Ella Schwalb (created with Zo Ehrenberg)

Nov. 1, 2017
Literacy Methods

Literacy Lesson Plan

1. Goals/ Objectives
a. Content Objective: SWBAT identify someone they think is an underappreciated member
of society and explain reasons why that person doesnt get the recognition they deserve.
b. Literacy Objective: SWBAT compose a paragraph that supports their opinion regarding
who should be better appreciated.

2. Standards:
a. Common Core Writing Standard 1 for Grade 4: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts,
supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
b. Although not the primary focus of the lesson, another standard that will be addressed in
this lesson is as follows: CC1.2.4.A Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it
is supported by key details; summarize the text.

3. Materials and Preparation

a. Materials:
i. Pre-made anchor chart with information about opinion writing
ii. Chart paper
iii. Markers
iv. Individual copies for each student of adapted NewsELA article
1. Original copy of the article: https://newsela.com/read/new-nasa-facility-
katherine-johnson/id/35736/
v. Lined paper for students to write their opinion paragraph on
vi. Pencils
vii. 5 copies of the ReadyGen book about Mary Anning (one for each student and one
for me).
viii. Assessment rubric Commented [E1]: [feedback from Penn Mentor, Jackie
Burgess]
b. Preparation:
i. Adapt NewsELA article
ii. Print out copies of the article for each student
iii. Create an anchor chart with information about opinion writing
iv. Collect and gather materials

4. Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues

a. Classroom Arrangement
 i.This lesson will take place on November 27th at 9:05am. I will be meeting with
the students at the table in the back of the room, where they are accustomed to
doing Guided Reading.
b. Management Issues
i. I will reinforce the norms and expectations that I have set for Guided Reading and
adapt them to the nature of this activity.
ii. If a student is failing to abide by those norms, I will ask them to remind us of
what we have established as being the appropriate way to behave during this
lesson. If they do not remember I will remind them. Commented [E2]: [feedback from Literacy Professor,
Lan Ngo: Try asking them first, and then remind them if
iii. Importantly, I want to the students to be able to talk to one another and they cant state the norms.]
collaborate about their ideas. Therefore, the space is not intended to be silent
while they are working.

