Concept Unit

Lesson Plan Template

Unit Working Title: If a Butterfly Beats Its Wings: Choice and Consequence
Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Choice and Consequence
Unit Primary Skill focus: Word Choice
Week 1 of 3; Plan #2 of 9; [90 mins.]
Plan type: Full-Detail
Content Requirement Satisfied: Reading Experience (During and Post Reading)
(Note: Refer to the list in the document called Concept Unit Lesson Plans)
Unit Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Backwards Design Unit Document],
followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:
SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
3. Students will understand the connection between choices and consequences, both in text
and in their lives.
a. Students will know that choices have consequences, both expected and
unexpected.
Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:
4. Students will be able to reflect on their own choices.
a. Students will examine their choices in specific scenarios and reflect on the
consequences that came from that choice.
Performance (do):
9. Students will examine texts, both their own and others, for word choice.
a. Students will explain the connection between a choice and the consequence in a
piece of fiction.
SOLs:
7.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts,
narrative nonfiction, and poetry.
d) Describe the impact of word choice, imagery, and literary devices including
figurative language.
CCSs:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well
as inferences drawn from the text.

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.
Diagnostic
Noticing Patterns: I will
assess how the students are
doing with seeing how word
choice affects emotional
response to the text by asking
them if they notice any
patterns in the responses
from yesterday. They should
be able to see that many
people had similar emotional
reactions. (4a)

Formative
Read Aloud: I will informally
assess how students are doing
with understanding word
choice by pausing and asking
questions for understanding
during the read aloud. (3a)

Summative

Choice Chart: I will

informally assess how
students are doing with
connecting choices to
consequences by circulating
and seeing how they fill out
the choice chart. (9a)
Why A Butterfly: I will
informally assess how
students are doing with word
choice by circulating and
examining why they think
Bradbury chose a butterfly in
the story. (9a)

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]
Beginning Room Arrangement: Desks are in 5 groups of 4.
[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]
1. [10 mins.] Do Now:
On the board will be these directions:
Take out your writers journal. On the next page, put todays date: [The date will then be
there.] Write the following prompt:
What was a small choice you made recently? What consequences came from it? (Please
think very carefully about this one as even small choices can have big consequences!)

After you write the prompt, please write about it until Miss Wiles starts class.
I will have a timer going after the bell rings so that each student journals for 10 minutes.
2. [10 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson:
The timer for the Do Now goes off. Okay, now that weve had our journaling for the day,
lets go back to what we were thinking about yesterday. At the end of the lesson, I had you
all write down one word that you thought described A Sound of Thunder so far. If you
look over here, I will gesture to one of the bulletin board in the class, I have taken all of
your responses and put on a bulletin board called A Sound of Our Class. These are all
the words you guys came up with yesterday. One by one Im going to dismiss you by
tables to come up and look at the board. If your table is not looking at the board, please
discuss what you expect to happen in the story based off of Bradburys choice to name it
A Sound of Thunder. I will then put this question on the board in case I need to redirect
students to it. I give each table approximately one minute to look at the board before I
say: Okay, table 1 sit down please, and table 2 you can go look at the board. While each
table is looking at the board, I will choose one table to sit at and listen to their thoughts
on the title of the story. After each table has gone I will bring the class back to attention
by saying: Okay, and that was our last table! Lets all have a seat. What did you guys
notice about the words? Were there any patterns? I will be looking for: there are/arent
similar words up there, depending on the class response the previous day. I will take 2-3
responses depending on how long this portion runs. I want to make sure the read aloud
has plenty of time.
3. [45 mins.] Finish Read Aloud
Its great that you all noticed how similar/varied the responses were! What I say here
depends on if the responses were similar or varied. Now that weve gotten many
perspectives on how we would describe A Sound of Thunder, lets continue reading it.
Please get out your vocabulary sheet from yesterday as I pass out the copies again. I will
pass out the copies of A Sound of Thunder. Okay, who wants to take us up to date with
what we read yesterday? I will call on someone who has his/her hand raised. I am looking
for: A guy went to a company who can take a time machine back in time so he can hunt a
dinosaur. Yes! Okay, lets jump right in.
Use this link to see where I would pause and ask questions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HTNCDTRa9vfbrYv1WT0sf5XahUyUaZSileYWi
OZos4s/edit?usp=sharing
I would print this out and use it as my teachers copy as I read aloud. At each
question/vocabulary word, I would pause and wait for responses. If no one responds, I
will either rephrase the question or prompt them.
4. [20 mins] Choice Chart
Okay, thank you all for being so engaged and getting through that read aloud with me! I
really appreciated the thoughtful answers to the questions I asked. Now, were going to
do a post-reading activity that well actually re-use throughout our unit. Its called a
Choice Chart. Were going to track the different choices a character made throughout
the short story and then examine the consequences of the choice. Were going to be
focusing on Eckels in the short story, but when you do this for your own SSR books you

will be able to choose any character in your book that you want. Okay, first Im going to
model how to do this. I will put the choice chart under the ELMO so students can see it.
Were going to fill in this information here: What was the choice made? So first, he chose
to go back in time to hunt dinosaurs, so lets write that. What was the consequence of
that? He altered time, right? We put that there. And then the last question is: What was
the reason behind the choice? He didnt want to alter time, right? The reason was
because he wanted to go on a safari. Okay, thats the first one. You are all now going to
complete that with a partner or on your own if you would like.
5. [5 mins] Closure: Why a butterfly?
Okay, today were going to close with a short reflection on why Bradbury made killing a
butterfly the big reason the entire future changed. In your writers notebook, title the next
page: Why a butterfly? I will model this under the ELMO. On the page, please write: A
Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury the same way Im doing. Until the end of class,
please brainstorm why you think Bradbury chose a butterfly. You can do a list, a web, a
free write whatever you want. This is going to be a jumping off point for tomorrow.
Thanks for a great class today, everyone!

