Hannah Richards

Professor Ostendorf
ED 403
11 October 2018
Announced Observation #1 Lesson Plan

Specific Rationale

In this lesson, students will be close reading and discussing a text about a court case from

their “Collections” textbook. They will read, Texas v. Johnson Majority Opinion by Justice

William J. Brennan, which is about the 1984 court case where Gregory Johnson was on trial for

burning the American Flag during a riot. This case challenged the First Amendment as it was

being questioned whether or not burning the flag was an expression protected by the

Constitution. Reading this text could be challenging for some students, but reading this kind of

text will help prepare students for reading the trial scene that will be coming up in To Kill a

Mockingbird next week. We will go over this text in depth, which will help them next week

when they read the TKAM trial outside of class. This trial from our textbook relates to TKAM

because both cases show how our justice system can potentially be flawed. In TKAM, there were

supposed to be laws in place to protect Tom Robinson, but these were neglected. The same thing

happened in Gregory Johnson’s case. They differ because Johnson went to the Supreme Court

and appealed the charges. Atticus wanted to do this for Tom, but Tom never had a chance as he

had been killed. When students finish reading through the TKAM court case, they will be able to

see this connection more clearly. This lesson will also lead into tomorrow’s activity, where

students will be taking a Virtual Reality tour into an the life of a defense attorney. In the next

class following the Virtual Reality tour, students will be reading another opinion on the same

court case, but this one will have a different perspective. With both of these texts, students will
come up with their own stance and we will have a mini unit on argumentative writing to prepare

for MCAS.

Objective:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to relate the Texas v. Johnson Majority

Opinion to our essential theme, “Ourselves and others” through discussion and journal entry.

Students will be able to delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in the “Texas v.

Johnson Majority Opinion” text through discussion with each other and with the class, and

through journaling.

General Rationale:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to delineate and evaluate the argument

from the Texas v. Johnson Majority Opinion by discussing with each other and with the whole

class, and I will have them write about it. Together, we will read the Majority Opinion out loud.

Students will summarize each paragraph and they will discuss the deeper implications. They will

also answer a set of questions from their textbook that requires an analysis from the text. By the

end of the lesson, students will be able to relate the theme of “Ourselves and Others” to the text.

When reading TKAM, it will be helpful for students to have close read another court case in

class. This trial shows how our justice system can be flawed even in contemporary America.

Both cases show how we as human beings have rights that are supposed to be protected by our

government, but sometimes they are violated. This lesson will lead up to a mini unit on writing

argumentative papers, which is something that students will need to do on the MCAS.

“Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the

reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements or

incomplete truths and fallacious reasoning.”

MA Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts & Literacy, March 2017, RI.8, Grade 9-

10

“Analyze seminal documents of historical and literary significance including how they address

related themes and concepts.”

MA Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts & Literacy, March 2017, RI.9, Grade 9-

10

Methodology:

● Students with Special Services

There are no students with special services in this class. However, I will be giving out a

vocabulary list to help students who may not be familiar with “court lingo”. This would help

ELLs in my class if I had any, but I think it will be beneficial to my students for this reading, as

well as when they read TKAM. (SIOP - Personal Dictionaries)

● “Do Now” Quiz and Brief Discussion (~10-15 minutes):

Students will enter class and prepare for me to hand out their daily reading quiz. The

lesson objective will be written on the board, where it is every day. In this particular unit, I have

stressed the importance of their outside reading. Therefore, the “Do Now” for this unit has been a

quick, reading-check quiz. If also students take this quiz (meaning no absences) then we will go

over it immediately board (SIOP – Structured Quick Writes) If someone does not complete the quiz

tomorrow, then we will wait until everyone has finished. I have attached the quiz. When students

finish the quiz, I will have them take out their journals and write briefly about what they know so

far with the trial in TKAM. We will share some of these answers – I will call on about three

volunteers. (Lemov Technique #18, “Post It” and UDL – Posted Lesson Goals).

● Introduce Lesson (~2 minutes):

 I will introduce the lesson for the day: Today, we will be using our textbook to read about the

Texas v. Johnson Majority Opinion, which was written by the Justice Brennan, who served on

the Supreme Court at the time. This will relate to the trial in TKAM not just because they are

both court cases, but as you will soon see they are both court cases where a person’s rights are

violated. This will also relate to an activity we have planned for tomorrow… We will be taking a

virtual reality tour of a day in the life of an Attorney – with the virtual reality goggles and such.

