Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Reflection:
This lesson was first and honestly inspired by the curriculum imposed by the district. Malala Yousafzais
experience in Pakistan is globally recognized and celebrated. Having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
at the young age of 17 years old, she plays an important role in the history of education for women across
the world. The speech Malala delivered when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was powerful and
life changing. As a teenager, my students will be able to form that connection to her immediately. She was
14 years old, the same age as most of them, when she was shot in the head for going to school. It helps
them to see that something they are free to do every single morning here in the United States is something
that could get them killed in Pakistan. The content of this speech is so powerful because
The core skills being taught here are reading and writing using evidence to analyze a text.
This can be a very difficult skill for language learners. I have found a great way to intervene here is to
have them work in heterogeneous groups after giving some background and having a whole class
discussion about what happened in 2012 to Malala. The purpose of this is to observe one of many different
cultures and help students realize the modern issues that people face around the globe today.
In researching the background situation of Malalas culture in Pakistan and lifestyle, students will have
more of an appreciation and understanding about what happened to her. They will be able to connect with
her because this happened just three years ago to a teenage girl. As teenagers, they will be able to directly
relate to her going to school everyday. Many of my students come from other countries with varying
degrees of gender oppression. It will enrich class discussion to hear the similarities and stark differences
between not only the US and Pakistan, but also their home nations such as Cape Verde and Liberia. These
nations have differing issues, but can all connect in their own way to Pakistan and what happened to
Malala.
This lesson plan allows for students to discuss both in groups and as a whole class to global issues of
gender inequality. It also ties into education around the globe and how grateful students are that they live
within a culture that encourages education and knowledge. This lesson is 90 minutes and exercises the I
Do, We Do, You Do cycle. It fosters a community of sharing and learning within the classroom and puts a
positive focus on personal connections and sharing about the content.
Overall, I find this lesson to be powerful in that it expands students mindsets outside the culture we live in,
and the cultures they come from. They are forced to make connections between their home countries and
Pakistan, their new country and their old, and now the US to Pakistan as well. The deeper connection
comes from the point that Malala was just 14 years old, the same age as them, when she was shot in the
face for pursuing her education. The main message of her speech is so incredibly relevant to them because
she continues to show strength and empower her peers to value their education. Being in the classroom
and discussing this always brings me great pride in what the students have to contribute. They can all
emotionally respect what she has done and discuss how blessed they feel to be able to pursue their
education, no matter how daunting and hard it can be---especially as language learners.
After this lesson is delivered, students always connect back to it in future global discussions and class
chats about cultures around the world today. Malalas struggles and triumphs set a positive and powerful
tone to the importance of being in the classroom and learning. Its a great way to deliver reading, writing,
speaking and listening skills, strong global content matter, and a lasting text to self connection for students.
GRADE Level:
MOTIVATION:
(Building background)
Students have been given a baseline that directly assessed their abilities and skill levels when gathering
evidence and analyzing text. Using those baseline scores, I have designed my instruction directly based on
each student's abilities.
For this particular lesson, I have taken their scores from a previous TIQA writing assignment and
determined that another class period spent practicing skill would be helpful. Overall at this point, only
71% of students in this class are proficiently using evidence in their writing. That's 15 of the 21 students I
have. My specific goal for today's class was to bring that number up to 17 students, which would bring the
overall level of proficiency with this skill in the classroom to 81%.
I looked specifically at each student's areas of strengths and weakness to determine which area of the skill
I needed to focus on most during this lesson, however there seemed to be an even spread of difficulty with
each area. The only mistake I saw on the majority of TIQAs was the citation. Therefore, I have designed
the Do Now to clarify how to correctly cite the quotes they are using.
I am going to cover each area of TIQA in this lesson and hopefully through modeling and having students
work in heterogeneous groups during an activity, help each other to strengthen their weaker areas of this
skill as well as socializing and collaborating with peers to improve communication and language skills.
PRESENTATION:
(Language and content objectives, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, feedback)
Class will follow the DEEPER Lesson Cycle.
Do Now, Essential Question, Engagement, Practice, Evaluate, Review
Do Now:
Students will retrieve a Grammar Handout from the red bin they are accustomed to grabbing the Do Now
from. This Grammar Handout will require students to write the correct citation of listed quotes as they
would if they were writing a TIQA.
For example, the first quote to be cited appears on the handout as:
Author: Richard Connell
Text: He smiled and said, Yes.
The correct citation of this would be: "He smiled and said, 'Yes.' "(Connell).
With six different quotes to be cited on the Do Now, students will be allotted ten minutes to complete it.
Early Finishers will be instructed to read their independently selected novels for their book logs.
Before I go over the Do Now on the ELMO, I will review the posted Agenda for today's class period:
February 3, 2015
Agenda:
1.
