TC Name: Darius Wimby

Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019

Lesson and Assessment Plan Context:

“Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Overview
In the lesson, “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room,” 22 male students in the Ninth Grade
Literature and Composition class will participate in an Escape Room activity, where the students will work on
improving the following skills: reading comprehension, citing textual evidence from an informational text,
using context clues to determine a word meaning, and writing an effective objective summary. Through
various assignments in class, students have struggled with these areas, so the Escape Room activity will
reinforce those skills to help students feel confident in answering questions for various texts.

The lesson will begin with a pre-instructional activity, where students will participate in a Four Corners
activity. Students will have a bell-ringer (via USATestPrep) on the SmartBoard, and they will have to use their
test prep skills to answer the question by going to the designated corner in the classroom. After the pre-
instructional activity, students will be given instructions to the “Escape the Ordinary” Escape Room to complete
four task stations in order to escape the room. Students will work in small groups to complete the tasks, where
they will answer ten reading comprehension questions, cite strong and thorough textual evidence in a matching
activity, decode the meaning of various vocabulary terms, and writing a group objective summary. Students
will demonstrate the learning objectives by presenting their findings in a written format through submission of
their group task sheet to receive feedback from the teachers.
Student Background, Culture, and Context
The class is a Ninth Grade Literature and Composition class at Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School in DeKalb
County School District. At the school, it is one of three year-long Reading Enrichment/Literature &
Composition classes for the ninth-graders, in which it is offered to the students who did not pass the Eighth
Grade Georgia Milestones End of Grade test in April/May 2018 (C. Davenport, personal communication, August
18, 2018). During the Fall semester, students were retaught concepts from middle school to help build their
confidence in reading comprehension, reading fluency, vocabulary acquisition and decoding, and writing skills
in preparation for the Ninth Grade Literature and Composition curriculum. Furthermore, the class is a co-
taught classroom, where the special education collaborative teacher often works with five students who have
learning disabilities and receive their accommodations according to their IEPs. Based on the class roster, there
are 22 total students, in which 100% are males and 100% identify as Black/African-American. According to the
U.S. Department of Education (2005) report on coeducational vs. single-gender schooling, it spoke on the
benefits of implementing single-gender classes in the school to “lessen behavioral distractions” in the
classroom, particularly in the English/Language Arts and Mathematics classrooms (Mael, Alonso, Gibson,
Rogers, & Smith, p. 36).

At Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, the student body comes from a mostly low-income background, where the
median household income is $25,319 and 93.3% of the student population receive free or reduced lunch
(“McNair High School,” 2018). Within the school, the student-teacher ratio is 23:1, and the school receives Title
I funds for the students and parents in the community (“McNair High School,” 2018). According to Dr. L. Walker
(2018), principal at Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, the school is no longer considered a priority school from
the Georgia Department of Education due to the increase in the school’s graduation rate of 64.3% (personal
communication, August 23, 2018). Demographically, the student body of 683 is 94.8% Black/African-
American; 4.2% Hispanic/Latino; 0.7% Caucasian; and 0.3% Asian/Pacific Islander (C. Davenport, personal
communication, August 18, 2018). In the school, high expectations from the school’s administrative team have
been explicitly expressed to the faculty and staff to implement culturally relevant pedagogy strategies in the
classrooms for the students, so they can become more equipped with recognizing the power they have with
their educations and prepare for life after high school (Ladson-Billings, 1994). According to Brown (2003),

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
“teachers must make meaningful connections with ethnically and culturally diverse students to positively
increase their academic growth” (p. 278). In the Ninth Grade Literature and Composition class, students
recognize how the class is structured for them to voice their opinions freely and to ask questions as it relates to
various cultural texts to help them understand themselves and others better.

During the first week of the semester, students were given an introductory project assignment entitled “2018
Mistakes, 2019 Goals,” in which students learned about their preferred learning style, addressed the mistakes
they made in 2018, and came up with goals they wish to accomplish in 2019. Students presented their projects
for the Producers of Studio 312 (teachers of Room 312) and the school administrators, and we were able to
understand the students better than before. Based on their projects, students’ personal goals were to improve
upon their academic success in class by bringing their materials to class and maintaining friendly relationships
with their peers and family members. Finally, last semester, students conducted a personal inventory, where
their personal interests ranged from various genres of music (rap and hip-hop, R&B, and Top 40 music),
clothing and fashion, sports, social media trends, and other forms of popular culture.

