Revised+Lesson+Plan

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The blue text indicates the parts of the "Engage Learner's Interests" portion of the unit that I taught on 5/10/11. The red text indicates revisions I made to this part of the unit after reflection. =====

// Brief Description of Lesson: //
Before the lesson, students will participate in a fast-paced review of the details of each civil rights event by completing a cloze activity with a partner. students will share out their responses, which will be added to a class anchor chart for each of the three events.

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 Students will read and listen to media texts from a variety of perspectives on Civil Rights activism and actions they have already studied, including the Freedom Rides, the lunch counter sit-ins and the integration of Central High School by the Little Rock 9. They will analyze the texts through the lens of the learning targets below, and then apply their understanding of the concept of author's purpose, point of view and target audience through a writing piece about the Civil Rights Movement. =====

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 I can use details to describe the Freedom Rides, lunch counter sit-ins and integration of Central High School by the Little Rock 9. ===== I would change this first target to: I can classify media texts, including photographs, newspaper articles, song lyrics and fliers according to the Civil Rights action they describe.

// Engage Learners’ Interests: //
Because I'm also trying to apply recent learning about differentiated instruction, I used a pre-assessment of student learning preferences in the morning, before the lesson. This consisted of a question slip that asked students to circle which statement fit them the most accurately: a.) I prefer to learn by reading information. b.) I prefer to learn by listening to music. c.) I prefer to learn by looking at images.

This helped me divide my crew into small groups of four, based on their learning preference. This, I hoped, would increase their engagement, and also provide flexible grouping (so they weren't with the same students as usual).

Students will be provided with a task card indicating one of the following introduction activities:
I created color-coded and numbered task cards that corresponded to each of the three activities below. The color corresponded to the type of task, and the number indicated to which table the student was assigned. I passed out the cards onto students' desks before they returned from Cultural Arts, so they would know into which group they needed to move once the desks were turned into quads. I also numbered each desk, so students would know how to group their desks before they moved. **Students viewed some of these images.** I noticed that students seemed pretty engaged with this task. It allowed them to use their expertise to classify the photos. I saw all students participating. I would keep this activity the same in a future lesson, but I might give clearer instructions regarding how many captions I would like each student to write. I might also provide fewer photos to each group (there were three groups doing this task), and make sure that each group receives a different set of photos, so there aren't so many duplicates. Although... I though it was interesting to see how different kids created different captions for the same photo. **Students read these lyrics.** If I taught this again, I would learn how to transfer the songs that I bought (through itunes) onto enough laptops so that each child could listen to the songs privately before discussing them with their group mates. In revising this lesson, I would also spend more time looking for recordings of Civil Rights songs that included action-specific lyrics. The versions available on itunes were the unaltered versions, for the most part, and did not include lyrics about greyhound buses, for example. I also think my question was a little hokey. The song entitled, "I'm Going to Sit at the Welcome Table" too-obviously corresponded to the sit-ins. The other song, "Ain't Nobody Going to Turn Me Around" corresponded to all of the nonviolent actions that we investigated in our case studies. I would like to re-do this by setting a slightly different task. Students would highlight words/phrases that help them determine the author;'s message, but they would then write their own action-specific verse or verses, based on their background knowledge about the case studies topics (Little Rock Nine; lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Riders).
 * 1) View the images in your envelope. Classify them into groups according to the following three headings: Freedom Rides; Lunch Counter Sit-Ins; Little Rock 9. Work with your group members to write a possible heading for each image. Be prepared to share out why the heading makes sense, based on your background information about the Civil Rights Movement.
 * 1) Read the song lyrics in your envelope as you listen to each song on the computer, and classify each song according to whether it directly relates to the sit-in movement or the Freedom Rides. Highlight any words or phrases that helped you determine which in which category to place the song. Write a title for each song. Be prepared to share out why the title makes sense, based on your background information about the Civil Rights Movement.
 * 1) Read the documents in your envelope. Classify each document according to the following three headings: Freedom Rides; Lunch Counter Sit-Ins; Little Rock 9. highlight any words or phrases that helped you determine in which category to place the document. Place a yellow post-it on documents that seem to favor integration, and place a blue post-it on documents that seem to favor segregation. Be prepared to share out why you coded each document in those two categories, based on your background information about the Civil Rights Movement.

