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Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher Marissa Ritter

Date Subject/ Topic/ Theme Acrostic Poems and Perspectives Grade ____5th_______

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
This lesson teaches students how to write acrostics, a type of poem for the poetry unit. It also teaches

Learners will be able to:
cognitive-
R U Ap An E C*
physical
development
socio-
emotional
Imagine the perspective of a real person C
Create an acrostic poem for a person based off an imagined perspective C



Common Core standards (or GLCEs if not available in Common Core) addressed:
W.5.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or
two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
L.5.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.


(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular learners
write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.)
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create

II. Before you start
Identify prerequisite
knowledge and skills.


Outline assessment activities
(applicable to this lesson)
Pre-assessment (for learning):
I ask students if they know what Walking in someones shoes means and we have a large group
discussion about it.
Formative (for learning):

Formative (as learning):
Students create a person with the idea of different perspectives in mind, using this creation to assist in an
activity later in the lesson.

Summative (of learning):
Students will create an acrostic poem based off the imagine person and this persons perspective

What barriers might this
lesson present?


What will it take
neurodevelopmentally,
experientially, emotionally,
etc., for your students to do
this lesson?
Provide Multiple Means of
Representation
Provide Multiple Means of
Action and Expression
Provide Multiple Means of
Engagement
Provide options for perception-
making information perceptible
Information will be in their poetry
packets, on the board, and verbally
communicated by myself
Provide options for physical
action- increase options for
interaction
Provide options for recruiting
interest- choice, relevance, value,
authenticity, minimize threats
Students get to have choice in
creating their shoe person,
students get to exercise creativity
Provide options for language,
mathematical expressions, and
symbols- clarify & connect
language

Provide options for expression and
communication- increase medium
of expression
Students will verbally
communicate in small groups, a
large group, will express
themselves through poetry and the
creation of their shoe person
Provide options for sustaining
effort and persistence- optimize
challenge, collaboration, mastery-
oriented feedback
Students will work together on
their shoe person.

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Provide options for
comprehension- activate, apply &
highlight
Students will discuss the topic
of perspective, create an
imagine person based on what
they know about perspective,
and create a poem based on
what they know about
perspective
Provide options for executive
functions- coordinate short & long
term goals, monitor progress, and
modify strategies
Students are ultimately creating a
poem about someone based off of
this imagined persons
perspective. Their large group
discussion, small group
discussion, and small group work
all lead up to the creation of this
poem.
Provide options for self-
regulation- expectations, personal
skills and strategies, self-
assessment & reflection

Materials-what materials
(books, handouts, etc) do
you need for this lesson and
are they ready to use?

Approximately 12 to 15 individual shoes
Poetry packets

How will your classroom be
set up for this lesson?
The class will be set up normally for this activity.



III. The Plan

Time Components
Describe teacher activities AND student activities
for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order thinking questions and/or
prompts.
7
minutes
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)
I will invite students to join me in the poetry
corner, after they have placed their poetry packets
on their desks.

I will hold up a shoe and ask them if they have
ever heard of the phrase, Walking in someone
elses shoes. We will talk about the expression,
what they think it means, if it actually means
walking in someone elses physical shoes, etc.
I will highlight that it means spending time trying
to understand someone elses perspective and view
of life. I will show them a shoe and ask them to
speculate with a few people around them what
kind of person they think the shoe belongs to. We
will talk about that for a while and then I will tell
them whom it actually belongs to.

Students will meet me in the poetry corner.





Students will respond in a large group to what
they believe the phrase Walking in someone
elses shoes means.




Students will share with a few people around
them what kind of person they believe the shoe
belongs too.






15
minutes
Development
(the largest
component or
main body of
the lesson)

I will ask them to go back to their desks. I will
give each group of students a shoe and ask them to
fill out the Walking in Someone Elses Shoes
worksheet. They should be as creative as they can
with this activity



After time is up, I will ask each group to share
what information they came up with for their shoe.
I will ask each group to share all of their questions
or only a few selected questions, depending on
time. When each group is finished explaining their
made-up person, I will tell them who really
belongs to the shoes.
Students will go back to their desks and receive
one shoe per group







Students from each group will share with the
class what information they came up with about
their person.









10
minutes




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I will ask the students to pull their poetry packet
out and look at the page about acrostics.
I will introduce the students to my acrostic poem
by first asking if anyone has ever made an acrostic
poem.
I will show them an example acrostic poem.

