Lesson Plan for Day 6

Goals/Objectives:
Studentswillbeabletodefineperspectiveandusecontextcluestoanalyzeperspective
withinfictionandnonfictiontexts.Studentswillbeabletodiscussthedifficultiesand
benefitsofchangingperspectivesandstudyingmultipleperspectivesaboutanissue.

Standards:
CommonCore:
Themainstandardwewilladdressthroughthislessonis:
CCSS.ELALITERACY.RL.6.6:Explainhowanauthordevelopsthepointofviewofthe
narratororspeakerinatext.
Wewillusepriorknowledgeofthefollowing:
CCSS.ELALITERACY.RL.6.4
Determinethemeaningofwordsandphrasesastheyareusedinatext,including
figurativeandconnotativemeanings;analyzetheimpactofaspecificwordchoiceon
meaningandtone
CCSS.ELALITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyzehowaparticularsentence,chapter,scene,orstanzafitsintotheoverallstructure
ofatextandcontributestothedevelopmentofthetheme,setting,orplot.
NCSS:
Personalidentityisshapedbyanindividualsculture,bygroups,byinstitutional
influences,andbylivedexperiencessharedwithpeopleinsideandoutsidethe
individualsownculturethroughoutherorhisdevelopment.
Materials and Preparation:
o

Whiteboard

Smart board

o StudentcopiesofHarlemRenaissancePacket

o ChartPaperforSocialNarrativeideas
o CopiesofthebrainstormingsheetforTwoVoicepoem
o CopiesoftheassignmentdescriptionforTwoVoicepoem
o StudentjournalsforDoNow
o PPTslideforDoNowandprojectingpoems
o ExtraPencilswitherasers

Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues

I will be teaching this lesson to two different classes 313 and 308. Both of these groups
have a history of side talking and distracting each other during instruction or modeling. A
few days in advance of my two-week takeover, I will be reinforcing classroom norms and
building a classroom contract with the students in each class. Therefore, each morning
before announcements, I will remind students of the classroom norms. Before this lesson,
specifically, I will mention that reading poetry is like watching a movie. You cant fully
experience it if others around you are talking. The way we analyze a poem is also not
going to work if you do not raise your hands. Its important that we collect everybodys
thoughts and ideas and reflect on it the only way to do this is to take turns.

The desks should be arranged in a U shape for this, because I want students to be able to
actively discuss the poems while keeping up with the Smartboard and my guidance. The
room is not big enough for one large U shape formation, so we will do two layers of Us.
If necessary, we can call this the Poetry Half-Circle. My students seem to like when there
are nicknames / labels for strategies.

Plan 120 minutes

1) The Hook: Poetry Do-Now - (20 minutes)

a. (10 minutes) The do-now will be written up on the Smartboard. Students
have 10 minutes to read and analyze the POV, authors purpose, and

literary elements used in an excerpt from a Langston Hughes poem

Theme for English B and write a response in their journals:

Go home and write

a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you
Then, it will be true.

Who is speaking? How do you know who is speaking? What are some
poetic and literary elements used here? What is the POV? What else can
you infer about the perspective?

b. (10 minutes) Volunteers will share their response and we will discuss
thoughts. Many students will probably guess that this is from the
perspective of a teacher and we will mark up and discuss the narrative
indicators, such as the demand go home and write and the tone that is
set from this second-person POV.

2) Body of the Lesson Langston Hughes poetry and others

a. (20 minutes) We will read and discuss the poem Theme for English B. I
will reveal the full poem to students on the Smartbaord and students will
receive the Harlem Renaissance packets to follow along. We will read the
poem in two voices, this time with one voice as a narrator and another
voice reading only the teacher dialogue excerpt (the 4 lines from the donow). How does your review of the POV change now? What do you now
think is the authors perspective? What is the authors purpose? What are
some literary elements that help develop the authors POV and purpose?
b. (20 minutes) Read through Langston Hughes biography as a class and
answer text structure questions about each paragraph, following my
highlighted lines and bolded words in the packet (i.e. main idea,
supporting details, cause and effect sentences, description sentences, etc).
c. (5 minutes) After knowing about his biography and life, how do you think
it connects to his writing? This should transition the elements from last

week (narration, perspective) to this weeks lesson (social culture, i.e.

