Lesson Plan Title: Blog It

Date:
Subject: ELA Grade: 11
Topic: Blog Creation and Into to The Ballad of Danny Wolfe Essential
Question: - How will I successfully display what I’ve learnt and express my thoughts throughout this unit? Setting
up for Success
- How does Canadian street gangs, and criminal justice patterns relate to the main text of this unit?

Materials:
- Computer lab or school tablets booked
- Copies of The Ballad of Danny Wolfe
- Exit Slip link – Survey Monkey

Stage 1- Desired Results – you may use student friendly language

What do they need to understand, know, and/or able to do?
Students will be expected to make connections between the new information they are given today and the
novel they are about to read. They will need to be able to display technological literacy when creating their
blogs and display an understanding of professional conduct in regard to online activity.

Broad Areas of Learning:

Sense of Self, Community and Place: Students are gaining a sense of themselves within their learning
community by creating blogs that will be accessible to their classmates throughout the duration of the unit.
The blog creation will create a community of learners online for utilization as well as teach students how to
conduct themselves online in a professional learning matter.
Lifelong Learners: Learning how to find credible sources, present oneself professionally online and display
literacy through an online format creates learners who are consistently evolving with the times of technology.
Creating a baseline of knowledge that depicts respect, and ability to find credible sources will allow for
lifelong learning to take place into the future. Students will create, evaluate and analyze utilizing their blogs,
these are lifelong skills that will contribute to higher order thinking in the future.
Engaged Citizens: Background information of Canadian street gangs and explanation of stereotypes, patterns
and the criminal justice system allows for development to take place that will create engaged citizens.
Education of these topics develops the ability for students to be active participants in their communities while
holding respect because of their knowledge. Being able to take part in an online community by use of the
blogs also allows for students to engage in their school community and learn utilizing others.

Cross-Curricular Competencies:
Goals to Develop Thinking: Developing thinking will take place as students make connections between the
history they are given and the novel they are beginning to study. Students will also need to think about the
design, layout and planning that goes into their blogs in order to create a user friendly and appropriate
depiction of learning for their classmates and instructor to use.
Goals to Develop Identity and Interdependence: The blog assignment is based off of the development of
identity and interdependence. This blog will allow for students to assist each other in learning and express
their learning through an online format that can be shared amongst the class for optimal learning. Students
will explore their personal role in the bigger scheme of the classroom and make realizations about how
working together can contribute to the common good of the classroom learning experience.
Goals to Develop Literacies: Students will learn to display themselves professionally and academically in an
online format that is open to their classmates and instructors view. They will learn to successfully
communicate their literacy learning through their blog and develop their writing skills in a new and
progressive way.
Goals to Develop Social Responsibility: Because student blogs will be accessible to the whole class as well as
instructors, students will be able to develop social responsibility by presenting work that depicts their
thoughts appropriately and literately. Students will have a responsibility to their classroom community to
display information in order for everyone to learn from each other. Students will also be expecting to
comment on a minimum of 3 classmate blogs, providing feedback that is respectful and helps develop their
peers thinking in a positive and encouraging way. This action will contribute to peer evaluation.

Outcome(s):
CR 20.1 - View, listen to, read, comprehend, and respond to a variety of grade-appropriate First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan,
Canadian, and international texts that address:

 identity (e.g., Relationships with Family and Others);

 social responsibility (e.g., Evolving Roles and Responsibilities); and
 social action (agency) (e.g., The Past and the Present).

CR 20.4 - Read and demonstrate comprehension and appreciation of grade-appropriate informational (including instructions and
procedural texts) and literary (including fiction, nonfiction, script, poetry, and essays) First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian,
and international texts.
CC 20.1 - Create a range of visual, multimedia, oral, and written texts to explore:

 identity (e.g., Relationships with Family and Others);

 social responsibility (e.g., Evolving Roles and Responsibilities); and
 social action (agency) (e.g., The Past and the Present).

PGP Goals:
2.4 – ability to use technologies readily, strategically and appropriately: I accomplish this PGP goal in my
lesson plan by communicating to my students the common dangers of the internet and going on to allow
them to use an online format to display their knowledge to myself and their classmates. I instruct them on
how to use a domain I am already familiar with in order to troubleshoot any issues they may have. I utilize
videos to display big ideas to my students and to help engage them in my content. I also have them fill out an
exit slip utilizing Survey Monkey as opposed to your traditional paper slip. These technologies are familiar to
me and therefore I am being proactive in their use, not wasting class time figuring out my sources. By
instructing student on the common fraudulent tendencies of the internet sources they are exposed to I am
transferring my knowledge to them and accomplishing this PGP.

Stage 2- Assessment

Assessment FOR Learning (formative) Assess the students during the learning to help determine next steps.

Exit Slip: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z799DGN An exit slip on Survey Monkey will be taken and viewed
by the teacher with no marks given. This exit slip will serve as a chance for students to reflect on their learning
and explore what is still unclear to them without needing to express it orally or in front of the class as a
whole. This exit slip will also serve as assessment for the teacher and guidance on where to take further
action/where clarification is needed.
Review of Professionality in Blog Creation: Following the lesson, the teacher will review each blog post and
ensure that students are on the right track. If there are issues or areas where the student is struggling, a
comment will be left to ensure success with the remainder of the blog assignment.

Assessment OF Learning (summative) Assess the students after learning to evaluate what they have learned.

No summative assessment will take place in the lesson.

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Motivational/Anticipatory Set (introducing topic while engaging the students)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rto_V25nthw
This video is an interview with Daniel Wolfe’s mother regarding her guilt and grief following his death. His
mother speaks out about the lifestyle her son led and her contributions to his life decisions. This video will
contribute to the students understanding of life factors and get them engaged in Daniel Wolfe’s story prior to
reading the book.

Main Procedures/Strategies:

1.1 – Showing of video. Discussion:

- What do the words guilt and grief mean?
- What areas of Daniel Wolfe’s life lead to his fate according to the video?
- Do you think Daniel Wolfe wanted to live his life the way he did?
1.2 – Book hand-out and reading of the first chapter
1.3 – Introduction of Blog assignment
- Prompted blog entries and reflections on the novel throughout the duration of the unit (done in and
outside of class time)
- At least 3 comments left on classmate’s blogs to extend thinking, agree with insights or ask questions
regarding their posts
- Notification that the blogs will be accessible to myself and classmates throughout to create
community of learning
- Show example of academic blog : https://stephanies379literaciesblog.wordpress.com and quick tour
of how to get started using this program
- Questions and concerns
1.4 – Showing of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrln8nyVBLU
This video discusses internet safety tips and common misuses of conduct on the internet. This will display the
expectations I have for my students while they create their blogs.
1.5 – Class time allotted for computer room time or time with tablets to create blog site

Adaptations/Differentiation:
EAL, Students with Hearing Impairments: Subtitles will be used on all videos to allow students to read along
with the information being presented in the videos.
EAL, Students with fine motor skill limitations: A video blog will be given as an option for students who have
difficulty communicating through written language.
Student with learning disabilities preventing them from computer use: A simplified iPad program can be used.
 Closing of lesson:
Once blogs have been created and the class time is nearing its end, students will be asked to email their links
to the teacher so that review blogs can take place prior to next blog writing time.
Students will also be asked to fill out the Survey Monkey exit slip before logging off their computers. This exit
slip contains the question: What are 2 questions you have from today's class? (Novel, blog creation, unit)

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z799DGN

M. Wilkinson ’16 *Adapted from Understanding by Design (McTighe and Wiggins, 1998)