UCLA TEP ELEMENTARY LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE, 2013-2014
Key Content Standard(s): List the complete text of only the relevant parts of each standard. TPE: 1 & 9
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
Lesson Objective: What do you want students to know and be able to do? TPE: 1, 6 & 9
OPEN MINDED PORTRAIT: Students will create an open minded portrait of the protagonist, Anita. An open
minded portrait requires the students to write and draw things that they remember about Anita (ie who she
loves, what she does, her traits, her flaws, etc)
Assessment: Formal and Informal Assessment. TPE: 2 & 3

What evidence will the students produce to show they have met the learning objective?
Students will fill in the open minded portrait with drawings, words, and quotes they feel are relevant or
significant to Anita. Teacher will circulate to informally assess if students are on task.

What modifications of the above assessment would you use for language learners and/or
students with special needs?
The struggling readers in this classroom will be met with on an individual basis while all students are
working on the task. These students will be further encouraged to come up with three character traits
and can reference their character trait list. We do not have any students with special needs.
Prerequisite Skills, Knowledge and Experiential Backgrounds. TPE: 4 & 8

Prerequisite skills from prior school experiences
Students have finished the novel, Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez. Each night for homework, they
have been creating main assertions (opinion statements) on the protagonist, Anita. Additionally, they
must back up this main assertion with supporting details from the text.

Strategy to connect school learning with prior experiential knowledge and/or cultural
background
Students are encouraged to write/draw anything that they feel is significant to Anita. This may be
affected by their background knowledge or experience and is welcomed as long as they can link it to
text evidence.

Pre-assessment strategy
Teacher has been reviewing with the students daily how to create main assertions and how to back
them up with text evidence. At this point, students have all formed opinions about Anita and should be
able to fill their open minded portrait with visual and written representations of their thoughts.
Academic Language. TPE: 7 & 9
 What content specific vocabulary, text structures, stylistic, or grammatical features will be
explicitly taught?
N/A
Equity. TPE: 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
 How will ALL learners engage? (varying academic abilities, cultural backgrounds, and language
levels) Describe your differentiated instructional strategy.
For the particular classroom this activity is designed for – a Magnet 6th grade classroom – widely
differentiated instructional strategies are not as necessary due to the high academic abilities and
language level of all the students. That being said, the teacher will constantly circulate the classroom as
the students work in order to be a resource to the struggling readers who may require further scaffolding
and assistance. These students in particular will be reminded to reference their character trait list in
order to come up with three character traits.
Instructional Learning Strategies to Support Student Learning. TPE: 1, 4, 5, 6, 9 & 10
What will the teacher do to 1) stimulate/motivate students by connecting the lesson to experiential backgrounds,
interests and prior learning, 2) identify learning outcomes 3) present material, guide practice, and build
independent learning, 4) monitor student learning during instruction, and 5) build metacognitive understanding.
List what the teacher will be doing and what the students will be doing.
Time
Teacher
Students
9:40 –
9:45 am
Opening Move:
Introduce “Open Minded Portrait”
Let students know this is the first of three
activities leading up to our culminating
writing task. Reference the standards our
writing task will be addressing.
Resources/
Materials
Open minded
portrait sheet
Markers
Pens
Quick check for understanding: ask
students what they know about portraits.
Write “portrait” on the board and add
student comments. Then give the
definition “an artistic representation of a
person”
9:45 –
9:50 am
9:50 –
9:55 am
Students will raise hand to share
what they know about portraits.
Let students know that today we’ll be
creating portraits of the protagonist of
Before We Were Free as a pre-writing
strategy!
Instructions: Teacher will pass out open
minded portrait sheets to students and
also put a blank sheet on the projector for
all of the students to see. Teacher will
inform students that they are to fill the
open minded portrait with drawings, key
words, or phrases about Anita. This
means fill Anita’s face with objects,
events, or people that were important to
her throughout the story. Draw or write
things that describe her personality. What
does she think about? How does she act?
If you could choose three words to
describe her, what would they be? What
are her flaws? What are her positive
attributes? Please add any quotes from
the book that you feel are significant.
Teacher will encourage students to follow
their artistic desires! Inform the students
that at the end of activity, we will do a
gallery walk to view all of the collage
creations.
Scaffolding: Teacher will then provide an
example of an open minded portrait for a
character other than Anita. Teacher will
choose Chucha (the students’ favorite
character) as an example. Using the
students responses, teacher will fill in the
Students will be listening to
instructions.
When asked, students will be
allowed to share character traits of
Chucha.
Before We Were
Free by Julia
Alvarez
open minded portrait with objects, three
traits, and several descriptive words.
May Do: Let students know they have 20
minutes to complete the task. If students
finish early, they may begin on the “May
Do.” The first step of the may do is to
finalize three character traits. The next
step is to back them up with text evidence
and page number citations.
9:55 –
10:15 am
10:15 –
10:20 am
Checking for Understanding: Teacher
will ask who can share something that
goes inside the open mind portrait. Call
on several students to remind class what
they fill the portrait with. Teacher will ask
for a reminder of what the ‘May Do” is.
Teacher will ask for 4,3,2,1 (4 is I totally
understand and I am ready to go all the
way to 1 which is I am extremely
confused) on their fingers for readiness.
At this point, most students should give
4s or 3s. Teacher will allow the class to
begin, but will individually check in on any
students who showed a 2 or 1 for
understanding.
The task: As students work, teacher will
circulate to check in on students and
answer any questions they have. Teacher
will be sure to personally check in on the
struggling readers and encourage them to
use their character trait sheet to come up
with three traits for Anita.
Wrap-Up/Clean Up- : Teacher will
remind students periodically of how much
time they have left. When it is time to
move on, ask students to clean
everything off of their desk except for their
open minded portrait. Tell students that if
they would like to keep their portrait
private to please flip it over.
Students will raise hands to share
reminders of what goes inside the
open minded portrait.
When asked, students will give a
4,3,2,1 on their fingers to show their
readiness for the task.
Students will be working on their
open minded portraits individually.
They are to draw and write a
multitude of things they feel are
significant or descriptive of Anita.
Students will clean up their desks
except for their completed portrait. If
they would not like the portrait to be
seen during the gallery walk, they
may flip it over.
Teacher will have students stand behind
their desks and push in their chairs and
then line up at the back of the room.
Teacher will stand at the front and will
walk the students through the aisles
(gallery walk conga style) to view
everyone’s beautiful portraits!
Students stand behind desks, push
in chairs, and then line up at the
back of the classroom. Students
follow their teacher (conga style)
through the desks to view all the
portraits that were created.
After the gallery walk, students will be
dismissed for recess!
Afterwards, students are dismissed
for recess.