Currently, the Ninth Grade Literature and Composition students are preparing for the Ninth Grade ELA End-of-
Course Exam. Students have spent the last four weeks reading various informational texts and famous
speeches, where they have continued to practice doing close reading and annotation skills and summarization
and paraphrasing of informational texts. Students have also focused on new concepts: rhetorical appeals,
rhetorical devices, and author’s purpose. Prior to this week’s lessons, students have worked on citing textual
evidence through using the R.A.C.E. writing strategy to write constructed responses. Furthermore, students
were also able to complete SOAPSTone Analysis Charts for “I Have a Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
“Lift Off” by Donovan Livingston, where they were able to identify and analyze the rhetoric found in those
speeches. As it pertains to this week’s lessons, students have worked with teachers in small groups to focus on
citing textual evidence in literary and informational texts, so they can strengthen their core skills in preparation
for the End-of-Course Exam that they will be taking on April 29th and April 30th.
Rationale

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
Lesson and Assessment Plan Context:
“Survivor: [Irony]” – Understanding Irony in “The Necklace”
Purpose of the Lesson: Central Focus
• What strategies do good readers use to help them understand informational text?
• How do good readers attack complex text in order to determine the main idea?
• What are effective vocabulary strategies that good readers use?
Learning Objective(s)
• Students will CITE and USE textual evidence from “How Sugar Affects the Brain” to answer reading
comprehension questions and citing textual evidence.
• Students will INTERPRET and ANALYZE explicit and inferential meanings of vocabulary words using
context clues.
• Students will DETERMINE the central idea of the informational text and WRITE an objective summary.
GSE - Georgia Standards of Excellence
ELAGSE9-RI1: CITE strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from the text.

ELAGSE9-RI2: DETERMINE a central idea of a text and ANALYZE its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; PROVIDE an objective summary of the
text.

ELAGSE9-RI4: DETERMINE the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).
ISTE Technology Standard
7A: Students USE digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging
with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and learning.
SPLC Anti-bias Framework Standard
Diversity #7: Students will DEVELOP language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully describe how
people (including themselves) are both similar to and different from each other and others in their identity
groups.
Formal & Informal Assessment
The assessments for this lesson are as follows: daily warm-up question from USATestPrep (passages are
selected based on the standards we are focusing on for the week, which will be ELAGSE9-RI2) and the Escape
Room Task Cards. Both assessments are formative assessments; however, the daily warm-up question will be
the informal assessment and the Escape Room activity will be the formal assessment because I want the
students to practice the skills that they have struggled with the most throughout various assessments during
the semester, but also show what they do know so I can work with those students one-on-one in tutorial.
During this lesson, students’ understanding and fluency of the academic language will be shown through
building of the assessments. After completing the warm-up activity, students will be able to recognize and see
how important word choice (connotative and denotative meanings) play a role in determining the central idea
of an informative text.

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
For the ELA Escape Room activity, the evidence of student learning will be shown in two different ways: written
on their group task sheet (as a way to organize their thoughts) and spoken through a video response using
Flipgrid, where students have to construct a response to how working in a group to complete the Escape Room
activity helped them to understand the concepts better. Prior to their group responses for the graphic
organizer, students will participate in a guided Visual Irony response, where the activity will be spoken and
written responses. By raising their hands, students will find examples from the pictures provided on the
Smartboard that showcase irony, and I will write their responses on the whiteboard answering the questions
on their graphic organizer to organize their thoughts before doing the activity individually.
These assessments align with the learning objectives by giving students the opportunity to further strengthen
their abilities to cite textual evidence through the use of explicit and inferential texts, especially as the students
progress throughout their ninth grade English curriculum and many other courses that require them to back up
their answers with evidence from texts. Finally, using the balanced literacy approach of reading to
speak/discuss, students will be assessed through their ability of effectively communicating how using textual
evidence can assist with determining a central idea of an informational text.
For the informal assessments, those items will not have a rubric or a scoring guide; however, it will be more of a
check for understanding and addressing any misconceptions through conversations and observations of the
individual students. Upon completing their ELA Escape Room activity, we will use the DeKalb County School
District rubric on speaking and listening to assess the students’ performance on their Flipgrid discussion of the
assignment.
For their daily warm-up assignment, students will read an excerpt on the SmartBoard, and using the Four
Corners method, students will go to their designated corner in the classroom to justify why they chose their
answer with their peers. For the group Escape Room activity, I will provide feedback to the students as I
circulate the room through brief individual conferences and small group conferences. Finally, the Flipgrid
assignment will be assessed by providing verbal feedback through the platform; however, the assessment will
use the Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School presentation feedback form, so they can use it in the future for other
assignments.
Using the feedback from the formative assessment, students will use it to complete their USATestPrep
Constructed Responses and March Madness Group Assignment #6, where the students will read various texts
and write constructed responses and answer various reading comprehension questions to give them additional
practice for the End-of-Course Exam. With both assignments, students have to justify their answers by citing
textual evidence to support their answers.
Facilitation & Safety
The classroom community in Studio 312 is a student-centered environment, which allows the students to voice
their concerns about things that may be transpiring in the classroom. In this student-centered environment,
the role of the teachers is viewed as facilitators of educating the students using various strategies to deepen
their learning knowledge of the concepts, so they can apply, synthesize, and evaluate a text as we progress
throughout the school year. In the classroom, the teachers promote positive speaking amongst everyone in the
room to show that we respect each other without having to demoralize another human being. This class period
occurs during our second block of the day (9:50am – 11:20am). When the students come into the classroom,
they will see their daily warm-up on the board as well as today’s agenda on the whiteboard near the door.
During each class period, I normally assign a student to be responsible for the class timer to ensure we are
making most of our time in class. Periodically, I will make announcements to let the students know how much
time is left with completing assessments in class before we transition to the next activity, in which I also make
announcements about transitioning in the lesson to ensure students are staying on task and are engaged.

