Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher: Janneke Cole

Date: 10/25/16

Subject/ Topic/ Theme: Language Arts/Narrative Writing/Varying Sentences 1

Grade: 6th grade

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan? Interjections/short sentences are an important piece of the puzzle of narrative
writing. They help to engage the reader and convey emotion.

cognitiveR U Ap An E C*

Learners will be able to:

Use interjections in order to develop experiences and events

R,U,Ap

Explain the function of interjections and their function in sentences

U,An

Create their own stories/sentences using interjections correctly

U, C

physical
development

socioemotional

Common Core standards (or GLCEs if not available in Common Core) addressed: W.5.3.b: Use narrative techniques such as
dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
W.5.3.b: Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
L.5.1.a: Explain the function of conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections in general and their function in particular sentences.
*Note: ACS teachers have split up the 5th/6th grade standards. This unit is being taught using 5th grade standards per ACS language arts teachers request.
(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.

-Students will need to know how to construct sentences.

-Students will need to have appropriate level of reading comprehension for a sixth grader
-Students will have to know what a comma is
Pre-assessment (for learning):
Formative (for learning):

Outline assessment
activities
(applicable to this lesson)

-ask a variety of students to volunteer their own answers throughout the lesson
-ex: where do you see interjections in the story?
Formative (as learning):

-have students write their own stories and underlining the interjections/short sentences that they use.
This will be collected (along with the rest of the packet) by the teacher in order to track students
understanding.
Summative (of learning):

What barriers might this

lesson present?

What will it take

neurodevelopmentally,
experientially,
emotionally, etc., for your
students to do this lesson?

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Provide Multiple Means of

Representation
Provide options for perceptionmaking information perceptible
-Reading the definition of
interjections
- playing Schoolhouse Rock
music video
-displaying the lyrics (which are
full of examples) while the music
plays

Provide Multiple Means of Action

and Expression
Provide options for physical actionincrease options for interaction

Provide Multiple Means of

Engagement
Provide options for recruiting
interest- choice, relevance, value,
authenticity, minimize threats
-Singing the song
-Reading the definition of
interjections aloud

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

How will your classroom

be set up for this lesson?

Provide options for language,

mathematical expressions, and
symbols- clarify & connect
language

Provide options for expression and

communication- increase medium
of expression

Provide options for comprehensionactivate, apply & highlight

Provide options for executive

functions- coordinate short & long
term goals, monitor progress, and
modify strategies

Provide options for sustaining

effort and persistence- optimize
challenge, collaboration, masteryoriented feedback
-Students will write their own piece
using interjections
-Point out interjections and short
sentences in the example writing
Provide options for self-regulationexpectations, personal skills and
strategies, self-assessment &
reflection

-Unit packet
-Interactive whiteboard
-green markers
-computer (for Silas)
-Youtube video of Schoolhouse Rocks Interjections (Media component)

Students will be in cluster groups of 4-5.

III. The Plan

Time

Components
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)

5 min

Describe teacher activities

AND
student activities
for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order thinking questions and/or
prompts.
-Have students complete warm up with their group.
These will be collected for Bethany to grade.
-as they do their warm up, hand out a packet to
each student.
-explain to students that we will be doing a
narrative writing unit- telling stories.
-ask why it is important for us, as Christians, to
learn to tell communicate stories in an effective
way?
-prompt them to say that we have minds that God
gave us and we should be good stewards of them.
We also need to be able to communicate Gods
story of love and redemption to people all over the
world.
-Ask the students what they think may be another
reason that telling stories is important.
-Prompt students to say that we learn things
about history by telling stories.
-Ask students how we know what happened during
the Civil War.
-Prompt students to say that we know because
people wrote down what happened.
-Tell students that it is important that we learn to

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Students will hopefully respond to this question,

but may need prompting. You may prompt them by
saying something like, Who gave us our minds?
How can we use them to spread the love of God?
etc.

-Hopefully many of them will raise their hands.

-Students should close their eyes and listen to the
paragraph.

write down our own stories as well as other

peoples stories so that we are able to learn more
about history, ourselves, others, and God.
(This fulfills the Interdisciplinary connection
requirement).
-Ask the students if they have ever been to an
amusement park that had roller coasters.
-Ask the students to close their eyes and imagine
themselves on a roller coaster as you read the
following paragraph:
(read this dramatically so as to keep the students
interested and convey the feeling of the paragraph)
Imagine that it is your first time on a roller coaster.
you have waited in line for an hour and now it is
finally your turn to ride the coaster they call, The
Beast. The man who controls the ride gives you a
knowing glance and says, Your turn. You quickly
sit down. The metal safety belt locks tightly across
your lap. The ride begins slowly. Click-clack-clack
is the only sound that you hear. Suddenly, you
notice the ride picks up speed. You can feel the
wind blasting against your face as you realize that
The Beast is ascending 200 feet into the air. You
feel your heart thump and your stomach turn. The
ride has reached the top of the hill and there is only
one way to go from here. Down!
-Instruct students to open their eyes.
-Ask students to spend a minute writing (on the
back of their packet) how/what they felt while you
were reading. How would you describe how your
mood changed as I described the different points of
the roller coaster ride?
-prompt them if they do not respond: Remember
the feelings of anticipation that you experience
when youre riding a roller coaster? Did my words
help you to recall those feelings?

