Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
Lesson Plan Project
Part One
Step 1: Identify a lesson
The lesson that I have selected for Project 2, is one of my introductory lessons
for Romeo and Juliet. I believe that Romeo and Juliet is a large text that has many
issues that can relate to students today or if they don’t relate to them, the students find
the issues very interesting. For this reason, I spend a few days doing an introduction to
the text and some of its issues before my class even reads the prologue. The lesson
that I picked for this project takes place after my students have already established prior
knowledge about love stories, understand the influence of Shakespeare’s background
and analyze the influence of historical and cultural context, established knowledge of
the characteristics of Shakespearean tragedy, and established knowledge of
Shakespearean language (blank verse, allusion, etc.).
The lesson that I will be sharing is called, “Love versus Hate.” During this lesson,
my students begin by writing a journal that deals with their believes, and whether or not
they think love is stronger than hate. My students share their journals with the class,
discuss in small groups, and then the end product is having a class debate as to which
emotion is stronger: love or hate. The students work in two groups, one side of the class
believes that love is stronger, and the other side believes that hate is stronger. The
students work in groups to come up with six sound reasons and examples as to why
their emotion is stronger. Once the group work time is over, the debate starts. The
debate is to be mostly student-led, and I can say for the most part, it was.
Step 2: Break down the lesson to articulate what I want my students to do
The main disciplinary concepts of this lesson are taken from the Common Core
State Standards. The main English Language Arts concepts and skills that I designed
this lesson to focus on are students’ speaking and listening skills. I wanted my students
to focus on initiating and participating effectively in a collaborative discussion with
diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and
expressing their own clearly and persuasively. In this case, the collaborative discussion
is a classroom debate where they are expressing their ideas clearly and persuasively
while listening to others’ ideas as well. This is standard SL.9-10.1 from the Common
Core State Standards.
For this lesson, I wanted my students to think deeply about the two emotions love
and hate, because these emotions are the basis for the Romeo and Juliet text. But, I
wanted my students to use their speaking and listening skills, and enhance them. There
are strands of standards that branch out from SL.9-10.1, and I wanted my students to
use those concepts while preparing for their debate, and during their debate. The other
main disciplinary concepts of this lesson are to come to discussions prepared (SL.910.1a), propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the
current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas (SL.9-10.1c), actively incorporate
others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions (SL.910.1c), and respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of
agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views
and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning
Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
presented (SL.9-10.1d). I feel that all of these concepts go hand in hand with great
listening and speaking skills, and that was the main point of this lesson.
During this lesson students are working directly with the text on the SmartBoard,
which is their journal prompt. The journal states, “People say that love conquers all. Is
this statement true, or is it just a cliché? How powerful is love? Is it powerful than hate?
In your journal write a paragraph that answers the question “Is love stronger than
hate?” Make sure to include reasons in your paragraph. Your journal will probably start
with…Yes, love is stronger than hate. OR No, love is not stronger than hate. **Make
sure to include the reasons why you think is!” This text allows the students to begin
comprehending the text, Romeo and Juliet, which is from the textbook. The students
write their journals, share out to the class, and discuss with small groups, which also
allows the students to engage with each other’s writing as a text as well.
The texts in this lesson, as of right now, are only written text. However, the
journal prompt is on the SmartBoard from a PowerPoint presentation, so that would be
a digital text. The text that the students write in their journal prompt is analog, along with
the text that the students are reading from each other’s writing.
For this lesson, my students need to be able to read, write, speak, and listen.
They need to be able to read the SmartBoard, their own writing, and other students’
writing. My students need to be able to write for their journal; however, I do allow them
to write in any way they want for their journals. This mean their writing doesn’t have to
be in Standard American English, they could write in tweets if they wanted. The
students need to be able to read each other’s journals and understand what each other
are saying in the journals, which means they may need to be well versed in other ways
of writing. My students need to be able to speak and listen. They need to speak their
own opinions, listen to others’ opinions, and engage in others’ opinions respectfully.
