Thanksgiving Literacy Lesson Plan

*Changes and notes are marked in red

What
This lesson plan is Thanksgiving-themed to incorporate the upcoming holiday. The curricular content integrates
history of America, American celebrations, and the literacy concept of reading for main ideas and details. My
learning goals for my 6 students are to be able to identify details to support a main point in a text. I would also
like them to practice working productively in partners, and then staging a respectful debate. [This correction did
not make its way into my finalized lesson plan, but I will also set norms with the students to decide what a
respectful debate looks like and sounds like. We will come up with a list of rules together to guide our
discussion.] I would like students to practice the skills of respectfully listening to their peers and responding
back to them, respecting their partner, engaging multiple intelligences, and working on a literacy exercise in a
hands-on way. One main content take-away that I would like students to come away with is that things that they
take for granted (like our nations bird) have much conversation and debate behind them. A bonus content takeaway would be information about turkeys and bald eagles. This information by itself is not as important; I am
more concerned about the critical thinking skills involved in considering these issues.
How
Some teaching methods and strategies that undergird this lesson plan are a focus on students collecting
information for the purpose of practical use. It seems to me that too often students are asked to dissect a piece of
text for what often feels like no reason at all. In this lesson I want to demonstrate to students that understanding
the layout and argument of a piece of text can be used for practical purposes, like having a conversation or
staging a formal debate. I like this idea of applying literacy concepts to real world situations. My goal is for all
parts of this lesson to support student thinking- from reading the articles, to answering the guiding questions, to
staging a debate. Each should push students thinking farther in its own way.
Why
We selected the subject matter that we did for a few reasons. Firstly, we liked the tie-in of Thanksgiving and
turkey. Secondly, and more relevantly, both the fourth grade and the sixth grade classes are discussing animals
in their literacy classes. Fourth grade is learning about exoskeletons, while the sixth grade is doing a literacy
unit on animals intelligence. We liked that this lesson would also stay true to the animal theme.
I also liked that I could tie many of the sixth grade standards to this activity. My class is certainly learning to
cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the
text. The spend a lot of time writing down main ideas and supporting details, so it will be nice to try to stretch
their thinking to more abstract and important skills such as drawing critical inferences, and using assertions
drawn from the text to have a conversation or debate. The idea of summarizing is also inherent to discussions of
these literary skills. Summarizing is a basic but vitally important skill for students to develop. They will need to
get an idea of the main points in the articles in order to adequately argue about them for their debate.
These skills surface over and over again in the scripted literacy curriculum that the middle grades follow at
Stanton. They are central common core themes, and so students textbooks focus exclusively on their mastery of
these skills. It is my hope that we have planned a lesson that integrates these skills into something a more
engaging and fun (a debate and conversation.) Only when students get a chance to explore things in a less
restrictive than a scripted curriculum will they get the opportunity to really learn.
Goals/ Objectives
Students will be able to articulate their preference for either turkeys or bald eagles using specific facts derived
from two different articles.
Standards (and Assessment Anchors, if applicable) Under pink line is the fourth grade standards*
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.1

Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the
text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a
summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and
contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences from the text.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.6
Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in
focus and the information provided.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.9
Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject
knowledgeably.
Preparation
We will set up the chart paper, including our organizer model. We will show the historical thanksgiving
opening video, and then have a whole-group conversation about norms- including teamwork skills, general
respect, and communication. Students will then begin reading their articles in groups.
After students read the articles and write down their notes, we will hand out markers and lined paper and pass
around copies of the guiding questions.
Materials
List of Norms (Raise your hand to speak, Respect your partner, No wrong answers)
One laptop (for warm up video)
Camera and tripod from the library
Presenter notes and clipboard (3 sets)
Chart Paper [The next time I teach this lesson I will write out the chart ahead of time!]
th
Highlighters [Many 4 graders were using them to highlight everything. Next time we either need to
include how to appropriately use highlighters in the community norms, or forgo them.]
Copies of each article (below)
o http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/birds/archives/2007/americas-firstbird-controversy.aspx
o https://newsela.com/articles/turkey-eagle/id/2005/
! For the purposes of differentiation, article will be printed at a 3rd- 7th grade level and
distributed to students appropriately

Next time we teach this lesson we will only use one article. Two was too timeconsuming. This would also take some of the pressure off of the students to finish reading
them quickly.
Copies of Guiding questions/ sentence stems [The guiding questions were too complicated- I will
simplify them for next time]
Stack of Lined Paper
Sharpened pencil
Independent reading books (for any student who finishes early)
!