5. Plan:
a. Hook (3 minutes):
i. Bring in a dollar bill and stamp with someones face on it. Ask: Who are these Commented [E3]: Changed hook to focus on a
people? Why do you think they are on money and stamps? Why are they concrete example to prompt student discussion
[feedback from Zo Ehrenbergs Penn Mentor]
celebrated/ recognized? Who do you think deserves to be honored in this way?
Commented [E4]: incorporated more higher-order
ii. Lets think more about who we as a society celebrate, and who we maybe dont thinking skills questions [feedback from Lan Ngo]
appreciate enough for their contributions.
b. Body (35 minutes):
i. Pass out copies to each student of the Ready Gen book about Mary Anning. Invite
the students to take a picture walk through the book to refresh their memories
about what the text was about. Ask: What do you remember about this reading? Commented [E5]: Added in broader question to get
students warmed up [feedback from Lan Ngo]
Who can tell me what Mary Anning was known for? What did she contribute to
society?
ii. There are a few things about Mary Anning that I wanted to share with you that I
found out from my own research about her. For example, did you know that it is
suspected that Mary Anning was the inspiration for the tongue-twister, She sells
seashells by the seashore? Even though many people know this tongue twister,
not many people know who Mary Anning is. In fact, she often didnt get credit for
her work. Ask: Why do you think Mary Anning wasnt fully recognized for her
contributions to science?
iii. Tell the students that we are now going to read about another woman who was not
recognized for her contributions to science until many years after she made the
discoveries that she did. This womans name is Katherine Johnson. Ask: Has
anyone heard of the movie Hidden Figures? If a student has seen it, allow him/her
to describe the movie first. Then Ill fill in the gaps of what she/he may have
Commented [E6]: Made room for students to supply
missed and to allow all the students to get on the same page. If no student has their own knowledge of the movie while still ensuring
seen the movie, tell students that this non-fiction movie is about Katherine that everyone has a shared background on the movie
[feedback from Lan Ngo]
 Johnson and the work that she did at NASA in the 1960s. But this movie just
came out last year, even though the 1960s were almost 60 years ago. So
Katherine Johnson, similarly to Mary Anning, did not get the recognition she
deserved for her contributions to society. Now we are going to read an article
about Katherine Johnson to learn a little bit more about what she contributed to
society. Ask: Can anyone make an educated guess about what Katherine
Johnsons contribution to society was? Commented [E7]: [Suggestion from Lan Ngo]
iv. Read the adapted NewsELA article aloud to the students and have them follow
along, like they do in shared reading.
1. Ask brief question in the NewsELA article
a. After section entitled One of the Only African American Women
at NASA: Ask: Why would it have been an unusual step for
NASA to hire African American women?
2. Ask a few discussion questions after reading the NewsELA article:
a. Ask: Who was Katherine Johnson?
b. Ask: What did she contribute to society?
c. Ask: Why do you think it took so long for her to be recognized for
her contributions to society?
d. Ask: How is she now being celebrated for her contributions to
society?
v. Transition the conversation away from Katherine Johnson to get students to begin
brainstorming who they believe are overlooked for their contributions.
1. Katherine Johnsons contributions were overlooked for most of her life.
2. [Optional Ask depending on if students seem to already grasp this or not:
Who are famous people who are appreciated or recognized for their
contributions to societymeaning, who are the people we tend to study in
school or who are people who you hear others talking about a lot?] Commented [E8]: Cut out a question about famous
scientists and made this line of questioning optional
3. Turn and Talk to a neighbor to brainstorm: Who are people who are not depending on how the conversation has gone up to this
recognized for their contributions? This does not just mean someone who point [feedback from Zo Ehrenbergs Penn Mentor]
should be famous who currently isnt. Think also about who in your life, Commented [E9]: Added opportunity for Turn-and-
Talk [feedback from Jackie Burgess]
your school, or your community should be celebrated more for the work
that she or he does.
a. Anticipated examples from students:
i. Mom/ parents
ii. Kids
iii. Janitors
iv. Immigrants
v. Restaurant workers
vi. Introduce opinion writing
 1. Today we are going to write about someone that we each think should be
celebrated more than they currently are. We are going to be writing
opinion pieces. Ask: Can someone tell me what an opinion is? When we
share our point of view about a topic, that is called writing an opinion
piece. Ask: Why do you think were writing opinion pieces/ why would
people write opinion pieces? Show them the opinion section of online
newspaper. So today were going to work on writing an opinion piece Commented [E10]: Modified to get students to think
about why people might write opinion pieces [feedback
about why we believe someone should get more recognition or celebration from Lan Ngo: To get at the so what, ask the students
than they currently get. why they think the group is studying how to write
opinion pieces and why write opinion pieces. Then,
2. Ask: What do you think is important to include in an opinion piece? perhaps mention some examples of where opinion
Generate a list of their ideas on chart paper. Try to get them to include pieces are found. You could bring a copy of a
newspaper and show them the opinon piece, or show
things such as 1) reasons, 2) background information (about the person or the opinion section of an online newspaper.]
and/or their work) 3) transitions, 4) a strong introduction and conclusion.
3. If students dont get to this themselves, say this: When you are writing an
opinion piece, you want to persuade your readers to see your point view
and agree with you. So if you said in an opinion piece, I think summer is
the best season because its great that might not persuade your readers to
agree with you that summer is the best season. However, if you say, I
think summer is the best season because the weather is warm enough to
eat ice cream outside and you have time to play and do outdoor activities
like swim, then you might persuade your readers to consider some of
those reasons that summer really is the best season.
vii. Introduce their writing assignment
1. Show students the writing structure on the pre-made anchor chart to show
them what they need to include in their writing.
2. Included on the anchor chart:
a. I think that _____ should be more widely recognized for her/ his
contributions because ______.
b. **Remind students, potentially even on the anchor chart, that the
person could be someone that they know or dont know, and the
person doesnt have to be someone who did something really big
or be well known by all of society. Commented [E11]: [suggestion from Lan Ngo]
c. Questions to answer in your writing?
i. What did this person do?
ii. Why do you think she or he has not be recognized enough
previously?
iii. What could we do to celebrate this person?
d. Write a brief model about Katherine Johnson for the kids. Do this
aloud and write it with them. Narrate our thought process aloud to
the students as we write it.
 i. As we write, remind students not to just write sentences
directly answering each question because that might make
for writing that isnt very interesting. Think about what
makes sense to tell your readers and to sequence the
information logically.
ii. I think that Katherine Johnson should be more widely
recognized for her contributions because she was
instrumental in the space mission that put the first man on
the moon! Because Katherine Johnson was an African
American woman during a time when both Black people
and women were discriminated against in America, she was
not recognized for her contributions until many years later.
I think students should learn about Katherine Johnson as an
inspiring role model for young mathematicians.
viii. Allow students time to work on their writing. Have them first write the name of
the person they are going to write about and jot down 2 quick ideas about why
that person is under appreciated so that they have an outline for their opinion
pieces. If a student is struggling to produce someone to write about, work Commented [E12]: [feedback from Zo Ehrenbergs
Penn Mentor]
individually with that student and ask him or her prompting questions. See
accommodations section for more on this.
c. Conclusion (7 minutes):
i. Allow each student to share about who they wrote about and why. Allow time for
students to ask each other questions about why they chose the person that they
chose.
ii. [If time: 3-minute pause with the sentence starter: Today, I became more aware
of]
iii. Extend by asking students to think about who we read and learn about in school.
Remind them to ask themselves, who are people who I think we should be reading
and learning about? If you want to learn more about either the person you wrote
about today or someone else you think deserves to be studied more, come find me
and Ill be help you work on that project! We can then share what you learned
with the class so that we help that person get the recognition she or he deserves!

