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DAILY LESSON PLANS: 3 Days of Lessons: Scaffolding, Teaching, and Challenging

DAY 1: Introduction to the Research Project

a. Goals: Before beginning the process of the research paper, we need to scaffold their
understanding about how research can inform opinion. We aim to get students excited
about writing a research paper. By showing “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” we aim to have
students understand how research can be persuasive.
b. Rationale: “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” is about a topic students are very familiar with.
Chances are students love Disney, therefore, seeing Disney portrayed in a negative
manner will elicit strong, opinionated responses. This will get them excited about writing
about their opinion about a subject they care about.
c. Assessments: The discussion we have during stopping points in the video.
d. Objectives (use SWBATS):
i. Understand their responsibilities and tasks throughout the unit.
ii. Hold a conversation about the film.
iii. Begin to see how research informs an argument.
iv. Contrast unit with ACT essay writing – realize that their opinion can be
supported through research.
e. Tasks (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting
here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments,
etc.)
i. Warm up: What are benefits or drawbacks to having a timed or prompted writing
experience? Did ACT writing make you feel restricted? Why or why not.
ii. Create a T-chart on the board: one side with pros and one side with cons about
the timed/prompted writing experience.
iii. Have students give their pros/cons, write them on the board, talk briefly about
how much longer the con list is than the pro.
iv. Promote the persuasive research paper by showing how the cons can be wiped
away with an individual research project. Be very excited about presenting the
research unit. This needs to be heavily contrasted with their negative feelings
towards ACT writing.
v. Preface “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” by pointing students attention to how
research is used to support an argument and whether or not the research is valid.
vi. Pause “MMM” at key points in the presentation.
 Stop when credits begin to roll
 Stop when film title is presented (What do the images mean? Remember
Persepolis!)
vii. After showing parts 1 and 2 of “MMM” hold discussion.
viii. If students are showing strong emotional reactions and opinions towards the
content in “MMM”, pause the film and allow them to debate the content. It is
okay to not get through both 1 and 2.
f. Materials: Whiteboard, projector and screen, DVD player, a copy of “MMM” or the
clips from YouTube.com.
g. To-Do List (Task Analysis for self!): Write warm-up, get copy of “MMM”, write down
notes about places it may be good to pause at.
h. References:
i. Sarah Rohlfs, Charlotte High School, Charlotte, MI – Introductory Activity
ii. Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design. Heinemann. 2007. Chapters 2,
4, 10, 13, 14.
 i. Handouts: We do not have any handouts for this day. We do not want students to feel
overwhelmed moving from the ACT unit into yet another writing unit. Thus, we want to
show the film in order to scaffold the idea of multi-modal, multi-genre research without
overwhelming the students with another writing assignment.

Day 7: Plagiarism, Sources, Citations, and Other Fun Things To Keep You In School
a. Goals: We want to make it explicit to the students that they need to avoid any and all
forms of plagiarism. They need to know how to correctly cite their reliable sources.
Learning this early on will help ease any frustration.
b. Rationale: At this point, students will be beginning to conduct their own research. They
will have already had 3 days in the library gather information and finding topics that they
would want to write about. Once students have decided what they want to write about,
they will begin collecting reliable, relevant sources that will help to inform their opinion.
We want them to be able to properly cite the source immediately after finding the source
so that it does not get lost in the sea of information they will be acquiring. Before this
lesson, students will have found two supporting resources for their thesis. In class,
students will be using their relevant examples to form their own citations. We will aide
them in this process.
c. Assessments: 2 proper citations by the end of class.
d. Objectives (use SWBATS)
i. Understand importance of academic honesty and integrity
ii. Know where to go to do proper citations for different types of research sources
iii. Have 2 properly cited resources to support their argument.
iv. Know where to find the information necessary to create a citation.
v. Know the difference between using a paraphrase and direct quotations.
e. Tasks (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting
here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments,
etc.)
i. Warm-up: Free-write
ii. Give plagiarism handout for students to follow along
iii. Explain in the most explicit terms the following:
1. What is an improper paraphrase, why is this plagiarism?
2. How to properly paraphrase.
3. How to use quotes, and how to format quotes.
4. How to make quotes into a paraphrase .
iv. Make sure to stop and ask “What questions do we have?”
v. Emphasize that it is more important to over-cite than to risk plagiarizing.
vi. Explicitly point out on the handout web resources they can use to aide them in
proper citation.
vii. Remind them of Day 4’s introduction to the Wikispace and note taking (a
fantastic place to organize sources at this point)
viii. Head to the Library for students to correctly cite their two existing sources.
ix. Check each student’s sources by the end of the hour.
f. Materials: Plagiarism handout, Wikispace, Library
g. To-Do List (Task Analysis for self!): Reserve library space, make copies of handout.
h. References:
i. Sarah Rohlfs, Charlotte High School, Charlotte, MI – Plagiarism Handout.
ii. Kelly Merrit/Carlin Borsheim note
 i. All relevant handouts for these 3-4 key lessons. (These should be in the format you
would give to your students.). See Handout Tab.

Day 21: Introduction of Multimodal Embedded Arguments/Conferences for Drafts

a. Goals: At this point in the unit, students have just turned in the draft for their research
paper. Students will be introduced to different modes of presentation and how research is
an integral part of that experience.
b. Rationale: We want students to start thinking about how research can dictate mode. It is
also important to have students begin to think about how audience also informs the mode
of presentation. Truth Ad video clips are familiar to students and obviously research
based (while also being extremely persuasive), and we aim to have students recognize
these points to inspire them to construct something similar.
c. Assessments: Discussion of Truth Ads and conferencing with students about their rough
drafts.
d. Objectives (use SWBATS):
i. See new modes of presentation
ii. Discuss efficacy of mode
iii. Think about the teacher’s feedback from the conferences
iv. Analyze how Truth Ads use research to present a very particular point of view.
v. Talk about imagery.
e. Tasks (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting
here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments,
etc.)
i. Warm-up: How are you feeling about presenting your research in a new and
innovative way (Remind them of “MMM”).
ii. Show Truth Ads
iii. After each ad discuss how research was presented and how and why the research
was persuasive.
iv. Hold a discussion about how they think they could do this with their research.
v. Then go down to the Lab/Media Center/Library so students can start researching
modes and polishing their draft.
f. Materials: YouTube links, Truth Ads, projector and screen, computer lab
g. To-Do List (Task Analysis for self!): Reserve lab space, set aside YouTube links and
make sure they work before class, set up projector (if not done already).
h. References:
i. Body Bag Commercial -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4xmFcrJexk&feature=related
ii. Truth 1200 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJTCWtcAews&NR=1,
iii. Second Hand Smoke – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7abIkin2mA8,
iv. Tough Love –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhwH04Hl_G4&feature=related