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
When participating in a classroom discussion, students must raise their hands in order to be acknowledged and
given the floor to speak. I will remind the class to raise their hands. If the classroom becomes hectic and
chaotic and the students are not being respectful to another student’s commentary, I will use zone of proximity
to stand near the student’s desk and make a private comment to that particular student. To ensure students
understand the instructions, I will have two students to repeat the directions in their own words, so the
students can have a better understanding of what they are expected to do in class.

Finally, the physical components of the classroom are the students’ desks are all arranged into seven groups
(four desks in each group). All of the desks are set up so they can see the Smartboard; however, if they need to
move up to the front, then they are able to move to a closer desk. Since many of the students have
Chromebooks and cell phones, they will be encouraged not to plug up their battery chargers in the wall to
prevent people from tripping over cords in the classroom. As it pertains to classroom supplies, students know
to retrieve writing tools from my desk and write their name on the board as well as getting notebook paper
from my desk in the event they need it.
Academic Language
Language Function
Students will be able to use the verb, EXPLAIN, to demonstrate their ability in citing textual evidence in various
texts and supporting their findings to shape their reasoning in vast applications to literary, visual, and
informational texts as well as their life in the real world.
Vocabulary
Lesson Vocabulary: Cite, Textual Evidence, Objective Summary, Theme, Central Idea
Syntax or Discourse
In this lesson, students will demonstrate their use of syntax by writing constructed responses through sentence
starters (or sentence frames). These sentence starters will help the students to construct their responses to
writing their objective summaries for the informational text, construct their spoken response to the Flipgrid
video platform, and also allow them to see the importance of citing their evidence to make their points
stronger.
Instructional Strategies & Learning Tasks to Support Diverse Learners’ Needs
Introduction – 15 Minutes
During the pre-instructional activity, students will complete their daily warm-up on USATestPrep, in which the
passage is focused on the standard, ELAGSE9-RI2. Students will be given five minutes to read the passage
before I scroll down to the answer choices. Students will be given three minutes to select an answer and move
to their corner (Four Corners). Once in their corner, students will talk with their peers and discuss and justify
why their answer is correct using textual evidence from the excerpt. Upon completing the warm-up, the
students and teachers will go over the passage and question together to determine if the students had the
correct answer. This warm-up activity is the basis for how our lesson will begin in class.

During the opening, I will display the rules to the Escape Room activity, where students will turn in their cell
phones prior to starting the activity and select their group members. Once the rules and expectations have
been established and all questions have been answered, students will be given ten minutes to read “How Sugar
Affects the Brain” in their groups and annotate the text in preparation for the activity.
Body – 65 Minutes

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
During the opening to the Escape Room activity, students will turn in their cell phones prior to starting the
activity and selecting their group members. I will display the rules and expectations to the Escape Room
activity and go over them in its entirety. Once all the rules and expectations have been established and all
questions have been answered, I will distribute the informational text, “How Sugar Affects the Brain,” to the
students. In their groups, students will read the text and annotate together before retrieving their escape room
materials. Students MUST show me their annotations on their handouts before receiving their materials.

