Title

Social Action: Policy Change

Dates
May 20, 2014
Author
Feyla McNamara

Learning Target(s) Assessment(s)
-I can provide evidence to support my
understanding of text
-I can infer meaning from text
Formative: students will provide written
documentation and citation from activities listed,
demonstrating their ability to use evidence from
text to support their understanding and inferences.

Introduction: Building engagement and purpose
How will this lesson or series of lessons help students make progress
towards the learning target(s)?
What will cause students to be curious and want to learn?
How will I provide students with a vision of the learning target(s) in
a way that gives them ownership of their learning?

Instructional Plans

Duration

Differentiation
What support and/or extension do you
anticipate students will need?
How will you adjust the process of and
resources used for learning to fit each
students readiness, interest, or learning
profile?

Go over learning targets (define necessary terms, like
infer/inference)

Define the word policy by providing specific examples
(ex. cellphone policy)

Show the images of high school dress codes on the
projector (see attached and resource links)

Ask students to write what they think each policy is
saying and how they came to that conclusion by
providing specific evidence- then turn and share with a
partner. (Alert students that this will be collected)

Look at the policies with the whole class- ask students to
volunteer to share out what they think the policies are
saying and how they came to that conclusion

10 min -Visual and textual examples, plus
writing, and oral participation
allows for multiple access points
for different learning styles to
achieve understanding

-Students who process orally may
turn to speak with a partner if
they are struggling to write
something down, after speaking
with a partner they can write
down what they said

If students do not make the notice first, observe how you
can infer (define infer) what the policies are suggesting,
without explicitly saying these things- example: Slacks
and shorts are not acceptable as regular school wear.
Meaning pants are not appropriate or professional
clothing for girls.





Scaffolding plans for the body of the instruction
What sequenced steps will the students and I take to ensure that all
students meet the learning target(s)?
How will students know what quality looks like, and how will I support
them in producing quality work?
How will students work or practice together during learning?

Instructional Plans Duration
Connect: How is it that (mostly) women wearing pants
is considered both professional and acceptable now?
Students, teachers, administrators all protested! And
through this policies changed.

Modern day example:
Students read separately or with a partner an excerpt
from article on legging ban in Illinois. Ask the
questions: In the first two paragraphs of the article, the
journalist uses the phrase too distracting and quotes
a protest sign which says Are my pants lowering your
test scores? What do these phrases mean? Use
specific quotes from the article to explain your
understanding.

They can highlight these quotes rather than copy them
and number what they choose to use to correspond
with their responses (i.e. highlight the quote in the
article, put a (1) next to it, write (1) on your lined
paper, and explain how it relates to your
understanding.
Students turn in written work and highlighted article
15 min -Creating space for students to
make their own connections,
preparing methods to scaffold if
students are not yet in a place to
make that connection- Asking
questions first to assist students in
getting to that point of learning
and processing the information.

-Defining infer/inference again-
repetition of new words

-Providing written article for each
student and option to work
together or with a partner
-Providing highlighters for
students to use with the text

-Drawn example on the board to
further explain how I want them
to cite the quotes that they are
using- written and visual
explanations of the instructions.

-Definitions of more difficult
words inserted into the article to

make it accessible for multiple
vocabularies.

Synthesis
How will students synthesize their understanding?
How will I use this information to plan my next instructional steps?

Instructional Plans Duration Differentiation
Students will share out their responses to the
questions to the larger group, either with their
partners or as individuals- all students will turn in their
written work.
5 min -students who process orally and
aurally will benefit from this piece,
as students who process more
with writing will have benefited
from the writing activities in this
lesson

Resources & Links
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/25/3418482/middle-school-dress-code-protest/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dress-codes-and-etiquette-part-1-what-not-to-wear-to-
high-school-in-the-1960s-74464285/?no-ist