edTPA Lesson Plan 1

Grade Level: First Grade

Subject / Content area: Writing

Unit of Study: Opinion Writing

Lesson Title: Introduction to Opinion Writing

Central Focus for the learning segment:

Content Standard(s): CCSS - MATH or Content Standards (List the number and text of the
standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about,
state an opinion.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.8
Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally

Learning Objectives associated with the content standards:

Students will be able to identify what opinion the character has in the book and the reasons the
characters use to strengthen that opinion.

Students will be able to create a definition together of an opinion based on their experiences.

Instructional Resources and Materials to engage students in learning:

- Book: The Perfect Pet

- Anchor chart with opinion colored card
- Sentence Starters Opinions
- Spring Opinion Writing Sheet
- White Board
- Document Camera
- Expo Markers
- Laptop

Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks that support diverse student needs. (Include what you
and students will be doing:
Instructional Strategies: Throughout the lesson I will be engaging in three different instructional
strategies. The first instructional strategy will be a Read Aloud to start of the lesson, I will read the
book The Perfect Pet to the students. During the reading I as the teacher, will be reading the book to
the students and asking students comprehension questions. I will also be asking them to identify the
opinions in the book. During the Read Aloud, students will be active participants while they will pay
attention to the opinions the character has. They will need to listen attentively so that they can
answer the questions I ask them during the think-pair-share segment. This strategy will help
students with diverse needs because it will allow them to be guided through the different
comprehension questions. For my student with a 504 it will help him stay on task. For the students
who have an IEP, this will help structure the reading segment of the lessons since we will not be
reading the book straight through. We will be stopping to understand the story. For the students who
are struggling readers, the Read Aloud will also be a way for them to see fluency and tone be
modeled for them. The second instructional strategy will be Think-Pair Share. I as the teacher, will
prompt questions to the class about the story and will ask the students to discuss the questions with
their partners. The students role will be to first, listen to the question, then think and discuss with
their partner about the question that is being asked. After they have discussed the question, any
student who is willing to share can do so. This strategy will help students with diverse needs
because it will allow them time to think on questions and discuss it with their partner. It will also give
them a chance to all participate and be engaged in the discussion. The third instructional strategy is
the use of anchor charts. I as the teacher will be creating the anchor chart on crafting opinions. The
first day I will be focusing on what an opinion is. I will be asking students to pull from their past
experiences and moments from the book that help explain what an opinion is. The students role will
be to actively participate in the discussion. Students can also use their discussion in the think pair
activity to help create the anchor chart. The anchor chart will be created by me as the teacher but
will be discussed with the students. This strategy will be helpful for students with diverse needs
because it will help them organize and structure their thoughts. The anchor chart will also serve as a
language support that students can refer back to throughout the lesson. For students who are more
visual learners this will be a helpful instructional strategy for them because it will allow them to see
the essential strategy we will be working on.
Differentiation and planned universal supports:
Differentiation: For the Read Aloud segment for the first lesson, students will engage in an
interactive Read Aloud where they will be engaging in discussion and answering questions to help
students comprehend the text. Since, this will be the first lesson and an introduction to opinion
writing, students will be conversing with their peers which will help my IEP students who may prefer
to talk and listen rather than get writing straight away. The think-pair-strategy is also a differentiation
and a universal planner support for all students because it allows students to talk with their
classmates about the key concepts and even if the students do not share their response after, they
will have practiced discussing the content. It will particularly help the students who have speech
IEP’s because it allows them to practice their speaking skills as well as discuss the content. To help
with comprehension I will also be asking students comprehension questions from Bloom’s Higher
Order Thinking Skills to guide students to understanding and identifying the essential literacy
strategy being displayed in the book. In addition to using Bloom’s Higher-Level Thinking Skills to
help students feel connected to the Read Aloud and to practice using the literacy strategy I will be
asking students to pull from their own experience and reflect on times where they stated an opinion
to their parents, to their teachers, or to their friends. This allows students to a) brainstorm times
when they have expressed opinions and b) allow them to practice discussing the strategy before
they start writing and practicing creating opinions. After the students have had some practice
discussing times where they have stated opinion students will have a chance to practice writing
opinions about Spring which will have a sentence starter to get students thinking about their opinion.
They will have the choice to use sentence starters to help them formulate their opinion. The
sentence starters may include phrases such as: I prefer, I think, I feel, or they can choose to use the
sentence starter that is already given to the students on the sheet.
Language Function students will develop. Additional language demands and language
supports:

Language Functions: In order for students to practice the literacy strategy and the related skills in
this lesson students will be expected to analyze a mentor text to help gain exposure on what an
opinion is. They will also need to identify the opinion in the mentor text to introduce the students to
the essential literacy strategy of crafting strong opinions. The students will work to analyze the text
to identify the key concept in the book.
Vocabulary: The main word that students will be working with is opinion. Many of them will not have
had much exposure about what an opinion is therefore, the first lesson will work towards students
understanding what an opinion is and when we express our opinion. Students will have the
opportunity to engage in a discussion with their partners as well as their class on what an opinion is,
what opinion the main character in the book has, and will start to practice forming their own opinion.