2.
3.
4.
E: Model TIQA: Prompt: What kind of struggle did Malala face in Pakistan?
5.
6.
7.
E: Exit TIQA Prompt: What is Malalas message in her speech, Nobel Lecture?
8.
I will then review the Do Now Grammar Handout to ensure students understand how to correctly cite
quotes within their writing.
Essential Questions:
I will introduce Key Ideas through the activity Cold Call! They have taken extensive notes and practiced
the TIQA Strategy twice so far, and today will be another day of practice with a formative assessment at
the close of class to navigate any further instruction on the topic. I will also include the Essential
Questions during Cold Call. Students are aware of the unit's essential question because it is posted and
introduced at the start of each unit. The essential questions of this unit are: "How can we use evidence
from a text to support our ideas and observations? How do we correctly cite evidence in paragraph format?
In addition to the essential questions I will pepper questions about the logistics of TIQA to clear up any
confusion and check for understanding. These questions will be: What is the function of a Topic Sentence?
(To answer the prompt.) What is the function of Introducing the Quote? (To provide context and
background of the quote, to integrate it into the paragraph) What should come at the end of Introducing
your Quote? ( a comma) What is the function of the quote itself? (Evidence of the Topic Sentence from the
text) How do we correctly cite dialogue? (With the use of an extra quotation) What does every quote need
in parentheses after it? (The author's last name) What is the function of Analyzing the Quote? (To explain
your answer and develop the evidence as support).
During Cold Call! Students are asked to sit with folded hands and answer the review question asked in
their heads. I will then call on one student to answer the question.
PRACTICE AND APPLICATION:
(Meaningful activities, interaction, strategies, practice and application, feedback)
After this quick review, we will watch a video of Malala delivering her speech, "Nobel Lecture in Oslo
after accepting her Nobel Peace Prize. Quickly acknowledge and discuss the culture that the speech was a
product of: the oppression of womens educational rights in Pakistan and abuse of the terrorist group, The
Taliban. Ask guiding questions to illicit reactions from students and real world connections to their own
origin of culture.
Directly afterwards on the ELMO, I will model the activity I want them to complete in groups in just a
few minutes. I will use a large sheet of paper to answer a TIQA Prompt, listing my group members' names
and the date.
Group TIQA Activity: Before students transition from their assigned seats into their TIQA groups, I will
have assigned them heterogeneous groups based on their last TIQA score. For example, if Derek had
trouble with Analysis but was strong with Introducing the Quote, I would group him with Meredith who
was strong with Analysis but weak with Introducing the Quote.
Each group of 4 will have a TIQA role (one of the four letters of TIQA). This will be their responsibility to
not only write it on the group chart paper and orally present it to the class, but also to contribute to the
other letters so that the TIQA flows together as though it was written by one person.
They will have 15 minutes to work as a group and complete the TIQA. Each group will have a different
prompt from the following list: What was Malalas background that caused her to be targeted by the
Taliban that morning? What is Malalas family like? What obstacles did Malala have to face after she was
shot? What difference did she make for the girls of Pakistan?
I will circulate ensuring that each individual student is contributing, as well as stepping back to help each
other. I will have a clipboard to record each student's performance within their groups according to work
At the end of the 15 minutes, each group will share out their TIQA. Every member of the group must read
their letter aloud, ensuring that all group members participate and present.
REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT:
(Review objectives and vocabulary, assess learning)
Evaluate:
Between each group, I will use a red marker to grade the TIQA exactly as I would if it were handed in to
me by an individual student. In having students watch this process, they realize mistakes they consistently
make being the reason for lost points. It helps them understand more holistically what a proficient TIQA
needs to be.
Students will now return to their assigned seats.
They will have to independently complete the TIQA Prompt posted on the board: What was Malalas
message throughout her acceptance speech, Nobel Lecture? Remind students about the culture global
issues addressed in the speech that were discussed earlier.
The prompt requires students to make inferences and dig deeper into their depth of knowledge to come up
with an answer. It asks "What is the message of the speech?" After discussions in class about global issues
and how we can connect to people around the world, students should be capable of coming up with the
correct answer, that Malala, who was denied the right to an education because of her gender in Pakistan, is
a true hero because she sacrificed herself and continues to fight for the education of all girls in her home
country.
This prompt needs to be supported by the TIQA strategy. They will be assessed on how well they complete
each of these four areas of paragraph writing. The school wide Informational Text Response Rubric will be
used to grade these assignments.
The true extension of this class period and lesson cycle will be to continue with the theme of global issues
in other cultures today, while using the writing and reading strategies to create comprehensive essays
analyzing informational texts but also support their skills working in groups and socializing and
collaborating with peers.