UWP Lesson Plan Template
Teacher Name: Hannah Gartner
Target Content/Lesson Topic: Vocabulary Strategy
This lesson is for a(n) __X__ whole class
Essential Question
- What is the essential question that
this lesson addresses?
- What is the core purpose of the
lesson that includes the strategies
and skills necessary to accomplish
the deeper learning in the standard?
Sequencing
- How does this lesson fit into the
larger unit of study?
- Focus on a logical/hierarchical
sequencing of skills (e.g., main ideas
before details, similarities before
differences).
State Learning Standards
List the complete, relevant
grade-level standard(s).
Learning Target(s) and Learning
Objective(s)
- Choose your learning target(s) and
objective(s) based on the relevant
state learning standard(s).
September 2021
Grade Level: 6th-7th
Date: 3/27/2022
_____ small group _____ individual
Planning
● How can a strategy be turned into a graphic organizer?
● By the end of the lesson, students should be able to identify and define unknown words and phrases in
grade-level reading and determine the difference between easy and tricky vocab words.
L.5.2: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases in grade-level
reading and content; use context clues, analyze meaningful word parts, consult general and specialized
reference materials, and apply word solving strategies (for meaning) as appropriate.
● Prior to this lesson, students will be expected to understand phonological awareness, print concepts,
decoding/sight-words, fluency, and automaticity. By this point in middle school, students should be
fluent readers and ready to focus on Tier 3 vocab words.
L.6.2: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases in grade-level
reading and content; use context clues, analyze meaningful word parts, consult general and specialized
reference materials, and apply word solving strategies (for meaning) as appropriate.
● I can find the meaning of unknown words/phrases in a reading by using clues and resources as needed.
● We can use our context clues, analyzing skills, and resources to determine the meaning or unknown
words and phrases.
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- Write focused targets and
objectives that describe the specific
learning outcome (what students
should be able to do as a result of
the lesson).
- Be sure they are stated in
observable and measurable terms
(e.g., ABCD+T).
Grouping ● This will be a whole group lesson, but students will be able to work in their table groups.
Describe how and why students are ● This could also be used for a center activity later, if appropriate
grouped based on
- homogeneous, heterogeneous,
randomized
- ability, interest, IEP goals, social or
social-emotional, behavioral,
language acquisition
Co-Teaching Strategy N/A
Does this lesson involve
co-teaching? If not, state N/A. If
yes, identify the co-teaching model
and what role each teacher will play.
-One Teach, One Observe; One
Teach, One Assist; Station Teaching;
Parallel Teaching; Supplemental;
Alternative; Team Teaching

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September 2021
Differentiation
Describe how you will meet
individual students’ needs by
adjusting the content, process,
product, and environment based on
their readiness, interests, and learning
preferences.
Content
I would want the first time learning this activity for the whole class to use the same collections of texts. If done
again, students could pick their own topic and vocab to organize onto a ladder worksheet.
Process
Students can work independently or in their table groups. If any students need audiobooks, they would have
headphones and similar/the same readings on audio if I could not read to them.
Product
If any SPED/ELL students do not want to write on the worksheet, they can complete the worksheet verbally
to me/an assistant while I/they write it down on the worksheet.
Environment
For students that want to work somewhere other than in their normal desk, there will be seating options (bean
bags, floor, standing desks, etc.) and clipboards for their work.

IEP Goals Relevant to Lesson (Add rows as necessary.)

Student IEP Goal

Accommodations and/or Modifications Required for Students in Special Education (Add rows as necessary.)

Student(s) Required Accommodation/Modification

Supports for English Language Learners (Add rows as necessary.)

Student Necessary Supports (e.g., Sheltered English strategies, grouping strategies)

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September 2021
 Assessment
Formative Assessment ● Throughout the lesson, I will monitor by walking around the room.
- How will you monitor student ● I will also use their completed ladder worksheets to see if they understand how to organize the words
learning throughout the lesson?
- Be specific about how your practice
assessments connect directly with
the lesson objective.
Formative Evaluation Criteria See below the LP for details
- What material(s) will you use to
evaluate learning?
- Attach a copy of your checklist,
rubric, observation criteria, or other
measure.
Summative Assessment ● A summative assessment for this standard (in the future) could be a quiz of sorts. A book/article will
How will students demonstrate have unknown words, but no glossary for students to refer to. They will be given a list of unknown
mastery of the standard? words to define using context clues from the reading.
​Note: This assessment does not have ● Another option would be for students to study a selection of vocab words. Using those words, they
to occur during/after this lesson but could write a short story. I would determine if the words were or were not used correctly and if the
in upcoming lessons. story made sense.

