EDIS5400: Selina HorsleyLesson Plan on Oral Language

Context:Course name: Language Arts 8, Standard LevelGrade level: 8th GradeLength of lesson: 90 minutesStudents: 20 students total. 3 students are English Language Learners at WIDA Level 4, 2 students have specific learning disabilities that deal with reading (e.g. dyslexia), and one student is on a behavior improvement plan. Some of the students are uninterested in English because they fail to see how it relates to their everyday lives.Current unit: Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz RyanLesson plan date: This lesson falls mid-year in the curriculum and students have already participated in small group discussions on the first few chapters of the book Students have also learned in a previous class how to fill out a double entry journal. The teacher monitored those small group discussions, but largely let the students take control of them and took detailed notes about each student’s contributions to the conversation. Now the students will learn how to improve the quality of their interactions in their discussion groups by asking follow-up questions, building off of each other’s ideas, being active listeners, etc. However, today the aspects we will focus on are using I statements and asking follow-up/clarifying questions. These are only two parts of the unit on creating good discussions and I think that students will catch on to I statements quickly, so I anticipate to spend more time helping students with asking follow-up/clarifying questions. We previously addressed that for a discussion to be good, all members should participate. I will incorporate this asset into the lesson (as it is part of the UKDs), but it will not be the primary focus.

Virginia SOL(s):Virginia SOL(s):(Borrowed) 7.1 The students will participate in and contribute to conversations, group discussions, and oral presentations.

b) Ask probing questions to seek elaboration and clarification of ideas.

Common Core Standard(s):CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1C Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas.

Objectives (KUD format):Know:Students will know that group discussion skills can be learned and cultivated. (1)

[1.] Students will know that a balanced discussion requires each member to participate. (K12)

[2.] Students will know that using I statements is more effective than using phrases like “some people think” or “one could argue.” (K23)

[3.] Students will know how to participate in a self-reflection activity. (K4)

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Understand:1. Students will understand that meaningful group discussions include students asking

probing questions, connecting ideas, and providing relevant textual evidence to defend their stance. (U1)

2. Students will understand that group discussion skills can be learned and cultivated. (U2)

Do:[1.] Students will be able to effectively contribute to group discussions, whether this is in the

form of asking clarifying questions, participating, or challenging other group member’s perspectives. (D1)

[2.] Students will be able to create positive group dynamics in their small groups by establishing a set of discussion norms. (D12)

[3.] Students will be able to respond to their group members by asking clarifying and follow-up questions in a thoughtful and respectful manner. (D23)

[4.] Students will be able to use I statements when sharing their thoughts. (D34)

Students will be able to use double entry journals to generate discussion. (D5)

Assessments: Methods for evaluating each of the specific objectives listed above. Diagnostic: students will demonstrate what they already know by…

The diagnostic assessment was taken during the last class where students discussed the first two chapters of Esperanza Rising. Before this discussion took place, each group got the chance to bounce ideas off of one another about ideas for discussion norms. As the teacher, I offered some standard ones that I had used in the past (e.g. not making assumptions off of anyone, trying to be respectful, etc.) All students were in agreement with the final set of discussion norms and vowed to hold each other accountable for these norms. (D2)

During their actual conversations, I took detailed notes on each student, paying special attention to the quality of their participation and whether or not they were asking follow-up questions about what their peers were saying. I noticed that many students were not speaking up while many other students were monopolizing the conversation. Further, many students were struggling how to build off of one another’s ideas. These are both elements that I decided to address in this later lesson because of my notes. I also explicitly told students after their conversations that a good discussion requires everyone to participate in a meaningful way and to ask follow-up or clarification questions when appropriate. (D1, K1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1, Virginia SOL 7.1, D2)

