Lesson plan
Go for the Gold!
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to understand biographies and write their own biographies.
Introduction
(10 minutes)- Show students the online biography of Chantal Petitclerc, and read some excerpts aloud.
Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling
(10 minutes)- Have students turn to others nearby and share one thing they learned about Chantal.
- Some prompts you could give them are: *Why do you think Chantal trained so hard? How do you think Chantal felt when she came in last in her first race? Why do you think Chantal needed to train so hard? What is Chantal’s message to kids?
Guided Practice
(10 minutes)- Spend a few minutes as a whole class discussing how Chantal was courageous.
- Ask students how they think Chantal showed courage after her accident.
Independent working time
(30 minutes)- Ask students to think about and discuss some situations in which they might show their courage.
- Come up with success criteria as a class.
- Have each student write a one page biography about someone he thinks is a hero.
Differentiation
- Enrichment: Advanced students can be asked to write more detailed biographies that span at least a page and a half.
- Support: Struggling students can be allowed to write less for their biographies—half a page instead of a full page.
Assessment
(15 minutes)- Collect students' biographies once they're done working. Review the biographies later to assess their comprehension of the lesson content.
Review and closing
(5 minutes)- Ask students to think about and discuss some situations in which they might show their courage.
- Have students share their acts of courage or times they have seen someone else show courage.
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