Level II - Teacher Ed Lesson Plan Template (UED Courses)

Teacher (Candidate): Nhan Lee Molzahn Grade-Level: 8th Lesson Date: 1-25-23
Grade

Title of Lesson: Essays and Thesis Cooperating Teacher: Tori Smith

Core Components
Subject, Content Area, or Topic

English – Writing – Essay drafts and Thesis

Student Population

30 Students
0 IEPs
5 504s
Learning Objectives

-I can clearly write out a thesis statement

-I can start drafting an essay

Virginia Standard(s) of Learning (SOL)

8.7 The student will write in a variety of forms, including narration, exposition, persuasion,
and informational.

b) Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas.

d) Organize details to elaborate the central idea and provide unity.

VDOE Technology Standards

English Language Proficiency Standards (WIDA Standards)

Materials/Resources
Index cards with the letters and meanings of HBT, POWER, and RIC. Writer’s check list.
High Yield Instructional Strategies Used (Marzano, 2001)
Check if Used Strategy Return
Identifying Similarities & Differences 45%
Summarizing & Note Taking 34%
Reinforcing Efforts & Providing Recognition 29%
 Homework & Practice 28%
Nonlinguistic Representations 27%
Cooperative Learning 23%
Setting Goals & Providing Feedback 23%
Generating & Testing Hypothesis 23%
Questions, Cues, & Advanced Organizers 22%
Does your instructional input & modeling yield the positive returns you want for your
students?
Check if Used Strategy Return
Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning 95%
Practice by Doing 75%
Discussion 50%
Demonstration 30%
Audio Visual 20%
Reading 10%
Lecture 05%
Safety Considerations

Time
Process Components
(min.)
3 min *Anticipatory Set

Thesis Review

TTW use their previous thesis statements they created from last class for their
essay.
TTW have the students pair up and share their thesis statements with their partner.
TTW reiterate the importance of a thesis statement and connect it with real life.

1 min *State the Objectives (grade-level terms)

I can take my 5 square brainstorm and start drafting my essay.

0 min *Instructional Input, Modeling, or Procedures

NOTE: this lesson plan is connected to the last lesson, essay layout brainstorm

As a group, TTW briefly review the stages of a thesis statement.

As a group, TTW briefly review POWER.

NOTE: this material is NOT new for the students. They should have already
started working on their brainstorm’s sheets if not their drafts.

WHAT IS NEW?
 Small group instruction strategy. TTW instruct the students to continue to work
on their 5 square worksheets. While the whole class does that, TTW have 3 students
come up to the teacher’s desk and give individual feedback and guidance with the
work on their essays. The teacher will spend about 5 minutes with this group of three.
After the ten minutes are up, filter in three new students. Continue to do this process
to all the students have met with the teacher.

0 min *Check for Understanding

**Check for understanding will be completed during the instructional time, during
the small group instruction and guidance with the teacher.

Check List for Understanding –

1. Good hook
2. Bridge (background information)
3. Thesis statement with declarative stance/main topic and three main ideas
4. Supportive POWER paragraphs that support their main ideas. (good points,
examples, explanations, etc.)
5. Good conclusion (restate, importance, and closing)

100 *Guided Practice

min
**Guided practice will be completed during the instructional time, during small
group instruction and guidance with the teacher.

Differentiated instruction and guidance strategies –

1. Anticipate points of frustration – Index cards with reminders of what the

different letters stand for and definitions in POWER, HBT, RIC. On these
index cards, there are also prompt questions to help further navigate and
pinpoint on which letter they are struggling with.
EXAMPLE – Hook – provides a sentence or two that captivates the audience.
Question, fact, quote, statistic, etc. What kind of quote might I include that
brings attention to my audience based off my main topic? What type of
question gets my audience thinking that supports my main topic?

2. Color code and evaluate – Have students highlight in one color main ideas
and talk about the importance. Highlight in another color supporting points
that support the main ideas and talk about their relation. Highlight in another
color the examples that support the supporting points and talk about their
relation.

3. Beginner writers – TTW revisit with student different parts of the essay
structure and help with the following: step-by-step POWER paragraph walk
 through. Problem identity, TTW ask the students where they think they are
struggling the most and dedicate time to that specific barrier by asking self-
critical questions. Or, Writers Checklist, TSW go through the writers checklist
to make sure they have everything included step by step.

TTW instruct to the students that they will need to cite their sources in their writing.
TSW include the author’s name and the page number.

4. Advanced Writers – Writing Fluff, TTW encourage the advanced students to

make sure they have included good transitional words and sentences between
paragraphs. TTW provide good examples for transitional dependent clauses
and independent clauses for transitional phrases. Extra Support, TTW instruct
the students to provide more detail and extra support to their body paragraphs.
TTW ask the students questions that will encourage deeper thought about
their body paragraphs.

*Independent Practice

**TSW continue to work through their drafts for their essays**

TTW be available for students for questions.

 Assessment

Steps –

1. If students are done with their POWER brainstorm, they will bring their work
up to the teacher for approval. Check for good thesis, main ideas, and
supporting points.

2. If students are done with their drafts, TSW bring their work up to the teacher
and have it approved to start on Final essay drafts. Check for good, structured
sentences, clarity, flow, and consistency throughout their main ideas and
thesis.

3 min *Closure

Think, pair, share Strategy

TSW share with each other one example they included in their essay.

