PoliticsLp1

Lesson Plan #1
 Date: Thursday, March 17, 2009. 12:40-1:30

Housekeeping Stuff: Take attendance. Introduce the teachers to the students. (2 minutes)

Student/Classroom Description: Five students. 8th grade Language Arts class. Four boys, one girl. 12:30 in the afternoon. All Caucasian. No known exceptionalities.

Lesson Description/Rationale: The lesson is important because it will generate student interest in the book. The students will learn a pre-reading strategy that they can employ in future readings in all areas. The foldable made by the students will be used while the students are reading the book.

Materials & Equipment: Paper for the foldables Notecards for Jeopardy Scissors and glue Assigned books that students are reading Example foldable Extra Activity Materials: "Politics Are Cool"- copy of wordsearch for each student; answer key for each teacher "Shhh..Don't Say It"- a basic set of 10 index cards with "secret" information (vocabulary word & definition)
 * Katelin- Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit
 * Matt- FDR
 * Karen- Dwight D. Eisenhower
 * Laura- John F. Kennedy
 * Kaitie- Bill Clinton

Lesson Objectives: Students will generate pre-reading questions to be used while reading the biography. Students will apply previous knowledge of political figures by answering the Jeopardy questions.

Illinois State Learning Standards: Reading: 1.B.3b Identify text structure and create a visual representation (e.g., graphic organizer, outline, drawing) to use while reading. Reading: 1.B.3a Preview reading materials, make predictions and relate reading to information from other sources. Reading: 1.B.3c Continuously check and clarify for understanding (e.g., in addition to previous skills, draw comparisons to other readings).

=Lesson Content=

Set Induction:
Game After housekeeping, the students will play a Jeopardy-like game of fun facts about the presidents. Each student plays individually. There will be 25 cards with questions on them. The student will pick a card and a teacher (rotating) will read the question. The student who picked the card will have the first opportunity to answer. If the student answers correctly, the student will gain the points on the card. If the student gets the answer wrong, the other students will raise their hand to answer the question. The first student to raise his or her hand will be called on first. (10 minutes)

Content & Activities: Pre-Reading Strategy - Developing Question for Reading: Concept Ladder
Lecture 1. Transition: Ms. Glendon: Since each of you just learned some fun facts about past presidents you are probably curious to know even more about your assigned president. Lets each make a foldable to help us organize what you want to know about your president. 2. Ms. Glendon: Show the class the example of the foldable to be made. 3. Ms. Glendon: Will pass out two sheets of paper to each student along with glue and scissors. 4. Ms. Glendon: Will direct the students to place glue on the far left side of one page and place the other sheet of paper on top to make a book. 5. Ms. Glendon: Will direct the students to use their scissors to cut the top page into six equal strips, one inch from the left side. Hands-on activity 6. All: Facilitate making the foldables. (Foldables: 7 min) Discussion 7. Transition: Ms. Keacher: Now that we have our books made, we are going to brainstorm questions that we want to know about the presidents. 8. Ms. Keacher will make sure the students are coming up with “good” questions. If a student comes up with a “yes/no” question, Ms. Keacher will try to have the student elaborate on the question and see if he/she can come up with a question that has a more in-depth answer. Once the students come up with a "good" question, they will write it down on a strip of their foldable. "Good" questions would start with who, what, when, why, how, etc. 9.If students are having trouble forming questions, Ms. Keacher will tell the students to pretend they are meeting someone they don’t know for the first time, and think of questions they may want to ask that person (e.g. questions about their childhood, their families, their hobbies/interests, the events that occurred when they were in office, etc). 10. Once students have generated their questions, Ms. Keacher will inform them that they will need to be looking for the answers to these questions as they are reading the first half of their biography. They will also need to add at least two additional questions as they are reading their biography. (Generating questions: 10 min) 11. Transition: As Ms. Keacher just stated, you all will need to read the first half of your book before we meet next which is one week from today (Thurs. March 26th). 12. Ms. Glendon: Will remind students that as they read they need to be looking for answers to the questions they came up with. 13. Ms. Glendon: Will tell students not to become overwhelmed if they can't find an answer to every question. Tell them to do the best they can. If they can't find an answer to a certain question explain that they can skip it and come back to it later. 14. All teachers: Tell your student how much you are assigning him/her to read for next time. (Explain assignment: 2 min) Each student's reading assignment:
 * Katelin- read up to page 84 (up to chapter 12)
 * Matt- read Chapters 1-5 (pages 1-67)
 * Karen- read up to page 77 (thru Ch. Five)
 * Laura- read pages 1-60 (chapters 1- 6)
 * Kaitie- read pages 1-58 (chapters 1-5)

1. Short activity:(1-5 minutes) "Politics Are Cool" (wordsearch with hidden message) Students will be given a wordsearch puzzle that contains the names of the 5 presidents targeted for this lesson. For motivational reasons, the Metcalf students' names are also included in the wordsearch. Students will locate and circle the word. This will build awareness of the correct spelling of the presidents' names. Upon completion, students' will read the hidden message to confirm their accuracy ("Enjoy reading your book"). Cooperative Learning 2. Long activity: (5 minutes +) "Shhh..Don't Say It"(election vocabulary game) The following election vocabulary (candidate, ballot, platform, campaign, primary, party, running mate, polls, Inaugural Address, congress) are on 10 individual index cards. Each index card contains the following information: vocabulary word, part of speech, quick definition and sample sentence. Students are divided into one group of 2 and one group of 3. The goal of the game is to give hints for the word as accurately and quickly as possible. Game directions: Students are divided into two groups. Index cards are placed face down on the desk. Student 1(from each team) must pick a card and give hints to partner(s). Partner(s) must guess correct vocabulary word. Groups write down the word in their notebooks after it has been guessed and then pick another card. Students, in groups, take turns picking up cards and describing words. Teachers monitor while students give explanations and add election vocabulary to notebooks. Time is called and groups count the number of words they have on their lists.
 * Extra activities:**

Closure:
Lecture 1. Ms Hicks: Will call on each one of the students and ask them one thing they learned about the president he or she will be reading about. 2. Ms Hicks: Will tell the students that as they read, if more questions pop into their minds to feel free to write them down for the discussion next time we meet. 3. Ms Hicks: Will ask students to tell their own teacher how much of the book that they are reading needs to be completed for next time. She will also tell the students to make sure they pay attention to the reading because these men are part of their country's history, and they helped shape the way the country is today. (3 min)

Literacy Techniques Used:
Foldable Concept Ladder Reading Questions