Since the lesson begins with writing their own opinion, then sharing and
discussing their own and others’ opinions, leading to a debate, I think that this lesson
asks students to think in many different ways. A great resource for the type of thinking
that I am asking my students to do is Bloom’s Taxonomy. According to the new version
of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is what my school uses, I am asking my students to
understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate. My students are being asked to understand
the concept of love versus hate and which is stronger because they are describing,
discussing, explaining, and identifying which emotion they believe is the strongest. The
students are applying the information when they are asked to write about it,
demonstrate their ideas to others, and using the information to share their point of view.
When the students examine others’ point of views, compare the others’ opinions to their
own, and question their own opinion or others’, they are analyzing. Finally, I am asking
my students to evaluate when they are arguing their own opinions, supporting them,
defending them, and judging and arguing against the others’ opinions. The students are
evaluating when they are debating which emotion is strongest, love or hate. While the
lesson seems simple and engaging to my students, they didn’t realize all of the different
levels of thinking they were doing throughout the whole lesson.
Step 3: Reflect on the lesson and identify areas of need
As I have been writing this paper out and the lesson out, I have been thinking
about what I think is missing and what could improve the lesson. With all of the readings
Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
in the back of my head, I think there are a few things I could change to become more
satisfied with the lesson, and it may even make the lesson take two days, instead of just
one.
Tatum says (2008) that as educators we need to, “define the role of literacy
instruction for adolescents in a way that honors students multiple identities and is
connected to a large ideological focus” (p. 17). I want my students to know that I value
each and every one of their identities, skills, and interests, so I would like to incorporate
some multimodal texts and more of my students’ digital literacies into the lesson. With
the lesson, my students haven’t had any difficulty thinking in the way that I want them
too, they always seemed engaged, motivated, and interested by this lesson. But, I feel
like I could make it even more engaging, motivating, and interesting for them if I made a
point to incorporate multimodal texts and my students’ digital literacies into the lesson.
There are gaps with this lesson and my students’ digital literacies because I do not use
their digital literacies in this lesson. Now, they are allowed to write in their journal how
they would like, but I usually more Standard American English than tweets or Facebook
like posts in their journals.
From her article, “Understanding and Connecting to the Digital Literacies of
Adolescents,” Wilber says, “Thanks to technology, teenagers can connect, read, write,
think, create, film, record, and represent themselves through a variety of media formerly
unthinkable” (p. 57). From my inquiry project, I found that most of my students’ out-ofschool literacy practices dealt with using digital literacies. Wilber is correct, our students
have multiple ways to express and represent themselves, but also use literacy. I need to
incorporate these ways of expressing and representing themselves into my lesson to
make my students even more engaged.
Boyd and Thompson’s article, “Multimodality and Literacy Learning: Using
Multiple Texts to Enhance Content-Area Learning,” focuses on how we can use multiple
text types to enhance students’ conceptual understandings. Boyd states, “A multimodal
approach to learning requires us to take seriously and attend to the whole range of
modes involved in representation and communication” (p. 152). When doing the debate
lesson, I need to incorporate electronic and media texts, these types of texts will
introduce my students to a “complexity that promotes conceptual understanding” (Boyd,
2008, p. 154).
I would like to show my students a video clip, interview, something to do with pop
culture, or current event, that will allow my students to dig deeper into the love versus
hate idea and debate. Even an article from pop culture or a current event article that
would allow them to dig deeper into this issue would be great. I could do some more
front-loading about the emotions and the topic, which would help them when coming up
with their arguments for the debate. I think using multimodal texts and digital literacies
during this lesson will allow it to reach another level, which will be great. Boyd states
that, “teaching with multimodal texts also provides opportunities to introduce and
practice critical analytic skills that will serve students well as they ‘read’ today’s
multimodal world” (p. 160). By using multimodal texts and digital literacies during this
lesson, I would not only be relating even more to my students, but providing them with
essential skills for the 21st Century.
Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
Step 4: Provide a rationale for why I included particular literacy skills into a content
lesson
As I stated in step 3, I wanted to change the lesson plan I had for my debate
lesson a bit. After reflecting on the readings, I realized that I wanted to incorporate
multimodal text and digital literacies into my lesson. The main skills and concepts that
the debate lesson will focus on are the skills and concepts that were mentioned in step
2. However, I decided to add in some different forms of text that could engage the
students even more. For example, I thought drawing from my students out-of-school
literacy practices would be a good idea. As I said before, most of their out-of-school
literacy practices deal with digital literacies. Digital literacies also include multimodal
texts.
My students will still be writing a journal on love versus hate and which emotion
they think is stronger. However, I thought that after we discuss the journal, instead of
jumping right into the debate, it would be a great idea to use a multimodal text. After we
share our journal, my students will watch a video clip. The video clips will be from the
Romeo and Juliet movie directed by Baz Luhrmann. I will show a clip that deals with
love between Romeo and Juliet, and a clip that deals with hate between the Montagues
and the Capulets. This will allow my students to have a bit more front-loading on the
topic at end, but also on the text behind what we are doing. Viewing the multimodal text
will engage my students into the content of the debate even more, and give them some
concrete examples of love and hate.
After each clip, I am going to have my students do an activity before we watch
the next clip and move on to the debate. I am going to hand my students a graphic
organizer that is set up in the form of twitter. They will have directions that state they
may not write more than 160 words, true to the tweeting format. My students will then
compose a tweeting conversation between Romeo and Juliet dealing with love after
watching that clip. We will move on to the next clip and my students will create a
tweeting conversation between the Montagues and the Capulets dealing with love. The
conversations will be shared and discussed in order to analyze why the students
created the conversation the way they did. Not only will this be engaging to my
students, but it will also pull their digital literacies into the classroom. It will also help the
students reach another level in Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is that my students will now
also be on the level of creating.
Once we have used our multimodal text and our tweeting capabilities, we will
move on to preparing for our debate. My students will now have more information at
their fingertips for their debates. The clips and the tweeting will allow the students to
process more information about love and hate, articulate their ideas, prepare for the
debate discussion, and reflect and make connections to what they wrote in their
journals.
Step 5: Reflect on the design of the lesson
The new lesson that I have now designed after this project focuses on a different
literacy stance. Since I am an English teacher, everything that I do in class involves
literacy. However, now instead of just jumping into the debate after the journal, my
students will have a chance to use multimodal texts to engage even further with the
Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
material at hand.
Taking a more literary stance toward this lesson helped me think differently about
the objectives of the lesson. I realized that one of my objectives was for the students to
engage with a multimodal text and then use one of their digital literacies to respond to
that multimodal text. I still kept some of the same objectives from my previous lesson,
such as initiating and participating effectively in classroom conversation. The objective
of getting the students to critically think about love and hate is the same, but now there
are just more steps in place to get them to the highest level of thinking available.
The course readings were definitely a driving force into changing my lesson plan.
I kept thinking of ways that I would be able to make the lesson more engaging and
motivating for my students. The course readings allowed me to think of different forms
of text I could use and different activities that would work with this lesson. I think that my
students will enjoy the changes that I have made to this lesson. When I taught this last
semester, my students were really engaged and enjoyed the lesson. With the
enhancements this lesson has undergone, I feel like my students will take to it even
more now.
The relationship between literacy skills and my content area concepts and skills
is a huge relationship. As an English teacher, it is extremely important that I am thinking
of literacy every day, and how to involve my students best with literacy. Using literacy
supports my content area goals because my goal is to have literate students and to
enhance their literacy skills during my class. My students’ literacy skills are growing into
larger skill sets than they were ten years ago, as a young teacher this is easy for me to
understand. As the world around us is changing, so is literacy. It is important that in my
content-area, I am doing my best to incorporate new literacy practices into my
classroom, as well as using my students’ literacies to engage and motivate them during
my class.
