Lesson Plan Template
Teacher: Megan Wieseman
Subject & Grade: Grade 7; Reading
Lesson Date: Tuesday October 23, 2018
OBJECTIVE(S)/STANDARD(S)
What will your students be able to do?
Reference Common Core or your state’s
standards, as applicable.
Objectives
SWBAT:
 Define in their own words what self-
advocacy is.
 Explain the four steps needed to
effectively practice self-advocacy.
 Identify and explain their own
academic and personal needs.
 Brainstorm ways in which they can
practice self-advocacy and ask for
help in their everyday lives.
 Use the skills and strategies learned to
role play self-advocacy practices.
Standards
 W.7.2 Write informative/explanatory
texts to examine a topic and convey
ideas, concepts, and information
through the selection, organization,
and analysis of relevant content.
 SL.7.1 Engage effectively in a range
of collaborative discussions (one on
one, in groups, and teacher-led) with
diverse partners on grade 7 topics,
texts, and issues, building on others’
ideas and expressing their own clearly
PREREQUISITE SKILLS
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CONNECTION TO ACHIEVEMENT GOAL(S)
How does the objective connect to the goal(s) you
have for your students this year?
This seventh-grade reading course is designed
to provide remediation in foundational
reading skills for six students identified
within the exceptional children’s department.
Each student has an active Individualized
Education Program and is working towards
reaching specific reading-based goals. This
class was chosen for the advocacy lesson due
to the small-group environment that allows
for collaboration and whole-group discussion.
This year, our class goal is to increase reading
comprehension skills through the use of
graphic organizers and summarizing
strategies to break down the text into specific
details and increase accuracy from 50% to
70% in 4 out of 5 attempts.
Aside from our classroom goal for reading-
based skills, we have also adopted the school-
wide goal of increasing the use of growth
mindset strategies in conversation, academic
work, and in goal-making so that our students
can achieve academic success through
mindfulness and positive attitudes.
This lesson not only allows our students to
practice their reading comprehension and
summarizing strategies through guided and
independent practice, but also allows us to
focus on a growth mindset skill of advocating
not just for ourselves but also for other peers
or classmates in an appropriate and
professional manner.
DIAGNOSTIC
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 What will your students need to know to master
the grade-level objective?
 W.5.2.e. Use precise language and
domain-specific vocabulary to inform
about or explain the topic.
 W.6.2.b. Introduce a topic; organize
ideas, concepts, and information, using
strategies such as definition,
classification, comparison/contrast, and
cause/effect; include formatting,
graphics, and multimedia when useful to
aiding comprehension.
 SL.6.1. c. Pose and respond to specific
questions with elaboration and detail by
making comments that contribute to the
topic, text, or issue under discussion.
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How will you assess students’ mastery of these
foundational skills?
The Do Now activity is being used as a tool to
both assess student’s confidence in their own
foundational advocacy skills, but also to spark
their interest in the concept and introduce
them to a problem that can occur in their
everyday lives as students with disabilities.
While students begin the Do Now
assignment, I will be scanning the room and
taking note of students who activity try and
ask questions, express frustration vocally, or
simply give up on the assignment and decide
they simply cannot complete it.
This quick assessment will tell me who has
prior knowledge or practice with advocacy
strategies and who should learn these
strategies to use in any class or scenario in
which they feel lost or confused.
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 ASSESSMENT
How will you know whether your students have made progress toward the objective? How and when
will you assess mastery?
The assessment portion of the lesson will be through evaluation and observation of the following
activities:
 Stop and Jot responses.
 Turn and Talk discussions.
 Guided practice (“I Do”) section.
 Partner “self-advocacy” Role Play activity.
 Independent “self-advocacy” cards.

Through each of these assignments, I will be formatively assessing student growth and understanding
as the lesson progresses and as students continue to learn and practice the strategies needed to be
successful. The summative assessment that I will use to determine whether or not students have
comprehended the topic of self-advocacy will in their individual responses on the “I Do” portion of the
guided practice and the role play activity they can practice with a partner. These responses will indicate
whether or not the student understands the key strategies or takeaways that were taught throughout
the lesson or if they need additional help with how to use these strategies in their everyday lives.

KEY POINTS
Key points are student-facing statements that include important content students needs to know to be
successful in the lesson. What three to five key points will you emphasize?
 Self-advocacy is a skill that can be learned and strengthened.
 Self-advocacy promotes independence, self-determination, and success.
 The four key steps to self-advocating:
1. Identify and Clarify
2. Select
3. Speak up
4. Thank

