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Lesson Plan Design

Subject: English Language Arts. Grade:6 Lesson Topic: Argumentative Writing
Candidate’s Name: Cristina Ambriz ID # 0022358474
Site Supervisor: Jessica Rodriguez NU Supervisor: Skip Sonksen
Date: ______5/14/19_______________________________
1. Introduction: (Identify Grade Level K12 Academic Content Standard(s), rationale, focus learner,
create bridges from past learning, behavior expectations)
.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.1 Rationale:
Write arguments to support claims with
clear reasons and relevant evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.1.A
Introduce claim(s) and organize the
reasons and evidence clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.1.B
Support claim(s) with clear reasons and
relevant evidence, using credible sources Focus Learner: Both of these students have scored at a level 3
and demonstrating an understanding of of 4 on the Oral and Written Language section of the ELPAC.
the topic or text. They are close to being reclassified and need to be held
accountable for practicing the English language
Focus Learner
EL students Arianna and Xavier: I
selected these two students because they Students in this class are very social. They need opportunities
are English Language learner and rarely to discuss and explore content. Direct instruction from the
participates in whole group discussion or teachers sometimes is somewhat overwhelming for their social
engages in dialogue during collaborative nature. The lesson is developed to help students explore the
conversations. pros and cons of having cell phones in the class before
establishing a strong thesis for their writing assignment.
Behavior Expectations:
1. During collaborative discussion
students will remain on topic.
2. Students will remain at expected
noise level.
3. Students will remain actively
 engaged during the lesson.

2. Learner Outcome(s)/Objective(s): (What will students learn from this lesson? How will you
measure mastery of the outcome?)

Rationale:
 Students will be able to establish a .
claim/position on a difficult topic.

 Students will be able to evaluate

and choose evidence from
text/media to support their claim.

 Students will be able to use

reasoning to tie their evidence
back to their claim

3. Pre-assessment Activity: (Determine students’ abilities to achieve the Learner Outcome and
prescribe instruction accordingly. Consider: linguistic background, academic language abilities,
content knowledge, cultural and health considerations, interests and aspirations, physical
development, social development, emotional development.)

Linguistic Background: Rationale:

3 of the 34 students in the class are
classified as English Language Learners
(ELLs). 2 of the students have Spanish
denoted as their primary language. 1 has
Arabic denoted as the primary language.
All 3 students have an ELPAC score of
level 3 of 4. These students generally
have high developed oral communication
skills and have good comprehension of
contextualized information. The
remaining students consist of students
who have been reclassified or are
considered English only students.

Academic Language Abilities, Content

Knowledge and Skills
The academic language abilities that this
lesson would require of students would be
the ability to create argumentative thesis
statement supported with at least two
reasons. Students need to be familiar with
terms like claim, evidence, support, thesis
statement, and position. Students also
need to be familiar with information text
structures. According to the most recent
STAR assessment only 35% of the
students in class are meeting the grade
level standards in ELA. Many students
need support identifying text structure and
struggle finding the main idea.
Cultural and Health Considerations

4. Differentiation, Adaptation & Accommodation Strategies: (Based on the pre-assessments, modify

Learning Activities based on learner characteristics to meet the needs of ELL & special needs
students, highly achieving students and low achieving students)

1. Special Needs Students: I will Rationale:

provide opportunity for my student 1. Particular student struggles with penmanship.
with dysgraphia to use digital device Providing a digital version of the material will
to express his knowledge allow him to record information in a way the will
be legible and organized.
2. ELL Students and Low Achieving 2. These students need a lot of practice with oral
Students: I will provide sentence language. If they are not re designated this year
frames and give them opportunity to they will be classified as long-term English
share ideas orally with a partner. I Language Learners. They need opportunities to
will provide graphic organizer to practice their oral language and opportunities to
support them in organizing their use academic language.
writing. 3. These students struggle creating a cohesive
paragraph. They require support in small group. I
3. RSP students: I will provide will pull them aside during our writers’
sentence frames and give them workshop and work with them.
opportunity to share ideas orally with 4. This student will research MLA format and
a partner. I will provide graphic submit her work with following this format.
organizer to support them in
organizing their writing. I will also
look at their IEP goals and
communicate with the RSP teacher to
support their progress in writing.