Differentiation Strategies (e.g. enrichment, accommodations, remediation, learning style,

multi-cultural).
Differentiated instruction and guidance strategies –

1. Anticipate points of frustration – Index cards with reminders of what the different
letters stand for and definitions in POWER, HBT, RIC. On these index cards, there are
also prompt questions to help further navigate and pinpoint on which letter they are
struggling with.
EXAMPLE – Hook – provides a sentence or two that captivates the audience.
Question, fact, quote, statistic, etc. What kind of quote might I include that brings
attention to my audience based off my main topic? What type of question gets my
audience thinking that pertains to my main topic?

2. Color code and evaluate – Have students highlight in one color main ideas and talk
about the importance. Highlight in another color supporting points that support the
main ideas and talk about their relation. Highlight in another color the examples that
support the supporting points and talk about their relation.

3. Beginner writers – TTW revisit with student different parts of the essay structure and
help with the following: step-by-step POWER paragraph walk through. Problem
identity, TTW ask the students where they think they are struggling the most in and
dedicate time to that specific barrier by asking self-critical questions. Or, Writers
Checklist, TSW go through the writers checklist to make sure they have everything
included step by step.
 4. Advanced Writers – Writing Fluff, TTW encourage the advanced students to make
sure they have included good transitional words and sentences between paragraphs.
TTW provide good examples for transitional dependent clauses and independent
clauses for transitional phrases. Extra Support, TTW instruct the students to provide
more detail and extra support to their writings.

Classroom Management Strategies (To ensure a positive learning environment).

Big one! – during small group instructions, make sure all other students are going through
their work and staying on task.
Lesson Reflection. To be completed following the lesson. Did your students meet the
objective(s)? What parts of the lesson would you change? Why? (Professor will determine
if reflection goes here or in written report).

*Denotes Madeline Hunter lesson plan elements.

Candidate Signature Cooperating Teacher Date

Signature

Signatures indicate the candidate presented the lesson for cooperation

Lesson Plan Reflection
Explanation of the Lesson –

This lesson ties together with last lesson, 5 square POWER brainstorm model. However,

in this lesson, the students are completing their brainstorm and starting their essay drafts. In this

lesson, the teacher will do a lot of small group instruction and guidance with three students each.

They will do a round robin until all the students have sat down with the teacher. I developed this

lesson specifically for extra work on their thesis statements. In the previous lesson, the students

showed little confidence in writing thesis sentences in their introductory paragraphs. Moreover,

I wanted to provide extra practice for the main body paragraph structures as well. In addition, I

developed this lesson specifically to meet students at all different levels. From the data from last

class, I already knew that most of the class were struggling with the writing. As a result, I
provided multiple and various strategies to help guide the students as they continued to perfect

their essay writing.

Adjustments and Recommendations among the students (classroom management) –

After this lesson, I would remind the students of the expectations during their individual

work. Those expectations include no talking, no games on Chromebooks, and no getting up from

their seats see other students. During the small group instruction portion, I would for the future

make sure I have the index cards already laid out for students so they can identify where they are

at. Additionally, I would have high lighters ready at my table for the students to use to high light.

I would also like to make sure I have enough of the writer check off lists for all the students. For

classroom management, I would have the bucket of all their names and choose three students at

random. When they are done, set those students names aside. How would I use the assessment

part of the lesson? During the assessment part of the lesson, I want to make sure the students can

construct a well-written thesis statement. Before the students can move on, the students need to

approve their thesis statements with me. If their thesis statements are not sufficient, they need to

go back and work on the various points. These various points include a good hook in the thesis

statement, a good stance on any position they are taking, and good paragraph sub-topics that

support their main topic.

What went well? The students seemed to respond well with the small group instruction. I

believe that they felt that the devoted time for extra assistance was very helpful. They liked how

clear the extra help was. Some of them liked the lists because it gave them clear instructions on

what to look for next.

LESSON PLAN REQUIREMENTS:

In this lesson I wanted to focus on student centered and differentiated instruction.

Specifically in this lesson plan, I wanted to include differentiated and guided instruction for

POWER brainstorming and thesis writing. For example, I included a writer’s checklist for

students who need to see a visual list to help guide their work. Another thing I included was

Anticipated guided flash cards. Through this differentiated strategy, I provided different index

cards with the different points and meanings with POWER brainstorm. Next, I included a color

code and evaluate strategy. In this strategy, the students color code and highlight different parts

of their essay with different colors and closely evaluate how it supports the thesis. These are just

a few of the way I focused on differentiation in this specific lesson. In an article written by Seth

A. Parsons, Stephanie L. Dodman, Sarah Cohen Burrowbridge, they write an article about the

importance of differentiation in the classroom. They state,

“teachers who effectively differentiate their instruction not only carefully plan instruction

to differentiate for variety of learners in their classrooms but also provide moment by

moment adaptations to meet specific needs that become clear during instruction – needs

that were not or could but anticipated,” (Parsons, Dodman, Burrowbridge, 482).

Differentiation is needed throughout the class time, targeting all students at different levels. It’s

important to provide different ways of instruction on the content because some ways might prove

to be more effective with certain students. Furthermore, teachers need to be self-aware and

vigilant for when students need differentiation that is not already pre-planned. The anticipated

index cards help the struggling students. This allows them to see a letter from the index card and

try to recall what it stands for. If they can’t remember, they can flip it over and see the answer.
 Cited Sources

Parsons, S. A., Dodman, S. L., & Burrowbridge, S. C. (2013). Broadening the view of

differentiated instruction. The Phi Delta Kappan, 95(1), 38–42.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23617757