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 OPENING/HOOK (10 min.) MATERIALS
How will you communicate what is about to happen?
How will you communicate how it will happen?
How will you communicate its importance?
How will you communicate connections to previous lessons?
How will you engage students and capture their interest?
 Do Now response sheet
Students will be greeted at the door as they enter the classroom. Students will
be handed a “do now” activity that they are expected to complete silently and  Timer
independently at their seats.  Dry Erase board
 Do Now Activity will have written instructions as to how the students
are to complete the assignment.
 MVP Directions on Do Now: “Silently and Independently answer
the comprehension question written on the board at your seats.
You are not permitted to ask any questions at this time.”
The following question will be written on the front board for students to
answer:
 “Choosing one character from the story, The Skin I’m In, write at
least 10 sentences explaining how he or she has advanced the plot
of the story and developed the theme.”
 Students are reading The Skin I’m In during their POWER/Elective
time so they are familiar with the text.
 This question is challenging students to comprehend and practice a
ninth-grade standard that they have not yet learned. Students in this
particular class have not yet been exposed to the term “advanced” in
literacy context when evaluating text.
The purpose of this Do Now assignment is to expose students to an obscure
scenario in which they need to advocate for themselves in order to be
successful. Students will only have 5 minutes to write their 10 sentences on
this topic question without speaking or asking any clarifying questions. The
purpose of this assignment is to make it so challenging, students are unable to
complete the task alone.

After the late bell, I will start the timer on the front board for five minutes so
that students can track how much time they have left. No questions will be
answered during this time.

When the five minutes have ended, students will be prompted with the
following questions: (Answers will vary)

 Who would like to share their response to our Do Now question?

 Raise your hand if you were able to write 10 or more sentences about
this topic?
 Who can tell me what our question was asking us to write about?
 With a show of hands, who felt confused during this assignment?
 With a show of hands, who felt really frustrated when trying to
complete this assignment?
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  What was the most challenging part of this Do Now?
 Today we are going to talk about the word advocacy and how it is an
essential skill for us to have in our everyday lives. If you’ve heard of
this word before and know exactly what it means, give me a thumbs
up. If you’ve heard the word before and don’t know what it means,
give me a sideways thumb, and if you have never heard of this word
and have no idea what it means, give me a thumbs down.

INTRODUCTION OF NEW MATERIAL (15 min.) MATERIALS

What key points will you emphasize and reiterate?
How will you ensure that students actively take in information?
Which potential misunderstandings will you anticipate?
Why will students be engaged/interested?
Students will be handed guided notes to complete during the lesson on  PowerPoint
advocacy. While listening, students are expected to (MVP) silently and presentation
independently follow along with the PowerPoint presentation by filling in the  Guided Notes
blank sections for new vocabulary terms and concepts.
 The presentation can be found here
 The guided notes for students can be found here

The key points that will be emphasized and reiterated throughout the lesson
are:
 Self-advocacy is a skill that can be learned and strengthened.
 Self-advocacy promotes independence, self-determination, and success.
 The four key steps to self-advocating:
5. Identify and Clarify
6. Select
7. Speak up Commented [MW1]: In the article, Student Voice and the
8. Thank Resilience of Learning, the authors state that, “the act of
empowering a young person to express her opinions
and ideas is powerful” (Fox, 2013). Encouraging students
Students will actively take in this information through completing the guided to take this step as a key takeaway from the lesson not only
notes, reading specific sentences or phrases aloud from the presentation, and empowers them to take charge of their own learning, but to
also take steps to improve their educational experience so
through informal class discussions during the presentation. that content can be comprehended and engaged in.

Some potential misunderstandings may include:

 Mistaking self-advocacy for not wanting to complete assignments or
follow expectations.
 Applying self-advocacy to their everyday lives.

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 Students will be engaged and interested in the lesson through guided notes,
stop ad jot responses, and turn and talk questions. This allows for deep
reflection throughout the lesson to spark interest and keep students thinking
about how the content relates to their own lives.

GUIDED PRACTICE (15 min.) MATERIALS

How will you ensure that all students have multiple opportunities to practice?
How will you scaffold practice exercises from easy to hard?
Why will students be engaged/interested?
How will you monitor and correct student performance?
How will you clearly state and model behavioral expectations?

Guided practice will be in the form of “I do, we do, you do” followed by
additional partner role playing scenarios for students who finish the
independent “I do” practice early.
Students will be given three scenarios in which they will read and determine
how to respond using the self-advocacy strategies learned in the lesson.
1. “I do”
I will read the first scenario aloud about “Jackie” and re-read the steps
that were learned throughout the lesson for using advocacy strategies.
After reading each step, I will use these steps to frame my response for
how I believe Jackie should act. My response will be as follows:
 Guided Practice
 Doc Camera and
Smart Board so
that students can
follow along with
written responses. Commented [MW2]: These scenarios are based on what
is known as “democratic habits of mind” where students
have an opportunity to address an issue that is personal to
them and their individual learning experience (Morrison,
2008). By promoting the use of this mindset within the
classroom for students to feel comfortable and confident
about addressing concerns with an educator, it allows them
to become true self-advocates while also learning skills
necessary for personal and academic success.

 First, Jackie will identify the problem that she needs to sit near the front
of the classroom in order to be successful. Then, she will decide that her
teacher is the appropriate person to talk to about this problem. Next,
Jackie will decide when an appropriate time is to have a one-on-one
conversation with her teacher about needing to sit near the front of the
classroom. Jackie decides to speak to the teacher before the end of the
class period when she is not giving instruction. After Jackie expresses her
concern about sitting in the back of the classroom, she will thank her
teacher for understanding.