After showing me their annotations, I will give each group their Escape Room folders with their group task
sheet inside. The group’s job is to complete all four tasks of the Escape Room by answering questions
pertaining to the article they read and unlock the code. Each group will be given a buzzer, and when each group
has finished, they must buzz in for my co-teacher or myself to check their answers. The first group to win the
Escape Room activity will receive bonus points on a future quiz or test. As students work, I will circulate the
classroom to guide students’ thinking and clarify any misconceptions or address any questions about citing
textual evidence, central idea, and theme.
Closure – 10 Minutes
Students will present their findings from the group activity to see if it matches up with the other groups in the
class. Towards the end of class, students will log into their Flipgrid accounts to record their video reflections
about how they felt about today’s activity. For students who do not have cell phones, they will be provided a
Post-It Note to write down what they’ve learned and what they need additional help with the concepts.
Teacher will use the Post-It notes and FlipGrip videos to check for understanding and clarify any
misconceptions about major concepts while also providing feedback to ensure students have a good
understanding of the concepts in preparation for the End of Course Exam.
Differentiation, Modification(s), & Accommodation(s)
In the Ninth Grade Literature and Composition class, students were placed in the Reading Enrichment class
during the Fall 2018 semester because they were identified as “transition” due to earning a Beginning Level
score on the Georgia Milestones End of Grade Assessment when they were in the eighth grade. These students
were also placed in the class based on their other standardized test scores, Lexile scores, and previous
academic performance in elementary and middle school. During the first two weeks of school, I gave my
students a Multiple Intelligences survey to understand what type of learner best suits them in class. About 78%
of the class are kinesthetic and visual learners while the other 22% of the class are auditory and creative
learners. In this particular lesson, I am differentiating through how I deliver the lesson to my students by using
the type of learners they are and tailoring my lessons around their needs.

For the students who are the visual and auditory learners, the PowerPoint presentation will be on the
Smartboard so they can take notes on their paper. Furthermore, two students receive an accommodation for
teacher-created written notes, so my co-teacher will be providing the notes for my students. During our class
model of the Visual Irony activity, I will be sure to write it legibly on the whiteboard as well as verbalize to the
class what we went over to support their notes. To accommodate the students who have vision problems, I will
have those students to sit at the front of class during the beginning of class, and students will have access to the
PowerPoint presentation via our class Edmodo page, so they can review their notes in preparation for their
Midterm Exam.

With 22 students in the classroom, five students have been identified as having an Individualized Education
Plan (IEP). Two students have been identified as having a specific learning disability; thus, when teaching a
whole-class setting, I make sure to chunk the material for every student in the class. I will model techniques
through think-alouds and writing models for them to refer back to at a later time. I will also make sure I
provide a model after class for the students who have a specific learning disability to ensure they refer back to

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TC Name: Darius Wimby
Lesson Title: “Escape the Ordinary – EOC Test Prep Escape Room”
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
as they complete assignments at home. Finally, when working with the students with a specific learning
disability in a large class setting, small group, or one-on-one, I ensure that I allow them extra time for
processing and responding while also having them to restate information back to their peers or to me to ensure
they are clear on their directions.

Three students have been identified as having ADHD; thus, throughout the lesson, I have to use my proximity to
ensure that the students are staying on task at all times. Furthermore, most of the students sit near my desk, so
if they become distracted by various behaviors in the classroom, I can redirect them to get back on task.
Throughout this particular lesson, I will give those students extended time to complete the group assignment
because they each take medicine, and during my class period, the three students often will have to take breaks
due to how the medicine makes them feel each day. I will also check in frequently to make sure they are
understanding the concepts of identifying irony as well as the directions for the assessment. Finally, I will use
the chunking concepts to help the students better understand the visual irony assessment.
Materials
The following materials will be used for this lesson for the Escape Room activity:
• Computer
• Projector
• Whiteboard and Dry Erase Markers
• Smartboard
• Internet (access to USATestPrep for Daily Warm-Up and Escape Room Music on YouTube)
• Escape Room PowerPoint with Expectations – Teacher Created
• Game Show Buzzers
• Student’s Chromebooks and Cell Phones (for USATestPrep vocabulary)
• “How Sugar Affects the Brain” – 75 copies for students
• Station (Task 1) Multiple-Choice Questions – seven sets
• Station (Task 2) Text Evidence Sort – seven sets
• Station (Task 3) Vocabulary Evidence – seven sets
• Station (Task 4) Objective Summary – seven sets
• Escape Room Group Task Sheets
References
Brown, D.F. (2003, Autumn). Urban teachers’ use of culturally responsive management strategies. Theory Into
Practice, 42(4), 277 – 282.

Davenport, C. (2018, August 18). Personal communication.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.

Mael, F., Alonso, A., Gibson, D., Rogers, K., & Smith, M. (2005). Single-sex versus coeducational schooling: A
Systematic review. (U.S. Department of Education Document No. 2005-01). Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office.

McNair High School. (2018). Retrieved from

http://www.schooldigger.com/go/GA/schools/0174000712/school.aspx

Walker, L. (2018, August 23). Personal communication.

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