am going to be clearer about my expectations for participation and emphasize
that students should prepare themselves to speak briefly about the topic.
I think that the strength of this lesson was its focus on the students and their own
ideas/prior experiences. This was a good opportunity for me, while I am still new in the
classroom, to get better acquainted with the students, their learning styles and personalities.
For the value survey, I purposely tried to include a range of statements that would evoke strong
feelings and a few others that would challenge students to think critically. For example “All
punishments are fair” is the type of statement that is obviously difficult to agree with. This is
true especially for middle school aged students who are often the recipients of punishments
they may not believe are fair. On the other hand, “Fire is the most important human discovery”
requires an engagement with prior knowledge across science and social studies domains and
opens up solid debate. This question lead to a good discussion in the observed lesson and I was
excited to see the students engage in the debate. During the lesson I made an adjustment
which I thought was helpful for the shy students in the room. After completing the survey, I
asked them to share their ideas with a partner before the class wide discussion. This gave
students a chance to vocalize their ideas in a relatively safe (private) setting before being put
on the spot in front of the entire group.
There are two reasons that I felt this was a ‘safe’ lesson. Firstly, I followed the same
format that my cooperating teacher uses. She starts each lesson with a mini-grammar
component followed by the main lesson. I liked this style and I wanted the students to
experience consistency throughout their language arts class experience so I did not deviate
from this. Secondly, I used my cooperating teacher’s ‘vocabulary hunt’ with a sight
modification. In my cooperating teacher’s version of this activity, students walk around the
room finding pictures, vocabulary words, meanings and sample sentences. It is literally a hunt
for meaning. In my version, I printed packets for pairs of students to work on at their desks. I
did this because the previous activity, the value survey required students to move about the
classroom and I wanted to give them a chance to settle back into their seats for the vocabulary
hunt. This was a safe approach because I had already observed it working well when my
cooperating teacher used it with her classes. One thing I did to differentiate instruction was to
post the procedure of the vocabulary hunt on the board via power point so that students who
had difficulty listening to the directions or remembering them could have a visual reminder.
This was effective as I had to remind students to follow the steps simply by asking them if they
had completed a particular step. After looking through their work I’m going to spend more
time clarifying the meaning of the vocabulary directly to the whole class. The students
produced accurate work but some of them failed to fully use the new words correctly. In the
future I might give a few more example sentences or elicit particular sentences from students
who are confident with their work to help students who are unclear.
I’m thankful that my cooperating teacher is very organized and clear with her
methods because it gives me a good idea about how to manage a grade 7 ELA class. Prior to
starting my internship I had plenty of ideas about what to teach and activities to accomplish
learning objectives but this is my first experience seeing it put into practice. It is very
beneficial for me and ‘demystifies’ teaching ELA at the middle school level for me.
Overall, I feel that I’ve established an introductory rapport with many students and
have some knowledge of them to work with in the future. I think that this lesson served to
educate me about the student’s learning preferences and abilities and to see a few areas
where I need work on. I’m going to give a bit more consideration to the length of my activities
and give more thought to support that shy students will require for classroom discussions.
aptitude natural ability
infinitely extremely; greatly
vengeance the infliction of punishment in return for an
offense
ignorance lacking in knowledge or training;
unlearned
His ignorance of computers made it hard to get work done.
She has a special aptitude for mathematics.
Smart phones are infinitely more advanced than original cell
phones.
After the dog’s attack, the cat took its vengeance.
Prometheus, the Fire bringer
Directions: Read the statement and decide whether you agree or disagree with it.
1- Strongly agree 2- Somewhat Agree 3- Somewhat Disagree 4- Strongly Disagree
1. All punishments are fair. 1 2 3 4
2. Stealing is always wrong. 1 2 3 4
3. Zeus is a fair god. 1 2 3 4
4. I would be angry if my friend stole my Christmas present.
1 2 3 4
5. Fire is the most important human discovery. 1 2 3 4
6. Thieves should be punished very harshly. 1 2 3 4
7. It is better to be dumb and happy than smart and sad. 1 2 3 4
Prometheus, the Fire Bringer
Vocabulary
Below is a list of common suffixed derived from Latin, along with their meanings. Record at least two words that use each suffix.
1. – graph, meaning “something written or drawn” ________________________________________________
2. - meter, meaning “measuring device” ________________________________________________________
3. - ous, meaning “full of, having” _____________________________________________________________
4. -nomy, meaning “law” ____________________________________________________________________
5. -logy, meaning “study of, story” _____________________________________________________________
Vocabulary Word Short Definition Picture An original sentence
Summarizing a Myth Note from Your Reading
Title
Author
Main Characters
Conflict
Main Events
Resolution
Summary (20 - 25 words)
Make a Judgment: Is Zeus fair to Prometheus? Explain.
STOP at page 648. Based on the conversation between the two gods, what aspect of the natural world do you think this myth will explain? Make a prediction.
Look at the picture on page 649. Record at least 3 observations about the picture. Make an interpretation. What do you think this means? Details:
Interpretation:
Your Choice -- draw a scene from any part of the story. Write a short description of that scene.
Make a connection. Even though Prometheus tried to help mankind, he received a cruel punishment from Zeus. Do this remind you of another story, or an event in your own life?
Prometheus means ‘foresight’ in Greek. Foresight is the ability to predict what will happen in the future. What does the title of this myth tell us about its message?
Relate this to something that has happened to one of you or another story.
How does this myth explore the idea of rebelling against authority?
Relate this to something that has happened to one of you or another story.
“Do you THINK before you act?” Imagine you could ask Prometheus this question. Write the answer you think he would give on the basis of his experiences. Relate this to something that has happened to one of you or another story.
Create a dialog between Zeus and Prometheus after Zeus finds out what Prometheus did. Base your dialog on what you know about their relationship from the text.
Relate this to something that has happened to one of you or another story.