Formative: students will show their progress toward today’s objectives by…Filling out an exit card at the end of this class period with 3 strategies that they learned about how to improve oral discussion in their small groups and 3 qualities about good discussions. Before leaving class and after the small group discussion, students will fill out a self-reflection worksheet (Appendix C) where they reflect on what they are doing well and areas for improvement. I will then collect their self-reflection and add information from my own notes about what I think they’re doing well and how they could improve. This way, students will receive feedback before the summative assessment. For homework, students will complete a

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double entry journal on the next assigned chapters of Esperanza Rising. The closing section of the lesson will go over how to fill one of these out. The purpose of the double entry journal is to give students ideas about things to talk about in discussions, where the primary focus will be on the students developing their oral language skills. Some students will have the opportunity to participate in an additional formative assessment if they volunteer to participate in the fishbowl discussion as part of the mini-lesson. (U1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1C, Virginia SOL(s) 7.1, D5, K2, K1, U2)

Summative: students will ultimately be assessed (today or in the future) on these standards by…In a future lesson I will go around the groups and use a scoring rubric to monitor conversations for specific elements. I’ll also refer to notes on the discussion in giving the final grade, but using a rubric will help making the grading process less subjective because I have to give reasons why I put each score. Criteria for this assessment include:

1. Are all students not only participating, but contributing substantive ideas to the conversation that exemplify thinking deeper than surface level?

a. Rate on a scale of 1-5, 1 being always, 2 being most of the time, 3 being some of the time, 4 being not often, 5 being rarely/never

b. Add comments explaining my rationale for the score with detailed verbatim that the students said during the discussion

2. Are all students using I statements?a. Rate on a scale of 1-5, 1 being always, 2 being most of the time, 3 being some

of the time, 4 being not often, 5 being rarely/never b. Add comments with examples of when students did or did not use I statements

[3.] Are students using specific discussion strategies that we went over in class?asking clarification or follow-up questions when appropriate?

c.[a.] Rate on a scale of 1-5, 1 being always, 2 being most of the time, 3 being some of the time, 4 being not often, 5 being rarely/never

[b.] Add comments with examples of when students did use discussion strategies we went over or areas where they didn’t, but could haveasked these questions well, or didn’t ask these questions and could have.

(K23, D4, K4, D1, D3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1)

Materials Needed:Appendix A: chapters 3 and 4 of Esperanza Rising Appendix B: Notes on discussion from last time: things that went well, things to improve and how to improve themAppendix C: Self-reflection and goals worksheetAppendix D: Double-entry journal worksheetAppendix E: Discussion strategies and sentence starters worksheetAppendix F: iPhone application “Classroom Dojo”

Instructional Steps (Procedures): Detail student and teacher talkBeginning Room Arrangement: When students enter the room, they will be instructed to sit in assigned groups that I will have previously made based on ability. The groupings I make (5 groups of 4) will attempt to include a variety of different abilities so that students who typically struggle more can hopefully learn from students who are more advanced. Also, this strategy will help more advanced

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students because they will be instructed to help explain complicated concepts to struggling students. Having the advanced students act as a “teacher’s helper” if needed will further solidify their understanding of the material.

I. Welcome/greeting/announcements (3 minutes) Hi class! I hope y’all all had a great weekend! Did you enjoy chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Esperanza Rising? Well, before we dive into content for today, turn to your assigned cluster (the other people sitting in your group) and share one fun thing you did this weekend. You have 3 minutes, so each person should make their comment pretty short. Your time starts now!

II. Hook/bridge/opening to lesson (10 minutes)Awesome, thanks guys! Now, let’s reflect in our small groups about our discussion from last time. Turn to the other students in your group and have each person share something that they thought went well with the group dynamic and something that your group could improve on. Write these down and we’ll make a list on the board for everyone to see. (See Appendix B) (Hopefully students will bring up equal participation instead of having students monopolize the conversation and building off of each other’s ideas as areas for improvement. While students are conversing, I will circle around to each of the groups and listen to what they have to say. If students are not moving towards these objectives (not monopolizing and building off of other’s ideas), I will try to steer the conversation towards them. I will then recognize patterns of areas of improvement and patterns of areas of growth to share with the whole class. I think that students will say something like “everyone is doing a good job of using I statements and creating an open atmosphere, but we could work on letting everyone have a go at the conversation.” If no students are offering up areas for growth or improvement, I will go back to my notes from the previous class and share them with everyone about what I think went well and what didn’t).