6. Assessment of the Goals/ Objectives:

a. I will informally be assessing students based on their group participation in the
discussion.
b. I will informally be assessing students based on their response to comprehension
questions.
c. I will be formatively assessing students writing piece, which I will collect, to determine
if she/he accomplished both the content goal (being able to identify an underappreciated
 member of society and explain reasons why that person is underappreciated) and the
literacy goal (being able to compose a paragraph that supports their opinion using reasons
and information). I will use their writing to determine what sort of lesson is necessary to
do subsequently related to improving their opinion writing.

7. Anticipating Students Responses and Your Possible Responses

a. Students might bring up a figure who is already widely recognized. Prompt that student
by asking him or her why he or she thinks that person doesnt get enough recognition. If
they can do so convincingly, encourage the student to write an opinion about why that
person should be celebrated more.
b. Students may not have enough background knowledge on the person she or he wants to
write about. Encourage students to get started by writing only about people about whom
they can explain what he or she did to contribute to society without needing to do any
further researchtell students I am available to help with further research later, if they
are interested.

8. Accommodations
a. Overall, because I am working with only a few students who are advanced in their class
with respect to literacy skills, I do not expect the students to need a vast amount of
differentiation. If I were preparing this lesson for an entire class, I would likely need to
expand what kind of accommodations I would need to make, particularly for students
with special needs or students for whom English is not their first language. However,
even within the small group of students I am working with, there is still room to consider
potential accommodations.
b. For students who finish early or need a greater challenge, I will encourage them to add
more detail to their writing and I will challenge them to produce further ideas both as to
why the person he or she wrote about has gone underappreciated as well as why that
person deserves recognition. If a student has very successfully completed their opinion
piece, I will suggest that he or she begin to write another piece; I will challenge him or
her to think about a different type of answer (meaning, if a student wrote that his mom
goes underappreciated, I will prompt the student to consider someone who goes
underappreciated in a different kind of context, such as who is underappreciated within
the school community or within the neighborhood community, or in a wider public eye).
c. For students who are having difficulty producing an idea of who to write about, I will ask
the student prompting questions, such as Who is important either in your home, your
school, or your community? and Why is he or she important? Further, I will ask Who
tends to get a lot of recognition for their contributions? and Who are other people you
can think of who dont get celebrated for the work that they do? Hopefully the
prompting that I provide the student will be able to lead the student to arrive at an idea of
who to write about.
 d. In the likely event that we run short on time in covering everything planned in this lesson,
the shortcut goal will be to produce an outline for the opinion piece rather than a
paragraph with transitions and all. The outline just needs to communicate important
points for drafting the opinion piece (see the three questions in part 5.vii.2.c).

Adapted NewsELA Article:

Years Later, African-American Womans Achievements Are Finally

Celebrated
By Smithsonian, adapted by Newsela staff, re-adapted by Ms. Ehrenberg and Ms. Ella
Computers have not always been fast or reliable. In the 1960s, humans could often do
the job better.

Katherine Johnson was one of the human computers hired to perform important and
challenging calculations for NASAs early flights into outer space. NASA stands for the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and it is the United States government
space agency.

Johnson, who is now 99 years old, was not known to the public for most of her life. Last
year, that all changed.

In September 2016, Margot Lee Shetterly released her book "Hidden Figures." Then
came the movie. The story tells the history of the many African-American women who
helped America launch ahead in developing technologies for space exploration.

Johnson Helps America Get Ahead in the Space Race

The space race was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to
see who could send an astronaut into space and land a man on the moon first. This
competition took place in the 1960s. In order to land a man on the moon first, the U.S.
made extraordinary advances in technology in a short amount of time. Hidden Figures,
the recent movie made about Katherine Johnson, shows how Johnson contributed to
those extraordinary advances in technology.

Katherine Johnsons contributions werent widely recognized until Hidden Figures

came out. Now, NASA has opened a state-of-the-art facility named in Johnsons honor.
The facility is called the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility. The
center will be used to advance NASAs research, modeling and simulation.

One of the Only African-American Women at NASA

Johnson is an extraordinarily skilled mathematician. She began at NASA in 1953, and

worked at the agency until 1986. NASA had taken the unusual step of hiring women to
perform challenging and complicated calculations in the 1930s. It later expanded its
efforts to include African-American women, like Katherine Johnson.

Katherine Johnson helped figure out the path of Alan Shepard's 1961 flight, which
helped Shepard to become the first American in space! In 1962, John Glenn became
the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. NASA had started using computers by
that point. However, the machines tended to make mistakes. Worried about his safety,
Glenn reportedly asked for the girl meaning, Katherine Johnson to double check
the equations that had been made by the computer before his flight. Glenn's mission
gave the United States a big boost in the space race!

Praising A Hero, Many Years Later

Margot Lee Shetterly, the writer of Hidden Figures, considers Johnson a hero. In her
book, she celebrates Johnsons hard work and character. Shetterly said that Johnson
and her fellow human computers helped to create the world we live in now. They used
pencils, machines and their brilliant minds.

When talking about her work and the new building, Johnson said, Give credit to
everybody who helped. I didnt do anything alone. Katherine Johnson knew first-hand
that there are always more people who work on important projects than the ones who
get credit for them.