Task 1 – Academic Language Demand Breakdown
The following document will help you understand the components of the edTPA concept of
Academic Language Demands and how you can weave them throughout your lessons.
Below you will find an actual previous candidate lesson (1 of the 3-5, not all) and throughout
color coding will be used to indicate the 4 different components of ALD. Those 4 components
are the following: Function, Vocabulary, Discourse, and Syntax. At the end of the actual color
-coded lesson plan you will find a chart breaking down the colors/components and explaining
the evidence as well as listing the score the previous candidate received for this work.
Social Studies edTPA Lesson Plan Lesson 1
Author: ___________
Grade Level: ________ Grade 8
Subject: Social Studies
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
8.H.1.5 Analyze the relationship between historical
context and decision-making.
8.C&G.1.4 Analyze access to democratic rights and
freedoms among various groups in North Carolina and the
United States (e.g. enslaved people, women, wage
earners, landless farmers, American Indians,
African Americans and other ethnic groups).
8.C&G.1.2 Evaluate the degree to which democratic ideals
are evident in historical documents from North
Carolina and the United States (e.g. the
Mecklenburg Resolves, the Halifax Resolves, the
Declaration of Independence, the Articles of
Confederation, the Bill of Rights and the
principles outlined in the US Constitution and
North Carolina Constitutions of 1776, 1868 and
1971).
Central Focus: American Revolution: Liberty and Order
Date submitted:
Date taught:
Will be taught over the course of 90 minutes
Daily Lesson Objective:
1. Students will be able to analyze the tensions and balance between liberty and order by using personal
experiences to draw important conclusions and analyzing the constitution.
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
Information literacy
Vocabulary): analyze and evaluate; liberty and order
Oral and written communication skills
Prior Knowledge: Students will be have previous knowledge of the rules and freedoms that have an experience
every day. They have an understanding of colonization in the Americas. They are familiar with sourcing
documents using HIPP and writing constructed response using RACE. They can use a variety of graphic
organizers
Activity
Description of Activities and Setting
When scholars walk into class, they should be given a DO NOW sheet.
Have the following instructions on the board:
Expectations: Level 0, In your seat, Set one goal for today’s class.
Student directions:
Complete the T Chart and answer the hook question.
Time
7 min
5 min
work
2 min
share
out
Do Now: Please complete the T Chart below.
1. Focus and Review
Answer the following questions.
1. Why was the colony of Jamestown established?
2. Why are freedoms and rules important in establishing order in a society.
List as many rules and freedom that you have at home as you can in a rules and
freedoms t-chart
HOOK: Does the President of the United States have the power to fix all
the problems?
2. Statement of Objective
for Student
SWBAT:Analyze the tensions and balance between liberty and order by
using personal experiences to draw important conclusions and analyzing
the constitution.
Unpack the objective to introduce the topic of the lesson and segway into
the first activity. (2 min)
Quick Notes: The framework for our government The Constitution. Provide
the who, what, when, where, and why.
Restate purpose: By the end of today’s class, you will have a deeper
understanding of these two concepts, as well as why a balance between the
two can be very important in society by heavily engaging discussion.
3. Teacher Input
Turn and Talk- what you think are the two most important freedoms and
the two most important rules you listed and why. Circulate and stop
partner talk after one minute.
After two minutes, bring the whole class together. Take two or three hands
to share out responses in either column, creating a class list as I go.
*Goal is to get 5 per column
Discuss using the following questions as guidelines.
Rules:
Why is this rule important?
Who set the rule?
Why do you follow the rule?
How does this rule restrict your freedom?
Freedoms:
How do you know you have this freedom?
Who gave you or how did you get this freedom?
Why do others respect this freedom?
Are there limits to this freedom?
10 min
After Discussion, note that freedom comes with some restrictions and rules
to connect the two and emphasize a possible need for balance.
Stop and Jot: Why do rules and limits to our freedom exist?
4. Guided Practice
TRANSITION TO NEXT PHASE: Rules help create help order and
freedom helps create liberty. Analyze and evaluate order and freedom to
determine if total order or total liberty (freedom) is better.
30 min
brainstorm with your partner, for thirty seconds, what you think when you
see the word “ORDER” and what you think when you see the word
“LIBERTY.”
