How Can We Make a Difference?: Recording PSAs | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G4:M4:U3:L11

How Can We Make a Difference?: Recording PSAs

In this Lesson

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • W.4.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
  • W.4.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
  • SL.4.4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Daily Learning Targets

  • I can record my PSA. (SL.4.4)
  • I can plan the key points of a PSA that raises awareness about the importance of taking action. (W.4.1, W.4.4)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Recorded PSA (SL.4.4)
  • End of Unit Assessment PSA Planning note-catcher (W.4.1, W.4.4)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Recording PSAs (35 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment 

A. Planning a PSA: The Importance of Taking Action (20 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:

  • In Work Time A, students record their PSAs (SL.4.4). If the technology is not available to do so, consider alternate ways for students to present their scripts to an audience: Invite audience members to watch live presentations, allow students to record one at a time while others work on tasks for the class project begun in Lesson 5, or have students present to one another in small groups.
  • In the Closing, students are introduced to the End of Unit 3 Assessment Prompt. They use their research notes to plan a PSA about the importance of kids taking action to make a difference. Students use their plan to write a PSA for the end of unit assessment in the next lesson (W.4.1, W.4.4).
  • Students focus on working to contribute to a better world by taking care of and improving shared spaces and the environment and applying their learning when creating their PSAs. They also focus on working to become ethical people by showing respect to one another as they record their PSAs.
  • To provide tech-savvy students with an additional challenge, consider allowing them to use more complex tools to create a visual element for their PSA (e.g., animation tools or more complex technological techniques, such as stop-motion).

How this lesson builds on previous work:

  • Earlier in the unit, students began planning a project to make a difference in their community. They have been working on a PSA to raise awareness about the issue, planning, drafting, and revising it over the past several lessons. In this lesson, they record their PSAs.

Areas in which students may need additional support:

  • Students may need support in recording their PSAs. Consider meeting with a small group of students to help them use the technology required to record their scripts.

Assessment guidance:

  • Use the Speaking and Listening Informal Assessment: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas Checklist to assess students' recordings of their PSAs (see the Tools page).

Down the road:

  • Students will write a new PSA about the importance of making a difference for the End of Unit 3 Assessment in the next lesson. The scaffolding in the lessons leading up to the assessment will help students understand the steps they need to take to write a PSA independently.
  • Provide feedback on students' Mid-Unit 3 Assessments in preparation for returning them in the next lesson.

In Advance

  • Prepare the technology tools for students to record their PSA (see Technology and Multimedia).
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1-3 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.
  • Work Time A: Prepare the technology tools for students to create their PSAs: one device per student, preferably with internet access. Options could include, but are not limited to:
    • Video or audio recorder
    • Video editing software--for example, iMovie or Windows Movie Maker
    • Audacity
    • GarageBand (app for iPad)

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 4.I.A.4, 4.I.C.10, 4.I.C.11, 4.I.C.12, 4.II.A.1, 4.II.A.2, 4.II.C.6, 4.II.C.7

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs by building on work begun in the previous lesson, providing students with an opportunity to review their PSA scripts before recording, and inviting students to plan the PSAs they will write on the End of Unit 3 Assessment in the upcoming lesson.  
  • ELLs may find the End of Unit 3 Assessment Prompt challenging because it asks students to write about the importance of people taking action in their communities in a more general sense, rather than focusing on a specific issue such as hunger, clean water, or the environment, as they have done for their PSAs in the past several lessons. Therefore, students may find it difficult to determine how to focus their planning. Consider explicitly noting this difference before students begin to plan (see Levels of supportand Meeting Students' Needs).

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • During the PSA recording in Work Time A, invite confident students to stand next to students who are particularly nervous or tentative and supporting them as necessary.

For heavier support:

  • Consider taking time outside of this lesson to help students identify key words and phrases to emphasize during their PSA recording, determining appropriate body language and tone of voice to use, and practicing their PSA so they feel more prepared to record during Work Time A.  
  • During the PSA recording in Work Time A, consider inviting a kind and confident student to stand next to students who are particularly nervous or tentative and supporting them as necessary (see For lighter support).

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): Continue to support memory and listening skills by providing visual display of directions and questions in this lesson.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): Continue to support expressive fluency by providing sentence frames or sentence starters for written and verbal expression.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Continue to support sustained interest and engagement by providing opportunities for breaks (such as stretching) as appropriate during this lesson.

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T); Vocabulary Used in Writing (W)

  • N/A

Materials

  • Class Issue PSA Prompt (from Lesson 7; one per student and one to display)
  • Working to Contribute to a Better World anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • Devices (one per student; see Technology and Multimedia)
  • PSA draft (completed in Lesson 10; one per student)
  • Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • End of Unit 3 Assessment Prompt (one per student and one to display; see Assessment Overview and Resources)
  • Paper (lined; one piece per student)
  • Taking Action Research note-catcher (from Lesson 2; one per student)
  • Characteristics of PSAs anchor chart (begun in Lesson 7)

Assessment

Each unit in the 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

  • Direct students' attention to the learning targets and read them aloud:

"I can record my PSA."

