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**Lesson Title:** My beliefs in the world **Grade Level:** 11th and 12th grade communication arts students
 * Related Lessons:** Research for video creation
 * Unit:** Personal Storytelling


 * Description of the lesson:** This lesson is designed to allow students to discover their personal beliefs and see how those beliefs fit in with the beliefs of other citizens of the world. They will use the information that they gather from this lesson later on in the unit.

**GOALS** ** Students will solve the problem of knowing what they truly believe by exploring the statement “This I Believe” in others, those who know them well and by looking introspectively into their own hearts and minds. ** **Maryland** **Standards:** CLG 4.1.1 “The student will state and explain a personal response to a given text” (MSDE, 2004). **ISTE NETS-S Standards:** 1. Research and information fluency 2. Communication and collaboration 3. Research and information fluency ** ACTION ** ﻿ Steps of Lesson: In the large group setting, background knowledge will be activated by the teacher asking the question, “How do you know what you believe?” Students will propose answers and they will be listed in a Word document using an LCD projector so all can view the responses (possible answers: parents teach us, experiences we have had, etc.) If I asked you to describe what you believe, how would you frame your answer? It is acceptable for students to be unsure here, as next, we will look at ways others have communicated what they believe through the “This I Believe” website and NPR radio broadcasts.

Students will be introduced to the This I Believe website, [|http://thisibelieve.org] using an LCD projector. The teacher will discuss the history and purposes of this website. Next students will work in pairs and go on the internet to [|http://thisibelieve.org] website. They will take a few minutes to explore the site and then they will read and answer the questions below for the three listed essays. What does the author believe? How did he/she come to believe this? Did this belief happen in isolation or were there others involved in this realization? Explain. Can you relate to the author’s belief? Do you agree with it for your life, why or why not? Why do you feel this way? Each partner must answer this question individually. Email your answers to mrsbcommarts1@gmail.com

[] “Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Guy” by Sarah Adams [] “The Gift of Kindness” by David Copperfield [] “We are Each Other’s Business” by Eboo Patel

For homework tonight, each student will go back on the This I Believe site and find one essay that they can relate to their lives. Answer the questions listed above and expand on the last question, which ask about relating to the author’s belief. This homework activity will give students some individual, quiet time to become introspective and find an essay that they can agree with and apply to their own lives as they begin to solve the problem, “What do I believe?” Students will email their responses to the teacher as they did in class. What if students do not have Internet access? How will they complete the homework? Jeannine

This problem is relevant to my students because, as teenagers, they need to start to realize what they stand for and believe so that they can make decisions that are healthy and positive for their lives. It is helpful for students to read what others have gone through and how they have formed their beliefs. The essays can serve as models for teens to help them begin to look inward at their own experiences and begin the journey of finding out who they are.

Students will use technology by exploring a website on the internet and using an email program to communicate their thoughts to the teacher. Are students typing their essays as an email? or ﻿Will students use Micrsoft Word or another word processing program to type their essays? Jeannine *Students will type their responses as emails and the teacher will reply back to them with direction and feedback.

**MONITOR** The lesson is designed to insure success for all learners. Working in pairs will help learners who need extra help by being able to discuss with a partner each of the essays and working collaboratively gives students to rehearse their thoughts and feelings before committing them to paper. This helps build confidence. In addition, the homework assignment is based on the experiences that the students have had in class, the assignment is identical, so there should be no problems in replicating the experience as the student has gained confidence by exploring the site in class and formulating responses.

The teacher will monitor groups and give individual attention as needed. This strategy will help learners of all levels to be successful.

** EVALUATION **

The teacher will assess the lesson through the responses of the pair/class work assignment, but will assess individual understanding from reading the emailed homework and replying to students individually. Are you using a rubric to assess students? A checklist? Jeannine*I am not formally grading the email, I am checking for understanding and allowing the students a place to begin exploring who they are. They will develop their belief statement into a video project later in the unit.

LESSON #2

Maureen Brittingham Communication Arts Lesson “This I Believe”

**Lesson Title:** My beliefs are born from experiences and from interactions with others

**Grade Level:** 11th and 12th grade communication arts students

**Related Lessons:** Research for video creation

**Unit:** Interviewing

**Description of the lesson:** This lesson is designed to allow students to discover their personal beliefs by interviewing those who have helped them establish their beliefs (through guidance or personal teachings-parents, teachers, pastors, friends, etc.) or those who have inspired them to believe a certain way. ** GOALS ** ** Students will solve the problem of knowing what they truly believe by exploring the statement “This I Believe” in others, interviewing those who know them well and by looking introspectively into their own hearts and minds. **

**Maryland** **English Standards:** CLG 4.1.1 “The student will state and explain a personal response to a given text” (MSDE, 2004). CLG 1.1.4 “The student will apply reading strategies when comparing, making connections, drawing conclusions about non-print text”(MSDE, 2004).

