Form 5

Plan Teach Reflect Cycle

Track 1 Teachers submit to Administrator in portfolio
Distinguished teachers plan thoughtful lessons that reflect student learning and include all the necessary components. This worksheet
provides a process and documentation towards effective lesson planning and instruction.
Teacher:

Lynn Catanus

Grade Level(s):
Year in Track I:

School:

Subject(s):
1

ELA

McCracken
Date: 12/16/2014

Lesson Concept/Subject: Reading for Information: Analyzing Arguments

Common Core State Standards/National Standards Addressed:
RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the
text.
RI.8.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is
relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
Learning Objectives (develop clear, measurable objectives to guide what will be taught):
1. Find strong support for a proposition and identify the information as a fact, expert opinion, or observation with 90% accuracy.
2. Identify the persuasive technique of a passage with 80% accuracy.
Description of Lesson (include strategies, materials/resources used, homework assigned and step-by-step instructions):
1. Prior to this lesson, the students will take a formative to determine how accurately they can identify the persuasive technique of a
short passage. After the formative, the students will be introduced to 8 different persuasive techniques. They will take notes from a
Google presentation and will also be shown a variety of advertisement clips as examples of each persuasive technique.
2. For this lesson, the students will then be introduced to the idea of analyzing the support of a proposition. First, they will be given slips
of paper with statements on them that represent different errors in logic. For example, one statement reads, If you own a cellphone,
you should support the right to use it anywhere you want to. The students will have a couple minutes to discuss the error in logic of
each statement. As a whole class, we will discuss how oversimplification, false analogies, insufficient evidence, and jumping on the
bandwagon can make for poor support.
3. Once the students analyze poor support, they will then be challenged to research their own support for a particular proposition. The
students will be put in groups of 3-4 based on their formative scores on persuasive techniques. They will be grouped heterogeneously
to ensure that students who had a strong understanding of persuasive techniques could help those with poor understanding of
persuasive techniques.
4. As a group, the students will research information to support or argue against using hands-free devices while driving. Students will be
asked to keep track of their research on a Google Document. They will need to cite their source, provide the support from the source,
and identify whether the support is a fact, an expert opinion, or an observation.
5. The next day, the students will prepare for the debate. I will go over expectations using CHAMPs. A rubric for the debate will be
discussed with the students so that they know how I will be scoring their statements in order to determine the winner of the debate.
I will know that the debate is successful if I hear a variety of researched facts, expert opinions, observations, and logical personal
opinions from the students, which will demonstrate their knowledge of poor versus strong support.
6. The next day, students will read 2 articles on the same topic, hands-free devices, from the Pearson Hall Literature textbook. One
article is an editorial which argues that hands-free devices do not solve the problem. Another article is a speech from Arnold

Schwarzenegger on passing a law for using hands-free devices. With background knowledge from research after the debates, the
students will consider the support from both propositions and determine which article makes stronger arguments.
Is this lesson for an introduction or review lesson?: The debate is an introduction.
How are the students being assessed (formal or informal)?:
*please attach any assessment used
The students will be assessed in 2 ways. For this particular lesson, they will be assessed informally through the notes that theyve gathered
from research in preparation for the debate. I will be grading the quality of their researched information (Do the researched facts support the
proposition?), and I will be grading how accurately they categorized each piece of information as a fact, an expert opinion, or an observation.
After another lesson on analyzing support, the students will be ready for a formal assessment a summative on persuasive techniques and
analyzing support.
Modifications (how will you change the lesson and/or delivery to meet the needs of your students?):
Students who scored 60% or lower on the formative will be given a document with quick links to help aid their research. This is to ensure that
their sources are appropriate.
Extensions (how will you change the lesson and/or delivery to meet the needs of your students?):
Students who scored 80% or higher will be in charge of completing research for counter-arguments. These students will predict what the
other teams strongest arguments will be. They will then research information that will negate those arguments.
Reflection
Some questions to consider when reflecting:
1.

Were the standards met?

Yes, I believe the standards of the lesson were met.
Standard RI.8.1 requires that students cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. For this lesson, students were to research information that would support their
claim. They needed to read a variety of texts and first determine whether the article mostly argues for or against the proposition.
Next, the student had to determine which information from the article best supported their claim.
Standard RI.8.8 requires that students delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the
reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced. This skill is largely
related to the standard listed above. The students had to search for the main ideas of an article and determine whether it strongly
supported their claim.

