GRADE LEVELS: 7TH Grade ELA

BACKGROUND INFORMATION & TEXT DESCRIPTION:

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De, Antoine De Saint-Exupery, and Katherine
Woods. The Little
Prince. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943.
Print.
The text is a short novel that tells the story of a traveler who is stranded in the
desert after a plane crash and his encounter with an other-worldly Little Prince. The
Little Prince is searching for something and tells the man of his journey throughout
the book.
The book is main text used in the unit plan on symbolism and this vocabulary lesson
design will serve as a portion of the unit plan as well.
CONTENT AREA OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to understand and utilize the vocabulary terms listed in order
to gain basic and deeper levels of understanding from the text. These terms are
frequently used throughout the book and, in order to closely read, students must
understand these terms and how they are used throughout the text. The terms
demand explicit time to be studied after initial learning because they present
themselves as complex and new to many of the students.
TERMS: consequence, modest, meditation, inhabited, baobab, pondered, unique
THINKING PROCESS OBJECTIVES:
Students will gain a deeper understanding of the words that are used throughout
The Little Prince by, finding the definitions and synonyms, before reading, and
recording them in their vocabulary journals. During reading, they will record when
they see these words and write an example sentence down. By performing these
pre and during reading activities, the students will learn the words on a deeper and
more practical level and will then be able to carry these skills onto the next portion
of the vocabulary section of the unit.
SEQUENCE AND FRAMING:
Pre-Reading: I will instruct the students to get out their vocabulary journals and
begin a new entry for the novella that we are starting, The Little Prince. As a
class, we will go through the words and the students will work in their learning
groups (of 4) to find the definitions and synonyms and record them in their journals.
Two students in the group will find the definitions and two will find the synonyms.
After, the students will take turns teaching each other about what they have found
for each of the words. After it is ensured that the students have recorded every
word in their journals, the class will progress into the reading stage.
During Reading: During reading aloud, students will stop when they see one of
the word and, as a class, we will look at how the word is being used in context of the
text. Students will record an example from the text of when the word is used.

Post-Reading: After reading the section for the day, the students will look at what
words they recorded in their journals throughout the reading and for those words
the students will generate analogies. They may look at their initial definitions and
synonyms to aid this process if needed.

STRATEGY/IES: Peer teaching, Vocabulary Journal, and Analogy Generation

RATIONALE:
The words I chose to use were picked deliberately because they are complex terms
that are used throughout the text. They present themselves as vital parts of the
themes that exist throughout the text. By understanding these terms, students will
not only have an easier time reading and comprehending the text, but building their
ideas about the themes that are in the book as well.
I chose to use peer teaching as a strategy because students often learn better
when they can think and learn from a peer. This fosters a relationship between not
only the students with one another, but between the students and the terms
themselves. By teaching them and learning them with a peer, they become part of
a conversation, not just a simple learning process. Students also have think about
how they are going to teach their peer about the terms in a relatable and
understandable way. This creates a deeper thinking process.
Vocabulary journals are a tool that I plan to use in all of my class sections because
they truly allow for a relationship to be built between students and the words that
they encounter throughout various texts.
Analogies inhibit a more creative and understanding relationship between students
and terms. By allowing students to be creative with how they think about words,
they are more able to put them into contexts that they are better at understanding.
The thinking process that happens during the formation of analogies is also a higher
level thinking process than just reading and rereading a definition of a term. It
creates a mental picture or note of a word and is easier for the student to relate to.