Ok, now let’s look at all the areas of improvement. Yesterday I noticed that sometimes people found it difficult to bound off what others said, and I want us to brainstorm some ideas about how to do this. Please turn to your elbow partner and make a list of ways that you could remedy these problems. So, for example, if the area for improvement is building off of people’s comments, what can you personally do in the discussion to make this happen? It may be helpful to write down sentence stems for what you would actually say in a discussion, like “building off of what Mary said…” At the end I will go around to each group and ask for your ideas and make a list that will be available to you later in the form of a handout. (Students will likely offer answers that are not specific enough such as “I can talk more” or “I can be a better listener” or “I can ask more questions.”)

Great job guys, this is looking good. Let’s make these answers a little bit more specific. (Call on specific people who offered certain answers, something like “Johnny, can you elaborate on the fact that you want to talk more in discussion? What would this look like? Should your group set a maximum limit on the amount of times that one person can talk? What is the root of the reason you are not talking? Student

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response is likely: I don’t know what to say or I don’t think what I have to contribute is good enough)

Well guys, Johnny’s example should show you that everyone in the classroom has something valuable to contribute to discussion. Even if you only say your thoughts or reactions, likes or dislikes, that still adds something to the conversation. It’s completely okay to say something you are unsure about or bring in other relevant context to Esperanza Rising.

Now class, what does it look like to be a better listener? What are signs that someone is engaged? (Students say not being on their phone/computer, using eye contact, giving your full attention to the person who’s speaking, asking clarifying questions—I make a list of these to distribute to them later)

Sarah, I really like your comment about asking more questions. Let’s build on it a little more. What makes a good question? Do we want to ask any question just to say something?

(Students offer that questions should be thought-provoking and show that the person is listening to their peers)

Let’s clarify the word thought-provoking. Some synonyms for it are stimulating and provocative. So essentially your questions should be interesting! Try to think about the text in a new way or consider a viewpoint that you had not previously considered when reading. Also think about the larger themes in Esperanza Rising that connect to your life outside of school (to throw some out: class, race, socioeconomic status, family). Great, it looks like we’re ready to get started!

III. Instructional stepsa. Step 1: mini-lesson (20 min)

So guys, before jump into the actual discussion for today, I think we should do a mock discussion. A mock discussion will give us the opportunities to not only practice having a meaningful discussion, but to also incorporate the things we just talked about for ways to improve. My idea is that if we practice doing this now, it will come naturally to your in your actual discussions! Can I have three volunteers to act out this fishbowl discussion? (If students don’t volunteer, pick some that I think will do a good job based off of their participation in the discussion in the last class., I will serve as the fourth participant in the discussion to model what it looks like use to express ideas thoughtfully/respectfully [using I statements] and, ask thought-provoking questions and clarifying questions, show what it looks like to be a good listener [e.g. body language that shows I am engaged, eye contact, occasional head nodding, not interrupting anyone, building off of other’s ideas]).

Organize the classroom chairs so that there is an inner circle (the volunteers for the discussion) and everyone on the outside is in a bigger circle around the small circle.

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Now, for those of you who didn’t volunteer, please get out a pencil and paper and write down verbatim things that people say that you think contribute to a positive discussion. At the end of this exercise, I’ll call on everyone to get your responses, so make sure you’re paying attention. I want y’all to focus on when your peers use I statements and when they ask clarifying/follow-up questions. There are a lot of different components of a good discussion, but just worry about these for right now.

The discussion topic is: Do you agree with school uniforms? Why or why not? Ok, let’s start.

