Lesson Plan # 1 Understanding the Voices of Northerners; Creating a Timeline; Identifying Metaphors
Each lesson that follows has specific language strategies underlined that would help promote understanding the English language learners.
I would begin the lesson by asking the following questions:
How did the Northerners feel about slavery?
What words tell the reader how the people from the North felt about slavery?
Why did they feel this way?
What were some obstacles that Lincoln overcame?
How do you feel about slavery?
Why?
Who is the "Captain" in this poem?
Why do you think the poet uses the word, "Captain?"
Content Objective
: Students will develop an understanding of the attitudes of northerners toward slavery; learn important events in Lincoln's life and his view about slavery and the changing rights of African Americans. They will develop an understanding of the metaphors in the poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" such a "father," "ship" and "Captain".
Language Objective
: Students will learn how to make a timeline to sequence events chronological events, recognize a metaphor
Key Vocabulary
: voice, metaphor, keel, deck, mournful, tread, rack, dead, wreath, bouquets, swaying, mass, bugle, trills
Materials
: Timeline outlines, chart paper, colored index cards, markers, copies of Whitman's poem "O Captain! My Captain!," pictures of Lincoln, diagram of a boat with labels for parts of the boat including deck, anchor, and keel.
Part 1. Making a Timeline of Lincoln's Life
Modeling/Building Background
: Concepts will be linked to past experiences and past learning by asking students to name famous people that they know about from their own country and in the United States.
Students will look at pictures of Lincoln. In order to build background information, students will read a biography of Lincoln's life using the picture book,
Honest Abe
. Students will discuss how the North and the South felt regarding the issue of slavery. I would also show them an example of timeline depicting the major experiences of George Washington's life.
Lesson Delivery
: The teacher will use slowed and simplified speech to adjust to students' English language proficiency level. The teacher will model strategies and explain new concepts. The teacher will provide students with opportunities to use the strategies.
Students will list important events in Lincoln's Life. Working as a class activity, students will make a timeline together of the events in Lincoln's life. The teacher will use students' input to make a large timeline on chart paper for all students to see. The teacher will use various questioning techniques to illicit understanding and provide students the opportunity to use higher order thinking skills. Examples of questions: Where did Lincoln live? How did Lincoln show his view on slavery? Why do you think the Southerners disagreed with him? How did Lincoln die? Why do you think someone would want to kill him?
Interaction
Partner Work:
Using a timeline outline, students will extend this understanding by working together to make a timeline of the school year.
Individual Practice
: Using information from their excerpt on Lincoln, students will make a timeline of Abraham Lincoln's life. Students will use this timeline as a prewriting organizer to write a short summary called, "Abraham Lincoln's Life."
Review/Assessment
: The students will respond to questions about the correct form of writing a timeline such as putting the events on one side of the timeline and the dates on the other. Students review what a correct model of a timeline. Finally, using this same timeline outline that students used earlier in the lesson, the teacher will ask students to develop a timeline of their own writing about events in their own life and assess their work. In a future lesson students will use this timeline as a prewriting organizer to write a short autobiographical essay of their own life. In this way students will have an opportunity to make a personal connection.
Part 2. Identifying Metaphors
Modeling:
Prior to teaching this section, I will clarify the purpose of learning. Students must learn about the author's crafts including the use of metaphors. Students will then listen to the definition of a metaphor, (a comparison made indirectly; one thing is discussed in terms of another thing) and examples of a metaphor such as: to see red, birds of a feather flock together, she is a chip off the old block, they are snowed under at work, the plan has the green light, as the teacher reads them off index cards. I will then ask students to determine the meaning of the metaphor. Students should be encouraged to give explanations, use gestures, as well as use synonyms (voyage/trip, answer/reply; grim/horrible/awful; pale/colorless) and antonyms (lie/stand, cold/hot, win/lose, dead/alive) for the vocabulary items in the poem.
