Romeo and Juliet Mini-Lesson Plan

1.      Teacher Candidate: Michelle Dexter

2.      Subject: English Language Arts

3.      Lesson Title/ Central Focus: Romeo & Juliet

4.      Grade Level(s): 9

5.      Length of Lesson: 20 Minutes

6.      Academic and Content Standards (Common Core/National): CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail 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.

7.      Learning  Objective(s):

·         Working individually and in groups, students should be able to reflect on the themes and events in Romeo & Juliet to discuss the conclusion of the play.  In addition to their initial thoughts and reflections, students will be able to work in small groups to change part of the story to write a new ending.  This will require a summative knowledge of the key points in the play to create a new ending by interacting with the changes they outline.

·         We will be able to reflect on the overall story of Romeo & Juliet.

·         We will be able to interact with the details of the text by re-writing the details and re-summarizing the storyline.

8.      Academic Language:

·         This lesson is coming at the end of a unit on Romeo & Juliet; therefore, the language of Shakespeare would have already have been addressed in an earlier lesson.

·         Students will need to be familiar with the vocabulary pertaining to summarizing and parts of a play such as: Summary, plot, storyline, theme, act, and scene.

9.      Assessment:

·         Students will work through the handout in class, turn in both the handout and group activity as well as participate in class discussion.

·         The handout and group activity are formative as they will be used to check their progress and receive feedback upon their return. 

·            This assessment will measure students’ comprehension of the overall plot of Romeo & Juliet and how the details determine the outcome. This connects back to the Common Core Standard, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail 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, as it allows students to analyze the development of the text and interact with the details to create their own outcome.

10.  Lesson Connections:

·        I considered some of the excerpts from Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide where he references finding the sweet spot of education. His ideas include allowing creative avenues for assessing understanding.  This activity is a way for the teacher to see if students have understood what they read without taking a formal test, but allowing them to interact with their peers and build something new that requires that knowledge.

·        Students will have completed introductory coursework on Shakespeare and a unit on Romeo & Juliet.  They will have read the play in its entirety and will be building upon prior lessons.

11.  Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to Support Student Learning:

Introduction

·         I will have the objectives on the power point and will have students read the Common Core Standard and our class objectives out loud at the beginning of class.

·         I will introduce the lesson by going over the objective, reminding students what we have done, and going over the day’s agenda. 

Student Voice 

·         Student voice will be measured by their own reflections on their handout and by their contribution to the group assignment. The group activity is based upon student voice and requires students to come up with their own ideas and assessment of how the events of the text determines the outcome of the play.

Learning Tasks

·         The students will be given the assignment with an example to guide their group activity. The students will learn to analyze the outcome of a play/text based upon the causality of the effects and characters.

·         The directions for all of the tasks will be available on the power point and the handout.

·         Students will complete Section 1 of the handout based on their personal reflections on the play and will complete Section 2 of the handout with their classmates.  The students will learn to analyze a text based on the details that build on each event.  They will also learn to collaborate creatively on a group project.

·         I will be checking in with each group to see what areas of the text they understood, had questions on and where they will be changing the text for their story.  I will also be checking in with them to make sure they understand where the activity should be heading.

·         The introduction of the agenda and the initial task: 2 minutes

                        Section 1 of the handout and discussion with group: 5 minutes

                        Introduction of Section 2 and time for the activity: 8 minutes

                        Presentation of group activity:  4 minutes

                        Conclusion of Lesson: 1 minute

·         In our class of eight students, I will divide them into two groups of three and one group of two.  Ideally I would like to have groups of three or four for heightened group interaction and varied perspectives and to allow for differentiation through group make-up.

Closure

·         We will be able to reflect on the overall story of Romeo & Juliet.

·         We will be able to interact with the details of the text by re-writing the details and re-summarizing the storyline.

·         I would see this lesson as a small portion of a summative assessment at the end of a unit; a fun way to interact with the text while analyzing the plot.  I would do this lesson at the end of this unit to give students more input into a bigger assignment or paper that they would be working on.

12.  Differentiated Instruction:

·         I would use these activities to check for student understanding. I would also form groups in order to allow for scaffolding.  This task is meant to assess overall understanding of the text and breaks away from conventions to give students who have difficulties with writing assignments a way to demonstrate their achievement of the objectives. 

13.  Resources and Materials:

·       Outside of the textbook and Readicide, I came up with this idea with a high school student from Ferris.

14.  Management and Safety Issues:

·         Students will be prepared for a day of discussion and group work based off of our calendar.  They will be supervised in their discussion by the teacher and will be guided by previous rules for group work outlined previously in the term.

15.  Parent and Community Connections:

·         This would be an assignment as part of a unit that would have been communicated with parents due to incorporation of videos and segments of plays in the classroom.  Parents will be kept abreast of their student’s progress especially if there are concerns with the student’s understanding of the unit.