L1+Merrifield,+Jared

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HEALTH AND REHABILITATION LESSON PLAN FORMAT
 * UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FARMINGTON

Teacher’s Name:** Mr. Merrifield **Facet of Understanding:** Self-knowledge
 * Grade Level:** 7-8 grade **Topic:** Plot structure

__**Objectives**__

 * Students will understand that** every text has a plot, including a conflict.
 * Students will know** the basic plot of __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__, identifying the beginning, body, rising action, main conflict, climax, and resolution in terms of the story itself.
 * Students will be able to** create an original short story with a discernible plot.

__**Maine Learning Results Alignment**__
English Language Arts - A. Reading A2 Literary Texts, Grades 7-8: __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__ Students will read fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry, within a grade appropriate span of text complexity, and analyze the characteristics noting how structural features and common literary devices help shape the reader's response.


 * Rationale:** This lesson focuses primarily on the appreciation and understanding of the structural features of a cohesive story. They will do this by identifying the sequence of events and creating a plot line of their own.

__**Assessment**__
Students will be provided with feedback from the teacher and other students regarding their short stories. Students will use these to their advantage to edit their stories so the plot is more distinguished. Students will be required to identify which changes they made, either by signifying it in the text using italics or emboldening or by citing them at the end of the story, and they will have to tell why they made those changes and how it affects the flow of the story.
 * Formative (Assessment for Learning)**

Students will create a blog entry that consists of a short story with a coherent plot. The prompt for this story is entirely open-ended and will rely on the students' own creativity. I will provide a few ideas to help the creative juices flow: base a short story on an event that happened in your life, create a science fiction/fantasy/fairy tale story of your own, feature characters from __Harry Potter__ as long as the story is not based around a part of the plot in the book, etc...
 * Summative (Assessment of Learning)**

__**Integration**__

 * Technology:** Students will use a blogging website to post a short story. In most cases, this will require students to create an account so they will be able to revisit their blogs and those created by others. This will also allow other students to provide praise, feedback, and constructive criticism in the form of posted comments.


 * English:** This lesson will perfect the creative storytelling skills of the students, but it will also give them a chance to improve their spelling and mechanics.
 * Math/Logic:** Using sequential logic is essential for this lesson, and students who are apt in math are sure to appreciate it.

__Groupings__
Students will participate in a think-pair-share exercise after I pose the question of how much different a story would be if there was no conflict, no resolution, etc... The pairs are chosen by counting off the students, only the second groups will count down. Both students will share an equal number of key ideas during the exercise. They will write down their own and their partner's and identify whose idea each one was.

__**Differentiated Instruction**__

 * Strategies**
 * Linguistic:** Students will study the practice of story reading and writing
 * Logical:** Students will identify the correct sequence of events in a short story
 * Interpersonal:** Students will work in pairs when discussing story structure and provide feedback for others' work
 * Intrapersonal:** Students will rely on their own creativity to construct an original story
 * Naturalistic:** Students of naturalistic aptitude may think of this lesson as "putting the pieces together" to create a working environment
 * Musical:** A good analogy that would apply to musical students would be that a story has to have a good rhythm; otherwise, it's just a string of "sour notes"

I will review student’s IEP, 504 or ELLIDEP and make appropriate modifications and accommodations.
 * Modifications/Accommodations**

Absent students MUST make up their work. The class will be provided with a contact sheet with all the student's phone numbers and email addresses. If a student does not show up for class, he or she is responsible to contact one of the other students to get the assignment they missed. Buddy systems or contact partnerships are encouraged.

Students will use a blogging website to post a short story. In most cases, this will require students to create an account so they will be able to revisit their blogs and those created by others. This will also allow other students to provide praise, feedback, and constructive criticism in the form of posted comments.
 * Extensions**

__**Materials, Resources and Technology**__
Computers/laptops Internet (blogger.com) __Harry Potter__ book Sequence of events quiz / sequence chart My own short story for a hook/example An imagination!

