Genetic Engineering Two Weeks
ELA
Lesson Plan
Teacher:
8th Grade English Teacher
Grade:
8th Grade
Lesson Title:
“I’ve a Story to Tell” – Reconstructing a Life With a Disability
STRANDS
Writing
LESSON OVERVIEW
Summary of the task, challenge, investigation, career-related scenario, problem, or community link.
For the unit on Genetic Engineering, students in eighth grade English/language arts will be writing a narrative that will incorporate information from the Reconstruction
period of 1865 – 1877. After the Civil War, many individuals came back to their home with a disability. Some had lost their eyesight, their hearing, and their limbs.
Because the country was in a period of reconstruction, those individuals had to try to continue their routine as best as they could. Accommodations were made with
instruments that would allow them to get around; however, those instruments were very crude and hard to maneuver. As time has progressed, individuals with
disabilities have been afforded more contemporary accommodations so they can be contributing members of society. In science, students will be discussing adaptive
and assistive tools and instruments that could be used to accommodate disabilities. Through math class, students will be asked to prove theorems about twodimensional geometric figures within each of the adaptive or assistive products designed and created.
In the narratives, students will develop real (based on their social studies research) using effective techniques, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event
sequences by first going through The TCAP Narrative Writing Rubric will be the assessment tool for this activity. Through this unit, students will research various
disabilities and the stereotypical responses that others have regarding individuals with disabilities. Through studying Helen Keller, students will become more sensitive
to the accomplishments of those with disabilities.
MOTIVATOR
Hook for the week unit or supplemental resources used throughout the week. (PBL scenarios, video clips, websites, literature)
Ron Jones wrote the novel, The Acorn People, about a camp counselor who randomly took a job at a camp for teens with disabilities. It is a funny yet poignant novel
about the insensitivities individual with disabilities encounter on a daily basis. The teacher will read the first two chapters of the novel to the students and ask them to
predict what they think will happen at that camp by knowing the attitude of the camp counselor as the story began. The class will then compare the attitude of the
camp counselor with some of the prevailing attitudes in society today toward individuals with disabilities.
DAY
Objectives
(I can….)
Materials &
Resources
Instructional Procedures
Differentiated
Instruction
Assessment
Formative
Assessment:
1
Full Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
An Introduction
2
I can draw
evidence
from literary
or
informational
texts to
support
analysis,
reflection,
and research.
iPad
Essential Question (s):
Remediation:
Researching
Disabilities
Activity
(Appendix A)
What information do I need to support the analysis, reflection, and research on
disabilities?
Prompting
Set: Read Day One and Day Two of the novel, The Acorn People. Ask students to
predict how they think the camp counselor will react toward the campers with
disabilities and how does the public react toward those encountered with
disabilities.
Teaching Strategies:
1. Have the students turn to their pair and, without looking at a dictionary
entry, define the word ‘disability’.
2. Ask two questions: What are some examples of physical disabilities?
When you see someone with a disability, what questions do you have?
3. On the board are written five disabilities: blindness, deafness, cerebral
palsy, Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy.
Grouping
Enrichment:
Questioning
Sharing out with
group
Researching
Disabilities Activity
Answers
4. Students will use the Researching Disabilities Activity to research one of
the five disabilities in their group.
5. Students will then teach the others by answering: What are the basic facts
about this disability? What are the main challenges someone with this
disability overcomes daily? How can we support someone with this
disability?
Summarizing Strategy: Review with the students the types of disabilities that are
visibly apparent. To prepare them for the homework, ask them to brainstorm
disabilities that may not be visibly obvious.
Homework: Students will choose one disability that may not be visibly obvious.
They will fill in another Researching Disabilities Activity sheet for their disability.
3
I can engage
effectively in
a range of
collaborative
discussions
(one-on-one,
in groups,
and teacherled) with
diverse
partners on
grade 8
topics, texts,
and issues,
building on
others’ ideas
and
expressing
their own
clearly.
iPad
Essential Question (s):
Remediation:
Understanding
Hidden
Disabilities:
Web Quest
Activity
(Appendix B)
How do my collaborative skills allow me to engage effectively in group
discussions on current issues and build information upon all our ideas?
Prompting
Braille alphabet
(Appendix B)
Helen Keller
Quote Activity
(Appendix B)
Half Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
Planting with a Disability
Set: Read Day Three and Six from the novel, The Acorn People. Ask the students
to give instances of where the camp counselor’s attitude is changing toward the
campers with disabilities.
Teaching Strategies:
1. Have students go to the website on the web quest activity.
2. As a class, look at question #4 and answer that question together by the
information on the web quest.
3. Give students a few minutes to peruse the website and see if there is any
additional information on the disability they chose for homework last
night.
Grouping
Enrichment:
Prepare a
message in
Braille
Formative
Assessment:
Web Quest Activity
Answers
Answers from
Homework
4. Ask students to remember how they defined disability. Ask them if the
word ‘handicapped’ means the same thing as disability.
5. Ask students what they already know about a visual disability.
6. Using their iPads, students will be given 2 minutes to give me a quick fact
about Helen Keller.
7. Give students a copy of the Braille alphabet and Helen Keller’s thought
that will need to be decoded with the Braille alphabet.
8. The quote will read, “The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but
the attitude of seeing people towards them.”