4. Highly Achieving Student: I will

 require students two use MLA format
for writing and referencing their
sources.

5. Resources: (Identify materials needed for this lesson accounting for varying degrees of skill level)

Students Rationale:
 Socratic Seminar Worksheet Students
 Two Articles Although students in the inner circle are the only students
- Cell Phones in the Classroom: that will be talking, it is important to hold students
Learning Tool or Distraction accountable for remaining engaged in the conversation.
- Cell Phones in School The Socratic Seminar Worksheet will require students in

 Pencils and Highlighter the outer circle to make careful observations about the

 Conversation Cards conversation. As students are speaking, the co-pilots will

 Argumentative Writing Graphic record their observations.

Organizer
Teacher These articles have been carefully selected to provide a
base line for sources. Both article present pros and cons
 TV
for the argument.
 White Board

Pencils and highlighters will work as tools to help student

annotate to focus their attention on important information
in the articles.

Conversation cards will be helpful for students to engage

in an academic discussion.

6. Learning Activities: Explicit Teacher Instruction - (Explain, Model, Demonstrate, Check for
Understanding)
Rationale:
1. I will begin the lesson by activating It would be important scaffold by activating student's
prior knowledge. I will ask students prior knowledge of argumentative writing. This will spark
to recall components of student motivation in the content area. This strategy is
 argumentative writing. I will also helpful for English language learners because it helps
randomly call on students and record stimulate cognitive knowledge about their previous
information on an anchor chart. learning.
2. I will display the writing prompt on
the TV and ask students to chorally Walking around the room allows me to monitor students’
read the directions with me. progress through the lesson. By doing this, I am able to
3. I will ask students to pair share and to help groups that are struggling. Using questioning allows
explain what the prompt is asking students to build on their own knowledge instead of spoon
them to do. I will randomly call on feeding the information to them. This helps develop
two students to share with the class. critical thinking skills and promotes conceptual
4. I will hand the second source and ask understanding.
students to get into their triads to read .
the source.
5. I will roam around the classroom
monitor students as they read.
6. I will bring back the class and
address them whole group to begin
our Socratic discussion. I will call
number 2s from each triad to sit in
the center of the circle. I will review
expectations for socratic discussion. I
will ask the question, “Should 6th
grade students be allowed to used
their phones while at school?”
7. I will ask students to state their claim
and stop periodically to allow the
speaker to discuss with their co-
pilots.
8. Once the conversation has finished, I
will ask students to write down their
argument on their graphic organizer
and list at least two reasons. Because
this is lesson number two of a five
day lesson students will finish their
work during another class session.

Check for Understanding:

Using a scale 3 (I understand and I am ready
to move on), 2 (I still have a question), 1 (need
to work with you in a small group), I will
occasionally stop to ask students how
comfortable they feel with the content before
moving on.

I will walk around the room listen to student

conversations and observe students as they
collaborate. I will ask guiding questions as
necessary.

7. Learning Activities: Guided Practice/ Collaborative Practice (Check for understanding and
provide feedback and re-teaching)

