CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Meg Strauss Date: 1-31-2017

School: Rocky Mountain High School Content Area: Journalism

Title: Op-Eds Lesson #:_1_ of _3_

Lesson Idea/Topic and
Rational/Relevance: What are
you going to teach and why is
this lesson of importance to
your students? How is it
relevant to students of this age
and background? Why are you
teaching this lesson now (what
came before/what will come
after)? What teaching
methods/strategies will you use
and why?
Being in a journalism class, I will be teaching a main category of
journalistic writing—Op-Ed pieces. Op-Eds are seen in virtually every
printed and digital news source. In an age where news is at our finger
tips, it is important for students to know the difference between
opinion and fact. Prior to learning the Op-Ed structure, students have
worked on news stories and feature stories. In both news and feature
stories, students must convey fact without any opinion. Now that
students have mastered the technique of only stating facts, they will
now go into the next step in their journalism class—learning how to
write with opinion. For this unit, I will teach this by providing
characteristics of Op-Ed pieces, examples of Op-Ed pieces, and end the
class with students turning in a list of ideas in which they want to
write their Op-Ed on. For their final op-ed piece, students must
incorporate surveys in order for students to understand that op-ed
pieces must be backed up by quotes, facts, and research.

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard)

Standard 4, 2. C: Formualte research questions that are clear and precise.

Standard 3, A: Use current survey/polling tools

Standard 5, C: Demonstrate sensitity to the impact of their stories on all facets of their audience.

Understandings: (Big Ideas)

Students will understand the importance of basing their op-ed pieces on fact and research. Students will understand how
op-ed pieces differ from news stories, as well as the characteristics of op-ed pieces.

Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select applicable questions
from standard)

Why is it important to be able to convey an educated opinion?

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) AND (Success Criteria)—Using ABCD Objective

I [the student] can: understand the importance of using fact and research as the backbone to my op-ed piece.

This means I can: begin to think about the survey questions I want to incorporate in my op-ed piece.

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CEP Lesson Plan Form

I [the student] can: describe and understand the characteristics of an Op-Ed piece by individually evaluating examples,
discussing characteristics with small and large groups, and creating a list of twenty Op-Ed topics.

This means: I can begin to think about the opinion-based topics I want to address in my final Op-Ed piece.

List of Assessments: (Note whether the assessment is formative or summative)

Formative: Students will turn in a lead, quote, and survey data. Students will turn in a list of op-ed topics: five explain or
interpret, five criticize, five persuade, and five praise or thank. For each category, students must provide one survey
question for their final op-ed piece.

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CEP Lesson Plan Form
Name and Purpose of Lesson
Should be a creative title - Think of the purpose as
the mini-rationale
Approx. Time and Materials
How long do you expect the activity to last and what
materials will you need?
Anticipatory Set
The “hook” to grab students’ attention. To put
students into a receptive frame of mind.
 To focus student attention on the lesson.
 To create an organizing framework for the
ideas, principles, or information that is to
follow (advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any time a different
activity or new concept is to be introduced.
How do you intend to engage your students in
thinking during the Anticipatory Set?
Why are you using it at this point in your lesson?
How will you know they get it?
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Planned Lesson Activities
Name: For the Sake of Argument: Editorial Writing
Purpose: Students will understand the importance of facts and research in regards to op-
eds, as well as the characteristics and structure of an Op-Ed piece in order to write their
own editorial piece.
Approx. Time: 70 Minutes
Materials:
- Notes
For the anticipatory set, I will first show a video of a news story. This video can be seen
here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/29/subway-foot-long-
sub-lawsuit/614052001/.
After watching that video, I will play a video of an opinion-based video regarding the
same subject: http://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-journal-subways-sandwich-
settlement/0163E22B-FABF-43B9-B961-E81DB417961F.html.
After both videos have been watched, I will ask students about the difference between
the two videos.
The strategy I intend to use is _Compare/Contrast ______________________
I am using this strategy here because:
Students have previously been taught writing genres in which opinion is discouraged. I
will use the news video to activate prior knowledge on journalistic facts, as well as
develop new knowledge by showing news told through opinion.
My CFU?
My CFU will be determined on the depth and understanding of a class discussion.
Teacher Actions Student Actions
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CEP Lesson Plan Form

Procedures
(Include a play-by-play account of what students and
teacher will do from the minute they arrive to the
minute they leave your classroom. Indicate the
length of each segment of the lesson in minutes.
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input
-modeling
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:-whole-class practice, group
practice, individual practice, check for
understanding, other
1. 10:20-10:30: I will play the two
videos for the students.
2. 10:30-10:35: I will lead a class
discussion on what the class feels is
the difference between the two
videos.
3. 10:35-10:40: I will lecture students
on the characteristics of editorial
pieces while writing down
important information on the
board.
4. 10:40-10:50: I will direct students
to get into pairs. Students will think
of 20 Op-Ed topics: 5
explanation/interpretative, 5
critical, 5 persuasive, and 5
praise/thanks. I will walk between
the small groups and direct as
needed.
5. 10:50-10:55: I will direct each
group to list three of their topics,
and I will ask the class to
determine what type of editorial
category that category fits into.
1. Students will watch the two videos.
2. Students will participate in a class
discussion on the difference
between news and opinion pieces.
3. Students will take notes on the
characteristics of editorial pieces
while paying close attention to the
information written on the board.
4. Students will get into pairs.
Students together will think of 20
Op-Ed topics: 5
explanation/interpretative, 5
critical, 5 persuasive, and 5
praise/thanks.
5. Each group will read three of their
topics to the class. Students will
decide what category each topic
fits into.

6. 10:55-11:00: I will lecture students 6. Students will listen to the lecture

on the importance of using fact on sureys and facts.
and statistics in their final op-ed.

7. 11:00-11:15: Students will pick a

topic that is able to use as a
statistics for a survey. Students will
write a lead, incorporate the
statistic, and use a quote.
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7. 11:00-11:15: Students will
individually find an opinion based
text. Students will turn in a paper
that states the topics of the piece,
CEP Lesson Plan Form

Closure
Those actions or statements by a teacher that are After students have turned in their reflection on an Op-Ed of their choosing, students will
designed to bring a lesson presentation to an discuss the question, “Why is it important to be able to convey an opinion?” This
appropriate conclusion. Used to help students bring question will tie into our essential question of the day and will give students a question to
things together in their own minds, to make sense reflect as they leave the class.
out of what has just been taught. “Any Questions?
No. OK, let’s move on” is not closure. Closure is used:
 To cue students to the fact that they have
arrived at an important point in the lesson or
the end of a lesson.
 To help organize student learning
To help form a coherent picture and to consolidate.

Differentiation: Differentiation is used in the discussion-based model. Students are asked to participate
both in small and large group settings. Students are asked to develop their skills by having
Differentiation should be embedded thought-provoking discussions.
throughout your whole lesson!!
This is to make sure you have met the
needs of your students on IEPS or 504
To modify: If the activity is too advanced for a child,
how will you modify it so that they can be
successful?
To extend: If the activity is too easy for a child, how
will you extend it to develop their emerging skills?

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