Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 24 - Superstition Lesson Plan
1 24 - Superstition Lesson Plan
Learning Objectives & Content Standard Alignment - Selects, creates, and sequences learning
experiences and performance tasks that support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum
goals based on content standards.
ELA.912.S.CS - Demonstrates the ability to have formal These standards account for three of
and informal discussions as well as give formal and the four being worked on throughout
informal presentations. the unit this lesson is a part of. These
standards are also Mt. Blue High
ELA.912.W.CS - Demonstrates the ability to write and school’s four main English standards
revise writing as well as the ability to complete short and and therefore the ones I'll be grading
sustained research. students using. They are also
developmentally appropriate and
ELA.912.L.CS - Demonstrates the ability to use content align with my unit goals. These
specific language and more generalized vocabulary as standards also align with both
well as capitalization and punctuation rules. objective one and two of this lesson.
Pre-assessment: Students will be graded on the slides As this was the first lesson I was
they put together that summarize the research about the teaching students and the first lesson
superstition they choose. of the unit, it was the perfect
opportunity to gauge students’
Formative: When they start reading students will also be abilities in some of the areas my unit
asked to answer the question: why would Skakespeare goals were surrounding. Mainly,
start his play with witches? students research abilities, their
handle over presentations, how well
they did with class discussions, and
their language skills. It was a relatively
low stakes assignment that would
show a lot of students’ abilities in the
areas I wanted to center the unit
around.
Instructional Methods: Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and performance
tasks by using a variety of instructional approaches, strategies, and technologies that make
learning accessible to all learners and support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals.
Answering the question “are you superstitious?” in their This starting question will get
reader/writer notebooks (5 minutes) students thinking about what they do
and don’t know about superstition
Class discussion to define superstition and explore before we move into the search and
everyone's experiences with them (20 minutes) find activity. Students will also get the
opportunity to do some self-reflection
Fact finding information dump where every student puts which is always a good skill to
one or more interesting fact about superstition on a practice. It is also a good time for
shared slideshow (10 minutes) students who process through writing
rather than speaking to prepare
Individual research activity on common superstitions and something to share during discussion.
how they’ve been used in the media (25 minutes) Students are also used to using their
reader/writer notebooks to respond
Share out where students summarize the findings of their to questions in this way. I thought
research (10 minutes) doing something familiar would help
students adjust to having a new
instructor.
- I could have been more clear when explaining the instructions for the
research assignment, or maybe the expectations. Students didn’t know if they
were doing the assignment right, but so long as they had all the elements
from the instructions I would have considered them good. I should have
communicated that more clearly. Also, I should have put the instructions on
Google Classroom and the Jamboard, not just a slide on the Jamboard like I
had.
- I should not have tried to introduce a new technology that students weren’t
familiar with because it distracted from the lesson. Students spent too much
time grappling with how to use Jamboard rather than completing their work.
- I am happy with how engaged students were with the topic and how
interested they got in the topics they chose to research more deeply. I hope
this carries through to the less exciting research they’ll be doing in the next
lesson. I also think that despite the lesson being on a more “fun” topic that it
related to the unit in a meaningful way.
Standard # 5 Designer
Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and
accommodate learner variability. Educators:
Indicator B: Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use
digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.
I designed this lesson to be learner driven in how students got to choose what topics they
wanted to research, and in how they were focused on answering their own questions and
curiosities instead of me lecturing on topics I thought were important. This lesson also required
students to make their own meaning and connections and take responsibility for their learning
in a way that would encourage them to be independent learners. This lesson was also created to
be an authentic learning experience because students were practicing skills applicable to their
lives outside of school, learning about a topic they were genuinely interested in because of its
relevance to them, and discussing real-world topics. It also clearly applies to different standards
in my content area as evidenced by the content standards section of the lesson plan where it is
aligned with four widely varying standards. I also used many digital tools in this lesson that
helped students deep dive into the lesson and grasp its objectives more strongly. For example, a
Jamboard was used to gather students’ thoughts during the share out activity, present
information about superstitions, give instructions, claim research topics, and create a shared
presentation. This lesson also showed my awareness of learner variability because of the section
on meeting students’ needs where I discuss various differentiations and accommodations I
planned for the class.
Indicator K: "Knows how to access information about the values and norms of diverse
cultures and communities and how to incorporate students' experiences, cultures, and
community resources into instruction."
This lesson plan shows my ability to understand individual differences, diverse cultures, and
various communities because it centers around exploring students' experiences with
superstition, disparate communities' experiences with superstition, and superstitions from
other cultures. It also shows my capacity to foster an inclusive learning environment where
every student can grow and develop to a high degree. It does this because a section of the
lesson asked students to share their experiences with superstition thereby encouraging them
in a low risk situation to feel comfortable taking part in class activities. It also shows students
that they have valuable experiences to share and that their voices have a meaningful impact
on class discussions. This lesson plan also shows that I know how to incorporate instruction
about the principles and conventions of variegated cultures and communities. I asked
students to share their own experiences with superstitions, the superstitions of a community
or culture they are in or know of have, I prompted students to search for information about
superstitions from other countries during the fact finding activity, and I gave students
diverse options to investigate for the research project portion of the lesson. Specifically,
students gathered superstitions from Japan, Syria, Mexico, Egypt, Christianity, sports, Maine,
Finland, and more during the search and find fact gathering activity. Then, some of the
options for the research activity that I chose were el chupacabra, palm reading, yetis, the
Jersey devil, the evil eye, the number 666, and more. Students also shared some of their
personal superstitions and superstitions from the cultures and communities they are a part
of such as wearing certain clothes before sports matches or reciting a certain mantra for luck.
In this way, I was purposefully including students' experiences with all of these areas into my
instruction too. I also did this in the beginning portion of class when students wrote about
whether they were superstitious or not and then had a class discussion sharing their
responses and knowledge about superstition. All in all, in this lesson, I created a comfortable
learning climate where students could succeed, gathered information about diverse cultures
and communities to share with students, and encouraged learners to share their experiences
in those areas too.