Lesson Plan #2 and #3

Your Name: Amy Kennedy

Student Name: Michael
nd
Student Grade: 2 Lesson Plan #2 and 3
Date: July
Activity

Introductory
Activity:
Building
Background

Procedure: What will you do? Include

Rationale: Why are you teaching

steps.

this? How are you addressing the

childs needs?
What text reading backs this up?

1) We will begin our lesson by

reviewing the cup (heart map)
from the previous lessons and
review what was important to the
characters of the story and our
own list.
2) Introduce information using
the book If You Lived When
There Was Slavery in America, to
build background about the term
slavery and the life of a slave. I
will use specific pages to discuss
slavery and not read the whole
book.
3) I will introduce the concept of
fairness.
Questions: What does it mean to
be fair? How can you show
fairness?
Have you been treated unfairly?
How is it unfair?

During this lesson I want to

go from things that are the
same about people and look
at how people have been
treated unfairly in history,
but then take it to what we
can do if we see injustices.
I am moving the story from
another country to our own
history about slavery in the
United States.
Freire (2000) talks about
how the oppressed must
see the reality of oppression
not as a closed world, but
only as a limiting situation
that they can transform (p.
49). The story of Henry
and the girl in Unspoken did
not just leave things as they
were, but changed the lives
of people through their

Objectives/
TEKS Connection

Materials

(29) Listening and

Speaking/Listening. Students
use comprehension skills to
listen attentively to others in
formal and informal settings.
Students continue to apply
earlier standards with greater
complexity. Students are
expected to:

Kamma, A. (2004). If You

Lived When There Was
Slavery In America, New
York, NY: Scholastic
Press.

(A) listen attentively to

speakers, ask relevant
questions, and make pertinent
comments

Cup map and T-chart from

first lesson.

Interactive:
Shared Reading
and Think
Aloud

Creative
Exercise:
Sketch to
Stretch

Closure:

I will introduce the book Henrys

Freedom Box, by letting the
student know that this is based on
a true story about a slave. As we
are reading the story we will look
at the events that happened to
Henry and list them as fair or
unfair and explain why.

After reading Henrys Freedom

Box, we will take the wordless
book Unspoken, and tell our own
story using the illustrations.
After we have finished we will
make a sketch about what the
story meant to us.
After we have made our sketches
we will discuss and share our
sketches.

actions. It also shows

others that were fighting at
their side in different ways
to help the oppressed even
at their own cost.
This story highlights the
unfair treatment of the
slaves and the risks they
were willing to take to be
free.
My purpose for this lesson
was to highlight the unfair
treatment that in this case
the slaves faced, but also the
choice of people to help
those that are being treated
unfairly.
The story Unspoken takes
the same story, but puts it in
the view of the ones helping
the slaves to freedom and
the relationships that
developed in that
circumstance.
Short (2000) in an article
states that in the students
lives outside of school that
learners naturally move
between art, music,
movement, mathematics,

(12) Reading/Comprehension
of Informational Text/Culture
and History. Students
analyze, make inferences and
draw conclusions about the
author's purpose in cultural,
historical, and contemporary
contexts and provide
evidence from the text to
support their understanding.
Students are expected to
identify the topic and locate
the author's stated purposes in
writing the text.

Levine, E. (2007). Henrys

Freedom Box. New York,
NY: Scholastic Press.
T-chart to record fair and
unfair.

Cole, H. (2012).
Unspoken. New York, NY:
Scholastic Press.
Paper, crayons, pencils

drama, and language as

ways to think about the
world and use these things
to gain new understandings.

Your Name:Amy Kennedy

Student Name: Michael

Lesson and Personal Reflection for Lesson Plan #2 and 3

Lesson Reflection: CHILD NOTES---Focus is on the child. How did

my student respond to the opportunities to learn that I provided?

Personal Reflection: Focus on YOU! As a result of teaching these

activities, what did I learn about teaching in general and about myself as
a teacher? How did your plan address your students individual diverse
needs?

