Example Lesson Plans & Target Sheets

English Language Arts 20 lesson -- reading examples of personal reflective essays.

Link to the lesson plan

Link to the graphic organizer template used

Link to the literature used

Link to the target sheet for this lesson

I used this on the 26^th of March, and to set the scene of the class, we just finished watching the film Stand by Me.  The film is known as a “coming of age” story, and an assignment for English Language Arts 20 is to write a personal reflective essay.  Naturally, I paired these two.  I wanted students to write an essay of reflection telling me about something (a person, an event, a time, etc.) that shaped them into who they are today.  As a class, we had written eleven point paragraphs, and I noticed that many students had issues with topic and support sentences.  To counteract this, I planned a lesson that would have them focus on thesis, topic, support, and concluding sentences.  The texts that I chose were also reflective essays written by other people, so it gave students a chance to see what a reflective essay looks like. 

All in all, it seemed pretty straight forward.  It wasn’t.  Everything started fine, in a sense.  I finished off the lesson from the previous day by having students do a free-write for their reflective essay.  While they were doing that, I wrote the groups I made for the jigsaw.  Everything was going smoothly, no one had issues with the group they were a part of.  The issues started when I ended the free-write and brought it back as a class.

I tried to explain my expectations.  I had them written down on my lesson plan, but I didn’t write them on the board, and I think that was the beginning of my problems.  Too much information needed to be passed to do it entirely orally.  I explained which essay they would be reading – this worked out, everyone understood.  I explained what the graphic organizers were for – good, heads were nodding.  I assumed I was in the clear.  Students got into their groups, and I handed out the essays and graphic organisers.  This is where it got messy. 

A barrage of questions came my way, and they were all due to the graphic organisers.  I used a template for the organizers, so each student got one that asked for 5 topic sentences and support rational.  However, not every essay had 5 body paragraphs.  Some students asked me what to do, so I explained that they didn’t have to fill every box, and that I knew the number of paragraphs that each essay had.  Upwards of 10 students asked me before I brought it back as a class and explained it to everyone.  I still had many graphic organisers come in with all 5 boxes filled, even if there weren’t 5 body paragraphs, I still had questions come in about it, and the work was just not up to par.  The intent was to get students familiar with the different kinds of important sentences within an essay, but due to my poor oral explanations and scrambling, the majority didn’t learn it.  

English Language Arts 20 lesson -- Revision and peer editing of personal reflective essays.

Link to the lesson plan

Link to the revision sheet

Link to A.R.M.S. information

Link to target sheet for this lesson

This lesson was towards the end of my 3-week block.  On April 1st, we did some peer editing of our personal reflective essays, as they were due the next day.  I gave students the option to make their own groups, but let them know that if I didn't think the groups were working, I would switch them.  This day worked quite well for me.  I had every student hand in their peer review sheet with their final assignment.  Some were done better than others, and I could see that this did have an effect on the final product.

Science 9 lesson -- Change in matter lesson & lab.

Link to the lesson plan

Link to lab procedure (I used the procedure from the Science 9 textbook, but this is the same general idea)

Unfortunately, the science teacher I was working with and I didn't do formal target sheets for my lessons -- we just post conferenced.

The lesson was fantastic!  This was the first science lab that I have ever taught, and it went really well.  All the students followed the procedures, nobody got hurt, and, most importantly, students learned about chemical change.

Science 9 lesson -- Physical properties

Link to the lesson plan

This lesson, too, was fantastic.  I took a different approach than the teacher I was working with.  She was more lecture based, where I like to be more student based.  In terms of the assignment for this class, I don't have all of the information with me, as it was in the text book.  Essentially what the students had to do was use their phones to research a piece of matter that they picked at random and find its physical properties -- things like conductivity, melting point, boiling point, density, etc.  We did class presentations at the end, and it was a blast!  Taking over this class really taught me that I'm very interested in teaching science.