Deirdre Sanborn

Planning Commentary Literacy Lesson

The central focus of this lesson is to have students break down and

understand the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In order for students

to deepen their understanding of the UDHR, in groups, they will be assigned

main articles and then asked to paraphrase and represent them in a visual

form. Before this lesson, students examined the preface to the UDHR and

defined unfamiliar vocabulary. They have also learned about the history and

the time period that the UHDR was written. With this background

information, all students have access to information needed to complete this

activity. The learning targets for this lesson are for students to paraphrase

well, complete their posters, work cooperatively with classmates, and

demonstrate good presentation skills. The students are also expected to

meet the language objective of using proper spoken and written English

conventions and grammar. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the

learning targets by beginning with a quick journal entry about human rights.

By answer two questions about human rights, they will reflect on why

learning about the UDHR is important and the impact it made.

In order to support the learning of all students, I will use several

methods of teaching throughout my lesson. I will first use whole group

instruction to model the activity. Once I explain and model what to do,

students will help me create an example using one of the articles. Then,
students will transition into group work while I walk around the room and

help as needed. I will first address groups who seem to be struggling to

provide extra explanation and assistance. Once students complete their

paraphrase of the article, they will need to check in with a teacher to get it

approved for their final draft. This will make sure that all students stay on

track. Several students will need accommodations like extra time, extra

teacher supervision and access to other resources. ELL students will be able

to use English and English to Spanish (or other native language) dictionaries

either online or in print. Students who struggle with reading/writing should

use their groupmates for support and receive extra help from teachers.

Students will be grouped strategically based on ability levels. ELL students

will be in a group with another student who speaks their native language.

In the antecedent lesson plans, students have been introduced to the

vocabulary of this document. They found definitions of words commonly

found in the document, such as amendment, protect, charter, liberty,

freedom, etc. This will enable students to be able to have a basis of

understanding when trying to write their article into simpler terms. For more

support, I will help students by defining unknown words, but only if all

students in the group do not know the definition. Cooperation and

collaboration are skills that should be highlighted in this activity.

For assessment, students will turn in poster and be graded on their

presentation. The poster will be graded at the same time as presentation to

save the teacher time. Informal assessment will occur while students are
working. They must be observed working well together with their teammate,

with every student making a contribution. The students will monitor their

own progress by knowing the learning targets beforehand. The expectations

will be explained to students in the beginning of the lesson. They will be

shown the rubrics for the poster and the rubric for the presentation. Once the

posters are complete and presented, they will be hung around the room so

students can continue to reflect on their learning.