2.

Was the assessment successful?

I believe both the informal and formal assessments were successful.
The informal assessment was the chart that the students had to complete during their research prior to the debate. The chart listed
the students cited websites, the information they gathered to support their propositions, and type of information they found (fact,
expert opinion, or observation). When the students handed in their debate notes, I was able to see that students selected relevant
information to support their claims. I believe that they were successful in selecting strong support for their claims because the
students were motivated to win the debate, which required them to have strong facts, expert opinions, and observations.

The formal summative assessment scores also showed student growth when compared to the formative assessment scores. There
were many open-ended questions which allowed the students to demonstrate their understanding of why a statement showed a
specific persuasive technique or why a statement was a strong or poor argument.
3.

Was your delivery of the lesson successful?

I believe the delivery of the lesson was successful.
At the start of the lesson, I handed the students slips of paper with poor arguments on them. I had the students discuss the error
in logic of each statement. The students were very opinionated about the statements, but some students had difficulty explaining
just why the arguments were poorly stated. Later, they became more eloquent in explaining what each statement lacked. They
were very engaged during this part of the lesson, which helped motivate the students when they found out that they would be
developing their own arguments for the debate.
The students were very excited about the debate. Using CHAMPs to set expectations for the debate was very helpful. The students
wanted to know what the rules were, and they respected the organization of the debate. On the day of the debate, the students
followed directions impeccably well. They were prepared and many of them impressed me with their energy and quality of
arguments.

4.

Did you reach the needs of all your students?

I believe I reached the needs of all my students.
The students who scored below 60% on the formative assessment were the same students who struggled with the research portion
of the debate. Having a list of website was helpful for them and saved them a step during their research. Many of the students who
scored 80% and higher during the debate found excellent research and were ready for the challenge of developing strong counterarguments.
Unfortunately, during the debate, there were a couple students who never spoke. When I looked at their debate notes, I saw that
they had great facts. While those students still reached the objective of the lesson, I would have loved for them to participate in
the class activity.

5.

What worked well?

Analyzing poor support as the introductory activity worked well. It allowed the students to express their opinions and also be able
to articulate why they held those opinions. This activity helped to engage the students and also motivate them for the debate.
The debate ran very smoothly. The students were engaged, they had fun, and it was a practical way for the students to
demonstrate their understanding of finding strong support for a claim. Setting CHAMPs expectations helped the activity run
smoothly as the students knew exactly what I was looking for and respected the norms that were set. Because the students are

also motivated by competition, they were extremely focused by articulating their thoughts and listening to others thoughts during
the debate as well.
6.

What did not work well?

I believe that the debate was mostly successful, except with the quieter students in class. While these students reached the
learning objectives, they were not able to be active participants in the activity. While all students were engaged, it would have been
helpful for all students to participate.
Also, the topic was difficult to research for some students. It was easy to find researched information on why using a hands-free
device is still distracting for drivers. However, many students had difficult time finding information on why using a hands-free
device while driving is helpful. In addition, some students did not know what to type in their search engine in order to find relevant
websites. As I helped students, I found that many of them were typing too many words in their search engine. I had to give minilessons on using key words, such as, benefits and disadvantages.

7.

What should be changed in the lesson to be more effective?

I believe a different debate topic should be utilized in order to make the lesson more effective. I wanted to use this particular
debate topic since it related with the two articles that the students would be reading in their PHLit textbook. However, I could
extend it to a more general topic, such as the benefits or disadvantages of technology, or a topic that is student generated.
Another way to make the debate more effective would be to encourage all students to participate. I could include a rule within
the debate that more points will be awarded if all participates speak. This will motivate each team to encourage one another to
state a fact. I could allow for more breaks during the debate for students to gather, share facts, and develop a strategy. During this
time, students could encourage one another to participate and share facts to ensure that each person has a strong argument to
state.

8.

Did any positive unintended learning occur, if yes what?

I would say that one positive unintended learning that occurred during this lesson were the mini-lessons that I taught the students
when researching relevant information. As mentioned earlier, many students lacked the skills needed to find relevant articles. Many
students were typing too many words in their search engine. Other students werent specific enough in typing in their search. For
example, students would type, Why are hands-free devices bad? instead of, the disadvantages of hands-free devices. Teaching
the students key words for researching information was beneficial for many of them. It may be useful to include this mini-lesson
within my introduction of the activity.