Key Vocabulary
: beneath, bugle, chip, crowd, dead, flock fearful, lie, object, pale, rack, ship, shore, steady, trills, vessel, victor, voyage
Materials:
index cards, markers, chart paper
Guided Practice
: First, the teacher will tell the class that they will read a poem about a captain on a ship. The teacher will use a diagram to show various parts of a ship including, ship, vessel, deck, keel, mast, and anchor. The teacher will introduce key vocabulary in the poem, rack, exulting, bouquets, ribbons, dead, etc. I would use pictures to depict vocabulary such as beneath, flock, shore and dead. I would allow students to listen to a bugle trill on a regarding to enhance understanding.
Then students will read Whitman's poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" and then again with the students. Next, the teacher will read examples of metaphors on index cards. Then, the teacher will flip the card over to share the meaning of the metaphor with the students so they can determine if they had the correct answer. I would play a guessing game using these cards to review the vocabulary. Holding up a picture of the bugle, I would ask questions like: "What is this? What sound does it make?"
Interaction:
Small Group Work: The teacher will pass out three index cards to a group of three students and ask them to work in a group to make three metaphors and write the meaning of each metaphor on the back of the card. Students would explain their metaphors to other members of their group.
Whole Group Work
: Students will show their pictures of the metaphors that they illustrated and ask members of other groups to try to guess their meanings; then they will share their responses with the rest of the class.
Individual Practice:
Students will then work to identify metaphors in the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" Students will share their responses and the teacher will listen to responses and share the correct metaphors in the poem. Sample questions: How do you know that Whitman respected Lincoln? What metaphors does Whitman use in this poem? (The Captain is the Lincoln. The ship is the country.) What do the metaphors mean?
Review/Assessment:
Each student will work to write two metaphors and illustrate them. Students will then share these metaphors with each other. Students will then write a list of obstacles that Lincoln overcame in his life. They will make a personal connection by writing about a personal obstacle that they themselves or a family member have overcome. They will discuss the obstacles in Lincoln's life that they have written as well as an obstacle from their own lives. Then they will share these with classmates.
Lesson Plan # 2 The Voices of African American : Langston Hughes and Jackie Robinson; Writing a Friendly Letter
Content Objective:
Students will learn to identify voice of African Americans and their struggles for equal rights. Students will read a selection of poems from Langston Hughes, including "I, Too, Sing America," "Dreams Deferred," and excerpts from "Let America Be America Again." They will also read a short biography of Jackie Robinson.
Language Objective
: Students will be able to identify parts of a friendly letter (greeting, body, closing, signature) and be able to write a friendly letter using the correct letter format.
Key Vocabulary
: Civil Rights, dreams, deferred, segregation, and prejudice
Materials:
Copies of the poems Langston Hughes and excerpts from the Jackie Robinson story, copies of blank T-Chart forms, copies of friendly letter blank form, chart paper, pictures of Langston Hughes and Jackie Robinson.
I would provide the following scaffolds for beginning language proficiency students: I would provide a matching activity, where students would match the new vocabulary item with the meaning, while other students would copy or write the definitions themselves, depending on their language proficiency.
For less proficient students, I would offer sentence starters to help writing the letter. For example, Things have really changed these days such as:___, I want to tell you some things about playing professional baseball today__. You won't believe the many changes in baseball today. Some of them are___.
Part I.
Lesson Delivery
The teacher will keep in mind appropriate pacing of the lesson, making sure that students transition smoothly from one activity to another. The teacher will also include adequate wait time after asking questions to allow for students to process the answer and process the language to produce the correct answer.
Modeling:
The teacher will show pictures of Langston Hughes and Jackie Robinson. The teacher will discuss about African Americans and their contributions to the United States. The teacher will then write the key vocabulary and definitions on the blackboard and read them. The teacher will show visuals of the vocabulary to ensure student comprehension and check for understanding. The teacher will then read the poems aloud and excerpts from the selection on the biography of Jackie Robinson.
Guided Practice
: The teacher and students will read three Hughes poems orally, "Dreams," The teacher will review and emphasis key vocabulary by playing a" jeopardy" game giving students the definition of the word and asking them to provide the vocabulary word for the definition. They will discuss what words speak of injustice in the poems. The teacher will play a game giving the definition of the word and ask the students to give the word. The teacher will ask questions regarding the meaning of the poems. Students will discuss the injustices and hopes that Hughes is referring to in his poems by answering guided questions from the teacher.