Summative Evaluation Criteria ● Words used correctly in story? (1-4 points)

- What material(s) will you use to
evaluate learning?
- Attach a copy of your checklist,
rubric, observation criteria, or other
measure.
● Words correctly defined? (1-4 points)
● Correct spelling? (1 or 4)
● Words correctly used in a sentence? (1-4)

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September 2021

Opening: Introduction and
Connection to Previous Learning
● Anticipatory Activity (Hook)
● Activate prior knowledge.
● Be sure students understand
procedures and instructions for
the lesson.
● Establish clear expectations.
● Model concept.
The groupings/instruction/lesson
progression may look different in different
parts of the lesson!
During: Lesson Progression
In this portion of the lesson, you will
be letting go and letting students
engage in productive struggle;
engaging in gradual release (“I do,
we do, you do”), inquiry, guided or
independent practice, or other
learning methods. Please write what
you are looking for in terms of:
● Students’ thinking and how
they will start the lesson.
● Provide appropriate support
(not explaining how to do it).
● Provide worthwhile
extensions.
● Provide opportunities for
students to engage in using
the academic language.
September 2021
Procedures
● “Do any of you want to be an astronaut when you grow up? Or is it a bucket list goal to visit space?” I
would allow for a couple minutes of discussion about space. I want them to get excited to learn about
Katherine Johnson and the other NASA readings.
● “OK friends, let’s bring it back into our vocabulary lesson. What we are going to do today is learn a
new strategy to help us understand new words and phrases in our readings. Our first reading is about a
female mathematician who worked for NASA. This article has some tricky new words, so what we are
going to do is use this new ladder strategy to help us sort the words in a new reading. Are we ready to
get started?”
● Students will be able to choose between independent work or table group work. By this time in the
year, they will know what their expectations are during in-class work. For group work, they are to keep
their voice level at 1 (whispering) or 2 (normal speaking voice). Groups will each get two reminders
before independent work is enforced.
● “OK class, for this new ladder strategy, you will get one of these worksheets with a graphic organizer.
At the front of the classroom, I have several books and articles to read about NASA, astronauts, and
space. Each book and article have a vocab list at the end for words you might not know. In your
notebooks, I want you to write down the vocab words and their definitions from each reading you pick
out. Once you have gathered the words from 5 different books or articles, you may take out your ladder
organizer.”
● Students will have ten minutes to start collecting their words from the readings. During this time, I will
be walking around the room and making sure no one seems confused or off-track. I will be monitoring
for active reading, good behaviors, and on-task note-taking. I want students to both read the texts they
choose to understand the context of the new words, as well as show that they can use the glossary text
structure.
● “Time is up! If you are still reading your first five texts, that is OK, but please put them down and listen
for directions. Once you have your complete list of vocab words, we are going to move them onto our
Ladder worksheet. At the bottom of the ladder, you will write the easier words. Words you already
knew or could easily figure out on your own. At the top of the ladder, you will write the words you
didn’t know yet; the tricky words. Next to each vocab word you include on the ladder, write which book
or article the word came from. I will walk around and make sure you are all working hard!”
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This is where you will be
suggesting or modeling specific
strategies and helping students
choose which strategy makes sense
to them. However, you must make
sure ideas come from students.
Closing: Wrap-Up and Extension ● After another ten minutes of work, I will have the students stop where they are so we can share with
End the lesson with a final review of the class.
key ideas and knowledge. This is ● “OK friends! Does anyone want to share with the class what the easiest work they found was? What
where you have students talk about about the hardest? Great, those are great words to add to your ladder! How about each table group
their thinking and share strategies shares their favorite new words from their space-themed readings.”
with the whole class. It’s important ● “Did you guys like this activity? Would you like to try it again with some other topics? Is there anything
to name strategies and use academic I could have done differently to make this activity better or more fun?”
vocabulary here, extending the ● At this age, I feel like students can provide feedback on lessons and give their honest opinions,
lesson to broader ideas. hopefully without being rude. I think I would finish each lesson asking them for those opinions!
● Promote a community of
learners.
● Listen actively and probe
thinking without evaluating
or telling them how you
would do it.
Summarize main ideas and identify
future problems that they would be
able to solve using the thinking you
have discussed. Provide a brief
preview of what the next lesson will
include.

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September 2021
Curricular and Instructional ● “Who is Katherine Johnson?” by NASA 2017 nonfiction text
Resources or Materials ● https://science.nasa.gov/wavelength-resource-types/articleinformative-text This site has several other
- List and provide a brief rationale texts on the same topic from different reading levels. These bonus texts would be used for the strategy
for all necessary lesson resources and ● Blank graphic organizer, see below
materials. If not original, cite the
source.
- Attach/link a copy of all materials
the teacher and students will use
during the lesson; e.g., handouts,
questions to answer, slides,
worksheets, and so on.

