Concept Unit

Lesson Plan Template

Unit Working Title: Who Are You Called to be in This World?

Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Identity: What Makes Us Who We Are?

Unit Primary Skill focus: Reading and Writing for Identity Reflection as a Precursor to
Empathetic Understanding

Week 1 of 3; Plan #1 of 9; [90 mins.]

Plan type: X Full-Detail ____Summary

Content Requirement Satisfied:

(Note: Refer to the list in the document called Concept Unit Lesson Plans)

Unit Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Backwards Design Unit Document],

followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:

SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
1. Your identity is fluid and ever-evolving. (C.1)
2. Your identity is shaped by the people, experiences, and media you encounter. (C.2)

Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:

1. Vulnerability in writing can strengthen ones identity. (A.4)

Performance (do):
1. Reflect on their own identity, culture, and biases. (P.5)

SOLs: [List with numbers portrayed in the SOL document]

7.7b Use a variety of prewriting strategies including graphic organizers to generate and
organize ideas.

CCSs: [List with numbers portrayed in the CCS document]

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.6 Determine an authors point of view or purpose in a text
and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.

Diagnostic Formative Summative

 Bell Ringer: Question for
response Are authors brave
for sharing their personal
stories? Why or why not?
[A.4]
You-niverse: Who Am I? Humans of Cville: Reflection
[C.1, A.4, P.5] through Word and Image (C.2,
[C.3, A.1, P.2, P.3, P.4]
Writers notebook responses:
What are you most proud to
call yours and why? (P.5)

What do you carry in your

heart? (P.5)

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]

Beginning Room Arrangement:

[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]

Students will be sitting in their typical four-person base groups. Their desks are assigned, and
students are familiar with these arrangements.

1. [7 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson:

Hello and welcome! It is so exciting to see your faces this morning. Thanks for grabbing the
worksheets from our buffet table as you walked in. Yall already have a handle on our routine;
thats impressive! Today were going to do a lesson on identity and figuring out who you are in
the you-niverse! Lets take these first five minutes to do a bell-ringer activity on the following
question in your writers notebook:

Are authors brave for sharing their personal stories? Why or why not? At the end of our five
minutes, you can close your writers notebooks and well kick off the rest of our day! Try your
best to write for the full five minutes. Perfection is not the key here; just get the thoughts flowing
and try not to stop writing. I will walk around the room, take attendance, and monitor the
working of the students at this time. Students will be in their base group desks working on this
prompt.

2. [15 mins.] You-niverse Reflection

Thanks for writing on that! We will be exploring that theme quite a bit this year. For now, please
close your writers notebook if you havent already, and tuck it beneath your desk. Take out your
you-niverse reflection sheet and a pen or pencil.

Ill show this part under the ELMO. I have already filled out my you-niverse sheet here, and it
looks like this! Your goal for this task is to write your name in the middle of the you-niverse
(because you are bright like the stars like you are!) and feel free to put a nick name or what you
prefer to be called. Then off to the sides of your you-niverse will be different parts of your
identity. These are what make you-you! You may put things like youre a sister, a brother, a
soccer player, an actress. You can write words like funny, spunky, spirited, intelligent, supportive,
or curious. Your identity is made of so many components, and it is safe to say that it will change
over the years. Take these next 13 minutes to brainstorm the parts of your identity you want to
include in this graphic organizer. Feel free to write in English or a home language that is most
comfortable. Consider these identity descriptions as the ingredients to a cake called YOU! What
questions do we have? Anticipate questions on the directions, the types of things that count as
identity, if they can put more than one in a bubble, etc.

Ill walk around as they are working, and Ill have the timer up on the board with instructions as
a reminder.

With 2 minutes to go: These are looking fantastic! You have about two minutes to finish, so keep
working hard! Im loving how much youre reflecting here. Great job!

3. [10 mins.] Share out with elbow partner

Fantastic work, class! At this time, please turn to your elbow partner in your base group. You
two will take turns each sharing as much of your you-niverse as youre comfortable. If you
would prefer to keep it a little more private, you can use your turn to describe your thought
process behind how you chose to reflect and if you went more the descriptive route of your
personality or of your roles (like a sister, a tennis player, etc.). As you are listening to your elbow
partner, be sure to listen actively. Who can tell us what signs we might see when someone is
actively listening? (Eye contact is present, theyre really listening, nodding along, smiling, etc.)
Awesome! Why do those things matter when someone is speaking? (Theyve taken the time to
share what theyre thinking, and its rude not to pay attention to someone. Its common
courtesy!) Thank you for pointing out how someone might feel if they werent heard. Youre spot
on! You have 4 minutes each to share. Ill let you know when to switch! See if you have any
commonalities, or things that are the same! And let the gamesbegin!

4. [15 mins.] Pick one you are most proud to call yours and write why

Thanks for taking the time to go over your out-of-this-world you-niverse with your elbow
partner! Were now going to brainstorm quickly as a class and think of reasons why you might
have included these identities or descriptions. Where did these concepts come from? Raise your
hand if you can think of why you value the identities you wrote down, and Ill write them up here
in our brainstorm cloud.

(Students share out things like: its what my friends do, my family has always valued this, its
what makes me unique, etc.)