Language Support: To help students organize their collective thoughts from the discussion and from
the book, I will be creating an anchor chart that we will build as we move through the lesson. Day 1
of the lesson will start with exploring the definition of an opinion, the purpose of the opinion, how we
express it, and some examples.

Type of Student Assessments and what is being assessed:

Informal Assessment: Student will be informally assessed through their discussion while talking to
their partner and participating in the group discussion about what opinions were identified in the
book by the character.
Formal Assessment: Students will be formally assessed through their practice in writing an opinion
about Spring.
Modifications to the Assessments: For the formal assessments, I will have sentence starters on
the board to help students write their opinions. There will also be a sentence starter on the opinion
writing worksheet that will state, My Opinion on Spring is…
Evaluation Criteria:
Informal Assessment: Students will be evaluated through their conversations during the turn and talk
segment on recognizing the opinions stated in the book and their participation in the general class
discussion in their past experience with the word opinion.
Formal Assessment: Students will be evaluated on the opinion they create about Spring.
Relevant Theories and or research best practices:
In the first day of the learning segment, I will be pulling from two best practices to support the
instructional strategies I will be using. The first researched best practice is Think-Pair Share, which
originated from Frank Lyman’s discussion of a “responsive classroom discussion”. Think Pair Share,
often referred to as turn and talk is a strategy that is used to emphasize student engagement and
student activities. Rather than the traditional approach of the teacher posing a question and having
one student respond, think-pair-share allows all students to be active participants in their learning . It
allows all students to discuss the specific content. In this lesson, the think pair share will allow each
student to practice and discuss what an opinion is and where they have heard of it or used it before.
In addition to having students be active participants it also “promotes individual and peer
accountability” (S^2TEM Centers). Therefore, by having students discuss the content with each
other it allows students to not only be engaged but also keeps students on task and makes them
responsible for their learning. The second researched practice I will be pulling from is Howard
Gardner’s concept of Multiplie Intelligence. In particular, for this lesson, I will be referring to the
linguistic verbal intelligence which helps students use their oral language and written language
effectively. My cooperating teacher often uses the phrase, “if you can think it, you can say it, if you
can say it, you can write it.” This statement connects to Gardner’s concept of linguistically and verbal
intelligence because before students start writing their formal opinion pieces, they need to practice
discussing opinions. Therefore, both the discussions during the Read Aloud and Think Pair Share
activity, students will be able to use their speaking skills to talk about how the author uses opinions
to express herself and to discuss their experience with opinions. They will then be able to translate
their speaking skills to writing skills when it comes time to practice writing opinions.
Lesson Timeline:
Before Activity:
- Introduce the vocab word Opinion and write it on the anchor chart
 - Activate the students prior knowledge by asking if they have ever expressed how they felt
about something and explained why they felt that way to guide students towards the
definition of opinions.
- Write the definition of what an opinion is and ask students for examples
- Ask students to be on the lookout for what the characters opinion is in the book
During Reading:
- Read aloud the story
- Stop when appropriate to check for comprehension.
- Ask students to give you a thumbs up when they hear how the character expressing her
opinion.
- Continue to ask students questions throughout the book and use the think pair share strategy
to discuss the different comprehension questions to practice the essential literacy strategy.
Post Reading:
- After reading the book, ask the students about their understanding of the book in regard to
opinions.
- Ask the students to turn and talk to their neighbor about the opinions expressed in this book.
- Ask students to share their answers
- Write the responses on the board next to anchor chart
- After discussing the book ask students to pull from their prior experience to see when they
may have expressed an opinion with someone and write the examples on the board.
- Inform students they will be practicing writing opinion. They will be writing 1-2 opinions they
have about spring.
- Brainstorm with the class possible ideas and write it on the board.
- Write a sample of sentence starters on the board related to opinions of spring.
- Hand out the worksheet with the sentence starter for students to practice writing.
 edTPA Lesson Plan 2

Grade Level: First Grade

Subject / Content area: Writing

Unit of Study: Opinion Writing

Lesson Title: Crafting Opinions on collections and supporting opinions with reasoning

Central Focus for the learning segment:

Content Standard(s): CCSS - MATH or Content Standards (List the number and text of the
standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the
book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with
peers and adults in small and larger groups.
Learning Objectives associated with the content standards:

- Students will be able to formulate an opinion as to which items in their collection is the best.

