Week 1 Day 4: Lesson Plan

Teacher's Name: Miss. Bello

The Plan: Opinionated Expression Unit

Content Standard:
● CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1 | Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a
point of view with reasons.

Unit Objective(s):
● Central Idea | Opinions can be expressed in creative ways to promote social justice.
● Lines of Inquiry | Opinions formed into songs, Opinions formed into poetic piece |
Opinions formed into a debate| Opinion formed into artwork| | What are opinions and
Why do they matter? What are ways I can express my opinion(s)? How does my opinion
affect those around me? How can I respectfully express myself to others? How can
building new perspectives on social justice topics help me become culturally aware of
racial and ethnic issues?
● Unit Objective | Students will be able to respectfully express their opinions about social
justice topics through the use of creative illustrations in order to promote the mindfulness
of cultural and social diversity.

Lesson Objective(s):
● Content Objective | Students will be able to present a speech expressing their opinion on
a topic.
● Language Objective | Students will write a speech.

Description of Learners:
During this unit students are going to be building their knowledge about forming, identifying, and
expressing their opinions about a variety of social justice topics. It can be difficult to express opinions
because individuals often fear the responses they may receive due to them not knowing how to properly
express themselves in a respectable way. That is why during this first week of the unit, students are going
to be focusing on learning ways to build their own opinions and learning what ways are best to express
them without causing harm and hurt to individuals with diverse perspectives. In this unit, students will be
encouraged to explore child appropriate news websites to help build their knowledge about a topic.

For this day, students will be learning more about why their opinion matters by creating a speech that
would verbally address their opinion on a social justice topic of their choice. Speeches are a great
inspirational way to get your individual opinion across to a wide ranging audience. As a strength, students
who have been working on respectfully expressing opinions during the previous days, should feel more
comfortable presenting their speeches to their peers. However, there can still be a barrier between some
students' comfortability of expressing their opinion in front of a big audience rather than in pairs or
having group support when presenting. Being said,this lesson incorporates time for students to engage in
an ice breaker to get them more comfortable discussing before beginning their speeches. On the other
hand, as a strength, students will already have the prior knowledge of knowing what an opinion is and
how to build one with evidence. Yet, this lesson pushes students to think of how their voice will impact
their peers. I would hope students will begin to draw connections between how their personal background
affects their real life perspectives in order to see the difference between how they would think of a topic
compared to their friends.

To challenge students, I would like to introduce them to news outlets so if they feel that kid-friendly
websites are too easy, they can explore teacher-chosen articles. Overall, I will have them focus on kid
friendly websites like CNN 10 which provides videos of current world news for students to follow along,
National Geographic for Kids, News For Kids, etc. along with ipad accessible apps for students to gain
practice researching news. Hopefully using these websites will ease students' worries and allow them to
become more comfortable researching and reading relevant articles to help build their knowledge.
Another barrier could be a student's lack of knowledge about a current world issue, since most students do
not follow the news on a constant basis. Without a mini-lesson/pre-lesson, students' understanding of a
topic could be hindered. Nevertheless, students should feel motivated to learn by being able to have free
range to research topics and articles in order to build their knowledge about an event. Students should be
motivated to use their technology in class by watching videos, possibly engaging in surveys, and
exploring the web with their peers. Being in communication with their peers about their own chosen
topics could motivate students to want to learn so they can have engaging conversations with their
classroom friends.

In order to proceed with a lesson teaching students about respect and understanding why their opinion
matters, students will need to come to class with open and clear minds because some classroom topics can
extend from or lead to addressing difficult discussions. As a teacher, I have to recognize the maturity level
of my students as young learners in order to provide activities that will promote a serious and important
environment. Most importantly, students should want to expand their racial/ethnicity knowledge by
maintaining considerations of their peer’s outlooks on topics. This is very important because with the
possibility of there being students connected with or having strong emotion about given topics, students
will need to know how and when it is appropriate to respond. During this unit students will be given
resources to help them sort out respectful responses and give them practice, however they should still
come into this unit acknowledging that there will be instances of their peers saying something that could
lead into an uncomfortable discussion. Lastly, with the previous lessons students should already know
how to make opinionated sentences based on previous practices.

