Genius Hour | Lesson Five | Teacher Sarah | 8th Grade | March 2016

Genius Hour Lesson Plan

Plan: Workshop

Plan: Mini-Lesson

Plan:
Do Now

Classroom
Arrangement

Materials

Goals & Objectives

Students Will Be Able To: define and identify an authors claim, evidence, and counterclaim
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.8
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the
evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to
conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
Teacher Materials:
1. Google Slides Presentation
2. Mini-Lesson Writing Skill #2: Parts of a Strong Argument Answer Key
3. Identify Parts of a Strong Argument Handout Answer Key
4. Six Boxes of Markers or Highlighters (must have atleast 5 different colors)
Student Materials:
1. Red Genius Hour Folders
2. Journal Prompt
3. Mini-Lesson Writing Skill #2: Parts of a Strong Argument
4. Identify Parts of a Strong Argument Handout
Students:
o Students will be seated at their small group tables in assigned seats.
o Two students will have the opportunity to sit on the green couch to work.
o One students will have the opportunity to sit on the blue chair by the window.
Teacher:
o Teacher will circulate throughout the classroom during student/teacher conferencing.
Journal & Share Out Journal Responses (10 min.)
- Describe the last argument you had with someone and won. What were you arguing about and who were you arguing
with?
-What did the other person say to try to convince you to agree with them?
-How did you finally convince the other person to agree with you?
-Put journal response in the brads of the folder to save for later.
Mini-Lesson Outline (10 min.)
1. Students have the opportunity to share their journal response with the class.
2. Why are strong arguments important?
3. Skill #2: Parts of a Strong Argument
Define vocabulary words
Set purpose for reading: Identify the claim, citation/context, evidence, counterclaim and rebuttal
Students read #BlackLivesMatter excerpt from IndyKids and students (in pencil) label each of the elements of a
strong argument (formative assessment)
Teacher then models how to analyze a strong argument by color-coding the BlackLivesMatter excerpt
Student Workshop Plan (30 min.)
1. Students now analyze and color-code the reliable source article they found online.
2. If students finish early, they can show a parter at their table their color-coded analysis and get their feedback.
Student/Teacher Conferences:
1. As the teacher circulates around the room, look for excellent examples of annotations to showcase with the document
camera during the wrap up.
2. Clarify misconceptions that occur as students work independently.

Plan: Wrap Up
Anticipating
Student
Responses
Accomodations

Wrap Up (5 min.)
1. Reiterate the objective and clarify any misconceptions that occurred during workshop time.
Student Exit Ticket (5 min.)
1. Students share out their annotated article on the document camera

Students may have questions about the vocabulary

o Potential Solution: refer students back to our purple mini-lesson handout about the skill of citing text evidence
and use sentence starters with the students to show the range of ways a writer can cite evidence
Students may not understand the importance of annotating their nonfiction article as they read
o Potential Solution: emphasize the strategies that good readers use
Too Challenging?
o Provide scaffolds for researching articles: provide students with a list of articles related to their topic so that they
can have choices about which article to select
o Conference with students one-on-one during workshop time to help students explicitly identify their claim,
supporting evidence and counterclaim
o Provide non-fiction articles that are at a lower reading level via Newsela
Too Easy?
o Allow students to find their own articles related to their topic so that they can have practice researching from
reliable and credible sources
o Conference with students one-on-one during workshop time to help students identify multiple claims,
counterclaims and supporting pieces of evidence in each article
o Provide non-fiction articles that are at a higher reading level via Newsela