Name _Ashley Wyatt____________________________________ Lesson Date:11/1/2018______

School ___South Valley Junior High School____________ Grade/Subject:7Th/Social Studies

LESSON PLAN: Writing to Learn

Lesson Subject/Topic: Civil War Reconstruction

Planned Time: 60 Minutes

ACCRS Content Standard(s) ACCRS Writing Standard(s)

S3.C4.PO1.A Explain the obligations and (if applicable)
responsibilities of citizenship: a. upholding the None
Constitution
S1.C6.PO 6. Describe the basic provisions of the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments.

Lesson Objective Differentiation (if applicable)

Students will be able to reason the need for the None is needed at this time
th
14 amendment with two or more supporting
textual evidence from a first and secondary source.

Very specific!

Materials and Supplies:

Butcher paper
Pencils
Markers
Computer
Youtube.com Which one specifically? Provide the link and URL here….
Instructions

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PART B. LESSON SEQUENCE

Rather than write solid text like you have, it may be easier to read and follow if each
section is broken down into individual steps each starting with an action verb (see
directions.)

1. Welcome and Lesson Hook/Anticipatory Set/Link, Connection, Rationale, or

Background.
- Students will start by reviewing reconstruction of the United States that they had learned about on
Wednesday. Students will start by watching a video about the 14th amendment, section one, describing
what it takes for a person to become a citizen of the USA. The teacher and students will then have a
discussion about what is needed to be a citizen:
- Key Requirements of citizenship to discuss: Born here, 18 years or older and has lived here for 3-5 years
while also passing the naturalization process, or a parent of the person was born here.
OR:
1. Review reconstruction of the United States that students learned about on Wednesday.
2. Direct students to watch the video about the 14th amendment, section one, describing what it takes for a
person to become a citizen of the USA.
3. Encourage discussion about the information presented in the video by asking: (Plan for and add
questions)
4. Discuss what is needed to be a citizen: Key Requirements of citizenship: Born here, 18 years or older and
has lived here for 3-5 years while also passing the naturalization process, or a parent of the person was
born here.

5. Statement of Objective(s).
Students will be able to reason the need for the 14th amendment with two or more supporting textual
evidence from a first and secondary source with graphic representations.

6. Information/Input/Writer’s Workshop Mini Lesson.

Students need to use primary and secondary sources to research the fourteenth amendment. The primary
source is considered the main source, the original source. The secondary source is the supporting source
that provides further evidence of the claims. Students learned what an excerpt is- a piece of a whole
writing, and used them as evidence on their 14th amendment posters.

7. Student Engagement/Practice/Learning Activity(ties) and Clear Directions. \

Students are already seated in the groups that they are going to be working with for the remainder of the
classroom. Students are to find two excerpts, write an explanation for each that describes or explains them
in their own words, and then has a picture that represents their excerpt. After they have their evidence and
proof of critical thinking, they must then write on their poster why the 14th amendment is needed in
regards to being a citizen of the United States. The poster must be colorful and the information must be
organized. Chromebooks are not needed for this activity.

8. Lesson Closure/Summary of Learning/Parting Comments.

Since students have the entire hour to prepare their posters, they will be presenting the next day right
when class starts. Student posters were in groups of 4 or 5. After each presentation, students will receive
feedback on the format of their poster and comment or reiteration of the facts and how they described
them.
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PART C. POST LESSON REFLECTION

Q. What about the lesson and your teaching were you the most pleased?

I was pleased that my students understood what a primary and secondary source were
and that when I showed the video to them, when I asked them questions, they had
actually watched the video. Not only that, but I feel like the way I presented the facts
about the video helped students further their understanding. Super!

Q. What about the lesson and your teaching were you the least pleased?

The posters that the students made did not have a direct order on what to do. I love
your optimism that students might be able to direct themselves, but I find even college
students want direction! J I thought that they would have taken a little more
responsibility on directing each other on what needed to be done to finish in time, but
they did not and I was constantly having to walk around and put students back on task. I
feel like I did good on going through all the groups, but I feel like as soon as I left, they
didn’t care about the input I had given on the information or suggestions I gave about
the posters and slacked off until I came back. Yep. I can see this.

Q. What changes would you make or what you do differently if you did this lesson
another time?

For the groups, I would have assigned an order to the items that needed to be on the
poster. I would have also had students be assigned a job without an option to change
after the posters had started to be created. I think that it would be more prep time and
would be a lot of work for me, but because the students didn’t use their chromebooks,
they were out of their comfort zones and the lesson was rough in terms of attention
being kept on the project. This kind of honest reflection will help you be better next
time! That’s how we learn “good” teaching.

Q. Did the writing to learn component achieve its purpose (learning content)? If so,
how do you know? If not, why not? How might that be rectified next time?

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 The students definitely knew what their primary and secondary sources were. They had
a hard time saying on the poster what the excerpt was saying in their own words, but
eventually, with lots of collaboration, they came up with some sort of explanation. Even
if it was wrong, the students made an effort and understood the difference between an
excerpt and a summary. Time it takes students to think, learn, write, produce is always
a “crap shoot” – it is hard to predict this.

Q. What did you learn from this teaching experience? Explain.

I learned that students need to have a strong structure to lessons that are going to put them
out of their comfort zone, but I realized that they can do it. It is more about the
unwillingness of the student wanting to do something hard than it is about the student
realistically not being able to do it. I also learned that after a lesson is taught, and you think
it might be perfect, it can still throw you for a loop.

“Unwilingness of the student” = motivation level. Motivation is a major issue in junior and
senior high school grades. Teachers have to really work on being creative, innovative, and
real when motivating st8udents to learn.

I don’t understand how the student work matches this lesson……L

Student Work:

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