- Students will be able to use reasoning to support their opinion.

- Students will be able to discuss the different traits of items while crafting opinions during the
shared writing portion.

Instructional Resources and Materials to engage students in learning:

Materials:
- Teachers item collection (snow globes)
- Students Item Collection
- Anchor Chart on Opinions
- How to Judge Fairly Colored Cards
- Shared Writing Piece
- Teacher’s Snow Globe Collection
- Students Item Collection
- Document Camera
- White Board and Marker

Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks that support diverse student needs. (Include what
you and students will be doing.):
Instructional Strategies: Throughout the lesson in Day 2 I will be engaging in three different
strategies. The first one will be a continuum of the anchor chart from Day 1. I will review what we
learned yesterday about opinions. The second lesson will focus on supporting their opinion on their
collection by adding reasons to explain why they like that specific item. As the teacher, I will ask
students to think back to past experiences and reflect on the Read Aloud to explain why reasons are
a key component in writing. I will ask the students how they came to write their opinion from Day 1
about school, what did they have to consider to help guide students to think about how reasons help
strengthen our opinion. The students role will be to engage in a discussion with their class on how
we might construct reasons to support that opinion. This strategy will help students with diverse
needs because it will help students activate their schemata prior to actually constructing their
opinions and reasonings for their collection. The second instructional strategy will be turn and talk
where the students will be turning to their partner and discussing how reasons and opinions are
related. In other words, students will be reviewing with their partner about how reasons help
strengthen opinions. This will be beneficial for my students with diverse needs because it will allow
them to review and gather their thoughts prior to writing about which item in their collection is the
best. It will also be beneficial for all students because it will allow them to reflect on why we use
reasons in our writing. The last instructional strategy I will be using is the use of physical objects to
promote engagement and learning. To help model how the students can judge their collection fairly I
will be using my snow globe collection. The students will be able to look through my collection,
examine my collection, and look for similarities and differences among the different snow globes.
This strategy will help model for students what they will be doing with their own collection prior to
formally writing their opinion piece. This will also incorporate an experience which will help my
student with a 504 plan to understand what they will be doing with their collection. By using the
physical objects, it will help keep the student with a 504 engaged and focused on the essential
literacy strategy. When students compare the items in my collection it will allow students to practice
constructing reasons to support their opinion. This strategy will overall help support students with
diverse needs because it guides the students to practice the essential strategy as well as the related
skills. It will also help the student with a 504 plan be engaged throughout the lesson. The modeling
and use of physical objects will also be great for my IEP students who can practice their speaking
skills in explaining and supporting their opinion which they can translate to their opinion pieces on
their collections.
Differentiation and planned universal supports:
Differentiation: To help students form opinions, the use of physical objects is one way I will
differentiate for students. Rather than expanding on the opinions the students chose to write about
from Day 1, allowing students to craft opinions on their collections allows students to practice the
process that goes in to writing opinions. Students will be able to practice through the use of their
physical collection that when we create opinions, we must examine various things before we come
to what we like or what we believe. This will be helpful for my students who are more visual learners
and for those who have IEP’s because it allows students to work hands on with their items and it will
help students verbally talk about the writing process prior to writing. Another support I will be using is
Blooms Higher Order thinking questions to get students to be thinking about what they are actually
doing when they are constructing opinions and reasons. For example, when students are examining
their collection, one question I may ask is,” what do you notice about one item that the other items
may not have?” Or, what is one thing that each item in your collection has? “ These questions allow
students to analyze their collection to help them start writing their opinion pieces. Now, when
students start writing their own opinion pieces on their collections, I will also differentiate writing
sheets the students can work on. The students will be able to choose one sheet that will have a
framed paragraph that states: The best item in collection is___________. I like this item the most
because: 1)______ 2)______ 3)_______. The sheet will be more of an outline for students to write
prior to writing a formal paragraph. The other sheet will simply have lines for students to write on if
they believe they are ready to start writing straight away. Through this differentiated writing sheet,
another planned support I will be using is the shared writing strategy. Here, we will be practicing,
after we have judged my collection fairly, how to write our opinion as to which item in our collection
is the best and support that opinion with three reasons. The students will be engaging in a guided
writing experience where we will go through each of the components on their writing sheet. We will
work together to form an opinion and support that opinion. This will be beneficial for my student with
a 504 because it will not only keep him engaged but it will also show him step by step what they will
be doing with their own collections. The shared writing will also be helpful for my two students with
an IEP because it will help guide the opinion writing process for them and also show them step by
step how they can form an opinion and support that opinion using their collection.
Language Function students will develop. Additional language demands and language
supports:

Language Function: In order for students to develop and practice the literacy strategy students will
be expected to examine their collection and construct an opinion as to which item in their collection
is the best. They will also be asked to explain why that specific item in the collection is the best.
Students will be given an example as to how they should craft their opinion and support their
opinion.