(If a student doesn’t get the ball rolling, I offer up something about school uniforms like “as a teacher, I like school uniforms because I don’t have to worry about enforcing the dress code. But when I was a student in school, I didn’t like school uniforms because I wanted the freedom to wear what I wanted.” Students say something along the lines of “school uniforms make it easy to get dressed in the morning and make it so that everyone is wearing the same thing—there’s no hierarchy based on who has “cool” clothes” student asks “Sally, I think that’s true, but it’s hard to avoid clothes as a status symbol. If you have to wear uniforms to school, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be other spaces where wearing what’s “cool” is necessary, like outside of school when you go to a friend’s house or go to a movie.” Another student responds “That’s a great point, Johnny, I’ve never thought of it that way.” If there is a lull in the conversation, I let the silence exist. Eventually, another student who hasn’t spoken yet says “I don’t like school uniforms because I feel like a dress code is sufficient. There are some things that are inappropriate to wear to school, but having everyone wear the same thing promotes the idea of conformity and limits creativity.” Students continue discussion, and at the end I try to wrap it up by saying something along the lines of: “Ok, so it seems like we’ve come to the conclusion that clothes have an important social function and they also serve as a way for personal expression. Has anyone ever felt like an outsider because of something they wore?...Allow some time for responses and then cap the conversation at ~5 minutes. Thanks to my volunteers and great job guys! What did the outer circle notice about specific phrases that participants used in this discussion? (Students offer that they like the phrase “I’ve never thought of it that way before,” that they enjoy when students call each other by name, that they could tell everyone was listening by their body language/engagement, that they liked when people asked follow-up questions after someone shared their opinion, I type their thoughts on the Google Doc (Appendix E)) Additionally, if students offer general responses, I will ask for specific examples that support their claims and ask them what impact the particular statement had on the discussion.

Does anyone have any lingering questions about that discussion in particular or anything at all related to small group discussions? (Pause ~3 seconds and wait for potential student participation, if no students respond, keep going)

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Y’all are doing a great job at recognizing factors that contribute to a good discussion. We’re going to take a short break now, but when we come back, get ready to practice the things we just talked about in your own discussion groups in relation to Esperanza Rising.

**Wiggle break!** Stand up and stretch, move around the room, jump up and down, do whatever your heart pleases to get your body moving!

b. Step 2: small-group discussions (30 min) Ok class, now the question I want you to all start with is: How would you characterize Esperanza? (I will write this question on the board so all students can refer back to it). Now when I say characterize, I mean list some of her characteristics or personality traits. This could be what she looks like, how she acts, etc. Think of it like you are painting a picture of her for someone who has not read the book before. You’re describing her based on evidence grounded in the text. Keep in mind that this question doesn’t have to be the only thing you talk about, you can definitely answer this and then move on to a different topic in the text. Try to ground your answers in specific parts of the text and give a page number if possible.

Circulate around to different groups and take notes discreetly on students. Are they following the discussion norms for their group? Is each person getting a chance to speak? Write down specific things that students say that are good or have room for improvement. Two main things to focus feedback on: are students using I statements instead of saying things like “sometimes people think” or using “you” in a general way and are students asking clarifying/follow-up questions to each other. If I notice that some students are quieter, I will nudge them to participate, reminding them that everyone has a valuable contribution to the discussion even if it’s just verbalizing your thoughts.

(Students will probably say things along the lines of: I liked her because… or I disliked her because… Encourage students to go deeper by grounding their answers in specific parts of the text. Prompting questions: How does Esperanza’s interaction with Marta make you feel? Do you sympathize with Esperanza? Why or why not? Do you have a different opinion of Esperanza than you did during the first two chapters of the book?)

Responses to anticipated patterns in student talk:If students are saying things like “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” give them more time to look through the text for responses and emphasize that this is a safe-space for them to say anything that’s relevant that’s on their mindAsk for specific examples that back up students’ opinions (Where do you see this in the text?)If students are only saying what is on their mind and not building off of each other’s responses, say something along the lines of “Y’all are doing a great job of expressing yourselves, but try to focus on what each person is saying when

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they’re talking instead of thinking about what you’re going to say next. Look at the strategies for discussion and sentence starters list if you get stuck.

