Lesson Plan Template

Date: March 12, 2021 Teacher’s Name: Lawrence Donohue

Subject: ELA Grade level: 10th Grade

Learning Segment Title:
Length of each lesson: Lesson ____ out of
____

Central Focus:

The Central Focus should describe the following for the entire learning segment:

1. What you are teaching your students.

2. The purpose of teaching this content.
3. How the implemented standards or planned learning objectives apply to a learning
strategy that you used, any skills that are acquired during the lesson, and any content-
area connections.
4. How this lesson plan will work with other lesson plans in a unit to help students make
these connections between the skills they develop and your essential strategy (or
composing text in meaningful contexts).

The purpose of this lesson is to build upon students’ previous knowledge of textual
elements. The students will learn to make meaning from poetry by identifying how
the structure, textual elements, and word choice of poems develop and interact.
They will also learn to make meaning by identifying central ideas and understanding
how these ideas develop and interact throughout individual texts as well as
throughout a series of related texts. This lesson will serve as a building block for
tracking the development of central ideas through short stories and informational
texts.

Essential Question(s):

1) What is this text about? What is the author trying to say? How can I figure out the
central ideas of this text?

2) “How do people, events, and ideas develop within the text” (McTighe & Wiggins,
2012), and how do they interact?

3) How do an author’s choices contribute to a text’s meaning?

4) How might different texts develop similar central ideas in different ways?

Learning Standards:

- RL.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- RL.9-10.2: Determine one or more themes or central ideas in a text and analyze its
development, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details;
objectively and accurately summarize a text.
- RL.9-10.3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over
the course of a text.
- RL.9-10.5: In literary texts, consider how varied aspects of structure create meaning and
affect the reader.
- Practice Standard E5: They value evidence.
- Practice Standard E2: They build strong content knowledge.

Pre-Assessment: (if applicable)

Learning Objectives: Students will: Assessments:

Day 1 - Students will track the development Day 1 - Homework assignment in which
of the pastoral genre of poetry throughout students fill out a timeline that shows the
history. development of the pastoral genre, based
on information from an in-class reading.
Day 2
Day 2
Day 3
Day 3

Differentiation:
- Students with a preference for visual learning will benefit from the Do-Now activity, which
involves images of pastoral paintings, as well as the timeline worksheet.
- Students who are less-skilled in reading will have time to think about and make sense of
their reading through the Double-Entry Journal strategy.
- Modeling responding to the text will help students who may not know how to respond to the
text in writing.

Academic Language – how language will be taught, practiced and used in the lessons in the
learning segment

1. Language function is the verb used to describe what is to be learned. This could be a
variety of words like identify, analyze, summarize, define, explain, conclude, justify,
compare.
2. Language demand is the task/assignment the student is to complete. This can be
anything that you assign such as an essay, writing a paragraph, sentence, speech, lab
write-up, graphing an equation, or answering DBQ's. 
3. Vocabulary means any of the words the student should know in order to define and
comprehend the content of the lesson.

Students will be able to display their understanding of the content by tracking the
development of the pastoral genre of poetry throughout history. The language function is to
analyze. The language demand is to create a timeline tracking the development of the
pastoral genre over broad eras of history. Vocabulary includes pastoral (ELA-specific) and rural
(general).
Procedure: 

Day 1- Lesson Topic: Pastoral Poetry
Anticipatory Set (hook, motivation, etc. to engage students)
Sponge Activity (activity that will be done as students enter the room to get them into the
mindset of the concept to be learned)

Anticipatory Set (focus question/s that will be used to get students thinking about the day’s
lesson)

1) Present the paintings “Pastoral” by Frederick Cayley Robinson and “An Autumn Pastoral” by
Francois Boucher” on the PowerPoint along with the Do-Now question, “How would you
describe these paintings?” (Slide 2). Students will answer this question in their notebooks.
2) Have students discuss their answer with a partner. Then discuss students’ answers as a
class.
1) Possible student answers might include literal descriptions of the paintings’
subjects, such as “The people are surrounded by nature” and “The paintings
depict farmers and their sheep,” or more abstract descriptions, such as
“peaceful” or “beautiful.”
3) Explain that these paintings are called “pastorals” and that the word “pastoral” can also
refer to a genre of literature; today, we will be learning about pastoral poetry.