I thought this task was one of the more authentic ones, since the students dealt with primary sources that gave some new perspectives and context to the case study topics. Students had trouble determining the author's purpose (as it related to segregation) as it related to segregation) in the newspaper articles. It was very easy for them to determine the author's purpose and intended audience for the white supremacist's flier. I did not have students color-code the texts according to whether the author probably favored segregation or not, because it seemed really easy (especially given my limited number of resources to begin with).

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 With a common understanding of the historical details of each event (based on the pre-lesson activity), students will listen to each expert group share the work they did with their images, song lyrics and documents. We didn't have time to go beyond this step. Students did a pretty good job of sharing out about their texts. (If time, students can sing the songs when they share out). Students will then move into pre-assigned groups of four (differentiated by readiness for the task) to complete the tasks outlined below. Students will choose a task manager, timekeeper, recorder and reporter before beginning their task. Students who need more support will have a teacher available to do a shared reading of some of the more challenging texts, and to ask guiding questions. Students who need some support will have sentence-starters on their graphic organizers. Students who need enrichment will work without the shared reading, guiding questions or sentence-starters.=====

__Lesson 1__

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Read and view the following media texts (newspaper articles, letters to the editor, fliers, photographs and video clips about the Freedom Rides, lunch counter sit-ins or Little Rock 9). On your graphic organizer, ask a group recorder to fill in the following information for each text:=====
 * 1) Who do you think is the author, or group of authors, of this text? (Sentence starter- The author or authors who wrote this text is probably...) How do you know?
 * 2) Why did this author, or group of authors, create this media text? (Sentence starter- The author or authors of this text created it in order to...) How do you know?
 * 3) Who is included in the target audience of this media text? (Sentence starter- The people are meant to see, read or hear this media text are...) How do you know?

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Each group will have time to have a reporter share their analysis of the media messages with the whole class. If time is limited, each group will only share their analysis of one of the media texts they looked at.=====

__Lesson 2__ Students will choose one of the friendly letters they have already written (in preparation for their expedition final product) from the point of view of an activist (they wrote as a Freedom Rider, a student participant in the lunch counter sit-ins, and as a member of the Little Rock 9). They will analyze their letter using the same three questions that they used in the previous activity. They will then work with a student's sample letter on the overhead to discuss as a class how the letter's purpose and tone might change if they were writing to one of the following audiences: President Kennedy (if the sample letter is from a Freedom Rider), the president of Woolworth's (if the sample letter is from a student who was participating in a sit-in) or the PTO of Central High School (if the sample letter is from one of the Little Rock 9). Students will work as a class to co-construct a rubric for this type of letter. The teacher will then guide the class through the process of revising such a letter to change it's purpose and tone to suit the new audience. Students will first be asked to brainstorm what the audience's perspective on integration might be, and how the issue should therefore be addressed. They should anticipate the audience's potential arguments against integration in order to develop compelling content for the letter. Students will review the conventions of a business letter, as well.

__Lesson 3__ Review the process of revising a letter (based on the previous lesson's work). Students will begin to work with a partner to analyze the letter they wish to revise, using the same three-question graphic organizer (answering each of the three questions in advance this time). They will draw upon their notes about business letters to help them with the process. They will then work independently to complete a rough draft, due at the end of this session.

__Lesson 4__ Students will use the rubric to critique a partner's rough draft (fishbowl this process, if necessary/time allows). Students will then return the letters to their authors, read the peer-reviewer's comments on the rubric, and begin to self-assess (also using the rubric). They will then complete a final draft to turn in for assessment. Following the teacher's assessment, students will edit the letter a final time and publish it using Microsoft Word. Each author will choose a relevant image from the Civil Rights Movement to pair with their published letter for display on a Wiki page as well as on a documentation panel. Students will then participate in a gallery walk to read each others' final products.

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In addition to informal verbal assessment based on observations, the teacher will assess students' understanding of the learning target through analysis of their graphic organizers (from lessons 1 and 3) as well as their business letters (using the rubric). =====