Vocabulary: Throughout the lesson, students will be practicing the essential literacy strategy
therefore, the key vocab the students will be working with is characteristics and support. They will
construct their opinions and explain why that item is the best. Students will have the opportunity to
describe different characteristics they notice about my collection. In doing so, they will then compare
which item in my collection is the best. By describing different characteristics of my collection, they
will practice creating reasons to support their opinion .

Language Support: To help students craft their opinions, there will be two supports for students. The
first support will be modeling for the students how we can use different characteristics they observed
to serve as reasons to support our opinion. The practice of formulating opinions will be a review from
Day 1 where students can use the anchor chart from Day 1. The second language support will be
framed paragraphs that the students can use when writing their opinion pieces on their collection.
The framed paragraph will say: The best item in my collection is____. I like this the most
because______. The reasons will be listed vertically like a list to help students who may need to see
their reasonings more clearly.

Type of Student Assessments and what is being assessed:

Informal Assessment: Students will be informally assessment through their participation in
describing the different characteristics they noticed in my collection, choosing which item in my
collection is their favorite and explaining why to support that opinion. The students will also be
assessed through their practice in writing an opinion and using reasons to support that opinion on
which item in their collection is the best.
Formal Assessment: Students will be formally assessed by filling out an exit slip after they have
stated their opinion on their collection and have supported their opinion with reasons. The exit slip
will ask students: Why is it important to add reasons to an opinion? Can you give me examples from
your collection?
Modifications to the Assessments: To help students who may need more structure and
organization when starting to write their opinion pieces they will be given structured writing sheets
where they can choose to write their opinion on their collection as a formal paragraph or one with
sentence starters. Also, the question that is asked in the exit slip will be discussed earlier in the
lesson.
Evaluation Criteria:
Informal Assessment: Students will be evaluated through the opinions they state and the reasoning
they provide as to why that item in the collection is the best.
Formal Assessment: Students will be evaluated on their understanding of how we can support an
opinion by adding reasons as to which item in their collection is the best on the exit slip.
Relevant Theories and or research best practices:
In the second day of the learning segment, I will be pulling from two theorists: Jean Piaget and
Benjamin Bloom. The first research is Jean Piaget’s concept of constructivism. Constructivism is a
theory that connects experience with learning. When students are examining my collection and
describing which item is their favorite they are essentially engaging in a stimulation to prepare them
for writing their opinion pieces. This stimulation reflects real life situations because when students
get older, they may need to buy a car, they will have to examine many different cars before finding
the right one, or before forming their opinion that that car they choose is the best one. The
constructivist theory argues that “students learn best by experience” (Molina, Strategies for
Constructivist Theory). Therefore, by engaging students in this stimulation students will be able to
gain knowledge and an experience to then help them write their opinion pieces on which item is their
favorite in the classroom. Another best practice and relevant theory I will be pulling from is Blooms
Taxonomy of higher order thinking skills. Bloom coined 6 distinct different domains: Knowledge,
Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. As you moved towards the right
the thinking tasks became more cognitively demanding and allow students to engage in more higher
order thinking. Throughout my second lesson as well throughout the learning segment I will be
asking students questions that will call them to use higher level thinking skills. In particular, for this
lesson, students will be working with analyzing and synthesizing information by examining, a key
word under analyze, their collection, and also creating and formulating, key words under synthesis,
their opinions and reasoning. Overall, students will be using their experiences through stimulation
and will engage in different levels of thinking to practice the essential literacy strategy followed by
the related skills needed to understand the literacy strategy.

Lesson Timeline:
Introduction to Activity:
- Introduce the lesson by reviewing what we learned about opinions from Day 1. Ask a couple
of students to share their opinions to activate students prior experience.
- To get the students thinking and to pull from their prior experience, ask the student if they
have ever participated or seen any show with a competition.
- Have the students turn and talk about what they noticed about these shows.
- Call their attention to the role of judges and discuss their role.
- Discuss with students when judges choose the winner in the competition they are stating
their opinion. When they explain why they choose that person or item as the best they are
explaining why, giving reasons to support their opinion.
- Inform students, that they will be judging their collection to see which item is the best, similar
to how judges in a cooking show or talent show choose the best winner. Often times when
we form opinions, we base it off the characteristics we see in the items which helps us create
our reasoning to support the opinion.
- Display the teachers collection of snow globes
- Invite students to look at each of the globes and then ask, what is one thing that you notice
that all of the globes have.
- Then invite students to examine the different characteristics of each globe.
- Discuss with students that when first chose which snow globe was their favorite, they were
basing it of characteristics they found in their collection to help them make a choice as to
which snow globe is the best.
- Once the class has collectively formed an opinion and stated their reasons engage in a
shared writing lesson practicing how the students will practice writing their opinions and
stating their reasons to support the opinion.
- Inform students they will now get the chance to practice writing opinions on their collections
by comparing the characteristics of their item to help them form their opinion and reasons to
support the opinion.
During Activity:
- Walk around the classroom and observe the conversations the students are having and look
to see different types of opinions and reasonings the students are creating.
- If there are students struggling in coming up reasons, call their attention to look at the color
of the item, the size, the texture, etc.
 edTPA Lesson Plan 3

