30 Minute Lesson

Overview:
Now that students have been exposed to a Shakespearean sonnet, they will have the opportunity
to branch out in this genre. This lesson will help students apply the sonnet characteristic charts
they made to different sonnets.

Objectives:
 Students will select a sonnet to analyze.
 Students will analyze their chosen sonnets in groups using their sonnet characteristic
charts.
 Students will learn how to complete a close reading.

Materials:
 Students’ daybooks
 Handouts with classic sonnets
 Daybook-size handouts on how to complete a close reading
 Glue sticks

Procedure:
1. Daybook question
2. The teacher will do a brief (5 minute) review on meter.
3. The students will have some time to look through the file of sonnets and select which one
they would like to analyze.
4. The teacher will divide the students into small groups and pass out the close reading
handouts. The students will glue them in their daybooks.
5. The teacher will walk the students through the handout.

Evaluation:
The teacher will walk around the room during group time and stop to talk with each group about
what they are learning. The teacher will use this discussion to gauge the students’ progress.

Closure:
The teacher will ask if anyone has any questions about the close reading, and will introduce the
sonnet writing assignment, pass out the handouts, and assign it for next time’s homework.
1. Which lesson or lessons are shown in the video clips? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan
number.

Lesson Demo #2 is shown in this video clip.

2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment

Refer to scenes in the video clips where you provided a positive learning environment.

a. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to students with
varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in learning?

I challenged students by asking them to share a little bit about what they had written in their
daybooks at the beginning of class. The prompt had asked students to share a time when
something had moved them – whether it was a book, a movie, or something else. I saw the
students writing quite a bit in the clip, but when I asked them if anyone wanted to share, no one
volunteered. I assumed that was because this was a rather personal topic, and wanted to respect
the students. If they had wanted to share, however, I would have done my best to develop a
rapport and responsiveness to each student.

3. Engaging Students in Learning

Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.

1. Explain how your instruction engaged students in constructing meaning from,

interpreting, or responding to a complex text.

I walked the students through a close reading handout for the sonnets that they selected to
analyze (not shown in video). This handout featured steps the students could take to dive
deeper into their chosen poems. This engaged the students by giving them instruction to
interpret the texts they selected.

2. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and
personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.

At about the 5:24 mark, I began discussing about how yesterday, the students had struggled a little bit
with the concept of meter. I reviewed this concept and broke it down more for the students.
Eventually (not shown in video), I linked meter to our upcoming sonnet writing assignment and told
the students that I would like them to implement a meter pattern into their own sonnets.

4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction

Refer to examples from the clips in your explanations.

1. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to promote thinking
and develop students’ abilities to construct meaning from, interpret, OR respond to
a complex text.
Near the end of the video, the students begin to tell me which sonnets they selected to analyze. I used
their responses to help guide them through the close reading that they began working on. I also used the
students’ responses from their exit tickets in the last lesson in order to determine that they did not
understand meter. Because of this, I included a review of it in this lesson, which helped them to further
understand the text.

2. Explain how you supported students in using textual references (or, if a film, visual
references or dialogue) to check or justify their constructions of meaning from,
interpretations of, or responses to complex text.

I supported students by referencing the poems which the students could choose from to analyze. I handed
out packets of sonnets to each student, and I discussed the choices that the students made with them.

5. Analyzing Teaching

Refer to examples from the clips in your responses to the prompts.

a. What changes would you make to your instruction—for the whole class and/or for students who
need greater support or challenge—to better support student learning of the central focus (e.g.,
missed opportunities)?

I would change my instruction by spending more time discussing the poems that they could
choose from to analyze.

b. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation with
evidence of student learning AND principles from theory and/or research

When I introduced the activity to the students, I simply gave them the packet of sonnets and told
them to pick one. I feel that the students could have gotten more out of the activity if I had briefly
discussed each poem with them and explained what each one personally meant to me. I have not
had them turn in their close readings yet, so I have not been able to completely assess the
students’ learning. However, I believe that this would have been an instance where modeling
should have been implemented. If I had shown my own passion for poetry by discussing the
sonnets in the handout with the students, then perhaps they would have been more inspired to
complete the activity.
Dear Dr. Hartman,

I just want to offer a brief explanation for some of my responses, which include (not shown in video).
Because a couple of the prompts did not apply to anything in this particular piece of my lesson, I referred
to later parts of the lesson.

Thank you,

Katie Furr