Bank of other questions for students to discuss: (If students don’t come up with more questions on their own or there is a long lull in the conversation)1. What is the book’s stance on differences in class?2. What do you think is going to happen next?3. How does Munoz incorporate examples of Esperanza and her family’s culture

in the book?4. Are there any sections that you were confused by? Why?5. What were your favorite parts in the section we read for today? Why?6. How do you see elements of Esperanza’s story in your own life? Do you feel

like you can relate to her? Why or why not?7. What can we conclude about Esperanza and her family’s story in relation to

the historical context that it’s set in [The Dust Bowl/Great Depression]?8. How is Esperanza Rising presenting a different perspective from other stories

you’ve read?

Raise hand to signal to the class that discussion is over (start talking once all students have raised their hands and quieted down) **break to get water/go to the bathroom, have students change cluster groups when they come back**

c. Step 3: reflection and goal-setting (20 min) Y’all did such a great job in your small group discussions today. I can tell that each and every one of you is getting better from your last discussion, which was only a few days ago!

Pass out self-reflection worksheet (Appendix C). Now, everyone please take some time to fill out this self-reflection sheet about your discussion today. Think about your discussion today in comparison to your one from the last class. Did you feel more comfortable or prepared? Why or why not? After you fill these out, please turn them in to me and I will return them to you at the end of thethe beginning of the nex unit classt so you can see your progresstrengths and weaknesses before our summative assessments!

At the bottom of the worksheet, make sure to write down some concrete goals that you want to work towards in your next discussion. Aim for 1 or 2 goals and explain what steps you will take to achieve these goals. If you’re having trouble, I’ll be circulating around the room to help you. (If students are unsure about what to write for their goals, I’ll go around and tell them things that I think each of them could improve on to help them outI’ll ask probing questions, trying to prompt their own independent thinking without just handing them the answers.Examples of some of these questions could be: What are you the proudest of when it comes to your discussion today?What do you think you could improve upon or what did not go as well as you expected?

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Think back to other good discussions that you’ve participated in. What made these good discussions? Did you exhibit those qualities today as a participant?))

IV. Closing (5 minutes)

I had a great time teaching y’all today and can’t wait to see how your small group discussions improve even more over the course of this unit! Please read the next to chapters of Esperanza Rising for the next class and complete a double-entry journal. (Go over how to fill out a double entry journal, pass out double entry journal worksheet (Appendix D). Remember how we talked about these in the last class? Since y’all already know how to fill them out, I’m not going to spend much time on this, but if you have questions please feel free to email me! So with a double-entry journal, you want to pick specific parts in the text and write down the quotation and page number in this column (Point at text column). Then in the reader response, you want to use the code at the top to categorize your responses. You don’t have to do something for each one (question, prediction, evaluation, connection), but these labels should help you generate your responses which you put in the second column (Point at reader response column). Then, next time you come to class, you will pass your double-entry journal to the person sitting next to you and they will respond to your thoughts in the “reply” column. That’s all for today—have a great rest of your day and I’ll see y’all next time!

Attention to Individual Student needs: detail specific actions/materials you will use to differentiate your instruction to meet various individual’s learning needs

English Language Learners: ELL students will be allowed to use Google Translate on their laptops for specific key words to the unit or in Esperanza Rising that they don’t understand. ELL students will actively work on defending a position in discussion (e.g. explaining why the author would include this passage, backing up one of the character’s actions) while also providing reasons for their position (since all students are at WIDA level 4, they will need to work on providing reasons for their argument instead of just defending a position). These children will be dispersed among the five groups instead of all being in the same group together. ELL students would be allowed to use their native tongue in my classroom and with this lesson I would encourage them to write with hybrid forms of English and their own language if there are things they don’t understand. This discussion activity would be challenging for these students, so I would need to provide high-support for them as well. This support would depend on the individual student’s needs and skills. In terms of differentiating the summative and formative assessment for ELLs, I will assess them on the quality of their contributions to the discussion, not the correctness of their English. So, for example, if I can understand what an ELL student is saying, but it is not grammatically correct they will still receive credit. I want the assessments to be more about comprehension than learning about how to use Standard English.

