EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods

5E Lesson Plan Template*

This assignment is worth 20 points. A draft will be submitted in week 5 for feedback. The
final plan to be graded will be submitted during Week 6.

Your Name Joshua Olmstead

Lesson Subject Area English Language Arts - 8th Grade

Specific Topic We will explore diverse expressions of “Home” in literature, as a

theme transcending physical structures, and encompassing both
positive and negative connotations. We will also examine the role
“Home” plays in character development, making meaningful
crossover connections to real life and current events.

Appropriate Stan- Standard - CC.1.3.8.A

dards being ad- Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its devel-
dressed opment over the course of the text, including its relationship to the
characters.

Standard - CC.1.3.8.B
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of
what the text says explicitly as well as inferences, conclusions,
and/or generalizations drawn from the text.

Standard - CC.1.3.8.C
Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story re-
veal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

Standard - CC.1.4.8.S
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research, applying grade-level reading
standards for literature and literary nonfiction.

Standard - CC.1.4.8.W
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital
sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and
accuracy of each source;

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
Instructional Objec- At the end of this lesson the students will be able to:
tives (Bloom Level) 1. Students will be able to name a central idea of the song “Home”
Minimum of three and analyze how it develops over the course of the song, citing
at least two lyrics, to support their answers in a turn and talk or
their writing journal.
2. Students will be able to cite textural evidence that supports their
analysis of what 3 interviewees in a video say explicitly and as
an inference in a graphic organizer.
3. In a graphic organizer, students will cite evidence for up to 3
examples of how particular text, lines of dialogue or incidents
in Gwendolyn Brook’s “Home” reveal Helen and Maud
Martha’s thoughts about home, or inferences we can draw.
4. Students will craft a statement summarizing the theme or cen-
tral idea of Gwendolyn Brook’s “Home."
5. Students will gather four sources on a current issue inspired by
our previous song, video, and text, then assess the credibility of
each source based on a criteria list they created in collaboration
with peers.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
ENGAGE At the beginning of class, we watch a clip of Dorothy, played by
Activities Diana Ross, singing Home from Director Sidney Lumet’s 1978
film adaptation of the popular Broadway musical The Wiz, a
retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic novel The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz through the eyes of a young African-American kindergarten
teacher who's "never been below 125th Street.”

Taking cues from Harvey & Daniels (2015) Lesson 2: Listen to

Your Inner Voice (p. 153), I pause the video after a few seconds,
and ask the students what they think the song is about, and what it
makes them think about. After notating students’ initials thoughts
on the marker board, I model a few of my own, if necessary. We
resume watching the video.

When the video is over I ask the students to turn and talk or jot
down in their journals what the song made them think about.

Meanwhile I create a graphic organizer on the marker board

with two columns: 1.) What The Song is About and 2.) What It
Makes Me Think About.

Based on what I’ve overheard and what students are willing to

share from their journals, we add to column 2. Then, I project the
lyric sheet of the song on the Smartboard and we discuss what the
song is mostly about (longing, nostalgia, homesick) and how the
central idea changes (acceptance, love, hope) over the course of
the song using at least two lyrics to support our answers in column
1.

Diverse learner accommodations:

• Capture responses on an audio recorder
• First language responses encouraged

Immersion Informal Assessment #1 will include participation in

the above turn and talk, journal writing, and discussion activity.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
EXPLORE Taking cues from Harvey & Daniels (2015) Lesson 1: Activate
Activities and Build Background Knowledge (p. 152), I create an anchor
chart on the marker board with 2 columns: 1.) What We Think We
Know About Home and 2.) What Surprised Us. I invite students to
share what they think they know about home for column 1.

Next, we watch SoulPancake’s What Does Home Mean to You

video, featuring interviews with 100 people giving diverse expres-
sions of home. Then invite students to share something someone
in the video said about home that surprised them and add it to col-
umn 2.

I explain that part of the reason we were surprised by the intervie-

wees’ responses is because of inferences based on what they said
explicitly. After writing out the definition of inference, I model
two examples from the video:

1.) From the interviewee who explicitly said “wake up so and so

to move their car,” we could infer that he meant home was not a
pleasant thought because it reminded him of annoying roommates
or parking restrictions.

2.) Whereas, when another interviewee said “chimneys, and stock-

ings, and stuff,” we could infer he meant home reminded him of
holidays.

