UMU Lesson Plan Template (redesigned to fit MCH 205 Advisory

Lesson Plan including some Planning Commentary PROMPTS)

Name:

Gabriela Botzman & Paula Kyser

Grade Level:

7th Grade

Date: 2/20/2015
Class Period:

Subject: Advisory

Lesson # & Title: #1,

Service Learning
Big Idea/Lesson Focus: Community
Essential Question: How

service

does service affect those performing and receiving the

service?
Context for Learning:
A group of students from an advisory class will participate in a hands on
service learning experience. It will show the students how performing service
feels for themselves and how it will affect other people. They will be taking
old t shirts and making them into reusable bags to be donated to the local
food pantry.
.
Function of the Lesson (check all that apply):

Introduce New Skill or Content

Practice
Review
Remediation/Reteaching
Advisory Lesson

Content Standards: This Advisory Lesson is in accord with the

Association for Middle Level Educators (AMLE - formerly known as National
Middle School Association Philosophy aka NMSA) as contained in This We
Believe, the AMLE Belief Statement re: Advisory Programs that are
Challenging, Exploratory, Integrative, and Relevant.
Learning Objectives:

The students will be able to define service learning, describe, and perform
the process of making the recycled bags.

Academic Language (or A.L. Demands, A.L. Objectives):

Service learning
Food pantry
Leadership
Compassion
Responsibility

Instructional Materials and Support:

T-Shirt
Scissors
Steps to make t-shirt bag http://www.mommypotamus.com/no-sew-t-shirttote-bag-tutorial/
Prior Knowledge:
Students will be asked to share their knowledge about service learning and
community service projects that they have worked on in the past. But no
previous knowledge is needed for this lesson.
Assessments:

Pre-Assessment for the unit: Use this information to design your lessons
Assessment(s) during the lesson: Only assess what was taught
Assessment(s) at the end of the lesson: Clear up misconceptions
Post-Assessment for the unit: Assess all that was taught in the unit
Strategies & Learning Tasks
Introduction:
Start off by explaining what counts as a service project and why people do
them. Ask the students if any of them have participated in service projects
previously, and then discuss their answers. Talk about why it is nice to help
other people, and how service projects can make you feel good about
yourself.
Presentation/Explicit Instruction:
Explain to the students that they will be completing a service learning
project. Give examples of previous service learning projects that you have

personally done, and show pictures. Make the students excited to be

participating in one.
Structured Practice/Exploration:
Have the students brainstorm possible service learning project ideas and
then you will present the idea that the class will be participating in.
Encourage the students to actually try and carry out the projects that they
thought up.

1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

Guided Practice/Specific Feedback :

Students will bring in an old t-shirt from. Then students will follow the
following directions.
Take old shirt and lay flat on the table. Flip the shirt inside out. Cute both the
sleeves off.
Cut the collar of the t shirt off. The student can cut as far down on the collar
as they would like.
Make cuts at the bottom of the shirt going 2 inches up the shirt and 1 inch
apart from each cut. Make sure the cuts go up the front and back of the
bottom of the shirt.
Tie the fringe on the front side of the shirt to the fringe on back side of the
shirt.
Turn the bag inside out again and now it is ready to be donated to the food
pantry for use.
Independent Practice/Application:
Students will write a reflection on the effects of their service learning project.
They will answer the following questions: What did you do? Who was
affected? How were you affected? Will you participate in another service
learning project in the future?
Closure:
Review service learning. Discuss how it affected the students and how it will
affect them in the future. Discuss how they will further continue service
learning projects and community service in the future.
The students will reflect on this experience by writing a small journal entry
about their experience.
Differentiation, Individualized Instruction, and Assessment:
This lesson is nice because it can be done by anyone, at any age or
academic level. Students with IEPs will be able to participate in the lesson
because it is very interactive in order to keep the attention of the students

with ADD or ADHD. Also having the activity in class so there is something
tangible for the students to work with should help keep the attention of the
students. Another common exceptionality is students that are English
language learners, which means that the teacher just has to be ready to
explain things that seem very basic in different ways, like respect. Many
times when ideas or words are very basic, we find it to be very difficult to
explain in a different way for students to understand. Another exceptionality
that the teacher has to consider is Gifted and Talented students. One way to
get the gifted students more involved would be for them to think of other
examples of service learning projects or have them think of ways to teach
the same project to another group of people.