Students will then look at pictures of Jackie Robinson and discuss his struggle against racial prejudice. Then students will read excerpts from his biography and discuss some of the obstacles of racial prejudice that he had to overcome as he pursued a career as a professional base ball player in the Jackie Robinson Story. The teacher will ask students to volunteer to discuss if they have ever felt that they personally experienced prejudice in their own lives.
The teacher will also share personal examples with the students. Then the teacher will ask students to think about how today's society is different than in the time of Jackie Robinson.
Interaction
Small Group Activity: Students will work in small groups to make a list using a T-Chart of improvements in African Americans' Way of Life, and things that still need to improve.
Whole Group Activity
: The class will share their answers with the rest of the class. The teacher will then add student responses to a large T-Chart at the front of the room that will include the contributions the students have made.
Work With A Partner
: Students will then look at an example of a friendly letter with its parts labeled, such as the return address, salutation, body, closing, and signature. Students will read another letter and work with a partner to label its parts. In this guided practice activity, students will then share their responses with the class.
Individual Practice
: Students will then have an option to write a letter to Jackie Robinson or Langston Hughes telling them how life in America has improved from their time or they can imagine themselves as either Langston Hughes or Jackie Robinson and write a letter sharing their experiences of inequality and overcoming obstacles in their lifetimes. Students will then be asked to label parts of their letter.
Review Lesson Objectives:
The teacher will review key vocabulary and concepts including how to use proper letter writing format in their letter and parts of a letter. The teacher will ask students to label each part of their letter after they have finished writing it. Students will have an opportunity to share their letters with each other through an oral presentation.
Assessment:
The teacher will use informal assessment and offer regular feedback throughout the lesson to determine individual student understanding. The teacher will also offer individual feedback to students through individual conferencing to assess their understanding of the key concepts and vocabulary as well as their letter writing skills, and knowledge of parts of a letter at the end of the lesson. At this time the teacher will also ask students to use key vocabulary in oral sentences to assess their understanding.
Lesson Plan #3 (Two to Three Days) The Voices of Native Americans and Latino Americans; Comparing and Contrasting Information
Content Objective
: Students will learn to identify the voices of Latino Americans and their struggles. They will learn about voice of Native Americans, their struggles and appreciation for nature. They will develop an understanding of their values and importance of family. Students will learn to compare and contrast information.
Language Objective
: Students will learn to write a paragraph of comparison and contrast. Students will learn to use a Comparison Matrix as a prewriting organizer and to clarify their understanding of similarities and differences in these two groups of people. Students will learn key vocabulary.
Key Vocabulary
: Latino words: farms, migrant, farm workers, migrant workers, picking, Native American Vocabulary: tribes, totem poles, housing, human rights
Materials
: Provide students with copies of the and excerpt from the Cesar Chavez Story, copies of the excerpt from Chief Joseph's speech, "I Will Fight No More," pictures of Cesar Chavez and Chief Joseph, comparison matrix, and fact sheet form. Students will discuss migrant farming, while looking at pictures of farm workers. Include pictures of farm workers and Native Americans, a map depicting where various groups of Native Americans lived, a graphic organizer (comparison matrix), Native American realia including a doll dressed in Native American clothing and other items, and an overhead projector.
Part I. Native Americans
Activate Prior Knowledge
: The teacher will ask students what they know about Native Americans. The teacher will connect to students' prior knowledge and lower the affective filter by asking them about Mayan, Aztec and Incan Indian tribes that they might have prior knowledge about. The teacher will encourage students to share their prior knowledge. Then the teacher will use this prior knowledge to connect to Native American groups that live in the United States.
Modeling
: The teacher will show pictures of Native Americans and explain that there are many groups of Native Americans called tribes. The teacher will show a map that illustrates where various Native American tribes lived in the United States. The teacher will show pictures of totem poles that the Native Americans in the Northwest made.
Students will listen to the teacher read a story of Native Americans depicting their way of life including their forced exile to reservations, their struggle with White Americans, and their life on reservations today. They will look at pictures of Native Americans including Chief Joseph. The teacher will provide samples of Native American realia, including a pair of moccasins, a headdress, a doll dressed in Native American clothing. The teacher will show pictures of various Native American objects such as a totem pole and homes including the longhouse, teepee, and wigwam. Using chart paper, I will write each new vocabulary word and its definition.
