Eight Grade Writing Lesson
Lesson Procedure:
•Gain Attention
° After all students have entered the closed the door (closing of the
door lets the students know that it is time to begin the lesson).
•Review Class Rules
° Students will work independently at their assigned seats untile
divided in groups.
•Objective and Importance
TLW
° Engage in critical discussions.
° Discover picture books for presenting ideas.
° Learn how literature can break barriers and build bridges.
° Respond to shared texts in group discussions.
° Learn to generate critical thinking.
° Learn and apply the comprehension strategy of making
Connections.
° Make connections and react to various texts using a Double-
Entry Journal.
•Motivating Introduction
° Introduce the lesson by checking students’ prior knowledge of
Ruby Bridges.
° Ask the students the question, “Does anyone know who
Ruby Bridges is and what she is famous for?”
•Content of Lesson
° Explain to the students that Ruby Bridges, as a six-year-old
child, became a pioneer in school integration when she broke a
racial barrier to enter an all-white school in New Orleans in
1960.
° Demonstrate the double-entry journal reading strategy.
Display the Double-Entry Journal and demonstrate how to
use this technique.
° Explain to students that, in the first column, they should choose
a passage from The Story of Ruby Bridges that they can react
to. Then, in the second column, they should record their
thoughts, reactions and/or connections.
° Reinforce the fact that these reactions should make a connection
between The Story of Ruby Bridges and themselves, another
book, or the world.
° Read aloud the first few pages of The Story of Ruby Bridges
and model the process of completing the double-entry journal.
° For practice, have students work together as a class to fill in a bit
more of the double-entry journal. Teacher record their thoughts
for them.
° Divide students into groups of three or four. As you continue
reading The Story of Ruby Bridges, stop every few pages
and ask students to record their items from text and thoughts,
on their own copies of the double-entry journal.
° Invite students to share their reactions with their group.
° Continue reading and stopping periodically for reactions until
the story is finished.
•Closure and Review
° As a class discuss the process of making connections.
•Assessment
° Class participation/discussion.
° Collection of double-entry journal.
•Activity
° Students write letters to The Ruby Bridges Foundation, P O Box
127, Winnetka, Illinois, 60093 describing the connections they
made to her life and their reaction to the book, The Story of
Ruby Bridges.
•Higher Level Thinking Skills Noted
° Have students make a connection between the kind of strength
(of Character) that made Ruby Bridges success possible with
the kind of strength (physical) that makes bridges possible. Just
like Ruby Bridges connected lives, so do expansion of bridges.