Classroom Arrangement and Management issues

Briefly describe the physical arrangement of the class and with respect to managing your plans in the particular
space:
1. This lesson will be taught in the library, because it is more quiet and spacious than their classrooms.
Students will be immediately assigned a partner and each set of partners will sit together for the duration
of the lesson. The instructor will have sets of partners arguing the same point in the debate sit on the
same side of the table.
2. The instructor (Kim or Sarah) will be in charge of passing out the materials that the student will use for
the lessons while the students are reading and discussing the articles.
3. Possible management concerns are student disengagement or confusion. We will encourage engagement
but rephrasing questions asked by other students. Confused students will be able to ask their partners for
clarification. They will also be able to ask their instructor if they are still confused.
Plan
1. Rent camera and tripod from the library (week before) Time: Tuesday during lunch
2. Put students into predetermined groups- (1 minutes) [My timing was off when I taught the lesson, so
next time I would script the timing to fit the time block in which I was teaching. Like 9:30 begin, 9:05
start activity, etc.]
3. I forgot the establish community norms. Next time I will ask students about their ideas about having a
respectful dialogue and write these ideas on a piece of chart paper. Alternatively, I would write down the
norms on chart paper before I come to the lesson and then ask students if they have anything to add to
my list.
4. Students will independently read the 2 articles in their groups of 3 (10 minutes) [This arrangement of
groups worked well] When Kim taught her lesson she had pre-made groups, which she said also worked
well.
5. In group students will discuss what they have read about in each article, focusing their key findings on
the bird assigned to them. Students will also use the guiding questions about the readings to help with
their outline (12 minutes) [Kim shortened this to 10 minutes due to time constraints]
6. Then the whole group will debate about which would be the better national bird (20 minutes)
a. For the debate, we will have a chart paper that shows the structure of it. Below is an example:
First, we will flip a coin to see which team starts first
Team Turkey
Team Eagle
Opening Statement First (1.5 min)
Open Statement Second (1.5 min)
Think about rebuttal (1 min)
Think about rebuttal (1 min)
First Rebuttal (Goes second)
First Rebuttal (Goes first) (2 min)
Think about closing (1 min)
Think about closing (1 min)
Closing Statement (Goes first) (1.5 min) Closing statement (goes second) (1.5 min)
[Kim took the opportunity to introduce the word rebuttal as a vocabulary word for her 4th graders. When she
asked them what it meant they told her a comeback. This indicates that they know how to use context clues
and background knowledge to make sense of new words.]

After debate, we will discuss what we have learned about each bird, what key points different teams made that
stuck out to them, and what they would have changed or added if they had the chance. [Kim had her students
give each other a round of applause at the end of the debate. She also did not initiate the discussion and instead
just completed the exit slip due to time constraints.]
Exit slip: List one fact that you learned about the other teams bird If you could ask Benjamin
Franklin one thing about his decision to make the national bird a turkey, what would it be? (1 minutes)
GUIDING QUESTIONS:
Eagle vs. Turkey: America's First Bird Controversy: (National Wildlife Federation)
1. What character trait of the eagle made it a good symbol for the nature?
2. What national event made people choose the eagle as the American symbol?
3. Which famous American did not like the eagle as a choice as the American bird?
4. Based on context clues, what do you think that He is a bird of bad moral character means?
5. What other countries can these two birds live in?
This debate's for the birds: Who's the better national symbol? (NEWSELA):
1. Why did Benjamin Franklin think that the turkey is a more respectable bird?
2. What are some major characteristics about the turkey and eagle?
3. What evidence does Roger Shields, a Florida scientist, present about the Eagle that supports the Eagle to
be the national bird?
4. What comebacks did the birds have, according to the text?
Assessment of the goals/ objectives listed above
Students will be given a piece of paper to answer the exit slip questions, 1) List one fact that you learned about
the other teams bird from the debate. 2) If you could ask Benjamin Franklin one thing about his decision to
name the turkey the national bird, what would it be? (If students wrote down facts about the bald eagle, they
will now write down a fact about the turkey, etc.) Kim and Sarah will also collect the lined paper on which
students took notes. This will help us to analyze student thinking. We will also use the class discussion and
observations of student conversations to analyze student thinking. Understanding student thinking will help us
to more accurately progress towards our goals for our students.
Anticipating Students Responses and your Possible Responses
a.
We do not anticipate many management issues with the groups of students that we have selected. They
have historically all been fairly well behaved. However, we believe that some students might have difficulty
picking out key facts from the articles are given and be disengaged. We also anticipate that some students may
do more talking and work than others. In order to try and prevent this, we will ask that everyone tries to voice
their thoughts at least once during the debate, as well as go around and ask those students some one-on-one
questions to guide their thinking.
b.
We hope that the response to content of the lesson will be favorable. We hope that the students enjoy the
incorporation of hands-on activities as well as the debate framework.
Accommodations
a.
Students will be working with groups, so they will have a team to help each if they run into trouble with
reading comprehension, fluency, pronunciation, or general understanding.
b.
Students who need greater challenge and/ or finish early will be able to either read their independent
reading book, start a personal research outline for the debate, or answer the guided questions on loose leaf
paper.