Reading-related learning disabilities: For the two students with reading-related learning disabilities, they will not have to read sections aloud from Esperanza Rising in their groups, assuming that oral reading is something these students struggle with. . When these students copy the homework from the board, I will look over their shoulders to make sure that they have it down correctly since many students with disabilities like dyslexia have trouble copying things down. I will provide the students with typed copies from Googledocs instead of having them copy down information from the board. These children will be dispersed among the five groups instead of all being in the same group together.

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Behavior management: For the student with behavior management, but also for all of the students, I will use an iPhone app called “Classroom Dojo” to monitor their positive and negative behaviors in class. My mentor teacher uses this app in my field placement and she says it is a great way to motivate students and keep them on task. Essentially, the app helps keep track of a student’s positive (participating, sitting quietly and doing work, asking questions) and negative (talking when not called on, not completing homework, disrupting class) behaviors with a series of points. At the end of a unit I would use the app to give some type of reward to the top three students with the most points. Another way I tried to cater this lesson to the student with behavioral management issues was to be conscious of long chunks of time without the students being interactive. Any student would become restless after listening to a long lecture, especially 8th graders. I tried to pay attention to this by incorporating breaks for the students to go to the bathroom, get water, or stretch.

Technology Use: Detail specific technology being used in the lesson with explanation for why it is being used. LCD projector: The projector is used to display my computer screen on the board because typing what students say on my computer is quicker than writing everything down on a chalkboard. iPhone Application “Classroom Dojo”: This app is being used to reward students for positive behavior in the classroom. I originally only wanted to use this app for the student with behavioral management issues, but thought that it could be beneficial for all the students. At a parent-teacher night earlier in the year I would’ve introduced this app to the parents and invited them to sign up for alerts that they can receive when their child does either a positive or negative behavior in class. Mentioning to the students that their parents would receive updates regarding their progress would also be motivating for them to do well. The set-up of this app is also helpful because everything I need is in one spot and I can organize my class periods into separate sections.

Google Docs: Instead of writing on the board, I think typing on a Google Sheet that I would share with all the students would be more efficient. Not only would I be able to type faster than I would be able to write on the board, but I would also be able to correct mistakes quicker. If students did not have internet access at home, I would print out a copy of the final product of this sheet for them to have with them at all times.

How this lesson incorporates specific insights from course readings and/or class discussion:One of the things I imitated from our class discussion was establishing a set of discussion

norms with the students. I really liked when we did this in class because it had never happened in any of my previous classes and everyone had the chance to add, subtract, or modify things from our list of norms. This short activity makes it so that each student has a stake in the classroom atmosphere. I incorporated ideas from Bomer’s chapter 1 about the key organizational structures for how to organize a classroom. I purposefully made sure there was a mix of individual work (with the self-reflection and goal-setting worksheets) small group discussion (in their groups of 4), and whole class discussion (prepping for smaller discussions) so that students would remain engaged for the entire 90 minutes.

In the small group discussion section, I incorporated ideas from Nystrand’s guiding principles such as asking authentic questions that you don’t know the answer to (see question bank for if students run out of things to talk about) and high-level evaluation (using teacher participation to push class discussion). The reason why I had myself act as a participant in the mini-lesson on creating effective discussions was that I wanted to show how my participation as the teacher could guide discussion. Hopefully, students would watch this enactment and then

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model how I delivered my reactions, questions, and thoughts on the text while still making their own interpretations. Even though in this case, the small groups would not necessarily be considered “literature circles” because everyone is reading the same book, I did weave in some of Daniels’ ideas from chapter 2 about successful literature circles. Mainly I focused on the 8th ingredient for successful literature circles, which is that evaluation is by teacher observation and student self-evaluation. I was struggling with how to come up with an assessment for this lesson and this section helped me come up with the idea to not only have students self-assess, but also to have the teacher take detailed notes while observing for a summative assessment.