Those are so fantastic! Now each one of you will write an individual reflection in your writers
notebook on which part of your you-niverse you are most proud to call yours and why. Maybe
one of these brainstormed reasons fits yours, but it doesnt have to! Youll have about 10 minutes
to work on this. Seriously dig deep here; these are your roots and what make you who you are!
Feel free to draw some of your reasoning and then captioning it by writing words below. You
may feel more called to draw this one and provide us with some written explanation!

5. [20 mins.] Read [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

That was some real reflecting. You dug deep! Does anyone know what a weeping willow tree
looks like? (Student shares that its a wispy looking tree with long, breezy branches.) Exactly!
These trees are often found near water or ponds. Weeping willows are often the first to fall down
in storms, though. Can anyone venture a guess as to why? (Students offer guesseseventually
help lead to a shallow root system!) Great deductive work, or putting together clues! I hope
youre all enjoying science class so far! That was impressive. Yes, weeping willows have shallow
root systems. Now here, in terms of your identities, Id like for us to think of which parts have
deep roots and which ones are shallow. Which parts will change over time and which ones are
foundational? Which parts of you are new and fresh, and which parts have been tried and true?
As you keep that in mind, were going to read a poem now by e.e. cummings. He wrote this poem
in 1952, and well discover more about his poetry and other famous poets throughout this year.
Right off the bat, what do you notice about this poem or its structure? (Students discuss the
punctuation and the lack of capitalization, and they ask questions as to why thats okay.) Hes
using this for poetic effect. His style in poetry was very different from most. Its like his own
special signature when he wrote. Well talk more about his stylistic choices later this year in our
poetry unit, but Im impressed that you picked up on that right away! Lets think about your own
roots as we read this poem. Ill have it up here under the ELMO and you can follow along on
your copy with me as I read.

The last six lines are powerful and can related to your own roots and identity, especially when
the roots are tangled up with the friends and family members you mentioned before in our
brainstorm. What parts of these last six lines stand out to you about identity? (Students share
words like root and bud and soul and heart. We discuss what the significance might be behind
these words, and why the image of a tree fits nicely with it.)

6. [10 mins.] Writers Notebook Response

What were going to do now is take the next 9 minutes to write in your writers notebook about
who or what you carry in your heart. This can be a person who helped shape you into who you
are today, a part of your you-niverse that youll never let go, a memory that has formed your
identity, whatever is coming to you now as something that is part of your roots you are a brave
author here sharing part of your own roots! Go ahead and take this time now to brainstorm and
write in your writers notebook. You have lots of great entries from today! The one that you pick
will be anonymously shared with the class before we wrap up today. Youll be submitting it
online so we wont know who said what.

7. [8 mins.] Class Share Out

At this time, Id like you to take out your laptop and go to our Google Classroom site. You will
see a link to todays google form. Were going to anonymously type in what you shared as the
thing you carry in your heart as part of your identity and roots. This is a class community that
will support you, and as an anonymous submission, you can also take comfort in additional or
extra privacy.

Lets read over these silently as you look up at the board at these submissions. Take notice of any
trends you see. Does anyone see any patterns or connections in these submissions? (Students
share things like family connections or strong emotions take particularly strong hold in these
kinds of submissions.) Does anyone want to share why they chose what they said? Pick
approximately three students, pending time. Can someone give our sharers a compliment
thanking them for sharing what they said? Try to use a detail from their sharing to let them know
you really listened and cared.

8. [5 mins] Closure:
So, today we went through a lot, didnt we? We had the chance to go through our own identities,
share with our peers, read poetry, and learn more about our roots! Yall are brave. You took
risks and wrote things about what makes you the person you are. Just like our authors who take
risks and poor their hearts out on the page, you took a chance, too! Take the next 50 seconds to
turn and talk to your elbow partner about whether you thought authors were brave for sharing
personal stories. This is what you wrote about when you first walked in, and maybe your
thoughts on it have changed since the beginning of the block!

Great work, team! I cant wait to see you tomorrow!

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled studentsidentify them by name)

Jenna and Carlie I explicitly offered the chance for drawing which part of the students
identities holds the deepest root. For these two students, they really enjoy the creative and artistic
side to the reflective process. Jenna is gifted and talented, and she loves to write as well as draw.
Carlie can benefit from the support of having the chance to express herself with more imagery
than word, but we will include the caption as a way to continue bolstering her work and
confidence in writing.

Kyle has unique and passionate interests like graphic novels, immigration, and story-telling. The
chance to read about e.e. cummings and what we carry in our hearts is a helpful activity for him
to both exercise choice in his most beloved part of his identity and in the way to explore some of
his current issues of familial newness in the country. His roots and exploration of it may be better
served with the anonymity of the google form until he is comfortable sharing more with his
peers.

I gave the students permission to fill out their you-niverse graphic organizers in the language that
is most comfortable for them. Hannah can benefit from this as an ELL student in the class with a
slightly lower reading level in English. I wanted her to be able to participate fully and brainstorm
as much as possible into her identities.

Materials Needed (list):

You-niverse handout
PDF of [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
PowerPoint slides

Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,

handouts, etc.)
Name _________________________________________________ Date ________________________ Block ____________________

You-niverse!
 [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

By e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and its you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)