Because of the kinds of topics that could extend, students could feel uncomfortable and uneasy during
certain discussions. In these times, I would hope to create a comfortable classroom environment for
students to reflect freely without fear of being told or uncomfortable due to their peers' reaction. This
entire unit would allow students to actively participate in classroom discussions in order for the teacher to
get an understanding of how much prior knowledge students are bringing into the class lesson and what
would need to be taught. During student’s speeches, the audience (their peers) will be prompted to remain
silent and attentive to their peers' words and emotions being shared. I would hope this activity will show
students the power of using your voice and the power of listening to the presenter's voice can provide on
our individual learnings.

Overall, students should want to learn current news and should gain interest in being able to explore
media websites to further their knowledge on a topic of their choice, that they would not usually be able
to do in other environments. And of course wanting to listen and learn what is passionate to their peers
and how they are monitoring their learning in this unit.

Learning Environment:
Physical Arrangement Modifications | Students will be arranged in three types of setups. To begin the
lesson, students will be doing an entrance slip individually and then we will be watching a YouTube video
as a whole class. For these activities, students will be at their desk set in pods of 4-5 students (depending
on class size). This arrangement will allow for easier peer communication when students are expressing
their reactions to the YouTube Video. Additionally, they will be given short discussion questions to
discuss in their group. When regrouping to whole group discussion, each group will be able to share out
their peer answers and individual students will be able to express their after thoughts of the video and take
educated guesses on how it connects to the lesson and unit.

Lesson Student Groupings | Students will be in groups of 4-5 students during peer discussion when they
are reflecting on the Youtube TedTalk video. For the majority of the lesson, students will be
independently working on their speeches and will be able to move around the room to a comfortable spot
that will help promote their learning and improve their creativity. Lastly, when students are presenting
their short speeches, all desks will face the front of the class, in rows.

Social Emotional Learning Implication | Ice Breakers are a good and fun way to promote a comfortable
learning environment in any classroom during any lesson. I believe especially in this lesson and unit,
students should be comfortable with each other before jumping into or starting heavy topics in class. For
this lesson, students will stand in a circle around the class and will have a chance to pass around a ball to
each other. After receiving and given a completed pass, students will choose a random number and
answer the corresponding question accordingly.

Assessments and Objective Driven Rationale:

Pre-Assessment:
As mentioned, student’s focus on this lesson is to understand why theirs and other individuals' opinions
matter. I felt a normal formative assessment for this unit that would test them on their prior knowledge
about opinions and creating an opinion was very repetitive and would not be adequately aligned with the
independent growth I want my students to encounter. Therefore, for this lesson, the student's
pre-assessment consists of them filing out a padlet wall. The padlet wall proposes the question, ‘why does
voicing your opinion matter?’ This will allow me to see where students stand on thinking about if their
voice matters and what it means to have a voice. Depending on the student's answers, I will be able to
carry out the lesson explanation and further activities involving students to use their voice and ask
questions.

Formative Assessment:
Students' formative assessment revolves around them writing and presenting a speech about a social
justice topic of their choice. This activity will assess and provide students practice to multiple learning
attributes that include, gaining experience presenting in front of large groups, ability to use
memorization/improvise their growth to the audience, how well they are able to use their voice to explain
their thoughts for others to understand, how well they are knowledgeable on their chosen topic, etc.

Post-Assessment:
As a continuation of the student's pre-assessment, students will go back to the padlet post and respond to
two peers' original post. Their response will first address why they believe their peer’s voice is important
and what they liked about their speech. This post- assessment will allow me to assess student individual
growth and how they are listening in on their peers' thoughts and reflecting upon learning from them.

Instructional Methods:
Materials and Resources:
● Technology:
○ Powerpoint:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hRFdQ_56fLGuKonqNfOZn2_wbeO2
MpOJ6md761Y7LgQ/edit?usp=sharing
○ YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh9GbYugA1Y)
○ Pre & Post-Assessment| Padlet:
https://padlet.com/najbello11/75qdsp1e6ag9ieid
● Worksheets/Documents:
○ Formative Assessment | Creating a Speech:
■ Graphic Organizer:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nZF-ukewXQJJ0vkvHxW4S2zwlURWV9
nCPgN6r0ehmVc/edit?usp=sharing
■ Directions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UF2wbiTjksyII6U_TscdlJF7ht_0v
HaWTQ9kXoPVxkA/edit?usp=sharing
○ Ice Breaker | SEL Implication:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14k9dH5goLbZDWJJpmx2wf3vfiTQ0ap06
xTos59pD3sY/edit?usp=sharing
● Stationary/Extra:
○ Pencil
○ Computers/electronic devices
 ○ Blow up soccer ball Labeled with numbers
https://www.amazon.com/Rhode-Island-Novelty-Soccer-Inflates/dp/B0019IEPP8
/ref=sr_1_11?crid=1FLNL8XRK7S6O&keywords=blow+up+soccer+ball&qid=1
649275282&sprefix=blow+up+soccer+ball%2Caps%2C69&sr=8-11
○ Post-It notes

