Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Grade Level: 4
Lesson Summary and Students will be working on learning how to write for a specific audience for their
Focus: persuasive essays. The teacher will demonstrate how to use a, ‘Claim, Audience,
Reasons,’ graphic organizer. The focus for the lesson is for students to rehearse their
reasons with their intended audience in mind. In order for the students to make their
persuasive essays as convincing as possible, they will be working on how to think about
which reasons will most persuade their audience.
Classroom and Student Two students with IEPs that will always be in the Resource Room with the Special
Factors/Grouping: Education Teacher during the reading lessons. Another student with a 504, will have
things read to him as necessary or work in a small group setting. For this lesson, each
student will receive their own Character Traits List to keep in their Reading folders and
will be able to reference them as needed.
National/State Learning “CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point
Standards: of view with reasons and information.
Explain how you will differentiate materials for each of the following groups:
English language learners (ELL): We do not currently have any ELL students in our
classroom. However, if there were, I would accommodate those students with extra
visual aids for the lesson. I would also have them fill out the chart with a partner to help
them put their thoughts down on the paper.
Students with special needs: We currently have two special needs students in the
classroom with IEP’s and they are in our elementary Resource Room and receive
alternative reading, writing, and mathematics instruction at their level. There is also a
student on a 504 Plan that has tests and quizzes read to him. For this lesson, that
student was taken out of the classroom during the lesson for reading instruction with the
elementary Title 1 teacher.
Students with gifted abilities: There are not currently any students in my classroom who
are classified as gifted. We do, however, have a full-time Special Education Classroom
for other students in the building and they are in there for the entire school day.
Early finishers (those students who finish early and may need additional
resources/support): For this activity if the students finish before the rest of the students,
they can sit quietly at their desks and read while the other students are finishing. The
students that need additional support, I will work one-on-one with them while I am
walking around the classroom during the independent work time of the lesson.
Explain how you will differentiate activities for each of the following groups:
English language learners (ELL): There are currently no ELL students in my classroom.
However, if there were, I would offer these students the same opportunity to share their
ideas with the class if they chose to. If they needed assistance reading their thoughts, I
would help them with that or have one of their classmates help them.
Students with special needs: The two students with IEP’s in the classroom receive their
reading, writing, and mathematics instruction in the school’s Resource Room with the
Special Education teacher, where they receive it at their level. The 504 student in the
classroom only has quizzes and tests read, otherwise everything else in the classroom is
the same instruction and lessons.
Students with gifted abilities: There are not any students meeting this criteria in the
classroom. However, there is a Special Education Classroom with a full-time teacher
where some students spend the entire day and receive all of their instruction.
Early finishers (those students who finish early and may need additional
resources/support): During this portion of the lesson, while the students are sharing their
thoughts of their claim statements, audience, and reasons for these, the rest of the class
is to be listening. When the students have finished sharing their thoughts, the other
students will be allowed to ask questions to their classmates.
Explain if you will differentiate assessments for each of the following groups:
English language learners (ELL): N/A
Students with special needs: See above comments for special needs students in the
classroom.
Early finishers (those students who finish early and may need additional
resources/support): During this phase of the lesson, the students are quietly and
respectfully listening to their classmates while they share. Then the class is encouraged
to give a thumbs up or thumbs down for how effectively their classmate stated their claim
and supported it with reasons to their specified audience. The graphic organizers will be
collected at the end of the lesson.
Rationale/Reflection
Cooperative-Learning: The students interacted with one another actively during this
portion of the lesson. The students listened to one another as they shared their claim
statements, audience, and reasons to support their claims. The students offered
feedback to each other and really seemed to enjoy running this part of the lesson.
Activated prior knowledge about the previous day’s lesson. This was so that the
students would be prepared to receive the new information that built upon the previous
day’s lesson.
Thumbs up – Thumbs down was used during the active engagement portion of the
lesson. This gave me insight as to the level of understanding of the students for the
lesson. It also let me know if any students still needed further instruction on the subject.