The Iditarod By: Kelcy Engl

Union East Elementary Cheektowaga school district I worked in Kristen Carlisle’s classroom Grade Four

My Students 23 students in my classroom Co-teaching environment Varied abilities Learning Disabilities Emotional Disturbance Auditory Processing

Time Frame Thirty-five minute English Language Arts period Two small reading groups Met with each group for about fifteen minutes

Peer Review Focus Question How could I make this lesson more engaging for the students?

Lesson Objectives 1.0 The learner will be able to write and opinion piece about sled dog racing with 90% accuracy. 2.0 The learner will be able to justify their opinion using examples from two articles with 90% accuracy.

Essential Question How can you use textual evidence to form and support your opinion when writing?

Enduring Understanding Opinion writing pieces can be supported and strengthened, through the use of details from articles about the Iditarod and sled dog racing.

Guiding Questions What do you know about Alaska? What is the Iditarod? What is sled dog racing?

Common Core Standard Standard: RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text CCR Anchor: Key Ideas and Details Strand: Reading for Informational Text

Assessment Tool Name: __________________________ Do you think the Iditarod is too dangerous for sled dogs? Why or why not? Support your opinion with details from the articles, A Sled Dog Life and Is the Iditarod for the Dogs. (6-10 sentence paragraph)

Teacher Exemplar Did you know some dogs that run the Iditarod race, which takes place in Alaska, die each year? Karen Fanning, the author of the article, Is the Iditarod for the Dogs, explains sled dogs die from heart failure, pneumonia, and even sled accidents each year.

Teacher Exemplar Rubric Attribute4 Clear, well organized, well developed ideas (Weight: 1 point) 4/4 points Your paragraph has at least 4-5 details from the passage Is the Iditarod for the Dogs Editing for grammar, usage and punctuation (Weight: 1 point) 4/4 points Before corrections you have less than 3 spelling, grammar, and punctuation usage errors in your paragraph

Student Work Distinguished

Distinguished Student Rubric Attributes Attribute4 Drawing inferences and stating opinion (Weight: 1 point) 4 sentences of your own opinion about the treatment of the dogs. Sentence variation, word choice, and paragraph length (Weight: 1 point) You use sentence variation (all of your sentences start of differently). You use descriptive language.

Proficient Student Work

Proficient Student Work Rubric Attributes Attribute2 Clear, well organized, well developed ideas (Weight: 1 point) Your paragraph has 2 details from the passage Is the Iditarod for the Dogs

Developing Student Work

Developing Student Work Rubric Attribute2 Sentence variation, word choice, and paragraph length (Weight: 1 point) You use very little descriptive language (you use a lot of nice, bad, sad) and your paragraph has 3-4 detailed sentences.

Pre and Post Assessment Data

Modifications Modification Type Specific Modification RationaleBenefits InstructionalBreaking the students into two small reading groups Since there is a high and low level reading group, dividing each group is more effective for providing instruction Higher and lower reading group benefit because the higher group can work at their own pace and be more independent, while the lower level reading group can be guided throughout the lesson.

Reflection Many thanks to my peer review group for your support throughout this process!! There is always room for improvement!