__Source for Lesson Plan and Research__
Sequence chart from [|Education Place]

__**Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale**__
Rationale:**
 * //Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development.//
 * Beach Ball:** Students are able to be as creative as they want when they develop their short story, as long as the criteria, specifically for plot structure, are appropriately met.
 * Clipboard:** Clipboard learners are sure to enjoy this lesson, for it is all about the sequence of events that make a story cohesive. Plus, the beginning activities allow them to become eased into the lesson step-by-step.
 * Microscope:** The cooperative learning exercise should bode well with microscope learners, in that it is going much more in depth than just the plot structure by studying the absence or incoherence of one.
 * Puppy:** No one in my class should heavily criticize or, heaven forbid, insult one another in the story writing process. If anything, the feedback should be encouraging and not in any way degrading.

Rationale:** Please refer to my content notes. English Language Arts - A. Reading A2 Literary Texts, Grades 7-8: __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__ Students will read fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry, within a grade appropriate span of text complexity, and analyze the characteristics noting how structural features and common literary devices help shape the reader's response.
 * //Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory.//
 * Self-knowledge:** Students will be aware of the importance of plot structure, and they will discover that the absence or incoherence of plot can negatively affect the flow of a story in astounding ways. They will experience this for themselves when I read (part of) a short story at the beginning of the lesson, and then use this knowledge to garner a deeper appreciation for plot and create a story of their own.


 * //Standard 5 - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs.//**


 * Rationale:**
 * Linguistic:** Students will study the practice of story reading and writing
 * Logical:** Students will identify the correct sequence of events in a short story
 * Interpersonal:** Students will work in pairs when discussing story structure and provide feedback for others' work
 * Intrapersonal:** Students will rely on their own creativity to construct an original story
 * Naturalistic:** Students of naturalistic aptitude may think of this lesson as "putting the pieces together" to create a working environment
 * Musical:** A good analogy that would apply to musical students would be that a story has to have a good rhythm; otherwise, it's just a string of "sour notes"


 * Technology:** Students will use a blogging website to post a short story. In most cases, this will require students to create an account so they will be able to revisit their blogs and those created by others. This will also allow other students to provide praise, feedback, and constructive criticism in the form of posted comments.


 * //Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner.//**

Students will be provided with feedback from the teacher and other students regarding their short stories. Students will use these to their advantage to edit their stories so the plot is more distinguished. Students will be required to identify which changes they made, either by signifying it in the text using italics or emboldening or by citing them at the end of the story, and they will have to tell why they made those changes and how it affects the flow of the story.
 * Rationale:**
 * Formative (Assessment for Learning)**

Students will create a blog entry that consists of a short story with a coherent plot. The prompt for this story is entirely open-ended and will rely on the students' own creativity. I will provide a few ideas to help the creative juices flow: base a short story on an event that happened in your life, create a science fiction/fantasy/fairy tale story of your own, feature characters from __Harry Potter__ as long as the story is not based around a part of the plot in the book, etc...
 * Summative (Assessment of Learning)**

__Teaching and Learning Sequence__
I will set the students' desks into basic rows all facing the front of the classroom, although they are welcome to shift the desk positions once the group activity starts, provided they are moved back. There will be no assigned desks, which will make the group assignment more random, even if friends are sitting next to each other.

Students will understand that every text has a plot, including a conflict. //**Students will read fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry, with a grade appropriate span of text complexity, and analyze the characteristics noting how structural features and literary devices help shape the reader's response.**// Structure is one of the most important aspects of a literary text; without one, the text would be disjointed and incomprehensible. Plus, it would make no sense for your own life to suffer from such lack of order!

__Day 1__

At the start of class, I will ask students if any of them enjoy reading stories, and hopefully I will get quite a few hands. Thus, I will start telling a riveting story, one that I made up myself or found from an outside source, but will not reveal the falling action or resolution and have students ponder as to how the story might have ended. (5 minutes)

After the story is finished, I will ask students what is wrong with it. Once we have deduced that it is without a conclusion, I will have students write out what they think happened at the end in a basic storytelling format. (5 minutes)

Once this is done, I will have most or all students share aloud what they have written. (10 minutes)

I will then hand out sequence charts that feature the different parts of a common, multi-step routine presented in a mixed-up fashion. Students are required to number each step in the order it should be, and then label them with the appropriate element of plot. Several steps can belong to a single element. I will develop a variety of these so most students have different sequences and events. (10 minutes)

