Collaborative Lesson: Ms. Richardson (L) & Mrs.

Smith (T)

Lesson topic/focus The topic of this lesson is fact vs. opinion for Mrs. Smith’s
7th grade English class. The focus is on information
literacy. There are 22 students in the class; 2 are ELL
(level 4 proficiency); 1 has dyslexia. Lesson resources are
available in leveled texts and are printed using the
Dyslexie font.

Content curriculum 7.6 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension
standards of a variety of nonfiction texts. d) Differentiate between fact
and opinion.

AASL standards II. Include A. Think 2. Adopting a discerning stance toward

points of view and opinions expressed in information
resources and learning products.

Resources ● leveled articles from ​Tween Tribune​, printed

● NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research ​video stream
● paper & pencils

Division of Ms. Richardson and Mrs. Smith will co-plan, co-teach, and
responsibilities co-assess.
Before the collaborative lesson, Mrs. Smith will introduce
the concept of differentiating fact from opinion.
Collaborative lesson: In the library, NOAA’s ocean
exploration live stream video will be playing as students
enter. Ms. R. will ask students to do a think-pair-share to
answer the question, “Are Earth’s oceans in danger?” After
students share, Ms. R. will ask if students’ responses are
facts or opinions, and will discuss how facts can inform
opinions. Next, Ms. R. & Mrs. S. will distribute the article,
“Ocean heat waves are threatening marine life,
biodiversity” to students and instruct them to read the
article and create a two-column chart: facts from the
article, and opinions from the article. Then, as a group,
Mrs. S. & Ms. R. will lead students to summarize the facts
from the article, discussing any discrepancies between the
facts students noted. To close, students will write below
their two-column chart to answer the questions, “Are
Earth’s oceans in danger?” and “How did the facts from the
article change your opinion?”
Students will turn in their papers, and Ms. Richardson &
Mrs. Smith will go over them together to assess student
learning.
Joint planning First planning session: informal, after school--Mrs. Smith
stopped by the library to ask about collaborating on a fact
vs. opinion lesson.
Second planning session: Ms. Richardson & Mrs. Smith
met during Mrs. Smith’s planning period. Ms. Richardson
presented several resources and ideas, and Mrs. Smith
shared what instruction had already been done on the
topic. They planned a lesson to take place a few days
later.
Third session: After the collaborative lesson, Ms.
Richardson & Mrs. Smith will meet during Mrs. Smith’s
planning to discuss the lesson and plan for future
instruction & remediation.

Assessment of student Informal, formative: Ms. Richardson & Mrs. Smith will go
learning over student responses to see how students are doing with
the concept, and identify which students will need further
practice and what the next steps are.

Assessment of lesson Ms. Richardson & Mrs. Smith will meet after the
success collaborative lesson to discuss how the lesson went and
what could be improved, as well as next steps for the
students.

Librarian’s impact Students benefit from the librarian’s resources and

expertise in analyzing nonfiction. The librarian will extend
the lesson by approaching the science department to
share what was taught and how to incorporate similar
topics and skills into science classes, as well as to discuss
further collaborative lessons.