Exploring To Kill a Mockingbird and Discrimination
Week Two, Day One Lesson Plan
Purpose/Objective: The “Where I’m From” poem is a new genre of poetry students can
experiment with, and will be able to incorporate images into their own writing. Students
will be able to brainstorm effectively by using a form of pre-writing in concept maps.
Students will also read other sources that discuss discrimination that relates to the unit’s
overall theme.
Materials Needed:
 “Where I’m From” poem by George Ella Lyon
 Projector
 Copies of student concept map
 Copies of character concept map
 Writers’ journals
 Pencils/Pens
 “The Sky is Gray” by Ernest J. Gaines
 Copies of “The Sky is Gray” reading/discussion questions
Process:
1. Students will each receive a copy of George Ella Lyon’s poem “Where I’m
From.”
2. After reading the poem the class will collectively discuss the images they liked
best and which ones they believed work the best.
3. Students will receive a blank concept map in which they will place their name in
the middle bubble and brainstorm, branching off, images that relate to who they
are, or how they used to be.
4. Students will be given time to write their own “Where I’m From” poem in their
writers’ journals.
5. Students may volunteer to read their poems aloud.
6. Students will receive a blank concept map for a character in To Kill a
Mockingbird. This sheet is an optional resource for them. They may use this genre
of poetry for a piece for their multi-genre project. This sheet is just a way of
brainstorming, a pre-write, for students who wish to do so.
7. Each student will receive a copy of Ernest J. Gaines short story “The Sky is Gray”
along with questions that accompany the story. Students will have the remaining
period of class to read. The next day students will have about ten to fifteen
additional minutes to finish the reading and answer the questions. The next day
they will also discuss the story and the relativity of it to unit’s topic.
Accommodations: If the room does not have a projector, make sure to check one out
from the media center. Also be sure to have copies for each student of “Where I’m
From,” “The Sky is Gray,” both concept maps, and reading/discussion questions.
Assessment: Students’ “Where I’m From” poems will be based on credit/no credit, and
will be written in their writers’ journals. These journals will be collected periodically
throughout the unit. There is nothing else that really needs to be assessed, unless the next
day if student participation is exceptionally low when discussing “The Sky is Gray”
students may receive a few credit/no credit points for completing the reading/discussion
questions.