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Lesson Plan Template

Date: 5/1/2020 Teacher’s Name: Camryn Kidney

Subject: ELA Grade level: 12
Unit: Finding and Citing Evidence in an Informational Text
Length of each lesson: 60 minutes
For Unit: 3 of 5

Central Focus: During this unit, students will learn and practice how to identify and
analyze evidence of a narrator’s argument in informational texts. To do this, they will
annotate texts and discuss their discoveries as a class, then they will organize these
discoveries independently. The purpose of teaching such a lesson is that understanding
a text’s meaning is the fundamental essence of reading comprehension. This skill is
paramount to future exploration of texts. Additionally, in making discoveries about
authors and their arguments, students will also learn about how to discover an author’s
bias, how that bias reflects their values, and how they try to persuade the reader to
share their values. It’s crucial for students to learn how to analyze texts in this way, as
people encounter media that attempts to persuade them every day.

Essential Question(s):
 How do you know what an author’s argument is?
 What is bias?
 How can you determine an author’s biases?
 How do authors and other media creators encourage readers to subscribe
to their values and standards of morality? What strategies do they use?

Learning Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text
leaves matters uncertain.

Pre-Assessment: During the Anticipatory Set, students will be prompted to read and
annotate the article based on what they learned yesterday about annotating texts.

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Differentiation:
In addition to modifications/accommodations outlined in students’ IEP’s/504’s:

1.) During the Anticipatory Set, The teacher will pre-select students’ groups, which
will consist of students with varying ability levels. The formation of these mixed-
ability groups will allow the more advanced students to push the students with
room for improvement to a higher level of understanding.
2.) Students with varying reading levels will have access to texts of various reading
levels.
Academic Language Plan:
a. Academic Language Demands: Find evidence, Paraphrase.
b. Academic Language Functions: Read, Write, Annotate, Discuss.
c. Vocabulary: Bias, Primary text, context

Learning Objectives: Assessments:

Students will:

 Find evidence of a narrator’s  Students effectively and correctly

argument, bias, and meaning paraphrase the author’s
 Paraphrase this argument. argument
 Students accurately cite places
where the author’s bias shines
through.

Procedure:
Anticipatory set

 When students enter the class, they will pick up two articles: “How to
Protect Yourself When Your State Reopens Way Too Early” and “We
Have All the Testing We Need' to Start Reopening the Country.” These
news articles showcase two different perspectives on the state of
Coronavirus in the United States. Students will be prompted to read and
annotate the article based on what they learned yesterday about
annotating texts.

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 After completing this Do Now activity, students will discuss their findings
with one another in pairs.

Initial Phase (15 minutes):

 During the Initial Phase, the teacher will conduct a lesson explaining in
detail how to organize their annotations into coherent thoughts ideas
using a graphic organizer to figure out:
o The author’s argument
 What are their main ideas?
o The author’s bias
 The teacher will explain how to turn points from the graphic organizer into
cohesive thoughts and paraphrases.
Middle Phase (35 mins)

 To practice turning their annotations into cohesive thoughts, students will

organize their annotations from yesterday’s reading, “In Opposition to the
Women’s Movement” and organize them into a graphic organizer. In the
graphic organizer, they’ll be prompted to make bullet points answering the
following questions:
1. What does the narrator want me to think/know?
2. Where do I see the narrator’s bias?
3. What do I know about the historical context of this text? How does it
affect what the narrator believes?

Concluding Phase (5 minutes)

a. At the end of class, after the lesson on using annotations to find an
author’s argument, students will complete a low-stakes, 5-10 minute
exit ticket. The teacher will use this writing task to assess students’
progress within the unit. This exit ticket will ask students to answer the
following prompts:
i. Paraphrase the author’s argument.
ii. Where do you see potential bias sneaking through the author’s
argument?
iii. Cite 2 places in the text where you see this argument/bias shine
through.

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This Exit Ticket will also serve as a formative writing task for the lesson.
Students will reflect on the intellectual work they’ve completed during class, and
will summarize it before they leave. This will allow students to put all the
information they’ve gathered together, and it will give them a chance to keep the
information fresh in their minds before they leave. The teacher will grade this exit
ticket based upon completion, and will use it to assess students’ progress in
understanding the concepts they learn throughout the unit.

EXIT TICKET EVALUATIVE CRITERIA:

2 1 0

Follows all Follows all n/a Does not follow

directions directions directions

Learning Accurately cites 2 Accurately cites 1 Does not cite any

Objective 1: Find places where the place where the places in the text
evidence of a author’s bias author’s bias shines where bias shines
narrator’s shines through through, or cites 2 through, and does not
argument, bias, with insubstantial cite substantial
and meaning evidence evidence

Learning Effectively, Paraphrases author’s Does not paraphrase

Objective 2: correctly, and argument with partial author’s argument
Paraphrase this efficiently correctness, with correctness,
argument. paraphrases effectiveness, or effectiveness, or
author’s linguistic efficiency. linguistic efficiency.
argument.

Materials: Social Media Word Profile Attached Separately

2 articles:
 https://www.foxnews.com/media/jared-kushner-we-have-all-the-testing-
we-need-to-start-reopening

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 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v745jm/how-to-protect-yourself-when-
states-reopen-early-georgia-texas-coronavirus

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