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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

A significant influence: Describing an important teacher in your life

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=824

A lesson plan for grades 9–12 English Language Arts

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Students write a tribute to a teacher or mentor and then publish their piece in a class collection in this lesson that focuses on inspirational relationships. This activity provides many opportunities for collaborative group work and class discussion, and uses Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie and Sonya Sones’ poem “Dear Teachers” as examples for writing. In addition to providing several samples of works that have been written about inspirational people, Readwritethink also offers comprehensive assignment guidelines and a rubric for assessment.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 9

  • Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
      • scenes and incidents located effectively in time and place.
      • vivid impressions of being in a setting and a sense of engagement in the events occurring.
      • appreciation for the significance of the account.
      • a sense of the narrator's personal voice.
    • Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
      • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
      • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
      • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
      • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
      • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
      • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
      • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
      • making connections between works, self and related topics.
      • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
      • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
      • identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.

Grade 10

  • Goal 1: The learner will react to and reflect upon print and non-print text and personal experiences by examining situations from both subjective and objective perspectives.
    • Objective 1.01: Produce reminiscences (about a person, event, object, place, animal) that engage the audience by:
      • using specific and sensory details with purpose.
      • explaining the significance of the reminiscence from an objective perspective.
      • moving effectively between past and present.
      • recreating the mood felt by the author during the reminiscence.
    • Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
      • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
      • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
      • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
      • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
      • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
      • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
      • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
      • making connections between works, self and related topics.
      • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
      • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
      • identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.

Grade 11

  • Goal 1: The learner will demonstrate increasing insight and reflection to print and non-print text through personal expression.
    • Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
      - elaborating upon a significant past episode from the student's current perspective.
      - projecting the student's voice in the work through reflective interpretation of relationships to people and events.
      -writing for a specific audience and purpose.

Grade 12

  • Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text as well as to personal experience.
    • Objective 1.01: Compose reflective texts that give the audience:
      - an understanding of complex thoughts and feelings.
      - a sense of significance (social, political, or philosophical implications).
      - a sense of encouragement to reflect on his or her own ideas.