Goals and Rational:

The goals for this lesson are: 1) Students will learn about a famous person in history and 2) Students will be able to write a “Bio Poem” about the person that [RU1] they researched.  These goals are important because students will be learning about a new person who has had an important impact on history.  This is also important because it will demonstrate to students that many famous people began with ordinary beginnings, not necessarily famous ones.

 

Objectives, Standards, and Benchmarks:

Students will research a famous person, learning about their lives, what they did, and how they became famous.  Also, students will make a connection between themselves and those they researched. 

Standards and Benchmarks:

ELA 2.1 MS

Meaning and Communication

Content Standard 2:  All students will demonstrate the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.

Middle School

Benchmark 1: Write fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as personal narratives, persuasive essays, lab reports, and poetry.

ELA 11.3 LE

Inquiry and Research

Content Standard 11:  All students will define and investigate important issues and problems using a variety of resources, including technology, to explore and create texts.

Later Elementary

Benchmark 2:  Identify and use different types of resources that are most useful and most readily available for the particular questions or topics they wish to investigate.  Examples include knowledgeable people, field trips, tables of contents, indexes, glossaries, icons/headings, hypertext storage addresses, CD-ROM/laser disks, electronic mail, and library catalogue databases.

 

Teacher Preparation:

 

Assessment:

Students will compile a poem using the format that follows and the facts that they found through their research.

            Poem Format:

           

            First Name­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________

            3 adjectives that describe themselves/or their famous person_________________

            Love of/for____________________

            Who fears/they feared or enjoyed__________________

            Would like to do/has done___________________

            Son/Daughter of________________________

            Resident of__________________________

            Last Name______________________

 

Lesson Plan:

Anticipatory Set:

I will start by telling the students that they will be learning about famous people in history, and continue by asking them for some people that[RU4]  they think are famous.  After this, I will continue by giving the directions for the activity.

 

Checking for Understanding:

I will ask the students to repeat the directions back to me.  If there are any questions, or students who do not understand the instructions, I will reword the directions and ask them to repeat once again.

 

Independent Practice:

Students will complete a “Bio Poem” about themselves and illustrate some of the components.

 

Assessment Item:

Students will use their research skills to research the famous person that[RU5]  they have chosen.  Each student will have a different person.  Students will be assessed using two standards.  First, they will be assessed using the Michigan Writing Standards for their grade level.  Second, they will be assessed based on the MLPP writing standards.

 

Adjustments for Lola Clapton:

Lola is a student who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and is performing at levels far below her classmates.[RU6]   It is for this reason, that she has been placed in a Special Education classroom.  In addition, Lola is also hearing impaired.  As a General Education teacher, I would have to adjust this lesson in the following ways to make it appropriate for Lola, and include activities that allow her to read lips, or a text.

  1. Because Lola is performing at levels far below her grade, I will pick out the famous person for her[RU7] .  I would do this based on the information that she has given me, her likes and dislikes, and I would also try to find a person who has some similarities to Lola[RU8] .  The first person that came to my mind was Helen Keller,[RU9]  because of the difficulties that she overcame.
  2. I will have a written example of the “Bio Poem” for Lola to follow and emulate.  Lola will also write a “Bio Poem” about herself, this can also be used as an example.  If she requests it, or the paraprofessional asks for it, I will also supply a fill in the blank template [RU10] for Lola to use.
  3. This activity will be completed with the help of her paraprofessional, who can help her read information and pull out the important facts.  The paraprofessional could also write [RU11] the “Bio Poem” as Lola dictates it.
  4. One of Lola’s passions is art.  It is for this reason that Lola will be asked to draw a self-portrait for her “Bio Poem[RU12] ” and a portrait of her famous person.
  5. Lola’s poem will be assessed using the Michigan Writing Standards and MLPP standards for the grade level at which she is performing[RU13] .

 

 

Ashley – this is EXCELLENT work! Your score:  75 out of 75 possible

 [RU1]Delete “that”

 [RU2]delete “possible”

 [RU3]“each person” or each of the people

 [RU4]people who

 [RU5]delete “that”

 [RU6]you might want to add that she has difficulty with “reading comprehension” or word recognition etc and you might identify the grade level she is functioning at.  If you were not able to teach (accident, job transfer etc,) a sub would need to have some specific background knowledge about the accommodation being made for Lola

 [RU7]It would be nice to let Lola have a choice. How about narrowing her choices to individuals she has high interest in

 [RU8]EXCELLENT idea!

 [RU9]FANTASTIC!!! Are you SURE you are not a special education major?!

 [RU10]YES! THIS is the kind of accommodation I’m looking for!

 [RU11]Because of Lola’s inability to write fluently or because Lola has fine motor difficulties?  Careful that the paraprofessional doesn’t do Lola’s work for her – that happens a lot.

 [RU12]Again, you are right on track!!! You are building on her STRENGTHS! – not her disability!

 [RU13]PERFECT!