Video Vignette: Lesson Design

Video Vignette: Lesson Design

Introduction

The focus of this module is on lesson design. While many existing exemplar lessons use whole class instruction as the primary mode of delivery, classroom teachers need alternative options and a variety of compatible activities. For this reason, this module will showcase a 4-day lesson focused on a 7-page excerpt from The Sorrow of War. The module will show ways to use warm-ups to integrate lessons and to go deeper into a text, to integrate all four strands of the Common Core, to encourage reading and re-reading of a text, and to do all of these things in a student-friendly environment that involves flexible grouping and kinesthetic activities.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, teachers will understand ways to use warm-ups to integrate lessons and to go deeper into a text, to integrate all four strands of the Common Core, to encourage reading and re-reading of a text, and to do all of these things in a student-friendly environment that involves flexible grouping and kinesthetic activities.

Curriculum Alignment

This lesson is aligned to all aspects of the Common Core as it provides a framework within which to teach lessons based on any Common Core Standard. Although it addresses standards from all four strands of the Common Core, the bulk of the lesson focuses on the Reading Literature strand. The framework, however, can be applied to all aspects of the Common Core.

Professional Development Time Required

This video in its entirety is approximately 38 minutes. To view the entire video and complete all accompanying materials, facilitators should plan on a one-hour professional development session; however, the video is broken into shorter segments as listed below so that portions of the video can be chosen and a shorter professional development session can be offered based on a school’s particular needs.

Introduction and Table Talk: 0.00 min – 10:35.12 min

Introduction to “In-Action” Vignette: 10:35.12 min – 11:03.62 min

Integration of Warm-ups: 11:03.62 min – 15:56.18 min

Reading and Re-Reading: 15:56.18 min – 23:02.52 min

Integrating and Adding Variety: 23:02.52 min – 31:56.19 min

Students Create Their Own Meaning: 31:56.19 min – 36:47.36 min

Conclusion: 36:47.36 min – 37:38.36 min

Materials Needed

Gettysburg Address exemplar unit – You will need copies for each teacher or group of teachers. The exemplar unit can be found in the NCDPI ELA Common Core State Standards Livebinder at

Video Vignette: Lesson Design

Computer with internet connection and projector

Technology Resources

The only technology that is required for this lesson is a computer with internet connection and attached projector.

Pre-Activities

1. Before using the vignette, have teachers review the high school exemplar lesson that can be found under the lesson design tab in the NCDPI ELA Common Core State Standards self-study binder at You can provide copies for each teacher or if you have computers available, teachers can view the exemplar lesson online.

1. Discuss strengths and limitations of the exemplar lesson.

Activities

1. View Introduction and Roundtable discussion to Video Vignette: Lesson Design.

1. Using the talking points provided below, have teachers continue the roundtable discussion adding points, questioning, connecting, etc.

• What shifts in lesson design will need to take place? What aspects of our instructional practice is no longer aligned with the curriculum? What do we need to begin to do that we are not currently doing?

• How can we design lessons to ensure integration of all strands?

• What kinds of activities can we incorporate for variety?

• What will be the role of the teacher in teaching Common Core lessons?

• How will the environment of the classroom need to change?

• How will the center of the classroom need to shift as a result of the Common Core?

• How can we use the Common Core to design tasks around which Common Core learning takes place? (notion of standards-based tasks using the language of the tasks - activities developed using the language of the standards)

• How can we create lessons that address multiple standards within one lesson? How can we create lessons that require multiple readings?

1. End discussion by asking teachers to think about ways they can / need to incorporate new ideas into their classroom.

1. View the “In Action” Video, which will showcase a 4-day lesson focused on a 7-page excerpt from The Sorrow of War.

Post-Activities

1. Discuss the “in-action” video. Ask teachers what they learned from the video and/or what ideas they might be able to incorporate into their own classrooms.

1. Read and discuss accompanying reflection (posted below in “Written Reflection”).

Suggested Activities for CEU’s

To extend the activity and provide opportunity for teachers to earn CEU’s for their training, require that each teacher write and submit a lesson plan for one short text. The lesson plan should include integrated warm-ups, evidence of reading and re-reading, evidence of integration of strands, and use of evidence-based writing and/or speaking and listening.

Written Reflection

When I finished the design for the lesson seen in this vignette, I had been attempting to teach lessons aligned with the Common Core for almost a year, so I thought I knew what to expect. Even so, I was amazed by two things. I was amazed first by the spontaneous, unplanned literary analysis discussion about the author’s use of past and present tense when I thought I was giving a lesson on hyphens and dashes. I have struggled for years with how to teach students to “do” literary analysis and here, just because a student noticed tense when I put five sentences on the projector and asked them to notice something, my students “did” literary analysis. No lesson necessary. Designing lessons under the paradigm of the Common Core standards means allowing students to grapple with texts on their own and it is amazing what they see and discover when they aren’t frontloaded with all of the things they should see and discover. Common Core lessons allow students to make their own meaning, and isn’t this exactly what we want them to do as adults?

Second, although this had happened before, I was amazed, yet again, by how long this lesson took. I designed the lesson to fit neatly into three days with closure at the end of each day to wrap-up the day’s progress. My neat, three-day lesson spilled over into four days and even then, I had to rush the last two activities. This lesson could easily have taken five days, and in the four days I allowed, not once did I hear my students complain that we were reading the same thing over and over again. Instead, they continued to make discoveries and to find meaning each time they encountered the text.

The Common Core asks us to focus our lessons on activities that provide opportunities for students to read and re-read, to see more deeply with each reading, and to write and speak using evidence from the text. Planning lessons that engage students in this way allows students to practice skills that are essential to life-long learning and critical thinking.

Websites

find the Gettysburg Address exemplar lesson, search NCDPI ELA Common Core self-study)

Author Info

Catherine Hart is an English teacher at Green Hope High School in Cary, North Carolina. She has been teaching since 2000 and is Nationally Board Certified. Catherine has taught English I, English II, AP Language and Composition, and English IV. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Catherine is the English II PLT leader, co-chair of the English department, and co-chair of the School Improvement Team. She has been working with the Common Core since the spring of 2011, when she was hired to write curriculum based on the Common Core for Wake County’s online curriculum management program.