Technology Infusion:
● Pre-Assessment & Post-Assessment| Padlet Wall: Students pre and post assessment revolves
around them answering a prompt question before the lesson and then going back to respond to
their original response as well as commenting on two peer’s questions.

● Powerpoint supplemental | To help students follow along with the day's lesson, there will be a
powerpoint made that will introduce their lesson objective, remind them of the unit’s objectives,
and day’s activities.

● Voice Memos | Students will voice record their speeches.

Lesson Introduction/Anticipatory Set:

Good Morning bright opinion-aters! Today we are continuing our investigation of learning how to form
our opinions and exploring ways to creatively express our opinions. Raising your hand, what ways have
we learned so far? On monday, we began our unit lesson by exploring social justice topics through
composing songs, then on tuesday we composed our own art colleges, and yesterday on wednesday, we
created poems. So, wrapping up our daily explorations before we jump into intensive group work, we are
going to be writing speeches on more topics about social justice. Class, I am confused on what social
justice means? (call on 3-5 students). As discussed, social justice is a way to equally share human
resources and opportunities with all individuals of diverse races and ethnic cultures.

For today, we are going to be writing speeches. Speeches are another way of expression through
empathy/voice fluctuation to express yourself. The sole focus is to be able to gain your audience or
intended to reach individuals' attention by fluctuating your voice to match with the topic you are
expressing. When I say fluctuate, it's how well you are able to increase your voice when something is
going on. For instance, if I am happy maybe I am smiling and laughing with a higher voice tone. I would
want to sound excited so it lets my audience know this is something good I am sharing and I want them to
feel happy about it too. But if I am sad, would I be smiling and laughing? No. I would be frowning,
maybe talking a little slower, huffing, etc. So this is what we will want to look for when we are creating
our own speeches through the power of our voice and seeing how our voice influences are impacted. On
the first lesson day, we talked a little about how our voice matters and today we are really going to
explore this to understand why it matters.

Please take out your electronic devices and follow the link to a padlet, then follow the directions to
complete step one and post to the padlet board. When you are done, put away your devices, put
your desk to the outer edge of the classroom, and form a circle in the middle sitting criss-cross.
It can be tough expressing yourself, in a vulnerable state of mind, that a speech puts us in, so I thought we
would do a team building exercise before beginning. For this exercise, each of you will have a chance to
catch this ball. Wherever your right thumb lands, you will have to answer a question that corresponds to
the number you landed on. Perform a practice run with a student Are there any questions so far? When
you answer your question, pass the ball to a new student and then sit down criss-cross in your spot. Play
games until all students are sitting down. How did we feel about this activity? What did you life? What
did you learn? Would we want to do more team builders like this for future lessons? The point of a team
builder is to loosen you all up and form a more ease and comfortable environment for when we present
short speeches for our peers. High-five two peers next to you and then move your desk back into pods
(the classroom original placement) for the next activity.

Our lesson objective for today is…students will be able to present a speech expressing their opinion on a
social justice topic and of course our language objective is students will write a speech. We already did
our first two activities so now we are going to learn how to write a speech. Raising a thumbs up, down, or
to the side, who is familiar with speeches? Call on students for examples. President Biden performs
speeches for the country to stay updated with his actions, etc. we are going to watch a TedTalk. TedTalks
are individuals using a wide reaching platform to express a lesson, future vision, etc. to an audience. It
can be of anyone of any age with an inspiration that they want to share with others. So we are going to be
watching a TedTalk and then we are going to reflect on the TedTalk and review as a whole class to try and
replicate the speaker's tactics in our own speeches.

Allow time for students to discuss and for whole class review

Looking at our speech worksheet Can *student name* read the directions for our assignment? You are
going to have 20 minutes to construct your speeches, then we will share with the class.