Rationale:
1. Providing think time allows students to process
1. Students have Think Time to recall
their thoughts before sharing. This strategy
what they already know about
promotes student engagement and enhances
argumentative writing. Students will
participation. When student have the
discuss what they know with a partner.
opportunity to share what they already know, it
2. Students will read the writing prompt
levels the playing field for all learners, even
together as a class and talk with a
struggling students can contribute.
partner about what is required to
2. It is important for students to understand what
complete the writing assignment. In
the prompt is asking them to do. Often the
their own words, students will record
prompts are convoluted with text and students
what they have to do.
misinterpret what they have to write. Asking
3. Students will break out into
them discuss and put the prompt in their own
heterogenous groups of three. They
words clarifies what they have to do.
will read the article twice. The first
3. It’s important to have mixed abilities groups to
time as a cold read. The second time
provide support for all learners. In addition, in
they will read and annotate (number
order to truly comprehend what they are
paragraphs, circle unfamiliar words,
reading, students need opportunities to reread.
and highlight evidence to support their
 claim.) Annotating allows students to analyze and draw
4. Students will form two circles (one connections needed to extract evidence to
inner and one outer). Number 2 from support their arguments.
each triad will sit in the center circle. 4. Using collaborative discussions gives students
Number 1 and Number 3 will sit an opportunity to brainstorm and stimulate
directly behind them (in the outer cognitive recollection of previous learnings. It
circle). Students in the inner circle will holds students accountable for engaging in
engage in a debate using the dialogue relevant to the topic and allows them
accountable talk cards to start their to actively listen to their peers ideas (which
conversation and pause periodically to they can learn from as well). This is helpful for
discuss how to further support their English Language Learners as they can use
claim. Students sitting behind the their experiences to relate to the content.
speaker will work as the “co-pilots” 5. I want to provide an open forum for all students
and will have the socratic discussion who want to speak to have an opportunity to
worksheets. They will record specific speak.
observations from each speaker. 6. Based on the debate students will create an
5. Students in the outer circle who want informed decision and take a position on the
to contribute to the conversation will topic at hand. This will help lay the foundation
be able to join the conversation by work for their writing.
sitting in the “hot seat”
6. After the discussion students create
their argument and state at least two
reasons to support their claim in their
graphic organizer.

Check for Understanding:

Using a scale 3 (I understand and I am ready to
move on), 2 (I still have a question), 1 (need to
work with you in a small group), I will
occasionally stop to ask students how
comfortable they feel with the content before
moving on.

I will walk around the room listen to student

conversations and observe students as they
collaborate. I will ask guiding questions as
necessary with groups.
8. Independent Practice: (Provide practice that supports the learning outcome. Note: Independent
activities are assigned assuming that students understand the concept well enough to work on their
own.)

During the actual lesson, students will not be Rationale:

given time to work independently; however, I
will collect individual student argumentative
graphic organizer and argumentative writing
essay.

Check for Understanding:

I will read the argumentative writing essay and
well as review their graphic organizer

9. Assessment and Evaluation: (Describe how you will assess and/or evaluate the students’ learning.
Describe differentiating assessment strategies you will use for ELL, special needs students, highly
achieving students and low achieving students.)

Formal: I will use the final essay to grade Rationale:

the students work. I want to provide various opportunities for students to
demonstrate their knowledge. Because my classroom has a
Informal: I will listen to student diverse group of students it is important to allow students to
conversations and observe students as they express their knowledge in a way that is most meaningful for
work collaboratively. I will also ask them. Some students are able to articulate their knowledge by
students on a scale from 3 to 1 where they verbalizing while others prefer writing. In addition, as a
are throughout the lesson. teacher I need to meet students where they are. By using a
scale system, I will know whether I should proceed in the
lesson or if students need more support with the content.

10. Closure: (Describe how students will reflect on what they have learned.)

Using a Time Paired Share students will Rationale:

discuss their learning with shoulder. Each I want to give students and opportunity to reflect on their
student will be given a Post-it notes and learning in different forms. First, I would like students
write down what they learned. practice speaking and then write down what they learned. At
a quick glance I will be able to assess the effectiveness of the
With this information students will help me lesson. With this model of teaching it is difficult to begin the
guide them to the learning objective and lesson by stating the objective. The idea is to give students
we will rate ourselves on whether or not the opportunity to make sense of the lesson. When I give
we achieved our objective. them the objective beforehand it limits their ability to
critically think about what they are doing. I still hold students
accountable for understanding the objective; however, they
need to be able to explore first and then make an informed
decision about our what goal is.

11. Lesson Reflection/Assessment: (Collect student learning data to determine: What went well?
What needs to be changed? Were learning outcomes met? What activities will you add, change,
modify in the future? What can be done to follow up on the learning from this lesson? Who needs
additional help? Who needs enrichment or higher level work?)

Revised: 10/23/2008
Note: An electronic copy of the Lesson Plan Design may be found on the Nu-Fast website:
http://www.nu-fast.com . Links: Fileshare - SOE – TED – TED 629 – Student/Faculty