"I can plan the key points of a PSA that raises awareness about the importance of taking action."

  • Tell students that today they will use their scripts to record their PSA.
  • Focus students on the second learning target and remind them that they saw a similar target earlier in the unit. Tell them that after they record their PSAs, they will plan a new PSA in preparation for the end of unit assessment.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with recruiting interest: (Sharing Strategies) Invite students to share strategies they can think of to help them if they feel nervous about recording their PSA. (Examples: Focus on the aspects of the presentation they are confident about; practice beforehand; take a deep breath.) (MME)

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Recording PSAs (35 minutes)

  • Display and invite students to retrieve their Class Issue PSA Prompt and read it aloud.
  • Remind students of the corresponding habits identified on the Working to Contribute to a Better World anchor chart:
    • "I take care of and improve our shared spaces and the environment."
    • "I apply my learning to help our school, the community, and the environment."
  • Ensure each student is set up on a device and has his or her revised PSA draft. Provide a brief tutorial on how to record using the device.
  • Tell students how long they will have to record their PSAs. Invite students to spend a few minutes reviewing their script and thinking about what they are going to do.
  • Focus students on the Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart and invite them to read the habits of character on the chart to themselves. Focus them specifically on respect and remind students to be respectful of one another and of other students and people in the building as they record their PSAs.
  • Circulate to support students in recording their PSAs and stop the whole group to discuss common issues that you notice as you circulate. Provide frequent time reminders.
  • Use a checking for understanding technique (e.g., Red Light, Green Light or Thumb-O-Meter) for students to self-assess against the first learning target.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with expressive skills: (Inviting Specific Suggestions) Consider inviting specific suggestions for appropriate body language and tone of voice that students can use as they record their PSAs. Invite students to model an example of their suggestion as they give it, providing concrete ideas for what students can do to clearly convey the message in their PSAs and make their recordings engaging. (MMAE)
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with planning: (Highlighting Key Words and Phrases) Consider inviting students to highlight key words and phrases they want to emphasize during their PSA recording, and to practice reading them with the appropriate body language and tone of voice to convey the message they want to send. Model and think aloud doing so with the model PSA script as necessary. (MMAE)

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Planning a PSA: The Importance of Taking Action (20 minutes)

  • Distribute and display the End of Unit 3 Assessment Prompt and read it aloud.
  • Turn and Talk:

"What will you be working on for the end of unit assessment?" (writing a PSA about the importance of making a difference)

  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What issue will our PSAs raise awareness about?" (how kids can take action to make a difference)

"Who is the target audience for our PSAs?" (children)

  • Answer clarifying questions.
  • Distribute paper and tell students that they are going to begin planning their new PSA for the End of Unit 3 Assessment during the remaining time in this lesson.
  • Remind students that when they planned the key points for the PSA about the class issue, they developed their own note-catcher to organize their thinking. Tell students they are going to do the same thing now.
  • Remind students of the six-square graphic organizers they have used throughout the year to organize their thinking before writing. Draw a simple T-chart on the board with key points on one side and elaboration on the other as another option.
  • Tell students that their end of unit assessment will be an assessed piece of work, so they should work on their planning independently.
  • Invite students to retrieve their Taking Action Research note-catcher and begin planning their PSAs. Remind them to refer to the Characteristics of PSAs anchor chart as they work.
  • Circulate to support students as they work.
  • Use a checking for understanding technique (e.g., Red Light, Green Light or Thumb-O-Meter) for students to self-assess against the second learning target and how well they worked to contribute to a better world in this lesson.

Conversation Cue: "What strategies/habits helped you succeed? I'll give you time to think and discuss with a partner." (Responses will vary.)
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with activating prior knowledge: (Activating Prior Knowledge) Invite students to recall the steps for planning a PSA from Lesson 7. As students share out each step, consider recording it on the board for students to refer to as they plan. Additionally, consider modeling and thinking aloud each step as it is recorded. (See Meeting Students' Needs in Lesson 7 for an example.)  (MMR)
  • For students who may need additional support with organizational planning: Offer two graphic organizer templates as choices to reduce frustration in decision-making and support students' strategy development. (MMAE, MME)

Homework

HomeworkMeeting Students' Needs

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with written expression: (Oral Response) Read aloud, discuss, and respond to your prompt orally with a partner, a family member, or a student from Grades 3 or 5, or record an audio response. (MMAE)

 There are no new supporting materials for this lesson.

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