Research and Theory:

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?
vid=1&sid=01e92e5f-ca6c-4b94-ae73285e89c8b056%40sessionmgr111&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRz
LWxpdmU%3d#db=ehh&AN=93980610 - Research on the benefits of
service learning projects on middle schoolers.
https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/additional-classroommaterials/448-developing-kids-with-character-through-servicelearning - This link is an example of another teachers service learning
lesson plan. This idea can be used to start brainstorming different ideas with
the class.
http://learningtogive.org/lessons/unit150/lesson1.html- This link gives
examples of how another teacher taught similar key words to the students.
This information could be used as background information when teaching
this lesson.

1. Content Focus for the Advisory Lesson. The summary can be holistic
covering the Advisory lesson, but be sure to show how the lesson would
connect to Advisory Lessons that come before and after this lesson!
Content Focus Summarize the central focus for the content you
will teach in this learning segment.
The main focus of this lesson is for students to understand why it is
important to give back to the community. This lesson will give students the

basic knowledge of service learning and easy ways that they can benefit the
community and helps those in need. The students dont even need to spend
money, all the need is an old t- shirt. After, the lesson is finished the students
will then reflect on what service learning, why we do service, and how it felt
to participate in it.
Explain how this focus allows your students to ask and answer
significant and challenging questions about their world and to make
relevant, interdisciplinary connections.
The focus of this lesson will inspire more conversations about service
learning and community service. It will also lead to why we are helping
people, and how did those people end up in bad situations and need the
goods and services we are offering them. This will be able to connect through
all interdisciplinaries since it we will be working on writing, social studies,
science and math in this lesson.
2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching
a. Academic language development (e.g., students abilities to
understand and produce the oral or written language associated
with the central focus and standards/objectives within the learning
segment)
In order to teach this lesson, there are a few words that will be taught to the
students. These words are service learning,food pantry, leadership,
compassion, and responsibility. In order to teach these words, they will be
explained and discussed during the lesson until they are understood. Since
they are somewhat simplistic, this should not take very long or be difficult.
b. Young adolescent development, including cognitive, physical,
and social and emotional dimensions
Service learning projects can be very social, as this lesson is almost
completely group based discussion. Some of this is emotional because some
service projects can be personal, especially in areas that have a strong
amount of the population that lives in poverty. Also much of this lesson is
discussing how service learning projects makes everyone involved a better
person, which is emotional development. There is not much that has to do
with physical development in this lesson, but there could be if the actual
service learning project was more physically taxing. Making the bags does
not require much activity, but does give the students something to do with
their hands.

3. Supporting Young Adolescent Learning in the Discipline

Be sure to cite research and theory, including concepts addressing young
adolescent learning, to support your explanations.
a. How are the plans for instruction sequenced in the learning
segment to build connections between students prior learning and
experiences and new knowledge?
There is not any prior knowledge needed for this lesson, but this can be
connected to Deweys theory of experiential learning. In this lesson, students
will learn about service learning projects by participating in one. This lesson
is also connected to Blooms Taxonomy since the students are going and
experiencing all the levels of the pyramid and creating something as a end
result.
b. Explain how, throughout the learning segment, you will help
students make connections between and among facts, concepts,
interpretations, and claims/arguments regarding your content area.
Much of the content of this lesson is not assessable, since it is not an
academic lesson. However, there is research that backs up why service
learning is beneficial to the people carrying out the project. Other than the
academic language terms there is not any factual content, but the question
of why we bother doing service learning projects is bound to come up. If this
question does, it would be important to explain the research showing the
benefits of doing service learning projects.

c. Describe any instructional strategies planned to support young

adolescents with specific learning needs. This will vary based on
what you know about your students but may include students with
individualized education programs (IEPs), English language
learners, or gifted students needing greater support or challenge.
The strategies that would be helpful for teaching this to students with IEPs is
to make the lesson as interactive as possible to keep the attention of the
students with ADD or ADHD. Also having the activity in class so there is
something tangible for the students to work with should help keep the
attention of the students. For the English language learners, the teacher just
has to be ready to explain things that seem very basic in different ways, like
respect. Many times when ideas or words are very basic, we find it to be very
difficult to explain in a different way for students to understand. One way to
get the gifted students more involved would be for them to think of other

examples of service learning projects or have them think of ways to teach

the same project to another group of people.