Lesson 3
Name: Madison Cappas
Grade: 7
Activity Title & Source, & Description of
activity:
Class Description & Differentiation​:
Describe the important characteristics of
the students that need to be considered in
planning & teaching to facilitate learning for
all students.
● Students' prior content knowledge,
and possible misconceptions.
● Include how you differentiate your
instruction based on this information
Standards (Common Core or Ohio State
Standards):
Instructional Objectives:
Date: Taught on Sept 20
Title: Writing Thesis Statements
Students will learn how to write thesis statements
and then use their knowledge to create their own
Thesis Statements for the organizer they had
created previously based on ​The House on
Mango Street
● Highly Latino classroom, students are
aware of the culture of being Latino in a
Chicago neighborhood
● 2 students are Diverse Learners and will
receive the modified outline. The modified
outline has a section specific to thesis
statements and includes sentence starters.
Students will also be asked for a
2-sentence thesis statement instead of a
1-sentence thesis statement
CCSS: RL.7.9​: Compare and contrast a fictional
portrayal of a time, place, or character and a
historical account of the same period as a means
of understanding how authors of fiction use or
alter history
CCSS:W.7.4​: Produce clear and coherent writing
in which the development, organization, and style
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS: W.7.9​: Draw evidence from literary or
informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research
CCSS: RI.7.9: ​Analyze how two or more authors
writing about the same topic shape their
presentations of key information by emphasizing
different evidence or advancing different
interpretations of facts.
CCSS: L.7.3​: Use knowledge of language and its
conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or
listening
Students will compare and contrast a fictional
portrayal of time and a historical account of the
same period and express their finding in writing.
 Students will build evidence from informational
text to support analysis of a literary text and
express their analysis in writing.
Students will properly use conventions of English
writing, including proper grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and capitalization.
Students will successfully identify the claim and
evidence in thesis statements and properly create
their own based on their evidence and topic.

Materials: ​Include all needed materials,
resources & technology
● The House on Mango Street ​copies for the
class
● Thesis Statement presentation
(Instructional Material 6)
● Exit Ticket (Assessment 3)
● Projector and whiteboard in classroom
● Chromebook cart in classroom

Key Vocabulary: Thesis, claim, evidence, similar/similarity,

different/difference, prompt, explanation

Procedures:​ Describe step by step the details of the lesson sufficiently so that the reader, as
your substitute for the day, could duplicate this lesson and reach your student objectives. You
may want to include key questions you may ask and possible student responses. More is better
here. Any differentiation you account for during this lesson (such as details of how you will
engage different groups / subgroups of learners) should be included either at the end or
embedded within the lesson procedures. You may wish to include estimated time allotted for this
lesson at the beginning of this section.

● Set up projector and cue up presentation to title slide before class begins
● Greetings, welcome students to class
● Ask students if there are any questions on the organizer they want to discuss
● Introduce lesson/target: Today, we will be looking at how to write thesis statements
based on a topic and evidence
● Slide 2: What is a thesis statement? Has anyone heard this before? Does anyone know
what this means?
○ Wait for student answers. If they do not get it right, that is fine. Just move on to
the next slide
● Slide 3: A thesis statement is a short statement, typically only one sentence long, that
makes a claim based on evidence that a writer has already done. There are two essential
parts of a thesis statement: the claim and the evidence
● Slide 4: A claim is very short statement that expresses how you feel about a topic. It’s
usually an opinion or what you want the audience to take away from your paper. Claims
are usually expressed as opinions: all schools should require uniforms and parents
should restrict their children’s tv time Can someone tell me why “all schools should start
at 10am” is a claim?
○ Wait for student answers. Look for: opinion, short, what the audience should take
away
● Slide 5: We talked about the first part of a thesis statement, the claim, and the second
part of a thesis statement is the evidence. Evidence in a thesis statement is a summary
or list of examples or evidence that the author has already done that will be talked about
later in the paper. Using the claim “all schools should require uniforms,” the evidence
may be “because uniforms allow for all students to be equal and students are able to
focus better.” In this example thesis statement, we would expect to read at least one
paragraph about how uniforms makes all students equal and at least one paragraph
about how students will be able to focus better.
● Slide 6: Let’s look at an example. This thesis statement talks about adding exercise to
your daily morning routine. Can someone tell me what the claim is in this thesis
statement?
○ Answer: “Americans should add exercise to their daily morning routine”
○ If students struggle, rephrase the question: What is the main idea of the paper?
What does the author want us to believe?
● Slide 6 (cont): Good! So we know the claim, what evidence can we expect to be talked
about later in the paper? Can someone give me one example? Can another student give
me another example?
○ Answers: Keeps bodies at a healthy weight, reduces the risk of high blood
pressure
○ If students struggle, rephrase the question: What do we think the body
paragraphs will be about?
● Slide 7: So we can identify the parts of the thesis statement, now we are going to try to
write our own. I have given you the prompt, our opinion, and research that we have
already done on this topic. Everyone take a second and create your own thesis
statement from this information
○ Give students 3 minutes
● Slide 7 (cont): Now, everyone take a few minutes and share your thesis statements with
your table, and then come up with a thesis statement that your entire table can agree on.
○ Give students 4 minutes
● Slide 7 (cont): Can I hear each tables’ thesis statements?
○ Have each table share thesis statements, point out missing claims or evidence,
ask students what was missed and how to fix it
● Slide 7 (cont): Can someone tell me the claim?
○ Claim: The driving age should not be lowered to age 14
● Slide 7 (cont): And can someone give me an example of evidence? And the other
example? And another?
○ Evidence: 14 year olds brain’s are not developed enough, drivers may be too
short, and current 14 year-olds may be too distracted by their phones.
● Slide 8: Here is a possible thesis statement you could have made. If you have a thesis
statement similar to this, you are correct! Make sure you have the claim and the three
pieces of evidence I have listed.
● Change presentation back to slide 3: Now, you will write your own thesis statements for
your compare and contrasting papers. You will have the rest of the time to work on your
own thesis statements. When you think you have a good thesis statement, read it to a
friend. After your friend has given you feedback, you can get your chromebooks and
begin typing up your paper. Your homework is to finish typing up your paper. We will
work on revising and editing your paper in class on Monday.
● Give out exit ticket 10 minutes before class ends
 ● Instructions: Please fill out this exit ticket and hand it to me on your way out
● Give students rest of time to work
● Have students begin to put Chromebooks away when there are 5 minutes left in class

Assessment: ​Be sure to include multiple Informal:

means of assessment when applicable and
take care to focus on assessment
measures that link back your stated
objectives.
Formal:
● Asking comprehension questions during
thesis presentation
● Circling the classroom during independent
work time
● Students will fill out the exit ticket
(Assessment 3) before they leave class
● Students will turn in their completed paper,
which includes their thesis statement, after
Lesson 4. The thesis statement will have
its own category on the rubric
(Assessment 5)