BRAIN COMPATIBLE STRATEGIES: LESSON PLAN – 9th Grade English
Denice Douglas & Teresa Ly
OVERVIEW:
The learning log is a great tool to make students aware of “what we’re doing today” as well as a guide to help
them internalize the information.
ACTIVITY 1: D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language)
Brain Compatible Strategies: Collaboration (think-share), problem solving, students teaching students, use of
motion, activate prior knowledge
Description: This warm-up activity is completely student-centered. Students should be prepared to facilitate
their own instruction in this activity with minimal help from the teacher, and will develop their skills as they
continue to practice. This activity can be a daily warm-up or just correspond with the learning log to be turned
in at the end of the week.
1. Write a sentence with common misspelling and grammatical errors on the board. Sentence may be topic
related to further enhance understanding and context.
2. Students copy the flawed sentence and use editing marks to make corrections individually on their
learning logs.
3. Teacher chooses student volunteers to be a “driver” (person who writes corrections on the board) and a
“navigator” (person who directs the driver to make the corrections).
4. Whole class judges whether sentence is worthy of “sale” to the teacher – a perfect sentence adds credit
for everyone, an imperfect sentence gives opportunity for individual student to correct it to perfection
and add points to his/her own participation grade.
ACTIVITY 2: JOURNAL
Brain Compatible Strategies: mind maps/ graphic organizers, activate prior knowledge, connections to personal
experience, think-pair-share
Description: This activity creates word association and can be modified to include a graphic organizer in
addition to the sentences students create.
1. As students warm up, play classical music (preferably a Shakespearean-era composer) softly in the
background.
2. Give students 4-5 words (may be vocabulary words) related to the topic. You may add graphic
organizers to scaffold for challenged learners.
3. Students create sentences using the example structure you provide: When I think of ___ I
associate it with ___ and ___ because…
4. Students complete the sentence with their own individual explanations based on their personal or
previous academic experiences.
5. Students collaborate with 1-2 partners, sharing sentences on words of their choice.
6. Volunteers share their partner’s sentence with the whole class. Class discusses different points of view
regarding topic.
ACTIVITY 3: CLASS ACTIVITY / NOTES (including vocabulary)
Brain Compatible Strategies: drawing icons, students teaching students, summarization, graphic organizer
Description: This section of the learning log is a basic outline of the lesson plan to guide the students. This is
where the bulk of the unit’s core information (such as vocabulary) and topical information is dispensed. These
activities center on reading for background information and establishing a vocabulary base for dramatic terms
as well as a Shakespearean unit.
1. Students silently read background on drama, noting dramatic terms interspersed in the text. Note-taking
is mandatory in the graphic organizer chart provided. Some differentiation strategies include partner
reading and whole-group summarization.
2. As students complete the vocabulary / definition section of the chart, they create their own examples
with a partner and draw an icon for as many terms as they can complete.
3. Optional addendum to icon activity: Students (especially artists) often wish to share their work with the
class, so you can choose 1-3 students to draw their (teacher-approved) icons for the words on the board
and explain it to the class.
ACTIVITY 4: REFLECTIONS
Brain Compatible Strategies: Use closure, personal reflection time, use music
Description: This section of the learning log is a g
1. Restart classical music softly in the background.
2. Students reflect on what they feel they “know that they know” and finish the sentence “Today I
learned…”
3. Students reflect on what they feel they “still need to work on” and finish the sentence “I want to better
understand…”
4. Students then reflect on what they feel they still need to learn and list at least one question, finishing the
starter: “My question is…”
5. Time permitting, have 1-2 volunteers per section on the reflections share their responses. Discuss as a
class the different perspectives. Students may answer other students’ questions for points.