Mini Lesson TPA

Department of Education College of Arts, Letters and Education 312 Williamson Hall Cheney, WA   99004

TPA Lesson Plan #_1______

Course:

1. Teacher Candidate	Ashley	Date Taught	11/8/17
Cooperating Teacher		School/District
2. Subject	Reading	Field Supervisor
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Poverty	5. Length of Lesson	20 minutes
4. Grade Level	10th

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
7. Learning Objective(s)	Given a reading of poverty quotes Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and watching the video Child Poverty: In Their Own Words, students will be able to analyze how particular lines of dialogue/incidents propel and reveal aspects of a character and provoke a decision by dividing into two groups and debating whether or not they agree or disagree with the quote, “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor (p. 13)” and explaining their reasoning for agreeing or disagreeing.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: Students will be informed that there are incidents of inappropriate language and racial slurs. Discourse: The central focus of this lesson is to encourage students to explore what poverty looks like, how it feels, and debating on a topic that is not addressed in the classroom very often. By adding the debate element gives students’ the chance to offer opinions on the topic of poverty, as well as exploring a stance they may not personally agree with. By using Sherman Alexie’s text as a vehicle, and not noting specific students in poverty, the discussion can stay open and impersonal. Function: Students will be able to analyze how Junior/Arnold’s dialogue and actions drive him to make the decision to leave the reservation and understand the deeper effects of poverty on a young child. Syntax: Fiction related closely to actual feelings surrounding poverty allows a class to debate the effects of poverty on students in a way that does not single any one student out.

9. Assessment

This lesson will be a modified Think-Pair-Share. There will be minimal time to think individually, therefore the focus will be more on group sharing and then whole-class discussion. Informal assessment will be conducted during the debate. Students will be assessed on their engagement, thoughtfulness of answers, and encouragement of other group members. This assessment will take place through observation and a debrief after the class is over where the teacher will note overall student engagement and note students who did not participate fully. Formal assessment will be given in the form of a two-column debating sheet. This sheet allows the smaller groups to record thoughts and ideas from each member and add more ideas if necessary. This sheet will also aid in the whole class discussion because students will have already thought their answers through enough to share.

10. Lesson Connections

Previously, students have had to analyze character development over the course of a text and how dialogue/incidents drove their motivation to make a decision. For example, in a reading of Lord of the Flies, students had to analyze how Jack’s dialogue drove other boys to engage in acts of violence.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies 1.    Share with students about personal experience and connections to poverty. Express how poverty doesn’t always “look” poor. Poverty is not often addressed in the classroom, but is an important theme from the book. Students will be given the learning objective and how they will go about reaching the end analytical goal. Students will then be read the quote from the text to ponder. 2.    Play video from YouTube and explain how everyone is effected by poverty differently and how these stressors take away from classroom engagement. 3.    Students will then be asked to name themselves off either A or B. A agrees with the quote and B disagrees. 4.    Then, the room will be divided into 2 groups, with a mix of A and B 5.    Groups 1 and 2 will be given the debate sheet and asked to take a minute to quietly think about their stance and whether or not they agree with what Junior/Arnold says about poverty. 6.    Groups 1 and 2 will then discuss their ideas and record them on their debate sheet 7.    After the small group discussion, students will be guided through a whole class discussion and students will be asked to share their responses and if they personally feel like they are really an A or a B 8.    To conclude, the teacher will ask that students be empathetic to their students and understand that sometimes what appears to be laziness is hunger, fear or insecurity about their living situation.
Teacher’s Role The teacher’s role is to ensure that students know how to unpack the issue of poverty within the text whether or not students can understand how poverty was a motivating factor for Junior/Arnold to make changes in his life. The teacher also needs to ensure that students are debating respectfully and participating in the small and large group discussion.	Students’ Role Students will be asked to analyze the effects of poverty on Junior/Arnold and how one quote can be interpreted in multiple ways. Ideally, they will see that Junior/Arnold’s decision to be better than what he has grown up in, develops over the course of the text and how he may brush it off early on as just a fact of life, but how it does, in fact, drive him to rise above his poverty.
Student Voice to Gather The teacher will ask students if they feel that they were assigned the letter that corresponds with how they really feel. Are they really and A or a B and why or why not? They will also be asked if seeing both sides of the quote helped them understand poverties central theme in the book.

12. Differentiated Instruction

Student interest should be high because it is a local author, has interesting discussion points and reveals a lot of deeper, emotional issues that many readers can connect with. If there were an ELL student in the class, I would add the closed captioning in English/their native language (depending on their learning goals and strengths). If I had a student with an IEP related to ADD, I have designed the lesson to run promptly and change from reading, discussing, writing and sharing. This should help maintain interest by adding this variety. By not asking the students to move around the room, I will accommodate any student with a disability or injury. Learning styles will be reached through group collaboration which involves listening and speaking, as well as visually through the video of the children sharing their experience.

13. Resources and Materials

Resources: Readicide by Kelley Gallagher emphasizes focusing on more meaningful parts of a book. By having students focus on the social justice issue of poverty and its effects, students gain more insight to the struggle of the main character, as well as the real life struggle for their fellow classmates. Gallagher, K. (2009). Readicide how schools are killing reading and what you can do about it. ____Portland, Me: Stenhouse. Materials: Internet Projector Debate sheets Writing utensils Copies of Sherman Alexie’s text

14. Management and Safety Issues

Students will be informed of the teacher’s attention signal before beginning to inform them that this is the sign to wrap up conversations and pay attention. Safety issues could include students dealing with poverty stress currently or in the past. These feelings could be negative and they will be informed of EWU’s counseling services if they need to unpack their personal issues with the topic further.

15. Parent & Community Connections

Students will be informed of the date, time and location that Sherman Alexie will be coming to the Spokane area and will be encouraged to see him in person.