**ISTE NETS-S Standards:** **1. Creativity and innovation ** **2. Communication and collaboration ** **3. Research and information fluency ** **4. Critical thinking, problem solving, & decision making ** **5. Technology operations and concepts **

Expand on the ISTE NETS-S standards used. I see several that will apply here.--Jeannine Lowe ** ACTION ** ** Steps of Lesson: ** In the large group setting, the teacher will review what was learned in the previous lesson and build on it for this lesson, discussing what was learned about others beliefs. Background knowledge will be activated by the teacher asking the question, “What do you believe and what experiences (or whom) have (has) brought you to this belief?”

Remebering the types of accounts we read in the last lesson from the www.thisibelieve.org website, students will brainstorm using two modified handouts from the thisibelieve.org website curriculum. The students will be given the following handouts from Lesson 4 on the thisibelieve.org high school curriculum materials.

Handout #1 will be done in pairs. This will help students to begin to develop their own personal philosophy, but also to have a peer to discuss with and to receive feedback from, a peer can offer some validation and direction in thought. Upon completing the handout in pairs, each student will choose one topic from the handout, or a topic that they feel is relevant to them, and do a 15-minute individual writing session. The writing session must also include a list of four people who have been influential in their lives and who they might want to interview in their road to discovering their beliefs.

** Handout 1 from Lesson 4 ** ** What Do You Think? ** In the space in front of each belief statement, write an “A” if you agree or a “D” if you disagree. Life is fair. Words can hurt. Police are your friends. What goes around comes around. How you act in a crisis shows who you really are. Love conquers all. An eye for an eye… People learn from their mistakes. You can’t depend on anyone else; you can only depend on yourself. If you smile long enough, you become happy. Miracles do happen. There is one special person for everyone. Money can’t buy happiness. Killing is wrong. Doing what’s right means obeying the law.

*Number the topics in order of importance to your life. Discuss your top 3 topics with your partner as to why you feel you Agree or Disagree with each one.

** Handout 2 from Lesson 4 ** The rules that govern students’ lives are often the same rules taught by parents and respected role models. Sometimes the “tapes” that play in students’ brains are memories of familiar quotations, words programmed into their subconscious minds through parental repetition and/or personal reading. To help students compose a clear statement about the foundation of their individual philosophy, review and discuss wise words that they have heard spoken by others or encountered in their reading.

1. Assign students to interview two people in their lives (a parent or role model) who have made a lasting influence upon their way of thinking and acting. High school students might begin this interview with this openended question: “As the time grows near for me to leave home, what is the most important message or belief that you hope I will take with me and remember throughout my entire life?” Students will develop two more openended questions to ask during this interview during class.

 Advise students to listen carefully and take clear notes on what this adult says, just like a  reporter investigating a news story.  Remind students to ask probing follow up questions in this interview so that they will understand exactly why the adult has chosen this specific message and how the adult has tried to follow this personal advice in his or her own life.  Students will have two days to perform the interviews. Students will perform these two interviews in person if possible and with a camera set up on a tripod (could be done by phone, email or online using skype and recorded) and then post their interview results on the class wiki. Students will summarize their notes and then offer their own reactions to each interview. The footage shot may be used later and incorporated as sound bytes into the final video project. ⁯ Students will respond to two classmate posts on the wiki during class on the third class session. Students will fill in the blank for two classmate posts by offering the following comments: With this in mind, I think you might believe strongly. . . . _.” A suggestion I could offer for you in your quest of finding your belief is. . . . ."

This problem is relevant to my students because, as teenagers, they need to start to realize what they stand for and believe so that they can make decisions that are healthy and positive for their lives. It is helpful for students to hear from those who are close to them to help them understand where their beliefs may have formed. The interviews will serve as a way to begin applying this lesson to their own lives and help them begin to connect with the topic to begin to realize what they believe.

Students will use technology by posting to and responding on our class wiki. They will also use digital video cameras to tape raw footage of the interviews and have it on hand as an option to be incorporated into their video project if it ties in to their final theme.

** MONITOR ** The lesson is designed to insure success for all learners. Working in pairs will help learners who need extra help by being able to discuss their beliefs with a partner. This gives students confidence that their beliefs are valid and may help learners who struggle to find a direction for their thoughts.

The teacher will monitor groups and give individual attention as needed. If a student is struggling to find people to interview, the teacher will help find resources for the interviews (past teachers, coaches, or administrators that the student has connected with previously, the teacher can act as an adult to be interviewed if this is needed).

