Lesson Plan Suggested Template

Winter - 2022

I. Your Name: Taylor Alfonsi

II. Unit Title: Poetry
III. Unit Overview: In this unit, students are exploring the purpose. Students will be
developing skills and learning the tools necessary for pulling meaning from a
poem and building an understanding and appreciation for reading and writing
poetry. In today’s lesson, students are being introduced to the concept of context
clues and building the skills of being able to decipher the meaning of unknown
words using the context clues explained and modeled in class.
IV. Unit Learning Goal: Students will develop an understanding of the various types
of poems as well as build an appreciation for poetry through the practice of
various skills and learning tools.
V. Daily Objectives:
A. Students will be able to define and apply context clues.
B. Students will be able to decipher the meaning of unknown words.
1. CE 2.1.3 Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, specialized
vocabulary, figurative language, idiomatic expressions, and
technical meanings of terms through context clues, word roots and
affixes, and the use of appropriate resource materials such as print
and electronic dictionaries.
C. Students will be able to identify, define, and pull meaning from a ballad.
1. E 3.2.2 Identify different types of poetry (e.g., epic, lyric, sonnet, free
verse) and explain how specific features (e.g., figurative language,
imagery, rhythm, alliteration, etc.) influence meaning.
VI. Instructional Sequence:
A. The Launch (5 min)
1. Greet all of the students (asking how their weekend was, what they
did, and a brief explanation of something fun you did), ending with
a “I am happy to see you all here today and I am excited for today’s
lesson!”
2. Explain that today, students can throw those dictionaries away
because we are going to be learning how to figure out the meaning
of ANY unknown word using context clues. State the daily objective:
 Lesson Plan Suggested Template
Winter - 2022
You will be able to pull meaning from unknown words using context
clues.
B. Act 1: Silent Reading (10 min)
1. State that before we begin our main lesson for today, we will spend
the first 10 minutes of class recentering ourselves with some Read
& Relax time next to the fireplace (play the music/fireplace video
found on slide 26).
2. Remind them that silent reading time is used to build up your
comprehension (ability to understand written material) and
vocabulary skills which is necessary for today’s main lesson!
3. Allow time for reading. Meet with students who did not bring a book
and tell them to find a book from the in-class library for today.
C. Act 2: Context Clues Mini Lesson (EMC)- 10 min
1. Bring the students back together: “Alright everyone, we are going
to come back as a class at this time, please put your books away and
pull out a notebook and something to write with as well as your
“Types of Poems” handout from last week because we are going to
be filling in the box for a ballad definition. As I go through today’s
lesson, I will ask you to take notes on anything highlighted yellow.”
2. Begin the context clues mini lesson (slides 27-36) while emphasizing
and explaining the examples given on each slide.
a) The big idea here is that learning the meaning of a word
through its use in a sentence or paragraph is the most
practical way to build vocabulary, since a dictionary is not
always available when a reader encounters an unknown
word.
D. Act 3: Context Clues using “The Jaberwocky” Poem (EMC Cont.)-30 min
1. Transition students by saying: “Now that we have learned what
context clues are and the types found within a text, we are going to
practice applying what we have learned using the poem “The
Jaberwocky.”
a) Explain the background to the poem. Ask students to write
down the definition of a ballad on their “Types of Poems”
worksheet and explain the purpose of nonsensical poetry
(found on slide 35).
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Winter - 2022
b) Explain why an activity like this matters (found on slide 36).
2. Explain the directions: First, students will listen to the poem in its
entirety while circling ALL unknown words (which should be a lot).
Next, the teacher will play the poem again, but this time, the teacher
will pause after each stanza and have students answer the
corresponding questions on the context clues worksheet. After
each student has spent the designated time (written on the
worksheet) on each question, we will come back as a class and
share/discuss our answers and how we found them using context
clues. This process will be repeated until the entirety of the
worksheet is completed.
3. Once the activity is complete, the teacher will ask all students to
write their names on the worksheet and turn it in prior to leaving
class.
E. The Close
1. Explain a summary of what students have learned today, restating
the daily objective.
2. Explain that tomorrow, we will learn about more ways to help you
pull your own meaning from a poem and I will model this process
for you. Later in the week, we will practice meaning making with
poems with partners and, eventually, individually.
3. Explain that there is no homework tonight, thank them all for
participating, and wish them a happy rest of their Monday!
VII. Materials
A. Agenda Slides (Slides 25-37)
B. Context Clues Worksheet: (format looks different than actual worksheet)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uks89KDYyuvc25qs6-IZ7Ft8C-
uvxp3nCIKyXsd9Qwg/edit?usp=sharing
VIII. Formal/Informal assessment
A. The context clues worksheet (attached above) is meant as a formative
assessment that allows me to interpret whether or not an individual
student is able to both understand the concept of context clues as well as
apply what they have learned to a poem in order to decipher the meaning
of unknown words.
IX. Adaptations and Modifications for special population students
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Winter - 2022
A. Some students in this class have ADHD. In order to accommodate these
students, I will be incorporating both audio, independent, and peer
reading of the poem The Jaberwocky. I will also incorporate whole class
discussion, independent thinking, and group discussion in order to
increase the engagement of students with ADHD regarding this activity.
This activity is broken up into chunks so that these students may benefit
from the explanations in between rather than working on it all for the
remainder of class without breaks.
Lesson Plan Suggested Template
Winter - 2022