Complete the T-Chart for order and liberty:
Ex. order: safety, rules, government, laws
Liberty: freedom, doing what you want, saying what you want, freedom to
move and go where you want
*connect liberty back to ideas of order
Bring class back to share out their lists; again, create a public class list.
TRANSITION TO NEXT PHASE: Now that we have some idea about
what order and liberty mean, you’re going to work in small groups to
discuss a variety of scenarios and imagine what would happen in each case
if you had either 100% order or 100% freedom. Then, answer the questions
below.
Scenario- Setting A: School (you will fill out graphic organizer)
Scenario- Setting B: Amusement Park
Scenario- Setting C: Mall/Shopping Center
Questions:1.What were the benefits in each case of 100% freedom?
2.What are the potential risks of 100% freedom?
3. If 100% freedom allows people to do whatever they want, what were
some of the specific ways in which order is helpful?
4.How is 100% order negative?
5.Were there scenarios where order was more important than liberty and
vice versa?
6. In what cases is it worth it to give up some of your freedom? Is it worth
it.
5. Independent Practice
6. Assessment Methods of
all objectives/skills:
Synthetic Discussion will take place following activity, which involves
discourse. Students have to support their claims with reasoning.
Students will read, annotate, and analyze the first 5 sections of Article 1 of
the US constitution. For each section, scholars are to determine which parts
are examples of order and which are liberty. Then students will use their
analysis to evaluate how the constitution try to establish liberty and order.
Synthetic writing and feedback: Write a historical paragraph in which
you make a defensible claim and provide three pieces of evidence from the
class discussion and your notes in response to the following questions:
What is the ideal balance between liberty and order? What is best for
20min
15min
society, as a whole: total liberty or total order? Explain your claim with
evidence from today’s discussion.
Discourse: Student have to create an argument as to which society would
be better.
Syntax: Students are to use the RACE method to structure their writing.
Student will need to gather their material
Last 5 min
Sticky note: list no more than 5 words that describe the importance having
balance between liberty and order
5 min
7. Closure
Ex. fair, safe, freedom, best practices
Place sticky notes on Parking Lot by the door as you exit.
A little under 90% of student scored an 85% or higher on independent work showing
mastery. For those that did not, they made simple mistakes such as not following the
components of the RACE method and forgetting to clearly state evidence from the
lesson.
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations
Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations
8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:
Adaptation:
Students low in writing will be given sentence stem paper
organizer for each paragraphs and for evidence.
ESL students will be provided with need translation
dictionaries or the use of chromebook for translation of
words. ESL students will also get a semi-translated worksheet
that includes a list of key vocab words (in English) with
definitions in Native language. For students low in reading
comprehension, an argument sheet with a list of ideas to think
about will already be attached to their learning ladders for the
day to references when needed.
Students will be in heterogeneous groups based on
learning abilities. Banana (low), Apple (middle), Orange
(high). Students are unaware of what these fruit mean;
they are only used for my understanding/planning. This
ensure that there are strong reader in each group.
Materials/Technology: Learning Ladder, pencil/pen, chromebook, sticky notes.
Reflection on lesson:
Over the lesson went well. Student were engaged in the scenario based learning and discussion. There is a need to
reestablish some discussion norms for mini discussion in class. Group work went well. I do need to rethink some of my
groupings because not all student voices were being heard.
Fisher Notes on Academic Language Demands
Language Demand
Function
Vocabulary
Use of in the Lesson(s)
The candidate used Analyze as the primary focus function (evaluate
was also mentioned). Analyze came directly from 2/3 NC Essential
Standards listed in the Lessons. Multiple activities and/or questions
incorporated the use of analysis to show student use of.
Besides the Constitution, lots of time in this lesson was dedicated to
Social Studies-centric terms Liberty, Order, and Freedom. Later the
Discourse
Syntax
lessons will include philosophers Hobbes and Locke who will greatly
influence our own Founding Fathers.
Discourse can be written and/or oral. In this case both actually
appear as students discuss scenarios where liberty and order are
best found and must defend. They also are asked to write about it.
The key is defending and then citing evidence for discourse to
connect to our next demand, syntax.
YES, students have lots of opportunity to write in this lesson and
future lessons BUT writing is not simply Syntax. Instead it’s about
intentional and specific writing and the candidate uses RACE for her
candidates to write. This is a very specific, popular, and successful
format, R = Reword, A = Answer, C = Cite, E = Explain.