Part 2
Lesson Plan: Love versus Hate
Context:
The lesson is taught at the beginning of the Romeo and Juliet Unit. The class that it is
used in is English I, which is for 9th graders.
Rationale:
I want my students to be able to understand and explore the key idea of love and hate.
Love and hate both play a huge part in the play that we will be reading. I wanted to
engage my students by incorporating multimodal texts and digital literacies into the
lesson.
Objectives:
The students will be able to…
● Explore the key idea of love and hate
● Use multimodal text (video clips) to further explore the idea of love and hate and
Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
aid in their opinions of which emotion is the strongest
● Use a digital literacy (twitter) in the form of a template to create conversations
between specific characters dealing with love and hate
● Debate whether love or hate is stronger
● Initiate and participate effectively in various types of classroom discussion
Content and Strategies:
● When the students enter the classroom, the journal prompt will be displayed on
the Smart Board. [People say that love conquers all. Is this statement true, or is it
just a cliché? How powerful is love? Is it powerful than hate? In your journal write
a paragraph that answers the question “Is love stronger than hate?” Make
sure to include reasons in your paragraph. Your journal will probably start
with…Yes, love is stronger than hate. OR No, love is not stronger than hate.
**Make sure to include the reasons why you think is!!]
● As the teacher takes attendance, the students will write their journal entries in
their English I journals.
● Students will volunteer to share their journals.
● The teacher will divide the students into groups based on how they answered the
question in their journal.
● Once the students are in their groups they will discuss the topic. They will think
about instances in which love has brought people together OR times when hate
has driven them apart.
● Students will move back to their original seats
● Students will watch the video clip on love with Romeo and Juliet
● Students will create and complete their twitter conversation between Romeo and
Juliet dealing with love to further enhance their understanding and feelings
towards love
● Students will watch the video clip on hate with the Montagues and the Capulets
● Students will create and complete their twitter conversation between the two
families dealing with hate to further enhance their understanding and feelings
towards hate
● Students will share their feelings about the clips and their twitter conversations
with the class (Day 1 will probably end here)
● Students will be moved into groups based on which emotion they think is the
strongest (Day 2 will probably begin here)
● On a separate piece of paper the group will write what side their group is on
(Love is stronger OR Hate is) along with their reasons and examples for their
beliefs. The students must have at least six reasons and examples.
● After fifteen minutes, the teacher will warn the students that they only have five
minutes left to come up with their reasons and examples.
● After five minutes, the teacher will explain the directions for debate that is going
Emily Sieting - Lesson Plan Project
to take place. The teacher will reiterate that this is mainly going to be a student
led debate and that the students need to make sure they are being respectful of
others’ opinions.
● The students will spend the rest of the block debating which emotion is stronger.
Assessments:
● Rubric for debate
● Journal reading/sharing
● Twitter conversation
Materials and Resources:
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Pens / Pencils
Journal Prompt
English I Journals
Romeo and Juliet Video Clips
Twitter Graphic Organizer
Lined Paper
References
Boyd, F. B., & Thompson, M. K. (2008). Multimodality and literacy learning: Using
multiple
texts to enhance content-area learning. In K. A. Hinchman & H. K. SheridanThomas (Eds.) Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction (pp. 57 – 77).
New York, NY: The Guilford Press
Tatum, Alfred W. (2008). Discussing texts with adolescents in culturally responsive
ways.
In K.A. Hinchman & H. K. Sheridan-Thomas (Eds.) Best practices in adolescent
literacy instruction (pp. 3 – 19). New York, NY: The Guilford Press
Wilber, Dana J. (2008). iLife: Understanding and connecting to the digital literacies of
adolescents. In K. A. Hinchman & H. K. Sheridan-Thomas (Eds.) Best practices
in adolescent literacy instruction (pp. 57 – 77). New York, NY: The Guilford Press