Summarizing Strategy: Go back to the web quest and have students answer #5
regarding sensitivity toward those with disabilities.
HomeworK: Students will answer the following questions: What do you think was
Helen Keller’s message in this quote? What are some attitudes of “seeing people”
towards people who are blind or who have a visual disability? How do these
attitudes or beliefs affect the way “seeing people” behave towards people who
are blind or who have a visual disability? How might people with a visual disability
go about doing things differently from people who can see?
4
iPads
I can draw
evidence
B – D – A Activity
from literary
(Appendix C)
or
informational
texts to
support
analysis,
reflection,
and research.
I can engage
effectively in
a range of
collaborative
Remediation:
Half Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
Researching the Disability
Set: Read Days Seven and Eight from the novel, The Acorn People. Continue to
find evidence in the novel that shows the camp counselor’s opinion regarding his
campers with disabilities is changing.
Teaching Strategy(s):
1. Ask students to list all the things they do in a day. Have them note the
things that would be exceptionally difficult with particular disabilities.
Assist with the
website
Assign particular
sections of the
website
Enrichment:
Give students
more time to
explore the
website
Formative
Assessment:
B – D – A Activity
Answers
discussions
(one-on-one,
in groups,
and teacherled) with
diverse
partners on
grade 8
topics, texts,
and issues,
building on
others’ ideas
and
expressing
their own
clearly.
2. Tell students that they are going to explore a website called (Beyond
Affliction: The Disability History Project)
3. Using the B – D – A Activity, students will fill in the Before, During, and
After sections as they explore the website.
4. After students have finished the activity, they will write a one sentence
main idea statement. The teacher may have to remind the students about
the difference in a main idea statement and a summary.
Summarizing Strategy: Students will share their main ideas with the rest of the
class.
Homework: Ask two people who are older than 40 years old the following
questions: How were disabled people treated when you were young? Why do
you think people’s attitudes have changed regarding how disabled people are
treated? What is the biggest challenge facing disabled people today? Students will
document their answers on their iPads.
5
Full Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
Asking, Imagining, and Planning the Product
6
I can engage iPad
and orient
the reader by Prewriting
establishing a activity
Essential Question (s):
Remediation:
What point of view will be most appropriate for the narrative writing?
Writing Center
Can I use dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection effectively in the narrative
Formative
Assessment:
Prewriting notes
context and
point of view
and
introducing a
narrator
and/or
characters;
organize an
event
sequence
that unfold
naturally and
logically.
I can use
narrative
techniques,
such as
dialogue,
pacing
description,
and
reflection, to
develop
experiences,
events,
and/or
characters.
7
I can use a
(Appendix D)
Narrative
Writing Rubric
(Appendix D)
Writing a
Narrative
(Appendix D)
writing?
Enrichment:
Set: Read Day Ten and Three Days to Go from the novel, The Acorn People. Ask
students to predict what they think will happen next.
Incentive to
produce a more
complex
narrative
Teaching Strategies:
1. Have students look at the Narrative Writing Rubric and pick out the key
words for the ‘4’ scores.
2. Give students time to look at the Prewriting Activity.
3. Remind students of the parameters of the writing assignment found on
the Writing a Narrative activity.
4. Give students time to fill in the first page of the Prewriting Activity before
they start writing.
5. Have students share their first page with the teacher to make sure there
are no errors before writing.
Summarizing Strategy: Students will make sure they have their notes for the
beginning, middle, and end for their story before they leave the class.
Homework: Students will complete page two of the Prewriting Activity.
Essential Question(s):
Remediation:
Summative
variety of
transition
words,
phrases, and
clauses to
convey
sequence,
signal shifts
from one
time frame
or setting to
another, and
show the
relationships
among
experiences
and events.
I can use
precise
words and
phrases,
relevant
descriptive
details, and
sensory
language to
capture the
action and
convey
experiences
and events.
Can I use transitions, phrases, and clauses to effectively shift from one time
event to another?
What words, phrases, details, and language can I use to capture the audience
and convey the experiences and events of the narrative writing?
Set: Read Two Days to Go, One Day Left, and No Days Left in the novel, The Acorn
People. Ask students if the novel ended as they had predicted.
Teaching Strategies:
1. Check the second page of the Prewriting Activity for each student. Make
sure the student clarifies anything that may seem confusing before he/she
begins to write.
2. Students will have all of this class period to begin their story.
Summarizing Stragegy: Ask students to tell you any challenges they are having
with writing their story and assist.
Homework: Students will continue to work on their narrative. The narrative will
be due in three days.
Writing Center
Assessment:
Enrichment:
Narrative Writing
Incentive to
produce a more
complex
narrative
8
.
Full Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
Creating the Product
9
Full Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
Improving the Product
10
Full Project Day – See Unit Plan
Reengineering and Reconstruction: Enabling a Society –
Finalizing the Product
STANDARDS
Identify what you want to teach. Reference State, Common Core, ACT
College Readiness Standards and/or State Competencies.
W 8.3 – Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
W 8.3a – Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfold
naturally and logically.
W 8.3b – Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
W 8.3c – Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships
among experiences and events.
W 8.3d – Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
W 8.3e – Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
W 8.9 - Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
SL 8.1 – Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues,
building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.