Key Vocabulary
: exile, reservation, long house, totem pole
Materials
: paper towel rolls, scissors, glue, chart paper, markers, construction paper
Interaction
Whole Group
: Students will discuss how Native Americans lived including their clothing and homes. They will look at pictures of totem poles and discuss their meaning.
Partner Work
: Students will then work with a partner make totem poles out of construction paper, glue, and paper towel rolls. Then they will share their art work with the entire class. Students will leave their totem poles on display in the classroom.
Students will then read an excerpts from Chief Joseph's speech "I Will Fight No More" from McIntire's Book of Great American Speeches for Young People (104-105) and about reservation life in Relin's "Walking the White Road" in
American Roots,
(86-88). Students will discuss reasons whether or not they think Chief Joseph's decision to stop fighting was a good one or not.
Small Group
: Students will work in a small group and make a list of reasons why they should continue to fight and why they should stop fighting
Whole Group
: Students will share their reasons and own opinions with their classmates.
Review/Assessment
: Students will review what they have learned about Native Americans by responding to oral questions that the teacher asks. Students will then complete a fact sheet of information that they know about Native Americans. Finally, students will illustrate a fact from their fact sheet.
Part 2-- Latino Americans
Key Vocabulary
: migrants, farmers, migrant workers, union, strike, hunger,
Modeling:
Students will read a short story of migrant workers and the struggle of Cesar Chavez. (This story will detail aspects of the life of Chavez including: born in Yuma Arizona in 1927, died in 1993, raised in migrant worker camps, organized farm workers into the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), committed to non-violence, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. The teacher will paraphrase the story using simple syntax. The teacher will emphasize illustrations from the story and read the picture captions to ensure understanding. Students will then discuss elements of the story together.
Interaction:
Small Group:
Using a chart, students will complete the list of characteristics of the life of a farm worker working on the left and on the right will write the reason they chose this characteristic. They will work together on this task in a small group. (e.g. Characteristics: low pay, hard work, poor living conditions, difficult working conditions Reasons: because migrant workers had to work all day in the hot sun, migrant workers had to move from place to place to find new work.)
Whole Group
: Each small group will share their work on the characteristics and reasons of Migrant workers with the whole class.
Review
(Native Americans): Using students' prior knowledge about Native Americans, the teacher will read facts about tribes of the Plains and the Northwest. Then the teacher will give a copy of a model paragraph of comparison and contrast about Plains and Nez Perce Indians, read it together, and discuss it with the students.
Partner Work
: Working with a partner, students will identify categories of similarities and differences of these two groups of Native Americans such as clothing, housing, food, and struggles, and geographic locations.
Then students will complete a Comparison Matrix together with their partner. The side categories will also include such topics as: importance of family, respect for Nature, difficulties, language and famous people .Then students will reread a paragraph of comparison and contrast about Plains and Nez Perce Indians. They will identify categories of similarities and differences of these two groups of Native Americans such as clothing, housing, food, and struggles, and geographic locations.
Review
: Native Americans and Latino Americans
Students will then work with a partner to complete use a Comparison Matrix with Native Americans and Latino Americans at the top. The side categories will include such topics as: importance of family, respect for Nature, housing type, source of food, difficulties, language.
Whole Group
: Students will share the responses they wrote on their graphic organizer, the comparison matrix, as the teacher writes the answers on at the same form using the overhead projector to write student responses. In this way the teacher will model the correct spelling and syntax for students to correct their responses on their own forms.
Practice/Application
: Pairs of students will share their completed matrix with another pair of students. Each student pair will revise his matrix as necessary.
Assessment
: The teacher will explain that a paragraph that tells how two things are alike is called a paragraph of comparison while a paragraph that explains how two things are different is called a paragraph of contrast. The teacher will model an example of each paragraph by reading examples of each kind of paragraph. Each student will use his completed Comparison Matrix as a pre-writing organizer to write two paragraphs of comparison and contrast of Native Americans and Latino Americans.