●
● The graphic organizer worksheet would have a large ladder similar to this one spanning across the
whole page. There would be a line at the top for student names and a title across the top: Read Up a
Ladder. The top of the ladder would have a label that reads Tricky Words and a label on the bottom
that reads Easy Words.
Supplies, Equipment and ● Clipboards
Technology ● Pencils
- List all other supplies that need to
be available.

Formative Assessment Evaluation Criteria

1. Does the student understand the difference between easy and tricky words? Did they organize them correctly? (1 point for no, 4 points for yes)
2. Does the student know where to find the definitions they need for each vocab word? (glossary - text structure) (1 for no, 4 for yes)
3. Was the student focused for the entirety of the independent/small group work time? (1 no focus had to work independently, 2 needed several
reminders, 3 needed one or two, 4 worked well and stayed focused)

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September 2021
 Name: Class:

Who Is Katherine Johnson?

By NASA
2017

Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) was an African American physicist and mathematician who worked at NASA
during the early years of the space program. In this biography, the NASA Science Team describes Johnson's early
life and her time working on their space missions. As you read, take notes on the challenges Johnson faced along
her career path.

[1] Katherine Johnson was an African-American

mathematician who worked for NASA from 1953 until
1986. She was a human computer. In a time when
minorities held very few jobs in mathematics and
science, Johnson was a trailblazer. Her work in
calculating the paths for spaceships to travel was
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monumental in helping NASA successfully put an
American in orbit around Earth. Then her work
helped to land astronauts on the moon.

What Was Katherine Johnson’s Early

Life Like?

Katherine Johnson was born in 1918 in White Sulphur

Springs, West Virginia. As a very young girl, she loved
to count things. She counted everything, from the
number of steps she took to get to the road to the "NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson is
number of forks and plates she washed when doing photographed at her desk at Langley Research Center
in 1966" by NASA is in the public domain.
the dishes.

Johnson was born with a love for mathematics. At a young age, she was very eager to go to school. Even when
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she was in her 90s, Johnson could vividly recall watching her older siblings go to school, wishing so much that
she could go with them. When Johnson finally did start school, she so excelled that by age 10, she was in high
school. By age 15, she’d started college!

What Did She Study in College?

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At West Virginia State College, Johnson became immersed in the math program. She loved being surrounded

1. Monumental (adjective) great in importance, extent, or size

2. Vivid (adjective) producing strong or intense mental images

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 by smart people, she said, and knew all of the professors and students on campus. One of her math professors,
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the renowned Dr. William W. Schiefflin Claytor, recognized Johnson’s bright and inquisitive mind. “You’d make a
great research mathematician,” he told her. (A research mathematician does many things, one of which is
solving large math problems.) Then Claytor helped her become one.

[5] Johnson said, “Many professors tell you that you’d be good at this or that, but they don’t always help you with
that career path. Professor Claytor made sure I was prepared to be a research mathematician.” Claytor made
sure that Johnson took all of the math classes she needed to pursue her life’s passion. He even created a class
about the geometry of outer space — just for her. Geometry is the study of lines, angles and shapes.

At age 18, Johnson graduated with very high grades and degrees in mathematics and French.

What Did She Do After College?

When Johnson graduated from college, the United States was still segregated. During this time, “segregation”
meant that different races were separated from each other in many places and activities. African-Americans
were rarely able to have jobs in mathematics and science. It was also very unusual for women of any race to
have degrees in mathematics. At that time, the only professional job available to Johnson after graduation was
teaching. She taught school for a number of years but stopped when she married and had children. In 1952,
she started teaching again to support her family after her husband became ill.

How Did She Get to NASA?

When Johnson was 34 years old, she applied for a job at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or
NACA. NACA was the name of the government agency that later became NASA. In the early to mid-1950s, NACA
was just beginning its work on studying space. NACA was hiring women — including African-Americans — to be
“computers.” These female computers calculated the mathematics for the engineers who were working on the
space program. The first time Johnson applied, all of the jobs were already filled. She was disappointed, but she
didn’t give up. Johnson applied the following year, and that time the agency offered her a job. She took it and
worked with a large group of women who were all computers like her.

What Did She Do for NASA?

As Johnson worked on math problems with the other female computers, she would ask questions. She didn’t
want to just do the work — she wanted to know the “hows” and the “whys,” and then the “why nots.” By asking
questions, Johnson began to stand out.

[10] Women were not allowed to attend meetings with the male engineers and scientists. Johnson wanted to go to
these meetings to learn more about the projects, so she went. She became known for her training in geometry
and began to work with teams made up of men. Eventually, she was recognized as a leader, and the men

3. Immerse (verb) to involve oneself deeply in a particular activity or interest

4. Inquisitive (adjective) curious

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 increasingly relied on her to have the answers they needed.