Introductory activity:
Michael struggled to pull up the information from the previous lesson,
but as soon as he saw the t-chart and cup he was able to recall the lesson
and used the books pictures to recall the story. Michael said that the
blessing cup was important because it had blessings from God.

In starting this lesson linking it to the previous lesson, I had thought that
Michael would talk about the fact that the family was forced to leave
their country, but his main take away was the cup being important
because of the blessings from God. This made me realize that no matter
the book that we each get different messages and understandings that
stick with us even if we are reading the same book. The students bring
their own schema and understandings to the stories that we share just
like our book study groups did for Hunger of Memory.
This also reminded me the power that comes from talking about the
books we are reading.

The pictures in the book If You Lived When There Was Slavery in
America were used to introduce a basic understanding of slavery.
Michael asked a few clarifying questions as we went through the book,
he appeared to be trying to understand about slavery, but seemed to
have difficulty understanding the concepts of not being free.
When I asked Michael about the term fair and unfair, he stated that it
was hard to say. He was able to categorize things as fair and unfair, but
had trouble giving a working definition.

This lesson made me stop and realize that this lesson was a concept and
not a definition. The stories lead to understanding about freedom and
what it is like to not be free. Categorizing the actions as fair and not
fair came easily, but the explaining what it meant for things to be fair or
unfair was harder. Many of these concepts like fairness, freedom are

Interactive Read Aloud and Think aloud:

Michael was interested in this story and would make connections to the
pictures in this book of the slaves being taken away in carts to the
blessing book where the family left in the carts.
Michael was quick to categorize the events that happened to Henry as
fair and unfair.

Creative Exercise:
Michael seemed to struggle with understanding the story the pictures
were telling in Unspoken. He struggled with understanding that a slave
was hiding in the barn under the stalks and that the girl was helping the
slave.
The sketch to stretch as also a little difficult because he was concerned
that he could draw well enough or what to draw.
After a little bit he asked if he could draw a house and I told him to
draw whatever he wanted. He drew a house and a girl.

Closure:
Michael was not comfortable explaining his drawing. I had to questions
him about the details of the picture to draw out his thinking. The house
was colored all in black and the girl was standing outside the house. He
said that the house was black because the slavers which were bad
were coming to take the house. She was outside and happy because she
was going to a bigger house.

built through many experiences in life and being exposed to stories

about people that did not have choices. One of the reasons for
including this type literature in schools!
Michael was reluctant to read the story at first even though the words
were not difficult. Later on in the story he just started reading a page
aloud, I guess he wanted to know what happened next.
Michael again was able to categorize the events in Henrys life as being
treated fair or unfair.
This type of sorting of events into categorizes builds that understanding
of concepts that students need to be able to do in life to make decisions.
This also gives students opportunities to share their thinking.
This story was much easier to read and comprehend the main story line
so that more time could be spent on the categorizing of events and not
the basic story.
I was surprised by Michaels struggle with telling the story using the
pictures. I dont know if this is the first time he read a wordless book
or if I wanted him to read it my way. This goes back to our experiences
that we bring to the story impact how we interpret the story. No two
people read the book the same way.
Also this story was told through the view point of the little girl that was
helping the slave which was the opposite of Henrys description of what
happened to him as a slave and while hiding.
I did not realize until later in the lesson that Michael was doing a literal
transfer and thought that the slave in Unspoken was hiding in a box like
Henry.
Michael is a very private child and does not like to talk about how he
feels about things or what he is thinking. At first I asked him to share
his sketch and he was struggling with explaining it to me and asked me
to explain my sketch. I made sure my sketch was very different from
his so he would not be tempted to just copy what I did for my sketch
and explanation. He was then willing to share his sketch. In his sketch
to stretch he went back to link the very first story, The Blessing Cup and

Henrys story about them having to leave their home. That seemed to be important to Michael, but he also wanted a happy ending
This activity made me realize how much a child can tell you through a picture. They can reveal their understandings as well as the
When Michaels mom came to pick him up and asked about the lesson- He said it was hard.
I did not expect him to view it as hard, but now I realize that going past just the main story events and delving into feelings and ju

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