Grade Level: First Grade

Subject / Content area: Writing

Unit of Study: Opinion Writing

Lesson Title: How can we elaborate our reasons

Central Focus for the learning segment:

Content Standard(s): CCSS - MATH or Content Standards (List the number and text of the
standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state
an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.5
With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from
peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.4
Describe things with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with
peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Learning Objectives associated with the content standards:

- Students will be able to describe an item in detail to express their opinion on that item.
- Students will be able to engage in a conversation with their partner on ways we add details to
our writing.
- Students will be able use a magnet to state an opinion, support the opinion by adding a
reason, and supporting that reason by adding details.
- Students will be able to add details to the reasons created in day 2 about their collection.

Instructional Resources and Materials to engage students in learning:

- Opinion Anchor Chart with add details colored card
- Shared Writing Piece from day 2
- Students Opinion Pieces
- 1 magnet.
- Colored Revision Strips
- Tip Sheet on ways to add details to support reasons
- White Board
- Document Camera
- Expo Markers
- Laptop
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks that support diverse student needs. (Include what
you and students will be doing.):
The students will be engaging in three different instructional strategies and learning task. The first
strategy will be the reoccurring strategy of Anchor Charts. However, in day 3 the focus of the anchor
char will be on how students can strengthen their reasons through the use of adding details and
elaborating their reasons, therefore practicing the essential literacy strategy. As the teacher, I will be
writing down different ways we can strengthen reasonings. The second instructional strategy will be
a turn and talk segment where I will ask the students; how can we stretch our reasoning to include
more detail and how we can add detail to elaborate our writing. The students will discuss with their
classmates as to how they have in the past added details to their writing. Although, I will be writing
the information on the anchor chart, the students will be crafting the ways we can add depth to our
reasoning. To practice this skill, students will partake in another learning task where they will be
pretending a magnet that I show them is the best magnet in the world. They will practice forming an
opinion on that magnet, give a reason as to why that item is the best, and add a detail to elaborate
and better support the opinion. In this instructional strategy, the teacher will be facilitating this activity
by asking prompting questions and listening to the different responses the students might have. The
students will be able to practice the essential literacy strategy of forming a strong opinion by
supporting it with detailed reasonings. The third strategy will be the writing conferences that I will be
having with the students. After the students have had some practice in crafting elaborate
reasonings, they will have the chance to return to their opinion pieces and elaborate on their reasons
using a colored revision strip. While the students engage in editing their writing pieces to add more
detail, I will be pulling groups of students aside and discussing with them how they are thinking
about adding more to their reason. I will be asking students what details they can add to their
reasons to better support their opinion. Here, the students and the teachers will both be engaging in
a conversation about their writing and discussing ways to improve their writing. The teacher will be
asking prompting questions to help the student think of details and the students will be pulling from
prior experiences to add detail to their reasonings.

Differentiation and planned universal supports:

Throughout the lesson in day 3 there will be planned universal supports for the students and
differentiation. The first differentiation and support I will be using to help my students is the use of
the physical object of a magnet to have students practice the essential literacy strategy. For the
students who have a speech IEP it will help them discuss their ideas with their peers before they
need to write their thoughts down therefore helping them build the connection between speaking and
writing. The next differentiation and support that will help students will be the use of a tip sheet that
will state, Ways to Elaborate on our Reasons by Adding Detail. The tip sheet will list three ways the
students can add details to their reason to better support their opinion. The first statement will state,
Explain why that reason is important. The second tip will state, give an example to explain why that
reason is important. The third tip will state, Add specific traits and characteristics about the specific
item. These tips will help all my students add detail to their writing but in particular my student with a
504 because it will give him structure and some guidelines to follow when adding detail to his
reasons. As a class we will also practice going over how these tips might look like in our writing.
Going over examples of the tips will help my students with an IEP practice discussing examples of
adding details. This will help all students because often times students think they are done writing
when they have written one detail. This tip sheet will allow students to explore different ways they
can add details to their writing. The tip sheet will also be helpful for my students who are visual
learners because it will be resource the students can constantly go back to. The last differentiation
and planned universal support I will have is the use of colored revisions strips that the students will
use when editing their writing pieces. By using colored revision strips, this will my students clearly
see the editing they are doing, and they will be able to compare the first draft of their reasons to the
second draft and reflect on how adding details to their reasons helped to enhance their opinions.
The goal of the colored revision strips will also be for students to see that writing is a process and as
writers, they will go through many different edits to better formulate their opinions.
Language Function students will develop. Additional language demands and language
supports:

Language Functions: In order for students to practice the literacy strategy and related skills in this
lesson, the students will be using the language function expand. The will be practicing expanding
their ideas to further support their opinions. Students will have practice expanding their ideas both in
their table groups in creating an opinion for why their magnet is the best and for when they will be
working to expand their thinking and making their reasoning stronger.

Vocabulary: The third lesson will continue to dive in deeper in the literacy strategy by calling
students to elaborate on their reasoning by using details to describe their reasoning. The word
elaborate is important because it invites students to expand on their thinking and to stretch their
reasoning by using details to make their opinion stronger.

Language Support: To help students elaborate their reasoning by adding details and to help them
strengthen their reasons reasoning they will be tip sheets providing them with suggestions or
explaining ways they can add details to their reasons. It will be both a visual and language support
for all my students.

Type of Student Assessments and what is being assessed:

Informal Assessment: Students will be informally assessed through their participation in crafting an
opinion on a magnet, provide a reason, and add a detail to that reason to better support the opinion.
Students will also be informally assessed through their practice in adding details to their reasons
written in day 2 with a different color or different colored revision strip.
Formal Assessment: Students will be formally assessed by filling out an exit slip after they have
added details to better support their opinion and reasons. The exit slip will state, how do details
affect our writing? What is one way we can add details to elaborate on our reason?
Modifications to the Assessments: To help students better expand on their reasoning the use of
the colored strips will help students practice the informal assessment by making it visually clear that
details can make their writing more interesting. In addition, the question that will be asked on the exit
slip will have been discussed earlier during the lesson for the students who are more audio learners.
Evaluation Criteria:

Informal Assessments: Students will be evaluated through their engagement and participation in
crafting details to better support their opinions and reasonings by engaging in the magnet example
and by applying it in their writing piece.
Formal Assessment: Students will be evaluated on their understanding of how details impact their
writing. The example they give to elaborate on their reason will also be evaluating if they know how
to add details to their writing.
Relevant theories and/or research best practices:
The relevant theories and best practices that best support this lesson is Lev Vygotsky’s theory of
cooperating learning and Benjamin Blooms’ higher order thinking skills. Beginning with Vygotsky’s
view of cooperating learning, he believed that “Knowledge is social phenomenon, constructed from
cooperative efforts to learn, understand, and solve problems” (Johnson and Johnson. 2015).
Through the use of the magnet example, students will be practicing forming knowledge and engage
in experiences with their peers through a “cooperative effort to learn”. They will learn to explore and
understand through the help of their classmates. Cooperative learning also helps students form
collective experiences which then can be stored in their schemata and be used as a tool to help
them elaborate on their reasons to support their opinion. Next, Benjamin Bloom a reoccurring
theorist among my lesson, I will be using Blooms Taxonomy to engage my students in higher order
thinking skills. For students developing their ideas and constructing formal written pieces they need
to reflect on their thinking. They need to be able to put their thoughts onto paper and to do that
student will be engaging in different higher order thinking questions, particularly under the synthesis
and evaluation category of his taxonomy. In addition, when students are engaging in synthesis, they
are demonstrating “an ability to relate knowledge from several areas to create new or original work”
(Duron, Limbach, &Waugh pg. 161). In doing so, students will practice creating new information by
taking a closer look at the written text they have and reflect on how the new information being
created and added to the original reasoning aids in enhancing the opinion.
Lesson Timeline:
- Review the essential literacy strategy and the related skills practiced from the day before.
- Go back to the anchor chart and ask students to brain storm different ways they can better
support their opinion by adding details to their reason.
- Do a turn and talk segment where students can think back to their prior writing pieces as to
how they elaborated the text. What elements did they use?
- Call on students to share their responses.
- Give an example to students to help them understand the affect details have on our writing.
- Ask the students, how do details affect our writing?
- Use a magnet as an example for students to practice creating an opinion, using reasoning to
support that opinion, and adding details to better support the opinion.
- Use the shared writing piece from day 2, to practice with the students adding details to the
reasons we created. Engage in a discussion, using the tip sheet, on different ways the
students can add details to the reasons used to support our opinion from day 2.
- Instruct students to return to their opinion pieces from day 2 and add details to their
reasoning, using a different colored revision strips to show the details the students will be
adding. Encourage students to use the tip sheet to guide them.
- As students are working on adding their details, call a few students at a time and have a
conference with them to hear about how they will be editing their opinion piece as well as to
help the students who may need the extra assistance.
 edTPA Lesson Plan 4