In 1958, NACA officially became NASA. Shortly thereafter, Johnson became part of the space team. She began
calculating the flight path, or trajectory path, for the rocket to put the first American in space in 1961. That
American was astronaut Alan Shepard. The engineers knew when and where they wanted Shepard’s space
capsule to land, but the tricky part was to calculate when and where the rocket would have to launch. Johnson
figured it out! And in February 1962, her calculations helped put the first American into orbit around Earth. His
name was John Glenn.

In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy charged the country to send a man to the moon. The math
calculations for sending a man to the moon were similar to those for putting a man into orbit. But this time,
a lot more calculations were involved. This mission would include a crew of three astronauts launching from
Earth to the moon; two astronauts landing on the moon; and then all three returning successfully back to Earth.

Johnson worked with the NASA team to figure out where and when the rocket needed to be launched to put it
on the right path to land on the moon. Once again, Johnson’s calculations were instrumental in NASA’s success.
With the information she provided, astronauts walked on the moon for the first time on July 20, 1969. They
returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969. All of this happened, in part, because of Johnson and her love of
mathematics.

What Did She Do After NASA?

Katherine Johnson retired from NASA in 1986. In 2016, she received honorary doctorates in science from West
Virginia University and West Virginia State University.

[15] After her retirement, she enjoyed traveling, playing bridge (a card game), and spending time with her family and
friends. She also liked to talk to students about school. She often told students to keep studying and to work
hard. She encouraged students to learn more about mathematics and science — and to never give up on their
dreams.

Katherine Johnson passed away in 2020, at the age of 101.

"Who Is Katherine Johnson?" from NASA Knows by Heather S. Deiss and Denise Miller (2017) is in the public domain.

Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

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 Text-Dependent Questions
Directions: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. PART A: Which of the following statements best describes the central idea of the text?
A. Katherine Johnson overcame racial and gender discrimination and became one of the
top mathematicians at NASA.
B. Katherine Johnson wanted to work for NASA, but her status as an African American
woman prevented her from doing so.
C. Katherine Johnson was responsible for designing the first space probe sent to the
Moon.
D. Katherine Johnson had a difficult childhood, but after beginning work at NASA, she
faced less discrimination.

2. PART B: Which section from the text best supports the answer to Part A?
A. "In a time when minorities held very few jobs in mathematics and science, Johnson was
a trailblazer." (Paragraph 1)
B. "Johnson could vividly recall watching her older siblings go to school, wishing so much
that she could go with them." (Paragraph 3)
C. "As Johnson worked on math problems with the other female computers, she would
ask questions." (Paragraph 9)
D. "She encouraged students to learn more about mathematics and science — and to
never give up on their dreams." (Paragraph 15)

3. Which statement best describes the effect of the words "immersed" and "inquisitive" on the
meaning of paragraph 4?
A. They suggest that Katherine Johnson would ask questions of other students to study
more effectively.
B. They suggest that Katherine Johnson was exceeding the expectations her family had
set for her.
C. They show that Katherine Johnson's professors were committed to helping her succeed
in her career.
D. They show that Katherine Johnson approached the study of mathematics with energy
and enthusiasm.

4. PART A: How do the details about Johnson's early life in paragraphs 2-3 help us understand her
later success?
A. Her struggles in school show how much she developed during her early life before
working for NASA.
B. By describing her love of counting, the text shows that Johnson was always passionate
about math.
C. Johnson's enrollment in college at just 15 years old emphasizes how different she was
from her peers.
D. Johnson's early academic success made her later accomplishments seem less
impressive in comparison.

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5. PART B: Which detail from paragraphs 2-3 best supports the answer to Part A?
A. "She counted everything, from the number of steps she took to get to the road to the
number of forks and plates she washed when doing the dishes." (Paragraph 2)
B. "At a young age, she was very eager to go to school." (Paragraph 3)
C. "Johnson could vividly recall watching her older siblings go to school, wishing so much
that she could go with them." (Paragraph 3)
D. "she so excelled that by age 10, she was in high school. By age 15, she'd started
college!" (Paragraph 3)

6. How do paragraphs 6-8 contribute to the development of ideas about Johnson's life?

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 Discussion Questions
Directions: Brainstorm your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared to share
your original ideas in a class discussion.

1. From an early age, Johnson loved math and science. In the context of the text, what is the goal of
education? Is it more important for education to help people achieve their career goals or to inspire
a love of learning? Cite evidence from this text, your own experience, and other literature, art, or
history in your answer.

2. For the majority of Johnson's early life, many places in the U.S. were still strictly segregated. In the
context of the text, what are the effects of prejudice? How did prejudice impact Johnson's pursuit of
her career? What lessons can be learned from Johnson's response to prejudice?

3. In your experience, how do we define the roles of men and women? How has Katherine Johnson
helped expand the role of women — particularly African American women — in math and science?
How does the larger society benefit when men and women have equal opportunities? Cite evidence
from this text, your own experience, and other literature, art, or history in your answer.