Miss Ritter
Merry like a canary
Interested in photography
She is a social butterfly
Sister to Emily

Really loves coffee
Imagines traveling to other countries
Takes time to talk to friends
Terrible at singing
Eats lots of cookies
Reads for fun

I will explain to them that an acrostic poem uses a
letter of a designated word or two for the first
letter of each line of a poem. In this acrostic, I
used my name. The lines that you create can be
complete sentences or phrases. Sometimes a line is
just made up of one word. But for our purposes,
we are going to write lines with a phrase or a
sentence.

[Can you find any figurative language in my
acrostic poem? (Simile, metaphor, alliteration)]
[May cut out due to time restraint]





I will ask them each to come up with an acrostic
for their shoe person. They will each create one.
Use the information on the worksheet to create the
acrostic poem.































[Hopefully they point out an example of a simile,
metaphor, and alliteration.
Students will spend give minutes to list some
words and phrases that they believe describe
them.]




Students will write their acrostic poems at their
desks.







5
minutes

































10 to 15
minutes
5
minutes Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)




If there is time, I will ask if any students want to
share their acrostic poems about their shoe person.

I will collect their poetry packets to evaluate their
poems and notes.

Activity taken from:
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-
resources/lesson-plans/spend-shoes-exploring-
role-265.html?tab=4#tabs
Students may share their poems with the class.



Students will hand in poetry packets.
TOTAL
TIME
52 to 57
minutes

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Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as well as ideas for improvement
for next time. (Write this after teaching the lesson, if you had a chance to teach it. If you did not teach this lesson, focus on the
process of preparing the lesson.)
This lesson ended up being taught over two days instead of one! The first day we just did the Walking in Someone Elses Shoes
activity the entire time. The second day we wrote the acrostic poems. I think it was better to do this because it gave the students more
time to be creative and think deeply about their imaginary shoe person and then gave them the needed time to write poems. I think
that if I had left the entire lesson to one day, we would have been rushed and their products would not have demonstrated their ability
to take on another perspective through poetry.
On day one, we gathered in the poetry corner and talked about what it meant to walk in someone elses shoes. However, first I read a
poem by a student in the class and asked them what kind of poem it was for quick review. It was a good discussion as many students
had thoughts about what it meant. Collectively, we came up with a working understanding of this phrase. Then, I explained the
activity we were doing and we did a modified version of the activity as a class. I picked a shoe at random from the bag and asked
them a few questions about who this person might be. They were full of ideas and creative thoughts about this imaginary shoe
person. I asked the students to find a partner, which was a fairly quick task. Once they had a partner, they came up to me and picked
a shoe at random from a large bag of shoes I had gathered. I am glad that I did it this way because then students had no control over
what shoe they got. May boys pairs got girls shoes and vice versa. This made them have to stretch and challenge themselves to try to
imagine someone potentially totally different from them. Walking around the class during this activity, I asked students about why
they were choosing certain characteristics for their person. After some time working on their worksheets, we came back together as a
class and each group shared the name, age, and one fact about their shoe person. They were incredibly creative with this activity.
They defied gender stereotypes with how the shoe looked, were eccentric with their descriptions of the people, and came up with the
craziest professions and hobbies. In retrospect, however, I should have gathered shoes from a large crowd of people. The students
began to realize that the shoes were from my friends so therefor they had to be between 18 and 22 and live at Calvin College.
On the second day, I gathered them in the poetry corner and asked them about what fun activity we did last lesson and why. Many
students shot their hands up when I began asking, but quickly put their hands down when I asked why. I gave them a few seconds in
silence to think about why we did the activity and then asked them to think of a p word (perspective) in relation to our activity. I
think this was a good opener and transition into writing acrostic poems about our shoe people. I pointed out an example of acrostics
on their poetry packets and told them how to create an acrostic. I also made note that even though acrostics dont have to rhyme or
have a certain syllable pattern, poetry is all about being creative. I encouraged them especially to use some figurative language. After
a while of them working on their acrostic poems, the teacher made a comment about using dictionaries and thesauruses to find better
word choices. This is something that should be added into my lesson to explain to the students before we begin writing. Again, we
gathered back up at the poetry corner and students shared their acrostics. I asked the students to imagine the person in their heads as
the poems are being read. One group even wrote a haiku after they finished their acrostics. At the end of class, I collected their
poetry packets to assess their writing throughout our four lessons.