Instructional Strategies:
● Whole Class Instruction/ discussion: Throughout the lesson, students will be engaging in whole
classroom discussion when they are doing the team builder, discussing the formative assessment
of creating a speech, and going over the lesson activities and objectives. The whole class
discussions purpose are for students to ask clarifying questions, teacher to inquiry students'
learning and probe them to think deeper into the lesson topic, and of course allow for students to
hear and share out their learning with their peers in an open environment. Expressed as important
in this lesson is students understanding that their voice is important. Therefore having a lot of
time put forth for students to become more comfortable expressing themselves in large groups
will help them better understand how their voice impacts. Constant peer discussion before and
after they are able to start new activities allowed for students to build their insight on diverse
perspectives and opinions. Therefore, as they move through this unit they are growing more
comfortable in communicating with their peers.
 ● Team-building: Students will be engaging in a team builder activity as a whole class. In this
activity, students will be standing in a circle around the classroom and engage in small
conversations with each other. The small conversations will drive students getting asked questions
from their corresponding numbers they landed on. The purpose of the team builder activity is for
students to gain comfortability with their peers before having to present a short speech to them
about a social justice topic that can be difficult for them to discuss. This activity will ask
questions that would range from students thinking of their identity and personal impact on this
world compared to how others would identify them. It’s a perspective activity that will allow
students to think in and out of the box about themselves and their worldview to see how others
feel.

● Individualized Learning: Students will begin and end this lesson with a self-assessed pre and
post assessment. When they are posting on the padlet board, they will answer the question about
why their voice matters before and after the lesson. Additionally, after the lesson, they will be
responding to a peer’s post with positive take away they gained from their peers’ speech. This pre
and post assessment will allow students to reflect and revise their previous thoughts before the
lesson and apply what they learned to their post response. More so, through the act of responding
to their peers' speech, they will be able to see how directly the impact of their voice affects those
around them.

Lesson Closure:
Thank you to you all for sharing your voice to all of us, let’s give a round of applause for all of us! It’s
hard sometimes to be vulnerable to a big group of people but you all did it so gracefully and well. Let’s
take out our electronics again and complete the second step of our padlet board self-assessment.

Allow students the rest of the class time to complete the padlet board

Lesson Reflection:
1. What learning experiences best supported students’ development and demonstration of the
attributes of the learner profile and approaches to learning?
Generally speaking, students’ experiences with wanting to express themselves, will drive them
into wanting to learn diverse ways to do so. Throughout this week, Students participated in multiple
creative activities that allowed them to explore new social justice topics each day through a different
creative lens. Through these exposures, I would hope each student found the lens that they were most
comfortable being expressive with, whether it was poetry, art, speech, or song. Being young learners,
students might not have many experiences dealing with social justice issues. However, at home, their
parents could have spoken to them about possible encounters they could have with individuals who might
not understand why their hair is different than theirs, why they fear something that everyone else finds
comfort in, etc. all because of their ethnicity, race, or cultural ways. Being said, students should have the
experience of having uncomfortable conversations with other individuals who might not understand what
they are trying to say. I would hope that this lesson will promote students to be more comfortable
expressing themselves even if the feelings they are having are one sided. On the academic side, students
should have prior knowledge of forming complete ideas and knowing how to and why it is important to
support their personal thoughts with reliable evidence to make their points credible. Additionally, I feel
this unit and lesson supports students' ELL because they will be able to use the diverse creative activities
to participate in expressing their voice.

2. How did the strategies we used throughout the unit help to develop and evidence students’
understanding of the central idea?
The strategies used throughout the unit promoted peer involvement and support. All lessons
involve students relying on their peers to help them when they are confused as it directs them to engage in
thoughtful conversations before and after a new activity is introduced. For instance, in videos, students
will be prompted to discuss questions to go through in small groups. This was important to our lesson
because when sharing opinions, students should feel comfortable with their peers in order to do so.
Promoting time to engage in conversation will allow them to gain comfortability with their peers so that
when presenting they will be less nervous and would treat their presentations as a conversation. Also with
discussing social justice issues, each person will have diverse perspectives, through whole class and group
discussions students will be able to listen and build knowledge on their peers’ experiences in order to
improve their own. A high importance of this lesson relies on students learning how to be more respectful
towards diverse perspectives, so having open communication for questions, responses, reflections, and
student to student 1:1 interactions.