2 min

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

-Tell students that the writing lesson will focus on

how to express a specific mood by using
interjections to write sentences of different lengths.

Students will be listening here

-Read the definition of interjection and write it on

the board

Students will write the definition on the class work

packet you handed out.

-Explain that we are going to use the color green to

identify interjections in pieces that we read.
-Tell students that in order for them to get a better
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-They may need you to prompt them by saying

something like, based on what I read and your
experiences on a roller coaster, how did the
paragraph make you feel? Did you remember the
feeling of anticipation when youre chugging up the
big hill, and then sitting at the top for a split second
before plunging down?)

understanding of what interjections are, you are

going to play them two videos.

3 min

-Tell students to flip to the lyrics in their packet

But here they will be encouraged to sing along to

the music.

-Ask students to underline interjections in the song

as it plays
-ask students to sing along
-play the School House Rock youtube videos

In order to stop students from reading the story,

pass it to them upside down.

-When the videos are over, display the Varying

Sentences to Create Mood story on the whiteboard
projector, and hand copies out to students. Also
give them green markers.
-Inform students that the piece contains many
examples of interjections, and that the interjections
will influence how we read the story.

5 min

-Ask students to follow along as you read and

notice where your voice changes
-When you have finished reading, ask the students,
What did you notice about my voice as I was
reading the end of the story?. Call on students to
share answers.
-Try to lead students to the conclusion that
your voice sped up at the end because the
sentences were shorter.

Students will (hopefully) raise their hands and

volunteer information.

They may have trouble coming to the conclusion

that you want them to come to, so use hints such as
How many words do you see in this sentence?

-Explain that writers use shorter phrases/sentences

to control the pace and speed up action. The writer
also used interjections to describe the mood of the
character in response to what was happening in the
story.
-Remind students that interjections are words and
short phrases used to exclaim, protest, or command.
Hint: an exclamation mark often follows an
interjections

5 min

-Call on students to identify three examples of

interjections and/or short sentences. Underline each
sentence using green.
-Ask students to count the number of words in each
short sentence. Write the number of words
underneath each example.
-Call on students and ask for their examples as to
how many words are in the short sentences.
Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
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-Tell students to spend the remainder of the class

writing about an unforgettable experience in school

They will work by themselves here for a few

seconds, counting the number of words in their
short sentence examples.
Hopefully a few will volunteer their answers
-Silas will need to use the voice to text option on
his computer. He may need help with this. Show

or on a field trip using the prepared class work

paper. (This fulfills the Real-world requirementstudents are learning how to tell their story, how to
write coherent sentences, etc).
-If they need help, suggest a memory from their
fifth grade camp, a soccer game, or service project
experience

20
min

him how to highlight (in green) the interjections

and shorter sentences.

Students will be working silently on their own.

-Tell them to include:

-5 interjections
-15-20 sentences
-short sentences when applicable
-Remind students to include short sentences and
interjections to convey emotion.
wrap-up)

-Inform Silas that he will be able to use his

computer to type. Another option would be to use
voice to text. (This fulfills the Allow diverse
students to show what they know requirement.)

Hopefully a few students will raise their hands and

offer up their own examples.

*If a student finishes early, ask them to write a

postcard that explains interjections to a student
who was absent. Have them include an
interjection/short sentence from their writing as an
example.
-ask students for examples of short sentences and
interjections they used in their stories.
-Tell Silas to submit his assignment by emailing it
to you. The others will turn theirs in when you
finish teaching the whole unit.

Students should take their packet home with them

and complete the writing assignment if they
havent finished.

-If they do not finish, tell them to complete the

assignment at home and bring it to class tomorrow.
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.)

I taught this lesson on Tuesday, November 1. There were things that went well, and there were plenty of things
that needed tweaking. The nice thing about having two sixth grade LA classes is that if I didnt like how
something went I could alter it for the next class.
The first thing that I felt went really well was my connection to faith- WHY is it important for us to learn how
to tell stories effectively? The kids were really responsive to this- they answered So we can tell people about
Jesus right away. I went on to expand on that answer, explaining that we have the most wonderful story of love
and redemption to tell and we need to learn how to tell it well.
The second thing I felt went well was the variety of activities that were involved in the lesson. There was a
movie, underlining, discussion with neighbors, listening, writing, etc. The students were very engaged.
The third thing that went well was something I changed from the first class to the second class. During the first
class, after I read the roller coaster paragraph I had them open their eyes and then I explained the directions of
their short assignment. The students seemed to be a bit distracted during this time, so in the second class I had
them keep their eyes closed while I gave them directions for the short response assignment. They didnt lose
their focus and they stayed quiet during this time.
As for things that could use some work, technology proved to be a bit of an issue. I had some trouble getting
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the sound for the video to work, so we had to call the tech guy in to look at it. Fortunately this all happened
before school started, but in the future I think it would be best to double check these things a day or two before
rather than the morning of.
Another thing that I felt needed work was my timing. I really struggled to stay focused on my teaching as well
as the time that remained in the class period. We didnt get to finish everything in the second class, which was
frustrating, but the second class does tend to be quicker to understand things, so it wasnt a huge deal.
Finally, transitions. Going from warm up, to going out to lockers to get markers, to sitting still and listening-these transitions were all very difficult. The students had a hard time refocusing after getting up and talking,
and the transitions ended up wasting a lot of time. Next time I should try to have the least amount of transitions
possible.

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