GRADE LEVELS: 7th Grade

BACKGROUND INFORMATION & TEXT DESCRIPTION:
The text being used is the 7th grade standard science textbook and the chapter is
about plant photosynthesis in regards to the process and the products of the
process.
CONTENT AREA OBJECTIVES:
Students will be learning about photosynthesis and what happens when a plant
goes through this process, including what is needed to begin, and what is a product
of the process. In order to understand the concept fully, students must understand
the key terms that are involved.
Terms: photosynthesis, chlorophyll, glucose, respiration, carbon dioxide, oxygen
THINKING PROCESS OBJECTIVES:
Students will gain an understanding of the vocabulary terms in the context of which
they are used. By using concept squares, this understanding will be boosted and the
students will understand the context of the terms on a higher level.
SEQUENCE AND FRAMING:
Pre-Reading:
Students will be introduced to the terms that are key in the photosynthesis process
and will be instructed to record the terms in their vocabulary journals along with
their definitions. The teacher will then go through the term definitions. The teacher
will then instruct the students to be mindful of these terms when reading about the
process of photosynthesis and how what roles they play throughout the process.
During:
During the reading of the chapter, students will take note of when they see the key
terms and how they are used throughout the reading. They will insert them into a
diagram of the photosynthesis process as well to visualize when the terms fit into
the process.
Post Reading:
Students will be given concept squares with different terms of respiration and
photosynthesis and will find the non-example of the concept that exists within the
square and list one reason why it does not fit the concept.

STRATEGY/IES USED: Vocabulary Journal, Concept Squares, and Graphic

Organizer
RATIONALE:
I chose to teach these words because they are directly related and integral parts of
a processes that the students will be learning. Without the understanding of these
words, students would be lacking the most basic understanding of the process of
photosynthesis.
Using a vocabulary journal is something that I plan to do in every class section I
may have to teach because of the relationship it fosters between students and the
words that they encounter throughout various texts and concepts. It also serves as
a resource in the chance that they forget a term or need to relate one to another.
Using concept squares creates a conceptual idea from terms that bare definitions do
not allow for. It allows students to understand the terms on a higher level than just
words, but understand them as parts of a whole and integral to concepts that we
use every day. Graphic organizers allow students to organize their thinking and
visualize what they have just learned in an ordered fashion.

GRADE LEVELS: 8th Grade

BACKGROUND INFORMATION & TEXT DESCRIPTION:
The text being used is the 8th grade biology textbook and the students are
continuing their unit on plant processes. The next section of the plant unit is about
their cells aims to understand the differences between a plant and animal cell
(which was learned in a previous unit).
CONTENT AREA OBJECTIVES:
Students will understand the vocabulary terms that revolve around the anatomy of
a plant cell and how these terms relate these terms in comparison with the previous
terms learned in regards to an animal cell and its anatomy.
Terms: nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, golgi apparatus, cell wall, cell membrane,
mitochondrion, cytoplasm, chloroplast, vacuole
THINKING PROCESS OBJECTIVES:
By utilizing concept squares and visualization, students will be able to understand
and properly use the vocabulary terms that revolve around the anatomy of a plant
cell. Both strategies used will be used post reading / instruction as a means of
grasping and comprehending the terms on a much deeper level.
SEQUENCE AND FRAMING:
Students will get into groups and read through the chapter on cell biology and will
be instructed to keep an eye out for the key terms that will be listed on the
blackboard. While they read, students will take note of these words and their
definitions, and record them in their term journals.
After reading, the students will get 3 sheets: one being a diagram of a cell, one
concept square sheet, and a blank piece of paper.
The students will first fill in their cell diagrams as based upon their definitions and
examples noted from their readings.

After their diagrams are finished, students will work in their groups on the concept
squares. They will find the nonexample in each square, and then explain why the
term does not fit with another. After this, the groups will split and students will share
what they discussed with another peer.
To end the activity, the teacher will instruct the students to each draw their
envisionment of a plant cell. They are allowed to be creative, but must properly
label the parts of their drawing in correlation to what they have just learned.
STRATEGY/IES USED: Vocab Journal, Concept Squares, Visualization

RATIONALE:
I chose these terms to teach because they are specific to a content level area
expectation and correlate to what the students have been working on in previous
units. They will be building off of prior knowledge to gain new understandings while
scaffolding in new concepts.
I chose to use the three strategies included because I felt that this unit lends itself
to visualizing the terms in order to gain a deeper understanding of what they
represent. I prefer to use vocabulary journals so that the students have a long-term
resource to come back to for their terms and can record their encounters with the
new terms that they use. Concept squares allows students to play around with other
concepts and gain deeper understandings through thinking about what belongs in a
concept and what does not. Visualization allows the students to personally connect
with the terms by making them think about what the terms actually represent and
display these thoughts in their own creative ways.