450 Lesson 2

Lesson Plan #2
Jaryn Guerra
Teacher: Goldberg
Date: 11/15/16
School: Thompson Valley High School
Grade Level: 11
Content Area: English
Title: Prison Writing
Lesson #: 1 of 1
Lesson Idea/Topic and
Rational/Relevance: What are you going to
teach and why is this lesson of importance to
your students? How is it relevant to students
of this age and background?
This lesson is focused around showing

students an example of how writing is used
outside of classroom essays. The hope is that
it will show them not only super successful
authors are writers, while also giving them a
chance to write in a low pressure, relaxing
setting.
Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the
standard)
3.1.a.v. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or
resolved over the course of the narrative. (CCSS: W.11-12.3e)
3.1.a.vi. Use a range of strategies to evaluate whether the writing is presented in a clear and
engaging manner
Understandings: (Big Ideas)
Writing is versatile.
Writing can be impactful.
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction,
select applicable questions from standard)
Why is writing important?
How can context clues help figure out the meaning of a text?
Does setting and context change the meaning of writing?
Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) AND (Success Criteria)
Students can infer the meaning of a text from short phrases from the text.
Students can discuss the purpose of writing.
Students can write about a given prompt or a topic of their own choosing.
List of Assessments: (Note whether the assessment is formative or summative)
Formative: Writing prompt; discussion
Planned Lesson Activities

Approx. Time
and Materials
How long do you
expect the activity to
last and what
Tea Party Phrases

Paper/pencil
Youtube Video
Prison Writing
materials will you

need?
Approx. 40 min.
Anticipatory Set
Tea Party: students will be given a portion of the prison writing text.
With their table groups, they will try to figure out what the overall text
is about based on the phrases they received.
The hook to grab

students attention.
These are actions and
statements by the
teacher to relate the
experiences of the
students to the
objectives of the
lesson, To put
students into a
receptive frame of
mind.
To focus
student attention on
the lesson.
To create an
organizing framework
for the ideas,
principles, or
information that is to
follow (advanced
organizers)
An anticipatory set is
used any time a
different activity or
new concept is to be
introduced.
Teacher Actions
Procedures
(Include a play-byplay account of what
students and teacher
will do from the
minute they arrive to
the minute they leave
your classroom.
Indicate the length of
each segment of the
lesson. List actual
minutes.)
Indicate whether
each is:
-teacher input/actions,
Student
Actions
Give instructions for tea party.

Hand out phrases.
Read the text aloud. Talk about the context and why
writing is important to these women. Ask students:
What purpose does writing have?
Is writing different for these women than for us?
What makes a writer a writer?
Read W.R.I.T.E. prompt to give context of prison
writing.
What is expressive writing? Why is it important? How
is it present or not present in schools and in personal
lives?
Creative writing prompt for a school version of creative
Talk in their
table
groups to
try to figure
out what
the text is
about.
Each group
shares out.
student actions
-modeling
-questioning
strategies
-guided/unguided:
-whole-class
practice
-group practice
-individual practice
-check for
understanding
-other
or expressive writing.
Creative Writing Prompt:
Replay animated short film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sYCtycG2wQ
Pause at 6:30
Tell students they will watch the youtube video and
then write the ending.
After they are done writing, ask them to share out and
then show the rest of the video.
Discussion
about
questions.
Write along
with
prompt.
Share out.
Differentiation
Differentiation is built into this lesson because there

are several different aspects of it including visual and
auditory components.
If struggling students need more support, I will sit with
their group during the tea party and read the individual
phrases aloud, and then help propel the conversation.
The writing portion is low pressure and more
participation based, so different students are able to
write at their different developmental levels. However,
it would be a possibility to have a scribe in the
classroom if students need help getting their thoughts
on paper.
As for advanced students, as I said before,
differentiation is built in because students are able to
work at their different developmental levels. However,
during the tea party I would try to push their thinking to
the next level by asking them critical questions or have

them develop their own questions about the text. As for
the writing piece, I would give advanced students more
advanced guidelines such as to write with more
description or try to meet every one of the senses with
imagery.
Closure
Those actions or
statements by a
teacher that are
designed to bring a
lesson presentation to
an appropriate
conclusion. Used to
help students bring
things together in their
own minds, to make
sense out of what has
just been taught. Any
Questions? No. OK,
lets move on is not
closure. Closure is
used:
To cue students
to the fact that they
have arrived at an
important point in the
lesson or the end of a
lesson.
To help
organize student
learning
To help form a
coherent picture and
to consolidate.
Assessment
Reflection: (data
analysis)
How will you know if
students met the
learning targets?
Write a description of
what you were looking
for in each
assessment.
Compare students writing to the prompt a similar exercise to

prisoners going through the W.R.I.T.E. expressive series workshop.
Students are able to participate in a tea party, discuss the

importance and versatility of writing, and write to a creative writing
prompt.
Tea Party Phrases:

I can be anyone or anything
Fight the biggest wars with my mighty sword
Scream, vent, cry and even laugh
I can confide my darkest secrets
Things Ive tried so hard to stuff and lock away
Things that have haunted me from afar
Way to feel free
Tight as a deadbolt door
A way to feel free even before
Post Lesson Reflection

1.
To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to
justify your level of achievement)
Since this was more of an experimental lesson, the lesson objectives were all achieved.
This lesson was a chance to give students a break from their regular studies and to get
them thinking about how writing could be prominent in their lives outside of the writing
they are required to do for school. The students thought critically about the text during
the tea party, participated in whole-class discussion about the text, and engaged in
creative writing by writing the ending to an animated short film.
Specifically during the tea party, each group of students had a vastly different we think
statement by the time they talked about all the phrases. Some of them were pretty farfetched, but I told them they could continue with that idea as long as they were able to
support their thoughts with evidence from the text. They were able to do this, which both
surprised and excited me, because them being able to pull evidence from the text
exceeded my expectations.
However, after I was reading through student responses to the creative writing prompt, I
realized that some of them were short and vague rather than creative and descriptive. In
that sense, Im not sure if the students need more scaffolding on what creative writing is
and how to do it, or if they were just uninterested in writing a response. Either way, this
is a portion of the lesson that I will reflect on more and try to figure out how I can change
the outcome of student responses.
2.
What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again?
One thing I noticed after I taught this lesson was that I wasnt sure how to seamlessly
connect the tea party activity to the relevance of the text. After the students talked about
their individual phrases and wrote we think statements about what they thought the
overall text meant, they shared out and then I read the text aloud to them. However,
after I was done reading the text I was unsure of how I should connect it to their prior
learning or to their lives. This was something I would definitely change if I taught the
lesson again, because after the lesson when I was reflecting on how it went, I realized
that I could have talked about theme, setting, context, tone, style, figurative language,
and several other literary elements they have previously learned.
Along with the prison writing aspect, I would like to push students to write on a more
personal level and for personal reasons. In that sense, I would probably separate the
prison writing portion of this lesson from the creative writing portion and I would
probably make them two separate lessons.
3.
What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach
content, etc.)
Although I wont be able to do a follow-up lesson with this specific group of students, I
have been thinking a lot about how I would use this lesson in my own classroom. In the
future, I think I will use this lesson as a pretest for descriptive/creative writing in order to
gauge where the students are on that subject matter and where we need to go from
there.
For example, if I was doing that for this class, it would be clear to me that the students
need some scaffolding for what descriptive writing is and how to achieve it. In that case,
my future lessons would be focused around figurative language (similes, metaphors,
alliteration, etc.) and imagery. In the English world we often talk about these things
within the context of poetry, but really they are present in most literature. With the
knowledge I gain of my students through this pre test, I will be able to cater future
lessons to their needs as writers.
Also, I envision this type of lesson as a stakeholder in my future classroom. What I
mean by that is that I want students to regularly be engaged in creative writing in a low
pressure context where they are free to explore who they are as writers and to develop
their personal writing style.
Finally, another thought I have about where I would go from here is that the prison
writing aspect of this lesson could be used as an introduction to social justice. This type
of writing breaks stereotypes and gives us a perspective of prison that most students
wont have previously be introduced to. In that sense, I would love to focus future
lessons around students researching social justice issues they are interested in and
actually joining or starting activist groups or communities surrounding those issues. I
think this would be a cool way to bring students different funds of knowledge into the
classroom, and to get them to research topics they are interested in and care about.

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450 Lesson 2

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Lesson Plan #2

This lesson is focused around showing

Planned Lesson Activities

Tea Party Phrases

materials will you

The hook to grab

Give instructions for tea party.

Differentiation is built into this lesson because there

the next level by asking them critical questions or have

Compare students writing to the prompt a similar exercise to

Students are able to participate in a tea party, discuss the

Tea Party Phrases:

Post Lesson Reflection

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