Harlem Renaissance).

BREAK FOR ELECTIVE

d. (15 minutes) I will put on some light jazz music, as a supplement to the
HR educational experience. Students break into cooperative pairs to read
one poem from Claude McKay or Gwendolyn Brooks. Identify and
analyze POV and purpose. What do you see that is similar to Langston
Hughes poem? What is different from it? During this time, I will walk
around the groups and assist as needed.
e. (15 minutes) Come back as a class and students share out their findings.
We will discuss and summarize, potentially make a list on the board. I will
steer the conversation to end with a comment about how both poems are
speaking about the Harlem Renaissance, sharing the lives of African
Americans during that time who struggled but also thrived as they moved
to urban areas from the South. They were shaping and restating a strong
identity through the arts and poems.
f. (10 minutes) What would happen if we took one line from Langston
Hughes and one line from Gwen Brooks? I will model this process of
creating a two-voice poem with existing works, for example:

Its not easy to know what is true for you or me (1)

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan (2)

I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you

Grayed in, and gray. (2)

We will discuss how there are clearly two different voices here, saying
different things, but about the same topic living in Harlem. I will refer
back to the two-voice poems we read aloud from the day before, which
provide better models and examples of having two different voices /
perspectives speak for one idea or setting.

g. (10 minutes) What social narratives do we have today? Turn and talk
with your partner for 5 minutes and then share with the class. We will
make a list, together, of a few. Some examples could be:

urban environment

Philadelphia

Western culture

social media / technology age

testing centric education

race-specific

religion-specific

language-specific

bullying

familial issues

friendship issues

peer pressure

1) Debrief / Closure Writers Workshop (15 minutes)

a. I will introduce the summative assessment by providing a short
assignment description (rubric for grading will be shared at the end of the
next day). Students will begin discussing with their partner which social
narrative they want to write about. It does not have to be one that we listed
on the board. It can be any current event or issue happening globally.
Students must fill out a sheet that asks for Names, Issue or Topic, Social
Narrative, Voice #1, Voice #2. Students will have time finish this
brainstorming sheet tomorrow, but it will be due tomorrow during writers
workshop.

Assessmentofthegoals/objectiveslistedabove
Ourclassdiscussionsofthepoemswillserveasamajorinformalassessmentto
helpmegaugestudentunderstandingofnewconcepts.Cooperativepairworkwillallow
metowalkaroundandlistentostudentconversationandcheckforunderstandingabout
readingpoetryforperspectiveandcontextclues.Thediscussionandour
list/brainstormingaboutsocialnarrativeswillbeusefulinhelpingmedetermine
whetherstudentshavegraspedthemainsocialstudiesconceptsoftheunit,butthe
HarlemRenaissancepacketswillbeamorelessonspecificassessment.Iplantocollect
theseeverydayunlessIplanoncreatingaquizorhomeworkthatutilizesthispacket.

AnticipationStudentsResponses:

There is a chance that students might feel we are moving too fast in this lesson. If
students seem to be grasping the material, we will continue forward. If not, then I can
extend the lesson until the next day. I can also eliminate the section about creating a twovoice poem with Hughes and Brooks. If students indicate that the concepts are confusing
and need more scaffolding, I will model more poems after the Langston Hughes one
instead of moving into cooperative pair work.

There could be students who dislike poetry, and to allay this, I will premise by reminding
students that poetry is not easy for everyone. You may like prose more than poetry, and
thats okay, but its good to know every type of literature. Who knows, you may end up
liking poetry by the end of today!

Accommodations:
Both 313 and 308 have students who are English Language Learners and students with
behavioral and intellectual IEPs. To differentiate, I will provide the ELLs with a shorter
version of the packet abridged biographies and histories and with more illustrations. For
the IEP students, if anyone is struggling, I will consult with my classroom mentor and
adjust the assignment for them. For general differentiation, Ive chosen to record
everything up on the Smartboard, to add a visual element and model. I will also use
music at some point for those who have a hard time concentrating for long periods of

time. The break in the middle, to go to Elective, will be a good opportunity for students to
pause and come back to the lesson, later.