Activating Prior Knowledge (what information will be shared with/among students to connect
to prior knowledge/experience)

1) Ask students what pastoral poems might be about, based on what they have discussed
about the paintings. Present the definition of pastoral poetry (Slide 3): “A pastoral poem is
a poem that depicts an idealized view of rural life” (“Pastoral Poems,” n.d.). Students will
take notes on the PowerPoint and extra spoken information.
1) Ask students if they know what the word “rural” refers to. Explain that it refers
to the country/countryside. Have students add this definition to their notebooks.
2) Note the root word “pastor,” relate it to the word “pasture,” and explain that pastoral
poems often involve shepherds (“Pastoral Poems,” n.d.).
3) Explain that the values and imagery associated with pastoral literature are similar to those
associated with “cottagecore,” a recent aesthetic movement, popularized by social media
sites like TikTok.

Initial Phase
Direct Instruction (input, modeling, check for understanding)

1) Tell the students that we will read a glossary entry about pastoral poetry and track its
development throughout history. Say that we will take notes as we read with a strategy
known as the Double-Entry Journal.
2) Present the Double-Entry Journal chart (Slide 4). Explain that with this strategy, we will
create two columns of notes. Have students fold their papers in half or draw the chart in
their notebooks.
3) Present the steps to the Double-Entry Journal strategy (Slide 5). Explain that as we read,
we will pause at certain moments in the text to take notes.
1) Explain that on the left side of our paper, we will summarize or write quotes
from the section of the passage that we have read, and on the right side, we will
write a response or reaction to it (“Double-Entry Journals,” n.d.). Responses can
be a comment, a question about the passage, a short analysis of the passage, or
 a connection we make between the passage and something else (“Double-Entry
Journals,” n.d.).
4) Hand out copies of the glossary entry “Pastoral” (“Pastoral,” n.d.). Tell the students that
we will read the glossary entry as a class and pause at the same points.
5) Begin reading the glossary entry aloud.
1) Briefly pause after the first paragraph to note the definition of “pastoral.” Also
note the subheading of the next section, “History of the Pastoral
Tradition” (“Pastoral,” n.d.). Continue reading.
2) Pause after the first block quote, which ends “It yield what the farmer prays for
…” (“Pastoral,” n.d.).
6) Present the chart on Slide 6 and model summarizing the section under the “Notes from the
Text” column: “Ancient Greek poets like Hesiod and Theocritus wrote poems about labor
and rural life. Later, the Roman poet Virgil wrote poems praising the farm life and work.”
7) Model reacting by writing a response in the “My Response” column, such as “Why did poets
like Virgil praise farm life? —> Praising hard work?” Tell students that for the next few
sections, they will come up with their own summaries/quotes and responses.

Middle Phase
Guided Practice (how students will demonstrate their grasp of new learning)
1) Allow students time to copy the example response and/or write their own response to the
first section.
2) Read the next two paragraphs aloud. Pause after the line, “… abandoning their
responsibilities” (“Pastoral,” n.d.). Allow students time to write notes and responses to this
section.
3) Continue reading the next two paragraphs and the block quote that ends, “Come live with
me, and be my love” (“Pastoral,” n.d.). Allow students time to write notes and responses
to this section.
4) Read the last two paragraphs and allow students time to write notes and responses to
them.

Independent Practice (what students will do to reinforce learning of the lesson)

1) Provide the students with the “Pastoral Poetry Timeline” worksheet. Students will re-read
the glossary entry and fill out the timeline for homework. They will use what they have
learned from the glossary entry to write a timeline of how the pastoral poem has
developed throughout history.
1) Explain to students that they do not need to write exact dates for every event;
broad eras, such as “Ancient Greece” or “Italian Renaissance” are acceptable.

Concluding Phase
Closure/Summary: Action/statement by student(s)/teacher to wrap up lesson
1) Ask students to volunteer to discuss their quotes/summaries and their responses to them.

Follow up: What comes next to reinforce the lesson (HW or supplemental instruction)
1) Homework assignment: Students will re-read the glossary entry and complete the “Pastoral
Poetry Timeline” worksheet, in which they will use what they have learned from the glossary
entry to fill in a timeline of how the pastoral poem has developed throughout history.

Materials: (items, technology, etc.)

- Google Slides
- “Pastoral” glossary entry from poets.org.
- “Pastoral Poetry Timeline” Worksheet

References and Resources: Cite (APA style) sources, texts, lesson plans used in the learning
segment

- Pastoral. (n.d.). Poets.org. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://poets.org/glossary/pastoral 

- Pastoral Poems. (n.d.). Study.com. Retrieved March 12, 2021 from https://study.com/academy/
lesson/pastoral-poems-definition-examples-quiz.html 
- Double-Entry Journals. (n.d.). AdLit. Retrieved March 12, 2021 from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/
22091/

Add additional lessons as needed