Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Chardonai Reynolds

Position Teacher

School/District Factory Shoals Middle School/ Douglas County School District

E-mail Chardonai.Reynolds@dcssga.org

Phone (678) 558- 4891

Grade Level(s) 7th Grade

Content Area Language Arts

Time line September 2020- October 2020

Standards (What do you want students to know and be able to do? What knowledge, skills, and strategies do you
expect students to gain? Are there connections to other curriculum areas and subject area benchmarks? ) Please
put a summary of the standards you will be addressing rather than abbreviations and numbers that indicate which
standards were addressed.
ELAGSE7RL2: Determine a theme and/or central idea of a text and analyze its
development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
ELAGSE7W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using
effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing
a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and
logically.
b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop
experiences, events, and/or characters.
c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal
shifts from one time frame or setting to another.
d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to
capture the action and convey experiences and events.
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or
events
ELAGSE7W6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and
link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking
to and citing sources.
ELAGSE7L1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and
Content Standards usage when writing or speaking
NETS*S Standards: Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves
creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital
media appropriate to their goals.
6b: Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources
into new creations.
6d: Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for

Page 1 of 5
 their intended audiences.

Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital

tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning
experiences for themselves and others.

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible products)

For this lesson plan, the students will compose a short narrative memoir about an event in their life that has
shaped what they believe in. This assignment is titled a “This I Believe” Essay. This assignment will require
students to engage in three different phases: Pre-writing (brainstorming and interview with a loved one),
Narrative Writing, and Presentation. A short summary of student activities at each stage is provided below.
Pre-Writing: The students will begin brainstorming ideas for their essay topics by thinking about their lives
and crucial events in their lives that influence the way they think and any beliefs that they have. To do this,
the students will start by interviewing a loved one. It can be said that the thoughts and beliefs of young
students are often shaped by those of their loved ones. With that being said, the students will begin this
project by interviewing a loved one to begin the process of generating essay ideas. As the interviews are
taking place outside of class, the students and I will begin discussing the elements of narrative writing. The
students will engage in guided notes using a nearpod presentation for which they will review the D.R.A.P.E.S
method of narrative writing.
Interview Questions:
● What would you say is your strongest belief and why?
● If you could choose one belief that you think everyone should instill within themselves, what would
it be?
● If you were to guess, what characteristics do you believe I feel strongly about?
● Do you believe that the events of someone's life can shape what they believe? Why or why not?
● Do you think that someone’s personal experiences can positively or negatively shape how they see
the world?
● Do you think the events of your life have positively or negatively shaped how you see the world?
Can you explain why?

Narrative Writing: The students will begin drafting the ideas for their “This I Believe” (TIB) essays unto their
writing outlines. Students will be provided differentiated writing outlines to ensure that all of the student’s
individual writing needs are addressed. After completing the outline, the students will be permitted to begin
writing the rough draft of their TIB essays. The students will be provided a rubric to follow to ensure that all
elements of personal narrative writing are included in their essay. As students begin to finish their rough
drafts, they will be paired with a peer-editing buddy that I will select. All rough drafts will be completed on
paper, and the names of students will be removed from the paper. Each student will receive a peer’s essay to
edit and review using the D.R.A.P.E.S graphic organizer. Once each essay has been reviewed and edited, the
students will begin creating their final drafts on Google Docs.

Presentation: For the presentation phase of this assignment, the students will create a 5-7 minute video
trailer based on their TIB essay using Adobe Spark. The students’ movie trailers will reflect the event
discussed in the TIB essay, and should reveal the underlying theme of the writer’s essay. The students will
share their media productions on our class Voice Thread. Each student will be asked to comment on at least
three of their peers’ videos.

Essential Questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would students care or
want to know about the topic? What are some questions to get students thinking about the topic or generate
interest about the topic? Additionally, what questions can you ask students to help them focus on important

Page 2 of 5
aspects of the topic? (Guiding questions) What background or prior knowledge will you expect students to bring
to this topic and build on?) Remember, essential questions are meant to guide the lesson by provoking inquiry.
They should not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and should have many acceptable answers.