I will go over what has happened thus far in __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__ and have students identify which element of plot we have reached in the book. We will go over when in the book the introduction ends, the rising action begins, and so on, and allow different students' opinion on when these changes in plot occur. I will also have them identify any conflict that has happened thus far, but I will not focus too much on conflict for it is the basis of one of my future lessons. (15 minutes)

I will have them reflect on how ineffective my story was without an ending, and I want them to consider what the story would be like if it had no introduction, no rising action, and/or no conflict. This is when the think-pair-share exercise will start. I will organize the pairs and have them write down ideas about how different a story would be if the plot was negatively affected. This could apply to the story I told as the hook, __Harry Potter__, to a book or story with which the class is familiar, or even in real life events. (10 minutes)

After the think-pair-share activity is over, I will have students share their ideas. (10 minutes)

At this point, I will introduce my students to Blogger.com and help each of them set up an account and post their first blog entry as practice. I will also teach them how to write comments, which will be essential to the lesson. I will then introduce the story writing aspect of the lesson and allow students the rest of class to ponder ideas. Their homework will be to write a short story and post it on the blog, which will be due the next class. All students will be required to read each others' stories and post at least three sentences of feedback, and this will be due the class after next. (15 minutes)
 * Where, Why, What, Hook, Hook Tailors: Linguistic, logical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic**

Students will familiarize themselves with the basic plot of __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone__, identifying the beginning, body, rising action, main conflict, climax, and resolution in terms of the story itself. An effective pre-assessment method would be to distribute a brief quiz telling students to re-order a sequence of simple events in a way that makes the most sense and best pertains to story structure, identifying each point along the way. A sequence chart would best exemplify this. I will print off a variety, so not all will be exactly the same and the students' ideas will vary. To interact with the students, I will walk around the room and correct, provide feedback, or ask students to explain their sequence choices. Once everyone is done, I will have the students who worked on like-sequences to present their results with the class and any difficulties or confusions they had.
 * Equip, Explore, Tailor: Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical, Musical**

Students will participate in a think-pair-share exercise after I pose the question of how much different a story would be if there was no conflict, no resolution, etc... Students will garner a sense of self-knowledge about plot structure by experiencing its importance for themselves. They will consider possible endings to a short story, ponder how much different a story will be without a coherent, and develop a plot of their own. The pairs are chosen by counting off the students, only the second groups will count down. Both students will share an equal number of key ideas during the exercise. They will write down their own and their partner's and identify whose idea each one was. Finally, we will participate in a class-wide sharing activity in which each pair states the ideas they came up with, and the other pairs will agree, disagree, or add on to the idea with one of their own. Once the students have grasped the idea behind plot structure (and the lack thereof), they will create their own original short story. Students will be able to revise their stories posted on the blog after others supply the feedback. They will post revised drafts of the story and identify the changes they have made, ensuring that the story has a steady flow.
 * Experience, Rethink, Revise, Rehearse, Refine, Tailor: Linguistic, Logical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic**

Students are required to read everybody's short stories and provide feedback through posting comments, commenting on how well the story flowed and making sure that each element of plot was incorporated. Once all or most students have done this, I will add anything I believe is relevant and agree-disagree with the various comments. Self-assessment will include the edited blog entries along with what the students have learned from the lessons and the feedback provided. Our brief discussion on conflict will come into play during one of the future lessons, in which students will "put themselves in the story" by developing a short skit that illustrates a conflict and its resolution.
 * Evaluate, Tailor: Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical**


 * Content Notes**

Plot: the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.

Introduction: the first part of a literary work that introduces the main characters (specifically the protagonist and antagonist), the setting(s), and oftentimes the central conflict.

Protagonist: an essential character in a literary work

Antagonist: an essential character who acts as the enemy to the protagonist

Rising action: the part of the story in which the conflict worsens or increases in severity

Climax: the most intense part of a story in which the conflict is the most serious

Falling action: the part of the plot in which the conflict is partially resolved and is reduced in severity

Resolution: the end of a literary work during which the conflict is completely resolved


 * Handouts**

Sequence chart (see resources) 10-15 papers with routines and jumbled steps

Present Lesson 4 on 4/6