Lesson Plan: Teaching Internship

Carlin Wetzel
November 27th, 2018

Fact & Opinion Writing

Context:
Course name: Standard English 12 Collaborative
Grade level: 12th
Length of lesson: 45
Description of setting, students, and curriculum—and any other important contextual
characteristics

Monticello High School is located in Albemarle County. At Monticello there are several “levels”
of English for students to take. We have Standard Collaborative, Academic, Academic
Advanced, Honors, Dual Enrollment, and Advanced Placement. Dual Enrollment and Advanced
Placement are specifically for upperclassmen students. The students in this class are racially
diverse, and there are 6 ELL students—all Hispanic. There are also four students in this class
with a learning disability IEP. There are two collaborative teachers, a special education and ELL
specialist, that are almost always in the room. The ELL collaborative teacher is more often in the
room for support, while the special education teacher does not “push in” as often.

Objectives (KUD format)

Students will know…

1. Students will know how to distinguish a fact from an opinion statement.
2. Students will know the definitions of contextual vocabulary words.

Students will understand…

3. Students will understand the difference between a fact and opinion statement.

Students will be able to…

4. Students will be able to distinguish between fact and opinion statement.

SOLs:
VSOL 11.5 The student will read and analyze a variety of nonfiction texts.
a) Use information from texts to clarify understanding of concepts.
d) Draw conclusions and make inferences on explicit and implied information using
textual support.
Methods of Assessment:
Diagnostic
Title of assessment tool:
Informal Vocabulary
Discussion (Prior Class)
Students will demonstrate what
they already know about the
vocabulary by reading
definitions and using the words
in a sentence—discussion
based.
Criteria: Students will indicate
whether they are familiar or not
familiar with a word by a
thumbs up, and a student will
indicate great confidence in a
word by offering to use said
word in a sentence.
How data will be used: This
will inform how much
discussion about specific
concepts we have when we stop
the documentary to answer
questions. This also serves as
solid background information
for students before starting a
documentary on a topic that
they may not be familiar with.
How students will receive
feedback: Verbally from me in
the moment, we will star words
that we are least comfortable
with and focus more closely on
Formative
Title of assessment tool:
PearDeck
Students will show their
progress toward
understanding the vocabulary
words and fact vs. opinion
statements.
Criteria: Students will answer
questions anonymously using
their devices, some with recall
and some as diagnostic.
How data will be used: I will
use this data to inform the
reading process later in the
day.
How students will receive
feedback :Students will
receive verbal feedback from
me and immediate feedback
on the screen.
Summative
Title of Assessment Tool:
Argumentative Essay
Students will show their
progress toward using factual
information in
opinionated/argumentative
writing.
Criteria: Students will write
an argumentative essay on
whether or not Monticello
High School should adopt a
no-phone policy.
How data will be used: This
data will be used for further
writing instruction.
How students will receive
feedback: Students will
receive comments and a grade
in their journal the following
class period.
 those throughout the watching,
reading, and writing process.
(K2)

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my students:

Student Name Readiness Interest Learning Environment

Angelica Angelica gets distracted

easily by peers and
technology. The use of
PearDeck allows me to
differentiate for her ideal
learning environment,
which requires some
teacher accountability and
immediate stimulus for
sustained attention.

Josue Josue just moved to the

United States from
Mexico and speaks
very little English. He
is still completing most
of his writing in
Spanish and translating
it to English using a
 translator device.
Vocabulary review
with an interactive
feature on his screen
allows me to
differentiate for his
readiness by gauging
his understanding and
getting him as focused
as possible on the
English words in front
of him.

Ryan Ryan is a talkative

student and is
immediately much
more interested when
he is allowed to use
his phone,
specifically, for
coursework.
PearDeck also
differentiates for his
interest, because he
will hopefully clue in
for a sustained
amount of time if he
has his phone in his
hand, but all other
distractions are
locked down because
of the software.

Procedures/Instructional Strategies

Beginning Room Arrangement: The students will enter the room and sit in their assigned seats.
They moved to new seats at the end of the first 9 weeks. This is the first class of the day, so some
students arrive early, sit where they’d like for the announcements, and then know to move (as per
routine) to their assigned seat once class begins.

