Amanda Stockett

Lesson Plan
Title: This I Believe: Developing Extended Definition Essay Topics
Grade Level: 9th/10th
Objective: To guide students through an effective brainstorming activity, which will help
them determine their important values and beliefs and help them decide on a topic for
their extended-definition essays.
Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.B
Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions,
concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the
audience's knowledge of the topic.
Materials:
Transcript of the This I Believe Essay,
Audio of This I Belief Essay,
Worksheet of Belief Statements,
Writing Utensil
Content Outline:
1. Introduction:
a. Inform students of the upcoming extended- definition essays. Inform that
this lesson will be a brainstorming session
2. Activity
a. Handout copy of This I Believe essay
b. Play audio version of the essay
c. Handout worksheet of belief statements
d. Have students share their beliefs
3. Closure
a. Ask the students to use this brainstorming activity as a way to choose a
topic for their extended-definition essay
Activities and Procedures:
Step 1: Describe the upcoming assignment of extended-definition essays. For
your next essay, you will be writing extended-definition essays. Today we are
going to do a brainstorming activity to get you thinking about your topic choice.
Step 2: Explain the background and rules regarding This I Believe essays. This I
Believe essays are based off of a radio program from the 1950s. Now, anyone can
submit one of these essays students, teachers, and parents. These are short
essays that describe a belief and include a short story.
Step 3: Hand out a copy of the speech to the students.
Step 4: Watch the video of the speech. Always be Nice to the Pizza Guy
Step 5: Have students think about the essay and the beliefs stated. Ask them to
identify the beliefs that she discusses in her essay. Help them identify values of
respect, kindness, hard work and others the students identify.
Step 6: Hand out Belief Statement worksheet. The students should think about

values and beliefs that are important in their lives, and write how and why they
important.
Step 7: Give students seven minutes to complete the worksheet.
Step 8: If time allows, have students share their ideas with the class.
Step 9: Tell students to think about their ideas, and come up with a value/belief to
use for the extended definition essay

Rationale
For my lesson about brainstorming for extended definition essays, I decided to
use a This I believe Essay, and a handout about belief statements. From the Smagorinkski
chapter How to Write Essays That Define, I learned that It is important to pique
students interest when you ask them to write an extended definition essay on their own.
Begin by helping students identify a concept they are interested in defining.
(Smagorinkski 39) This chapter suggested having students brainstorm and define topics
such as friendship, loyalty, integrity and responsibility(40) After reading through these
ideas, I decided to use a This I Believe essay, so that students could start thinking about
the values and beliefs that they value in their own lives.

After thinking about their values, they are then instructed to write about why their
values are important. This was a very critical component mentioned in Alex Scotts
article, where he said Through brainstorming, students come up with a variety of ideas,
either from the notes taken in previous lessons or from their own thoughts, so that they
themselves become the main resource for the first part of the lesson. (Smith 28) By
brainstorming about their own values and beliefs, they can create some new ideas and
thoughts for their upcoming essay.

The formative assessments for this lesson will be listening to the students identify
the values in the This I Believe essay. By showing that they can pick out the values in the
essay, they will show their ability to recognize important concepts in writing. In addition,
after the students have written down their own beliefs on the handout, they will have time
to share. During this time, I will assess their ability to recognize values in their own lives,

and write why they are important. The summative assessment for this activity will be
seen in the students final extended definition essay. In this essay, the students ability to
write about a topic that interest them and that incorporates their values and beliefs, then
this mini-lesson will be successful.

Annotated Bibliography
Scott, Alex. "Essay Writing For Everyone: An Investigation Into Different Methods Used
To Teach Year 9 To Write An Essay. (Cover Story)." Teaching History 123
(2006): 26-33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
This article investigates new ways to approach essay writing for students. This article has
many great ideas about forming essay questions, modeling good writing styles,
addressing different styles of writing. This article is informative to me because of the
research it provided about effective brainstorming.

Smagorinsky, Peter. Johannessen, Larry. Kahn, Elizabeth. How to Write Essays That
Define Teaching Students to Write Essays That Define. Dynamics of Writing
Instruction Series. 2011. 39-58. Academic Search Complete. Web

This chapter is part of a very informative book about teaching students to write extendeddefinition essays. This chapter goes into how to engage and interest students for writing
extended definition essays. It provides brainstorming and topic-choosing activities. It also
discusses ways to transition students ideas into more developed concepts and ideas.
Lastly, it shows how to draft and plan the definition essay.

Amanda Stockett
ENG 3580
Dr. Cook
October 13th, 2014
Reflection for Mini Lesson Two
Although I was very excited about this lesson, I felt like it was not received as
well by my peers. I enjoy the This I Believe essays, and I thought the class would find
them interesting and relatable. However, two of my peers suggested that I cut down the
length of the audio recording and questioned its necessity in my lesson. I think I was too
focused on what interests me, rather than thinking about what would appeal to a larger
audience.
Another suggestion that I received from my peers was to include more
information about how to brainstorm for academic writing. I wish I had included more
information about brainstorming and how this lesson fit into a larger concept. Several
people said they wish I had given them more time to write and to share. Also they said I
should have allowed them more time to respond to questions and think about ideas, and
maybe an opportunity to work in pairs.
I did not really feel like my peers got the connection between the This I Believe
essays and brainstorming for the extended definition essays. I think my lesson came
across more narrative focused, rather than informative.
I was not very happy with this lesson. Once again, I felt nervous and rushed and I
left out some directions and explanations that I needed to include. If I were to teach this
lesson again, I do not think I would use it for an expository or informative unit. I think
that if I was going to use the This I Believe essays, then it would be better suited for a
narrative writing unit. However, I did like the worksheet I used. I thought it was a good

prompt to get students thinking about what is important in their lives. If I were to teach
this same lesson again, I would provide more information about brainstorming and
extended-definition essays. I would try to show the connection between beliefs and
values, and definition essays.
After watching some of the other students lessons, I wish I had used a more
interactive form of technology. I am a bit apprehensive about using technology, because I
do not feel comfortable with it. Although I have grown up with it, there is still so much
that can go wrong. However, there are some great apps and websites that could be used
for mini-lessons, and next time I plan to use one of them.