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled studentsidentify them by name)
Joe: By giving the students the options to work with partners on the choice chart, I am allowing
him to work with Frank, one of the few people he feels comfortable with in the class. This allows
him to choose his partner and will make him more likely to do his work.
Kelly: During the read aloud I will give her a teachers copy of the notes so she can think about
the questions ahead of time.
Jackie: During the read aloud I will make sure Jackie is not bored by asking her to further her
peers responses because I know that she is a gifted student who will be able to extend thoughts,
which will in turn benefit the entire class.
Materials Needed (list):
Writers journal
Copies of A Sound of Thunder
Teacher copy of A Sound of Thunder
Choice Chart
Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,
handouts, etc.)
Copies of A Sound of Thunder:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1de9t6Lz69BQCbldHkzuQ3ITtPpBCjzmFjvDS_tN9QYQ/e
dit?usp=sharing

Teacher copy of A Sound of Thunder:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HTNCDTRa9vfbrYv1WT0sf5XahUyUaZSileYWiOZos4s
/edit?usp=sharing
Choice Chart for Eckels in A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
What was the choice made?

What was the consequence?

What was the reason behind the choice?

What was the choice made?

What was the consequence?

What was the reason behind the choice?

What was the choice made?

What was the consequence?

What was the reason behind the choice?

What was the choice made?

What was the reason behind the choice?

What was the consequence?

Concept Unit
Lesson Plan Template
Unit Working Title: If a Butterfly Beats Its Wings: Choice and Consequence
Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Choice and Consequence
Unit Primary Skill focus: Word Choice
Week 2 of 3; Plan #3 of 9; [90 mins.]
Plan type: Summary
Content Requirement Satisfied: Mentor text
(Note: Refer to the list in the document called Concept Unit Lesson Plans)
Unit Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Backwards Design Unit Document],
followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:
SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
2. Students will understand how word choice connects to the emotion the author wants to
create in the reader.
b. Students will know how to apply word choice to their own writing in a fiction
piece.
Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:
5. Students will value their choices as much as their consequences.
a. Students will value the choices they make creatively.
Performance (do):
6. Students will able to apply word choice in their own writing.
b. Students will write a short fiction piece where they demonstrate clear word
choice.
SOLs:
7.7 The student will write in a variety of forms with an emphasis on exposition,
narration, and persuasion.
g) Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice.
CCSs:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.
Diagnostic
Introduce Fiction Piece: I
will use the examination of
Bradburys sentences to
assess what students already
know about constructing
sentences in fiction pieces.
(1b)

Formative
Workshop Time: I will
circulate during workshop
time to informally assess how
students are doing with
applying thoughtful word
choice to their own writing.
(6b)

Summative

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]
Beginning Room Arrangement: Desks are in 5 groups of 4.
[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]
6. [10 mins.] Do Now:
On the board will be these directions:
Take out your writers journal. On the next page, put todays date: [The date will then be
there.] Write the following prompt:
What was a difficult choice you made recently? Why was it difficult? What consequences
came from it?
After you write the prompt, please write about it until Miss Wiles starts class.
I will have a timer going after the bell rings so that each student journals for 10 minutes.
7. [15 mins.] Bridge/Opening to Lesson: Butterfly Discussion
I will start class by asking them to turn in their writers journals to the butterfly entry they
started yesterday. I will say that we are going to do a class brainstorm and that they are
welcome to reference their own journals for ideas from yesterday. I will start by asking,
Why a butterfly? I will be looking for: to emphasize that small choices matter, because its
small, because its tiny, because it made a big difference, etc. I will then ask, Did this make
a big difference in how you read the story, the fact that it was a tiny butterfly that changed

everything? When students respond, I will ask why it did or did not change their reaction to
the ending. I will then transition to the next piece by saying that we are now going to get
experience with writing their own fiction piece where a character makes a choice and they
see the consequence of it, similar to how Eckels steps on the butterfly and sees the
consequence of society changing.
8. [15 mins.] Introduce Fiction Piece
I will say that we are going to start writing a short fiction piece using A Sound of Thunder
as a mentor text. We will then take certain sentences out of A Sound of Thunder and
examine how Bradbury uses nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. (They should already
know these from previous grades but I will provide a short review sheet for anyone who
needs it.) After we examine the way Bradbury uses these things, I will introduce them to the
rubric they will be graded on (in the backwards design document). I will clarify that they are
allowed to write this short fiction piece on any topic it does not have to be science fiction
like Bradbury. However, it does have to be fictional. I will also tell them to reference
Bradbury as a source for how to write this short fiction piece. I will pass out the rubric and
take any questions. I anticipate most questions will be about topics.
9. [40 mins] Workshop Time for Fiction Piece
I will then give them plenty of class time to work on this short project. I will first make sure
that all students have picked appropriate topics. As they work on it, I will circulate around
and help them. I will make sure to conference with ---- to make sure they are on task and
understand what to do.
10. [10 mins.] Closure: Elbow Partner Sharing
I will then tell them to turn to their elbow partners and share the topic of their fiction piece
and what the choice and consequence is in it.
Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:
(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled studentsidentify them by name)
Mike: Mike loves to be creative, so I wanted to give the opportunity to introduce him to a mentor
text that will appeal to him while stretching his abilities creatively.
Materials Needed (list):
Writers journal
Rubric for fiction piece
Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,
handouts, etc.)