Grade Level: First Grade

Subject / Content area: Writing

Unit of Study: Opinion Writing

Lesson Title: How to Assess Owns Writing

Central Focus for the learning segment:

Content Standard(s): CCSS - MATH or Content Standards (List the number and text of the
standard. If only a portion of a standard is being addressed, then only list the relevant part[s].)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state
an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.8
Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with
peers and adults in small and larger groups.
Learning Objectives associated with the content standards:

- Students will be able to analyze a mentor text and identify the opinion the writer states and
the reasons the author gives to support their opinion.
- Students will be able to evaluate their own writing by checking the opinion writing check list.
- Students will engage in peer review and check each other’s writing based of the checklist.

Instructional Resources and Materials to engage students in learning:

- Mentor text
- Anchor Chart
- Opinion Writing Check list for each student
- Students own opinion writing
- Reflection Sheet
- White Board
- Document Camera
- 3 expo markers: red, green, blue

Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks that support diverse student needs. (Include what
you and students will be doing.):
The first instructional strategy and learning task I will be practicing with the students is the
reoccurring strategy of the anchor chart. However, in lesson 4 instead of adding to the anchor chart,
this time the chart will be there for students to refer to in the beginning and throughout to review
what an opinion is, how we support it, and what types of details we can add to strengthen our
opinion. The teachers role will be to simply remind the students that the anchor chart is available to
them as a resource and the students can use it to help them throughout the lesson. The next
instructional strategy I will be using is the use of a mentor text. This mentor text will be similar to
what the students are writing, therefore, will be about a student sharing their opinion on their
collection. The mentor text will serve as a visual for students to see how their writing might look like.
The teacher and the students will both be reading the mentor text together. The mentor text will be
used as a modeling strategy for the students to evaluate the mentor text using the checklist that will
be given to all the students. As we read the mentor text, I will stop to ask the class if we can spot the
opinion. After the students respond, I will highlight for the class showing them that highlighting allows
us to see what components of the checklist we have in our writing and it is visually easier for
students to see what it is they need to be looking for. We will then look together to see if we can try
and spot our reasons. After I model for the students identifying the items on the checklist in the
writing by highlighting them, I will ask the students to turn and talk to their partner about where the
writer used details. Turn and talk or think pair share is another strategy that I will be using with my
students to help all students stay engaged. As students engage in talking to their partners about
where the writer utilizes details, I as the teacher will walk around the class listening in and chiming
when necessary about how the writer uses details. The last planned support that I will be using is
peer review. When students engage in peer review, they will be reading their opinion pieces with
their partner looking for sections in their writing and highlighting parts that are mentioned in the
check list. First one partner will read their writing and the other partner will listen, as they go through
their opinion piece they should evaluate their writing by comparing it to the checklist. During the peer
review, the teacher will be walking around assisting students who may need help and will listen in to
hear what conversations the students are having in their peer review.
Differentiation and planned universal supports:
Throughout lesson four there will be many planned universal supports and differentiation for the
students. One of the first differentiations I will have for all of the student is a checklist for their
opinion writing with visuals that is more appealing to their eye. The checklist will be a visual support
that the students can use to evaluate their writing and their peer’s writing. In addition to a visual
support, the checklist will have all the necessary components the students need to have in their
writing. The checklist will provide a way for students to refer back to it and check their own work.
Connected to the checklist, students will be highlighting each time they find a component of the
checklist in their writing. The highlight is to help students identify where they wrote an opinion, where
they wrote their reasons, where and how they added details. Both the highlighter and the checklist
will be ways students can keep track of their work. Next, the use of writing partners is another
universal support because my students tend to work better in pairs. They work together well and
therefore able to rely on each other and help each other out. Also, by doing a peer review with their
writing partner, students are being exposed to read other opinions as well as practice identifying
strong opinions and reasons. For my IEP students, doing a peer review will be helpful because it will
help students to discuss their writing with their peer. They can work with their peers to discuss the
positive aspects of their opinion piece and possibly discuss one thing they can work on. In
discussing it with their peers, it allows my students to practice talking about grade 1 topics with their
peers, lowering their affective filter. I will also be providing conversation sentence starters for
students to use during the peer review. This will also help students engage in grade one topics and
will especially help my students with a speech IEP to practice their speaking skills about relative
content and gain their confidence about talking about their writing.
Language Function students will develop. Additional language demands and language
supports:

Language Function: In order for students to practice the essential literacy strategy and related skills
in the fourth day, students will need to compare their writing with a mentor text that exhibits grade 1
appropriate writing. The students will first need to analyze the mentor text as to what the writer does
well by comparing it to the checklist that will be created by the students. Students will then be
expected to compare their writing with the checklist to assess their writing thus far

Vocabulary: To dive deeper into the essential literacy strategy, the students will have a chance to
reflect and evaluate their own learning. They will be introduced to what the word evaluate means
and will hear it multiple times as they evaluate the mentor text and as they evaluate theirs’s and their
peer’s writing. We will discuss what it means to evaluate and how it is important in writing.