Using sentence starters, students will be able to follow along with my

descriptive response and have an example for the following scenarios.

2. “We do”
Students and I will work together to read the new scenario and fill out
the correct steps learned throughout the lesson. Students can reference
their guided notes, or the scenario completed above. As a class and
through individual student volunteers, we will use each step to frame
each response for how we believe Phil should self-advocate in his
scenario.
Both the “I do” and “we do” activities allow students to observe what is
expected of them for their independent practice while also scaffolding their
learning of how they can use the strategies taught to create appropriate and
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 impactful responses necessary for effectively self-advocating in the future.
Behavioral expectations for this portion of the assignment will not only be
stated before beginning but will be written at the top of their assignment to
serve as a reminder for how the “I do, we do, you do” activity will occur.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE (20 min.) MATERIALS

In what ways will students attempt to demonstrate independent mastery of the
objective?
Why will students be engaged/interested?
How will you provide opportunities for extension?
How will you clearly state and model behavioral expectations?

1. “You Do”  Guided Practice

 Students will complete the “You do” portion of the assignment  Personalized self-
silently and independently at their assigned seat and will be advocacy Cards
given 5 minutes to correctly read, build, and write their
response based on how it was done in previous scenarios.
 After students are finished completing the “you do” portion of
their assignment, volunteers will be called on to share their
responses and read their statements for how Maria should self-
advocate.

2. Role Play
 If there is additional time or if the lesson is moving faster than
expected, students will have the opportunity to collaborate with
a partner and practice a role-play activity where they are each
assigned a role in a common advocacy situation. Students will
be given 2 minutes to read the scenario, assign roles, and
review the steps before practicing. Once the time is up, students
are given 2 additional minutes to act out the scenario.
 During this time, I will monitor the room, listening to each
partner group respond to a scenario and listen for key points,
terms, or strategies taught throughout the lesson.

3. Personalized self-advocacy Cards Commented [MW3]: The purpose of incorporating these

 Students will receive 5 self-advocacy card graphic organizers
for them to personalize for each of their academic classes.
 These cards will be printed in multiple colors, designs, and
styles to accommodate the needs of each student.
 At this time, students can write about any needs they have in a
given class and can use these cards as either reminders for how
to address self-advocacy concerns throughout the year or to
give their general education teacher as a tool for
accommodating to their specific needs in class.
cards or “graphic organizers” into the lesson are so that
each student has an organized plan for what their strengths
are in a given course and what areas they identify as
needing help in. The idea to use these in the lesson came
from the “Think, Plan, Do” organizers described in the
article, “Teaching kids to plan and take action toward their
personal goals” (Mazzoni, 2012). These organizers set a
framework for students to be reminded of what areas they
need additional support in and in combination with the steps
learned in the lesson, provide them with a firm foundation
for becoming self-advocates in alternative classes.

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 CLOSING (5 min.) MATERIALS
How will students summarize what they learned?
How will students be asked to state the significance of what they learned?
How will you provide all students with opportunities to demonstrate mastery of (or
progress toward) the objective?
Why will students be engaged/interested?

Student exit ticket out of the classroom will be written on the same Do Now  Do Now
sheet that was handed out at the beginning of the class period. Students will be response sheet.
 Doc Camera
expected to answer the following on the back of the do now:
and Smart
Board
 Write one strength that you have when learning in school.
 List one way in which teachers can help you to be successful.
 Name one of the 4 steps that you learned to self-advocate in school, at
a job, or in your everyday life?

This quick check will allow me to see their own reflection of their learning and
will help identify areas in which they may need more assistance for how to
self-advocate as a special education student.
DIFFERENTIATION MATERIALS
How will you vary your approach to make information accessible to all students?
 Students will receive all classroom notes in the form of guided note taking
which allows for quick copying and promotes engagement throughout the
lesson.
 Guided practice is scaffolded so that students have all notes and examples to
start, are given an opportunity to practice as a group, and then given time to
practice independently.
 Additional assignments are found throughout the lesson to accommodate
students who comprehend the material faster and have supplementary work
to continue practicing while other peers receive one-on-one support or
modifications.
 Questioning is differentiated throughout the lesson based on evidence of
individual student understanding of the topic.

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 Handouts & Resources

Please include copies of any handouts, student worksheets, or other resources.

1. Do Now assignment
Link: Here

2. Presentation
Link: Here

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 3. Guided Notes
Link: Here

4. Guided Practice and Role Playing activity

Link: Here

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 5. Personalized Self-Advocacy Cards

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 References

Fox, K., Bedford, M., & Connelly, B. (2013). Student voice and resilience in learning. ASCD

Express, 8(25). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol8/825-fox.aspx

Mazzoni, M. (2012, August 4). Teaching kids to plan and take action toward their personal goals

[Blog post]. Retrieved from http://lifeafterieps.com/teaching-kids-to-plan-take-action-

toward-their-personal-goals/

Morrison, K. A. (2008). Democratic classrooms: Promises and challenges of student voice and

choice, part one. Educational Horizons, 87(1), 50-60.

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