Students transition to small groups to work on a shared graphic

organizer, in which they write 3 explicit comments by 3 different
interviewees and the inferences we can draw from each one.
Groups are permitted one laptop per small group to re-watch the
video. (Handout #1).

Diverse learner accommodations:

• Make it visual
• Build in more group work

Immersion Informal Assessment #2 includes small group partici-

pation, graphic organizer documentation, and discussion in this ac-
tivity.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
EXPLAIN Next, I introduce today’s independent reading assignment Gwen-
Activities dolyn Brooks’ short story Home as a formal piece of literature
that features two characters Helen and Maud Martha with two
very different ideas of home.

We read aloud the story and then I ask students to independently

re-read and annotate the story, underlining sections of the text
that reveal Helen’s thoughts about home and circling sections of
the text that reveal Maud Martha’s thoughts about home (Hand-
out #2). I remind students that sometimes we can make inferences
about what people in real life and characters in stories say explic-
itly, so to be on the look out for inferences and to jot down any
that they find in the margins.

As the students read, I circulate the room, checking in on students

and applying Harvey & Daniels’ (2015) explicit instruction prin-
ciple of helping students with comprehension strategies, also out-
lined in our textbook (p. 28-30, 46).

Before transitioning to the next activity, and for students who fin-
ish their re-read and annotations early, I ask students to complete a
graphic organizer with columns for Helen and Maud Martha, and
lines for citing the evidence they underlined and circled in the text
that reveals the characters’ individual thoughts on home. I remind
students to cite the page number of their text evidence and to ex-
plain how the evidence shows the theme of Home, or reveals an
inference (Handout #3).

Diverse learner accommodations:

• Allow extra time
• Provide a quite space to work

Immersive Informal Assessment #3 includes annotations, one-

on-one desk conferences, and graphic organizer.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
ELABORATE Now that we have discussed and written about the theme of home
Activities in song, life, and literature, what questions do we have? Let’s ex-
tend our understanding creating a wonder list inspired by our
learning as described in Harvey & Daniels (2015) Lesson 26:
Model Your Own Inquiry Process (p. 177).

I model my own wonder list:

• What is the status of the John Coltrane’s former home in Phil-

adelphia? Is the city still going to make it into a museum that
we can visit?
• What migratory birds fly over Philadelphia, and where are
they going to and coming from?
• What are the impacts of homelessness on students in our city
and other cities?
• Who came up with the saying home is where the heart is?

Students work independently on their own wonder lists in their

writing journals, before choosing their favorite question. In the
next step, students will research four articles related to their cho-
sen question.

Diverse learner accommodations:

• Provide frequent checks for comprehension

Investigate Informal Assessment #4 includes developing re-

searchable questions.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
EVALUATE For our final activity, students will read their four articles, then
Activities meet in small groups to discuss and make a list of procedures for
validating the credibility of their sources.

Students will narrow down their own credibility lists, and include
their four articles, taking care to specify each article’s credibility
according to their criteria in a graphic organizer (Handout #4).

Diverse learner accommodations:

• Incorporate group work into the assessment process
• Simplify the language and organization of the assessment

Coalesce Informal Assessment #4 engages in deeper reading and

researching; checks sources and credibility; synthesizes informa-
tion to build knowledge.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin
 EDUC 360-3: Middle Years Methods
References Brooks, G. (1953). “Home” from Maud Martha. Reprinted by
Consent of Brooks Permissions. https://www.commonlit.org/en/
texts/home-1

Harvey, S., & Daniels, H. (2015). Comprehension & collabora-

tion: Inquiry circles in action (2nd ed.). Heinemann.

SoulPancake (2016, April 13) What Does Home Mean To You? |

0-100 [Video]. YouTube.

TM & Universal (2011, June 27). The Wiz (8/8) Movie CLIP -
Home (1978) HD [Video]. Movieclips. https://youtu.be/dslpHx-
TuA-w

Materials & Equip- Smartboard video clip of the song Home from The Wiz: https://
ment www.youtube.com/watch?v=dslpHxTuA-w

Smartboard projection of Home lyrics from The Wiz: https://

www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/wizthe/homefinale.htm

Smartboard video clip of What Does Home Mean To You:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWt76WqRCVs

Smartboard
Marker board

Handouts (attach) Handouts 1-4 (attached)

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

There must be a will to produce a superior thing.
John Ruskin