Service Learning Project

Name: Robert Pearson

Date: 10/26/2015

Grade Level: 6th

1. Content Objective(s)/State Standards: Writing Standard 4: Produce clear and coherent

writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.
Objective 2: Explore current global issues facing the modern world and identify potential
solutions.
Behavioral Objectives: The students will participate in the class discussion by not having side
conversations.
2. Instructional Focus: The students will be able to write a personal letter with correct form and
grammar about freedom and patriotism individually.

3. Interesting Texts/Materials for Instruction

For this lesson, I will use a video interview call What is Freedom?
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
http://the-penultimate-word.com/2011/05/30/liberty-or-freedom-the-difference-is-amazing/
4. Student Engagement: What engagement principle(s) are you choosing for this lesson?
________choice, ____X____collaboration, ________building concepts, ____X___relevance
real world interaction
I will engage students in this lesson by: Having a class discussion about two words: freedom
and patriotism. We will watch a video and also do some pairing up to share thoughts.
5. Student Activity/Differentiation.
The students will first listen and watch a video interview called What is Freedom? This will
introduce the class discussion about the freedom of citizens in the United States of America and
what patriotism means to the students. During the discussion, the students will be able to
respond to prompts or to each others responses. They will do some think-pair-share activities
during the discussion to collaborate with peers. The discussion questions will be: What is
freedom? What is liberty? What is patriotism? Compare freedom and liberty? The students as
a whole will create definitions for the three main words.
The students will then learn how to write a letter. They will be writing letters to a senior center
in the valley about liberty and patriotism. The students will learn how to write a purposeful letter
that is appropriate for the intended audience. They will pay attention while I diagram what is
required or show an easy diagram on the board. They will then set to work individually with
pencil and paper as a rough draft and a final draft will be done the next day on the computers.
The discussion should run for 20 minutes and the activity should run for 10 minutes.

How will you differentiate your instruction for struggling/gifted learners?

For the struggling students, I will make sure that the definitions of words are placed on the board
and that examples are provided to ensure they do not get lost in the discussion. There are also
opportunities for partner activities for explanation; this will help the students maintain focus and
understanding. For the students who finish quickly, I will have something for them to do, either
silent read or a coloring activity.
6. Writing/Communicating/Assessment:
The students will meet the purpose of the lesson by participating in the class discussions and the
partner discussions. I will observe the partner activities and also collect the letters when finished
for credit. I will be able to read the letters and discern if learning occurred at each individual
students level.

7. Reflection: What were the strengths and or areas of refinement of this lesson. Given what
you taught in this lesson, what are you teaching next?