I chose to use Esperanza Rising for my unit topic because I thought that it would offer a new perspective to students that they could easily relate to. Hayn and Kaplan argue in chapter 4 that there is a wide availability of high-quality young adult literature, and since kids are usually more engaged and motivated to read young adult literature compared to the typical canon, it makes sense to use young adult literature in my classroom. Though young adult literature would not be the sole focus of my classroom, I wanted to write a lesson plan that would incorporate it so I would have ideas for how to transferrable skills like discussion within the context of a young adult literature book.

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Appendix A:Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Esperanza Rising: Las Papayas, Los Higos, Las GuayabasPp 23-80https://books.google.com/books?id=Ly6KPrawvqIC&dq=esperanza+rising&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=2GzdSeLqL4Kltgf18JzJBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q=esperanza%20rising&f=false

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Appendix B: List of things that went well from the last discussion, areas of improvement, and how to improve themThings that went well last discussion Maintain an open and respectful

classroom environment

Using I statements instead of “people think” or “one could argue”

Referring to each other by name

Areas of improvement from last discussion

Making sure that one person is not monopolizing the conversation and that everyone gets the turn to speak

Grounding statements in specific parts of the text

Building off of peer ideas

Concrete ways to improve these areas

Directly ask someone if they have not spoken yet what their thoughts are

Not interrupting people when you want to speak; being patient

When you make a claim about a part that you liked/disliked, give a page number so the whole group can see the part in the text that you’re talking about

Using the phrase “X said this, and I would like to add”

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Appendix C:Classroom discussion self-reflection and goals worksheet

1. What went well today in your discussion?

2. What are some areas you think you could improve on in your discussion?

3. Do you have any lingering questions about Esperanza Rising or how to create meaningful discussions in small groups?

4. Write down at least 2 goals that you personally want to work on for next week:

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Appendix D: (borrowed from Kibler)Complete the reader response chart based on the reading. Use your charts to create a purpose and focus for your small group.

Use the following codes to respond to the text:Connections: Make a connection between the text and your own life. (Symbol= )

Evaluations: Explain what you like, dislike, agree or disagree with. (Symbol =Predictions: Based on the reading and your life experiences, make a prediction about what will

happen, or explain cause and effect. (Symbol= Questions: Ask questions about the content, author’s style, plot, etc. (Symbol= ??)

Text Reader Response ReplyTwo passages with page numbers

Your thoughts about the text A partner’s response to your thoughts

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Appendix E:Worksheet on discussion strategies and sentence starters

Discussion strategies to use: Connecting the topic of conversation to a relevant, tangential topic “Thinking out loud” or wondering in front of your group Saying something you are unsure about Asking follow-up questions about peer’s responses

o “X, is this what you mean?”o “X, have you thought about that from this point of view?”o “Why do you think that?/What are your reasons for defending that position?”o “Where do you see that in Esperanza Rising?

Active listeningo Making sure each member of the group has a chance to participate

If someone has not talked yet, asking them directly if they have any thoughts on the topic

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o Positive body language: eye-contact, nodding if necessary, looking at the person who’s talking

Sentence Starters “I felt this way when I read this section because…” “I like what you said about ___ and I would like to add ____” “I’ve never thought about it that way before!…” “In my opinion…” “Another example of that in the text is the part where… happens” “Can you give an example of that?” “I was really surprised when…” “I disagreed/agreed with…because…” “My favorite or least favorite part of this section of Esperanza Rising was…because…” “What I heard you say is…” “I was confused when…”

Appendix F:You can read more about the app “Classroom Dojo” here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/classdojo/id552602056?mt=8

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