It will be fun and exciting, but I want to make sure we relate it back to our class. While on the

tour, make sure to keep in mind Atticus’ role in the trial as he is the person defending Tom

Robinson on trial”

● Close Reading (~20 minutes):

I will have students open their “Collections” textbooks (under their desks) to the Texas v.

Johnson text. I will call on students (starting will volunteers, cold calls when necessary) to read

sections out loud. Since it is a short piece, I will have one students read the first page, one

student read the next paragraph, and then one student read the rest of the text.

This text may be difficult for students to understand as a lot of the vocabulary will be new.

This is why I will give them a vocabulary sheet for them to use. We will read very slowly so

students have time to look as their vocabulary sheet, or ask me if they are confused about the

reading.

After each paragraph, I will have students paraphrase by breaking down some of the complex

sentence by replacing confusing words. For example, where the text says, “We decline,

therefore, to create for the flag an exception”, I will explain that this is a “fancy” way of saying

“We won’t make an exception for the flag”. I will allow students to Think/Pair/Share if they are

unwilling to participate or seem to be unsure of themselves (SIOP – Think/Pair/Share). While

students Think/Pair/Share, I will circulate around the room and give feedback or prompting if necessary. I

will also be making sure that students are staying on task (Lemov Technique #24, Circulate).

 “Analyzing the Text” Questions (Until Last 7 minutes of class)

If there is still time left after reading through the text, I will have students work in pairs

(students in this class are allowed to work with the people around them) to fill out the

“Analyzing the Text” questions from their textbooks (attached). There will most likely not be

enough time to finish these questions, but that is okay. I will have students turn in their questions

(completed or not) into the bin.

 Exit Ticket (Last 5-7 minutes of class)

Students will complete an exit ticket for the day in their journals: “How does this case

connect with our essential theme of ‘Ourselves and Others’”, or “How does this text relate to

TKAM?” I will have students leave their journals in the bins (UDL – Assign Options) (SIOP – Exit

Tickets).

Assessment:

I will read through the journals to see if students made some kind of connection between

the Texas v. Johnson case and either the essential theme or to TKAM. I will be hoping that

students write something about the possible flaws of the court system due to people’s rights

being violated – both Johnson and Robinson. I will also look through their “Analyzing the Text”

questions if there was time. These will not be given a grade, but I will use them for myself to see

whether or not students seemed to grasp this reading, as it may be challenging.

Aim:

For this lesson, my aim will be working on my SMART Goal – “By November 9th, I will

facilitate discussions where at least 85% of my B Block class participate in a meaningful or

thoughtful way. I will do so by using different techniques to have students participate (cold-call,
think-pair-share, increase wait/think time, journaling).” Within this lesson, I will be practicing

cold-calling, think/pair/sharing, increasing wait time, and students will be journaling. I will have

Sable or Ray keep track of which students do and do not participate during the discussion in

order to make adjustments to my next lesson in order to keep on track of completing my SMART

goal by early November.

References:

Brennan, William J. “Texas v. Johnson Majority Opinion” Collections. Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt, 2015, pp. 15-17.

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from

http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Echevarria, Jana and MaryEllen Vogt. 99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Learners

with The SIOP Model. Pearson, 2008.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2002.

Lemov, Doug. Teach Like a Champion 2.0. Uncommon Schools, 2015.

Name:
To Kill a Mockingbird Quiz Chapters 17-19

1. Why is it important to note that the bruises were concentrated on the right side of Mayella’s
face?

2. Why does Mr. Ewell say he did not call a doctor after his daughter had been assaulted?

3. What does Mayella’s life consist of?

4. Who was the only witness Atticus called to the stand in the trial?

5. In Tom’s recounting of the night in question, why was he with Mayella?

6. Who is Link Deas? And why did he get expelled from the courtroom?

Questions?
Analyzing the Text

1. Connect What earlier points of law does Justice Brennan use to support the Court’s
opinion in this case?

2. Compare In its argument to make flag burning a criminal offense, what events did Texas
predict might happen? How does the Court interpret the significance of these possible
events?

3. Cite Evidence How does Justice Brennan support the idea that “the flag’s deservedly
cherished place in our community will be strengthened, not weakened” by the ruling?

4. Analyze How is the image of the flag flying over Fort McHenry related to the central idea
of the opinion?

5. Analyze What does Justice Brennan’s repetition of the word resilience to refer to the
nation suggest about his view of the Constitution?