Language Support: To help students practice the essential literacy strategy the students will be
given another mentor text where they will be able to use the mentor text as a way to use what they
have learned about forming strong opinions to assess the text. They will also be given a checklist to
help students understanding of crafting a strong opinion. The checklist will help the students assess
their own learning and allow them to see how well they can write an opinion, provide reasoning, and
use details to describe the reasoning.

Type of Student Assessments and what is being assessed:

 Informal Assessment: Students will be informally assessed through their participation in the
group discussion when analyzing the mentor text. Students will also be assessed informally
by using the checklist to evaluate their peer’s writing and by underlining items corresponding
to the checklist.
 Formal Assessment: Students will be formally assessed through their drafts that have been
read by their peers. This is the draft that students have been working on since lesson 2.
 Modifications to the Assessments: Modifications for the assessment will entail pictures to
help guide the students. Working in pairs is another modification to the assessment because
I know that my students work better in pairs and are able to help each other focus. The
students have had the same writing partners for the whole year and are familiar with each
other’s writing style.
Evaluation Criteria:
Informal Assessment: Students will be evaluated through their discussion by evaluating what the
writer of the mentor text did well. For example, they will need to identify and evaluate if the write
wrote an opinion, stated three reasons, and added details to those reasons.

Formal Assessment: Students will be evaluated by their application of the essential literacy strategy
by determining if the student stated an opinion in their collection, if they stated their reasons, and if
they added details.
Relevant theories and/or research best practices:

The relevant theories and best practices that best support lesson 4 is Benjamin Bloom’s higher order
thinking skills and John Dewey’s view on self-reflection. Beginning with Bloom’s higher order
thinking, lesson 4 revolves around students evaluating their work and others. Evaluating is one of
the highest thinking skills under Blooms taxonomy. Evaluation calls for teachers and students to
practice, “making judgments about information, validity of ideas or quality of work based on a set of
criteria” (Blooms Taxonomy: Teaching Planning Kit). This is exactly what students will be doing
throughout lesson 4. They will be taking a step back from writing and will be evaluating on their
writing and on their peers as to how they have been writing thus far. This connects perfectly with
John Dewey’s concept of self-reflection because in addition to evaluating their work they will be
reflecting on it as well. It helps students progress by engaging in meaningful experiences with their
writing. For Dewey, reflection was the process of forming connections and experiences with different
activities and in return engaging in a meaningful learning environment (Rodgers. Pg. 848).
Therefore, in order for students to truly find meaning in writing opinions and understanding the
importance of using strong reasoning through the use of details students need to reflect on their
knowledge of the content. They need to reflect on their practice with the content. These two actions:
evaluating and reflecting are important for student to practice because it helps strengthen their
understanding about the content they are practicing, in this case, writing strong opinions.
Lesson Timeline:

Before Activity:
- Review the essential literacy strategy and the related skills the students have practiced so
far. They have discussed how the students wrote opinions, provided reasoning, and
elaborated on their reasoning using details.
- Also review with students the components on the checklist before showing students the
actual checklist.
- Show students the checklist that we will be using to evaluate our writing.
- Invite students to read the mentor text with you. After reading the first few sentences, ask the
students if they can spot the writers highlight. Once the students have showed you highlight
where the writer states their opinion.
- Continue to read the mentor text. Pause after the reasons have been said and ask the
student to turn and talk with their partner about where the writer provides reasoning for the
students.
- Have one student show you the reasoning and highlight the reasons.
- Move onto, highlighting the rest of the segments on the checklist by having students discuss
it first with their partner then as a whole class.
- After the mentor text has been read discuss with the class one thing the writer did effectively
and one thing the writer may need to strengthen more to better formulate their opinion.
- Once the mentor text has been reviewed, pass out the checklist to each student.
- Invite students to pair up with their writing partners and evaluate each other’s writing using
the checklist.
- Remind students to highlight each item that is completed in the checklist.
- After, the students have read each other’s writing pieces, have students state one positive
aspect of their peers writing and on thing their peer can work on to strengthen their writing
- Lastly, ask students to reflect on what their next steps are as a writer in relation to the
essential literacy strategy which is the goal of all four lessons.