** EVALUATION ** The teacher will assess understanding by reading the wiki posts and redirecting and responding as necessary. The teacher may do a general post to the entire class and/or respond to individuals, or both. This is not a formal assessment, as the final video project will serve as an assessment. This lesson serves as a research tool in the larger scheme of the final product.

I think that this is an important lesson to help students connect to who they are and you have done a good job. To improve this lesson, I think you should look at an example lesson in our course text for layout and formatting to make your lesson easier to read. This will also help you ensure that you have included all elements required. --Jeannine Lowe

Hi! - I love your group of lessons. I think it is very important for students to know what they stand for and what they connect with. I also think that in this day and age of digital students need to understand how they fit into a world that is so connected. Gone are the days when most families sat around the tv each evening and watched Leave It To Beaver. In doing these lesson students learn some good things to be a part of if that support is not at home. Thanks for sharing! - Sharon Padget

** Lesson #3 **

Maureen Brittingham Communication Arts Unit “This I Believe” **Lesson Title:** Documenting “What I Believe” **Grade Level:** 11th and 12th grade communication arts students **Related Lessons:** Interviewing and Research for Video Creation **Unit:** Personal Storytelling

**Description of the lesson:** This lesson is a culminating activity. It allows students to document their finding and solidify what they believe. They will import their video clips and edit their clips into final video documentaries. Students will incorporate music into the final project and cite their sources, music and video clips (if any are brought in from the Internet). Do students already know how to cite sources? Jeannine Lowe

G**OALS** Students will solve the problem of knowing what they truly believe by exploring the statement, “This I Believe” in others, those who know them well, and by looking introspectively into their own hearts and minds. In this lesson, they will create the final and culminating video project, which visually illustrates what they believe.

**Maryland** **Standards:** CLG 4.1.1 “The student will state and explain a personal response to a given text” (MSDE, 2004). **ISTE NETS-S Standards:** 1. Research and information fluency 2. Communication and collaboration 3. Research and information fluency

**ACTION** Steps of Lesson: Students have already been taught and have mastered the concept of creating a storyboard and a story map. With their handouts from lesson two and their footage that they taped from their interviews, students will create a storyboard to guide the pre-production process of their video creations.

The storyboard requires that they sketch out in scenes the layout of their individual stories. Once they have completed this, students will choose a partner. These two students will combine their stories together to make one video presentation. Students may choose using several criteria: someone who has a similar belief, someone who has an opposite belief and you can tie them together creatively, or simply a person who the student feels he/she can work well with and find a creative way to link their stories together. Students will be given 10 minutes to survey the room for a partner, sharing their storyboard sketches with others and finding a partner.

When partners have been determined, the individual teams will create a story map. These maps will require the participants to choose a creative introduction into their video, focus the viewer on the topic, tell the stories, create a closing/wrap up segment, use credits to take ownership of the piece, and cite their sources. They must also choose music and any other stills or information that they might incorporate from the internet or other sources.

Upon completion of the story map and acquiring approval from the teacher, the remainder of the video will be shot as needed. Each student will personally appear in the video either on camera making a statement or through the use of voiceovers.

Once the production phase is completed, students will use IMovie 6 or IMovie 9 to edit their videos. Upon completion, all students will compress and transfer their videos to the teacher’s laptop and they will burn two DVD copies using IDVD.

Solving the problem of “What do I believe” is critical for teenagers. The project is extremely relevant to my students because they must realize what they believe so that they can make decisions that are healthy and positive for their lives. Through the use of video taped interviews, visual images, and music, students will use many senses and strategies to go from the abstract (I do not know what I believe) to the concrete (at least I believe this). They may also rekindle or create powerful connections with stakeholders in their lives who will have participated in this process.

Students will use technology by using digital video cameras, acquiring and saving music files online or from other sources, uploading video using IMovie software and editing, and burning DVDs using IDVD software.

**MONITOR** The lesson is designed to **insure** success for all learners. Working in pairs will help diverse learners who may need extra help by being able to discuss with a partner the creation of a video piece. Also, the pairs will help each other to create the final story map, tape remaining scenes, and work collaboratively to edit the video. Collaboration allows all students to rehearse their thoughts and feelings, which builds confidence. The teacher will circulate and meet individually with groups as they work. The teacher will monitor groups and give lots of individual attention as needed. This strategy will help learners of all levels to be successful. Bolded word "insure" should be spelled ensure. Jeannine Lowe

**EVALUATION** The teacher will assess the unit project by assessing the video, which is the culminating activity. A rubric will be used to evaluate video and audio quality, the message of the piece, camera angles and perspectives incorporation, lighting, and video editing skills.