Elizabeth Delgado
EDUC 5133
Autobiography Small Steps: They Year I got Polio Unit
Grade Level: 8th Grade
Curricular Areas: English Language Arts, History
Time Frame: 3 weeks
Goals:
Students will:
Recognize the elements of an autobiography.
Identify these elements in the novel Small Steps: They Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret.
Know the major historical events of the polio epidemic from its discovery in America to
the creation of the vaccine.
Identify current epidemics and how the health community is controlling them today.
Create their own written work from a significant event in their own lives using the
elements of an autobiography.
Objectives:
1. Conduct research using the Internet to obtain historical information about the polio
epidemic from its discovery in America to the creation of the polio vaccine and
complete it with 90% accuracy.
2. Read and comprehend the novel, Small Steps: The Year I got Polio by Peg Kehret.
3. Understand vocabulary using a worksheet that contains various words in the novel
with 90% accuracy.
4. Discuss the current epidemics: cholera, AIDS, West Nile Virus, and Swine Flu in
class and how the medical community has controlled these epidemics.
5. Compare these epidemics to the polio epidemics by writing a journal entry outlining
the similarities and differences.
6. Create an autobiography using the elements learned and the novel Small Steps: The
Year I got Polio as an example by describing a significant event in their lives.
Teaching and Learning Activites:
1. There will be a writing workshop where the students view a powerpoint discussing
the literary elements that make up an autobiography.
2. Using the computer lab, reasearch will be conducted starting with the discovery of
the polio epidemic in America through the creation of the polio vaccine.
3. Read the novel Small Steps: The Year I got Polio by Peg Kehret using popcorn
reading and instructor reading and stopping periodically to discuss the plot and
vocabulary of the novel.
4. Complete a worksheet over vocabulary while reading the novel.
5. There will be a class discussion over the epidemics cholrea, West Nile Virus, AIDS,
and the Swine Flu and how the medical community is controlling them today.
6. The students will write a journal article comparing the polio epidemic to the four
current epidemics and discuss the similarities and differences.
7. Using the literary elements of an autopbiography and Small Steps: The Year I got
Polio as an example, they will create their own autobiography about a significant
event in their own lives.
Vocabulary:
Chp 1-2:
Isolation
Vulnerable
Paralyzed
Respirator
Chp 3-4:
Prodding
Indignation
Chp 5-6:
Sealded
Plunking
Spasms
Chp 7-8:
Astonishment
Discharged
Sterile/sterlize
Chp 9-10:
Eavesdrop
Bustling
Chp 11-12:
Collapsed
Daredevil
Mobility
Exemplary
Predicament
Chp 13-14:
Accordian
Coordinate
Chp 15-16:
Pediatrics
Flawless
Chp 17-18:
Unabridged
Materials:
Computer lab/laptops
Polio reserach worksheet
Classroom set of Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by: Peg Kehret
Vocabulary Worksheet
Classroom journal
Fact sheets of Cholrea, Swine Flu, West Nile Virus, and AIDS epidemics
Powerpoint on Autobiography literary elements
Assessment:
Worksheets
Discussion
Free writing
Formal paper
Reading aloud
Resources:
Small Steps: The Year I got Polio by Peg Kehret
Smithsonian American History Website:
americanhistory.si.edu/polio
CDC Website:
www.cdc.gov/cholrea/general/index.html
www.cdc.gov/westnile/index.html
AIDS website:
aids.gov
National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine website:
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/h1n1fluswineflu.html
Lesson Plan:
Teacher: Elizabeth Delgado
Subject & Grade level: English/ LA Grade 8
Title: Polio, The Introduction!
Concept: learning the history of polio as an introduction to Peg Kehret’s Small Steps: The Year I
got Polio
Content Standard (TEKS):
ELPS: Students should be able to search the Internet and change the language on the website that
pertains to their language. Computer Skills are needed.
Objective(s):
1. Students should be able to explain the three types of polio and how they attack the body.
2. Students should be able to identify the inventor of the polio vaccine and what year it was
introduced to the United States.
3. Students should be able to describe the various treatments of the poliovirus used in the hospitals
in the 1940s and 1950s including the iron lung, leg braces, the sister Kenny method, and other
forms of treatment.
4. Students should be able to identify FDR as the famous president who contracted polio before his
presidency.
Rationale: The students are beginning the Novel, Small Steps: The Year I got Polio. In order to fully
understand the content in the novel, the students must have a basic background of the polio vaccines and
the epidemic that occurred during the 1940s and 1950s. This will help the students understand the United
States Medical History, and the significance of non-fiction literature as it pertains to fact.
Materials & Equipment: computer lab, polio worksheet, and pen/pencil.
Setting Expectations:
Students will be required to actively participate in the discussion and research. All students will turn in a
worksheet at the end of the class period with all questions answered.
Prior Knowledge Assessment:
Students should have basic research knowledge to guide themselves on a computer. Students should be
able to guide themselves on a web browser and use their research skills to explore a webpage using
discovery learning.
Teaching the Lesson:
Focus (Anticipatory Set): The students will meet in the computer lab on that class day, and they
will be handed the research worksheet that is accompanied with this lesson. Explain to the students that
they will be starting the Novel Small Steps: The Year I got Polio as part of their non-fiction unit. In order to
fully grasp the author’s stories, the students must have a basic knowledge of polio and the events
surrounding it during the time the author was living these events, the 1940s and 1950s.
Instruction (includes modeling and checking for understanding):
The teacher should go over each question on the worksheet with the students and explain exactly the
type of answer he/she is looking for.
The teacher should explain the rules of the computer lab and the consequences that would result in
failure to abide by the rules of the computer.
Explain to the students that you will be walking around to help guide them to the right answer, but the
students are responsible for discovering the answers independently.
Guided Practice:
The teacher should be available at all times guiding the students to the correct answer, and should keep
classroom management under control.
Independent Practice:
The students are responsible for discovering the answers to the worksheet, and should be able to
understand polio and its elements at the end of the class period.
Assessment:
The worksheet that they students complete will be turned in for a grade, if the students did not finish
finding the answers than they are to take the worksheet home for homework and turn in the next class
period.
Closure:
The students will be informed that with their new found knowledge they will be able to understand the
novel that they will begin reading the next class day.
Modifications or Accommodations:
If no computer lab is available than an educational video could be replaced and used to discover the
same answers. Also, the students could have a variety of information worksheets printed by the teacher
where they have to discover the information, Maybe have the information spread out in stations and the
students must go around and answer the questions on the worksheet by using the information at that
station and deciding with their group.