● How will your This I Believe Essay develop a strong theme from beginning to end?
● How will the event(s) in your life contribute to the theme you are trying to convey?
● How can you employ digital media to convey the ideas and themes made in your personal narrative
writing?
● How can you use your knowledge of the elements of personal narrative to edit and revise yourself and
a peer’s writing?
● How can effects and visual aids be used to create an aesthetically pleasing digital product?
● How do the elements of D.R.A.P.E.S contribute to a meaningful and well-written personal narrative?
● What do I need to know and understand about internet tools such as Adobe Spark and Voice Thread to
create a visual product that effectively communicates the ideas made in my This I Believe Personal
Narrative Essay?
● How do authors use descriptive details and well-structured organization?
● How do authors engage their reader or introduce a narrator or characters in a story?
● How do I use dialogue, pacing, and description effectively?
● How do I learn to make transitions effectively?
● What are the most commonly used transitional words that will advance plot?

Assessment (What will students do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students do to generate new
knowledge? How will you assess how students are progressing (formative assessment)? How will you assess
what they produce or do? How will you differentiate products?) You must attach copies of your assessment and/or
rubrics. Include these in your presentation as well.

To illustrate their learning, the students will write a “This I Believe” essay and create a visual trailer that
conveys the ideas and theme portrayed in the essay. The students will be provided a rubric that details what
elements must be present in their writing. To formally assess students throughout the process, they will be
required to edit and review a peer’s writing using the D.R.A.P.E.S graphic organizer. Lastly, differentiated
writing outlines will be provided to support student’s writing.

Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources—online student
tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—help elucidate or
explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous technology skills should students
have to complete this project?)

The technology used to support this project will be internet tools such as NearPod, Google Docs, Adobe Spark,
and Voice Thread. To begin the unit, the students will engage in interactive notes using NearPod. This internet
tool will be used to activate prior knowledge and review narrative writing elements. Next, the students will use
the web 2.0 tool, Google Docs, to begin crafting their TIB essays. The students must reflect on an event that
has shaped a strong belief that they carry with them every day. The students’ TIB essays must convey a theme
that readers will connect to. Google Docs will allow me to check and assess the students’ writing as they
construct their essays. After crafting their essays, the students will use Adobe Spark to create a movie trailer
based on the personal narratives they have written. The students will learn how to navigate this software to
create a presentation that reflects their TIB essays and the theme they convey in the story. Finally, the students
will upload their videos on our class Voice Thread to communicate with one another by commenting on at least
three videos.

Instructional Plan
Preparation (What student needs, interests, and prior learning provide a foundation for this lesson? How can
you find out if students have this foundation? What difficulties might students have?)

In order to successfully implement this project, students will require knowledge of how to navigate Adobe
Spark. The students will be shown an example of an Adobe Spark video and I will be available to assist
students throughout the process of making their videos. Prior to this lesson plan, the students will have

Page 3 of 5
 reviewed elements of narrative writing such as theme, plot, dialogue, and conflict and have been assessed on
these terms to ensure that they have mastered the elements of narrative writing prior to writing their own
personal narrative essays. None of the students are expected to have issues using Google Docs to type their
essays, as they have interacted with this internet tool before.

Management Describe the classroom management strategies will you use to manage your students and the use
of digital tools and resources. How and where will your students work? (Small groups, whole group, individuals,
classroom, lab, etc.) What strategies will you use to achieve equitable access to the Internet while completing this
lesson? Describe what technical issues might arise during the Internet lesson and explain how you will resolve or
trouble-shoot them? Please note: Trouble-shooting should occur prior to implementing the lesson as well as
throughout the process. Be sure to indicate how you prepared for problems and work through the issues that
occurred as you implemented and even after the lesson was completed.

Management is not expected to be an issue during this lesson. Students typically enjoy writing pieces that have
a personal connection to them. The phases of this project are majorly independent to allow students the privacy
required to be vulnerable enough to write about the events of their personal lives. To ensure equitable access
to internet and technology, this project will take place inside the classroom, with the expectation of the interview
with a loved one. Each student will have access to computers when they are in class. The students will work on
their projects from the month of September to October. Students will be provided three class days (Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday) throughout the duration of the project. I will reserve laptops for the days that the
students work on their projects in class. I will be present to address and troubleshoot any technology issues
that arise during the implementation of the project.

