Differentiated Lesson Plan
A Walk Through of the Template
How is this different from the Grandfather's Journey Lesson Plan
The other BIG difference is that for this lesson you MUST justify each section with research. This will be formative. You will receive feedback only (no points) for your justifications. However, it is NOT an option to skip this part. You need to practice it once and get feedback before moving on to your next application course.
A Walk Through the Template
- Top Boxes- Fill in your name, the class you are working in, the content topic, title of your lesson, grade level, and day in the larger unit you are working on. Also include the title of text you are using.
- Student Information: Fill in the student information section as we have been doing. It may help to follow the prompts provided. Be sure you are specific, and include at least 3 proficiency levels in your class make up.
- 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. Focus on why you have chosen to choose the language you will be teaching.
- Content Standards and Content Objective: I have filled this section in for you.
- Language Objective: This is where you write your language objective. Remember the format is Language Function + Content Topic + Language Feature. The language feature you choose should come from your text analysis or the exemplar analysis that you have done in your MPI for this week. It should connect either to the text you are using or the work students are to produce.
- Prior Knowledge Assessment: Follow the prompts to explain how will determine the prior knowledge your students have that will help them in this lesson.
- 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. This is where you will differentiate in the template. Be sure to be specific about how you will assess- rubric, checklist, etc. Some examples of this section has been provided for you on BB.
- Provisions for Learning Differences: This one is hard without real students. Obviously they are all ELs or World Language Learners depending upon your context, 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. Please try 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. There is an example of this on BB.
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. The words you chose on your MPI would be good choices to put here.
- 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 "recording" 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. All of your direct instruction is in this section.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. Try to move beyond having students underline, circle, or identify things. Have them working to USE the language feature you are teaching.
- 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.