Grammar Lesson Plan
Using the new edTPA Template and Planned Teacher Talk
The Template has changed
Most of you have taken Development of Literacy, and some of you are taking it this summer. The lesson plan templates from that course now look very different from the one we are using now. This is the official Hamline template to be used for all Methods courses and student teaching beginning this fall, but it has been modified to reflect our ESL focus. The rubric has also been modified to reflect the ESL focus. It is still a complex template and the rubric incorporates all the domains evaluated by edTPA, so it is now far more complex. Please read ALL directions carefully and start early. These are not lesson plan templates that can be filled in the night before and be of high quality.
Planned Teacher Talk
When you get down to the Instructional Task Sequence with Planned Teacher Talk, you will recognize the next four sections as the core pieces of a planned teacher talk lesson. Remember this is the key piece of Hamline's ESL lesson plan design. You are to fill in these four sections: Direct Explanation, Think Aloud, Guided Practice, and Independent Practice as if you are talking to students. You will not read the lesson your write to students when you teach it. Rather this is just to develop habits of mind that will help you make intentional choices about the language you are using during lessons.
Texts you can use
Or Droughts
Please use the text you chose for your individual text analysis assignment. That text analysis should be helpful in writing a language objective.
A Walk through the New Lesson Plan Template
- I have filled in the course name and grade level for you. You will imagine you are co-teaching with an 8th grade science teacher for this lesson.
- Student Information: Fill in the student information section following the prompts provided.
- Lesson Rationale: This is what we used to call purpose of instruction. It should be a short narrative explaining what language you are teaching to support the content and why you have chosen this. There are additional prompts to guide you.
- Content Standards and Content Objective: I have filled both of these out for you.
- Language Objective: This is where you write your language objective. Remember the format is Language Function + Content Topic + Language Feature. A note here: Even though this is a grammar lesson, you should NOT be teaching punctuation or vocabulary. You should be teaching a language feature like what you have listed on your text analysis. Our aim is NOT prescriptive grammar instruction, but grammar instruction based on meaning making from SFL. Our goal is for students to understand and be able to use language features such as circumstances of time, conjunctions, time adverbials, and so on.
- Prior Knowledge Assessment: Follow the prompts to explain how will determine the prior knowledge your students have that will help them in this lesson- science or language knowledge.
- Formative Assessment: This is how you will know your planned teacher talk is working and that your students are ready to move on to the independent practice section of the lesson. Use the prompts to guide you.
- Summative Assessment: This may not be included in this lesson. If the lesson you are teaching is earlier in a unit, just explain what the ultimate goal is. What will you be assessing at the end of the unit and how.
- Provisions for Learning Differences: This one is hard without real students. Obviously they are all ELs, but there are students with other areas of needs. Use the prompts to explain how you will address these needs.
- Materials: List any materials you will need and attach any worksheets or other items you create for your lesson.
- More to come in next text box.
The Template, Continued
The remainder of the template is divided into three sections vertically. In the left column, you will put how much time you think each section will take. In the middle, you will fill in what you will do, and on the right, you will explain your rationale for doing things the way you are. This is a great place to reference educational theory or research, which edTPA is looking for. For example, if you are having students have academic conversations, you could reference Jeff Zwiers.
This section begins with a block entitled Learning Activities. I have highlighted a few that are particularly important for ESL instruction, but pay attention to all of them.
- Vocabulary: We are going to assume you have already taught the vocabulary for this lesson. You simply need to list the Tier 2 and 3 words you would have taught.
- Lesson Launch: This is very much like the activating prior knowledge/building background section on previous templates. How will you do these things? How will you help students make connections? There are prompts to help you here as well.
- Instructional Task Sequence With Planned Teacher Talk (just a heading)
- Direct Explanation: This should be written as if speaking to students. This is a very short section that tells students what language they will be learning and why it is important.
- Teacher Think Aloud: This is where you think through how you use the language feature from your objective. It is also written as if you are speaking to students. How do you know what to do? How do you make language choices? This should be like a "tape" that students can replay for themselves. There is NO teacher-student interaction in this section, and we don't use graphic organizers or other scaffolds here. It's just you thinking aloud. I know it seems awkward, but it is highly effective.
- Guided Practice: This is where your scaffold and graphic organizers and all that good stuff comes in. This is the longest section. It is also written as if you are talking to students. It shows lots of teacher-student interaction and scaffolds what you would like students to do in the independent practice section.
- Independent Practice: This is a short section, also written as if you are talking to students. You basically just give students directions for what you would like them to do independently. Independently here means without direct teacher support. This could still be partner work or small group work, or it could be completely independent.
- Lesson Summary and Closure: How will you wrap things up? This is a good place to put some higher order thinking questions. Use the prompts provided to help you.
- Management and Safety Issues: List anything you think you will need to consider in terms of classroom management and safety here.
A Final Note
Please keep in mind that planned teacher talk is ONLY for lessons where you are introducing NEW information to students. You want it to be a pattern students recognize as a signal that you are introducing new information so they perk up when they hear this format. You will certainly not teach this way for every lesson you do. These are the most challenging lessons to teach, so they are the type we have you practice here at Hamline.