1. Documentary (Finish)
Hey everyone, welcome back after the weekend! Go ahead and get settled in, we’ll jump right in
for the sake of time today. Can anyone remember, and then remind us, of what we started last
class? [Wait for a student to remind the class that we started our Technology Addict documentary
on Netflix last class.] That’s right, thank you for the reminder! Now that we’re all on the same
page, we’re going to jump right back into the documentary where we left off on Friday. Can
everyone please have a representative from your table get your graphic organizer sheets from the
middle table here. There are a few without names on them who need a home.

[Once students have their graphic organizers on their desks, we will quickly review the overall
premise of the documentary and the final question we answered in the previous class. This will
help us locate where we are in time and space before we keep going with the documentary. I will
pause the documentary after each question is answered and take a volunteer to give us what they
heard. We will keep the answers up on a whiteboard for all students at all language levels to follow
along and get vital information.]

2. Vocabulary Review: Pear Deck

Great, now that we’ve finished the documentary, I’m going to ask all of you to take out your
laptop or phone (preferably your laptop) and go to this web address on the board: joinpd.com
Once you get there, follow the directions on the screen and enter this code. There will be a
question for you to answer while you wait. (Differentiation for all three students: Readiness,
Learning Environment, and Interest)

[Once every student is connected, I will ask students to follow along with me and choose the
correct definition for the vocabulary words that we’ve been practicing and learning with the
documentary. Before we begin, I will also give students a warning about keeping all answers
appropriate while using the shared screen feature of PearDeck. While students are answering
each question, we will pause and have one student explain why the correct answer is correct and
give another example of how the word could be used/where it was used in the documentary. This
live formative assessment feature will allow me to see where very student in the class if with
comfort and understanding of the vocabulary at once. This will inform how much review we will
need to do before the summative writing assessment where students will need to use and
understand certain vocabulary words for evidence in their arguments.]

3. Fact vs. Opinion Mini-Lesson

Great work with the vocabulary, everyone! For the most part, our class really remembered some
of the tougher words after only two classes of knowing and reviewing them. Now, we’re going to
move on to a second activity while we’re on PearDeck with the presentation. For the second half
of class, you all, as promised, are going to read in small groups about a cell phone ban in public
schools in France. However, as we read you are going to go through the document—using two
different color highlighters—distinguish the facts from the opinions. You will need to build up a
bank of facts to use in your essay that you’ll write next class. So first, let’s practice
distinguishing a fact from an opinion. When the two phrases come up on the board, read the
directions and drag your red dot to the correct statement that fits into the category of the
question. Are we ready? [Wait for a verbal or physical affirmative response—thumbs up, etc.]

[As we discuss the answers to each question, I will guide students toward understanding that a
fact is something you can prove, while an opinion is something that we could debate. The
examples are directly from their reading, so they will recognize the context that they’ve already
gained some background knowledge on. Their progression of choosing the correct answer as we
practice will inform how closely my collaborative teachers and I scaffold the students’ reading
process when they will distinguish between fact and opinion on their own.]

4. Small Group Reading: Differentiated Articles

Now that you’ve practiced some as a class, please see the names on this slide and note who you
are with for your independent reading groups. Your teacher in your group will have further
instructions, but please bring two highlighters to your table top to highlight important facts and
opinions as you read. Remember, we will be using this information in our writing at the
beginning of next class! Go ahead and move, and we’ll take questions in our small groups.

[The reading time will spill over into the following class purposefully, because students often
focus better in this class if they are continuing a task they’ve started instead of starting a brand
new task at the beginning of the block. The ELL students at the same level are all in the same
group with the ELL collaborative teacher, and their reading is differentiated with an article from
Newsela at a lower Lexile level than the other two groups.]

Materials Needed (list):

 Documentary Graphic Organizer
 Laptop & projector
 PearDeck edited PowerPoint (Google Slides)
Appendix A: PowerPoint with PearDeck prompts (see attached Pdf)
Appendix B: “Tech Addict” Graphic Organizer (with vocabulary)
Appendix C: Tech Addict Supplementary Reading (both reading levels)