Instructional Strategies and Learning Activities – Describe the research-based instructional strategies you will
use with this lesson. How will your learning environment support these activities? What is your role? What are the
students' roles in the lesson? How can you ensure higher order thinking at the analysis, evaluation, or
creativity levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy? How can the technology support your teaching? What authentic,
relevant, and meaningful learning activities and tasks will your students complete? How will they build knowledge
and skills? How will students use digital tools and resources to communicate and collaborate with each other
and others? How will you facilitate the collaboration?

My role during this project will be to facilitate learning. The students will play an active role in their learning by
reviewing the events of their own lives and reflecting their beliefs within their essays. The students will then go
on to create a visual aid that conveys the theme portrayed in their writing. This project will address the 4 C’s by
allowing students the opportunity to embrace their creativity and collaborate with their peers. The students are
provided the opportunity to be creative by producing their own “movie trailers” about their TIB essays. The
students are also given the opportunity to collaborate with their peers by editing each other’s writing and
providing feedback on at least three of their peer’s movie trailers. These activities create a sense of community
and allow the students to publish their work so that their stories are heard by others. According to Bloom’s
Taxonomy, the students engaging in this project will be working at the sixth level of instruction due to the fact
that they are creating an original work that demonstrates their learning. Technology will be used to support the
creativity and collaboration of this project by providing a way for students to create and communicate their
stories both written and visually, and create a community of writers who review and assess the final product.

Differentiation (How will you differentiate content and process to accommodate various learning styles and
abilities? How will you help students learn independently and with others? How will you provide extensions and
opportunities for enrichment? What assistive technologies will you need to provide?)

Students will be provided differentiated writing outlines to help them communicate their learning. Struggling
writers will be provided a simplistic outline that will help them to organize their ideas easily. Advanced writers
will be provided a graphic organizer that allows them to expand upon their ideas and define their writing.
Students in co-taught ELA will be provided more direction and assistance throughout the writing process to
help them construct their essays. Enrichment opportunities will be provided by allowing students to publish their

Page 4 of 5
 essays unto the national “This I Believe” essay website. Additionally, many of the students prefer a variety of
learning styles. By providing both a written and visual component, students are able to demonstrate their
learning in a variety of ways. Assistive technology such as Grammarly will be provided for students to correct
errors in grammar during the final stage of writing.

TIB Differentiated Writing Outline

TIB Regular Writing Outline

Reflection (Will there be a closing event? Will students be asked to reflect upon their work? Will students be
asked to provide feedback on the assignment itself? Also answer the following questions?

• How will you know if the students found the lesson meaningful and worth completing?
• In what ways do you think this lesson will be effective? Why do you think this?
• What problems do you anticipate and why?
• How would you design and/or teach this lesson differently if you had more time?)

At the closing of the project, the students will be required to comment on at least three of their peer’s movie
trailers on Voice Thread. The students must answer the following prompts within their feedback.
 The overall theme that I feel is conveyed in your trailer is…
 One thing that I think you did well on is…
 One suggestion that I have for improvement is…
Additionally, each student will respond to a questionnaire via Google Forms that will assess whether they found
the project to be meaningful and worth completing. During the questionnaire, the students will also be asked to
evaluate the project by answering what they learned from the experience and how they can apply their
knowledge of themes and narrative elements to other concepts in Language Arts. I do not anticipate any
problems with this project, and foresee it being a worth-while experience for all students. If I had more time, I
would design a presentation day for students to present their “This I Believe” essays amongst their peers within
the school to create a greater sense of community throughout the school as a whole.

Closure: Anything else you would like to reflect upon regarding lessons learned and/or your experience with
implementing this lesson. What advice would you give others if they were to implement the lesson? Please
provide a quality reflection on your experience with this lesson and its implementation.
Recommendations:
● Allow students extra time to refine their writing and visual aids. Once they have a solid idea for a belief,
the students will enjoy reflecting upon their personal experience and may require extra time to create a
writing piece that is meaningful to them
● Model the assignment by doing a “This I Believe” essay of your own. Not only will these help students
by providing them an example, it will show them that their teacher is willing to be vulnerable with the,
and may make them less apprehensive to share details of their lives
● Praise students for their vulnerability throughout the duration of the project
● Prior to the project, engage students in a variety of activities to help them brainstorm a belief. Students
may struggle to think of a belief on their own, and may not be aware that they have one. Activities such
as anticipation guides may help them to think of ideas and beliefs that they feel strongly about.

Page 5 of 5