RootWork FrameworkTRAUMA-INFORMED STEAM LESSON PLAN
Unit: Folk Literature & Historical Roots of Savannah, GA
Grade 8 | English Language Arts & Social Studies Integration | 90-Minute Block
Relationships (15 minutes)
Students enter to find tables arranged in groups of four with a small potted plant centerpiece at each table.
Begin with a "Story Circle Check-In" where students share their name and complete the prompt: "A story I remember from my childhood is..." using a soft-toss ball for speaker designation.
After each student shares, they water the plant at their table with a small watering can, symbolizing how stories, like plants, need care and attention to grow.
[Teacher Note: Monitor for signs of emotional dysregulation during story sharing. Some students may have complicated relationships with childhood memories. Have alternative prompts ready such as "A story I've heard recently is..."]
Routines (10 minutes)
Project the "Garden of Learning Norms" on the board, presented as a visual garden where each norm is a different plant.
Students receive their "Field Journal" notebooks, decorated with pressed flower covers, which will serve as their consistent workspace throughout the unit.
Establish the daily routine of "Root, Grow, Bloom" - where Root represents our opening activities, Grow represents our work time, and Bloom represents our sharing and reflection.
[Teacher Note: The consistent journal structure provides executive function support. Consider having templates ready for students who need additional organizational scaffolding.]
Relevance (15 minutes)
Display historical photographs of Savannah's squares and gardens alongside contemporary images of the same locations. Facilitate a "Then and Now Gallery Walk" where students circulate with sticky notes, recording observations about what has changed and what has remained constant.
Introduce the concept of "story seeds" - the idea that folk tales from Savannah's past contain seeds of truth about historical experiences, particularly focusing on the Gullah-Geechee storytelling tradition and its connection to agricultural knowledge.
Share a brief audio recording of a Gullah folk tale about rice cultivation, helping students understand how enslaved Africans used stories to preserve agricultural wisdom and cultural identity.
[Teacher Note: Be sensitive to students who may not have access to family storytelling traditions. Emphasize that stories come from many sources - books, movies, songs, and community spaces are all valid.]
Rigor: Work Session (35 minutes)
I Do - Direct Instruction (10 minutes)
Model the process of citing textual evidence using a projected excerpt from Cornelia Bailey's "God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man," focusing on a passage about traditional plant medicine on Sapelo Island.
Using a think-aloud protocol, show students how to construct a claim such as "Enslaved Africans preserved African medicinal plant knowledge through oral traditions" and support it with specific quoted evidence.
[Teacher Note: Slow down your think-aloud process and make your cognitive moves visible. Students with processing differences need to see how you navigate the text, not just the final product.]
We Do - Collaborative Practice (15 minutes)
Students work in their table groups with a one-page excerpt from "Drums and Shadows," a collection of Gullah-Geechee folk narratives from coastal Georgia.
The general education teacher facilitates two groups while the special education co-teacher provides intensive support to two groups with students who have IEPs, using highlighters to help students identify key passages and providing sentence frames for claim construction.
Groups record their findings on chart paper designed to look like a garden plot, with the claim as the "seed" and evidence as the "roots."
[Teacher Note: Circulate actively and listen for misconceptions about what constitutes strong evidence versus summary. Address these in real-time through questioning rather than correction.]
You Do - Independent Application (10 minutes)
Students independently read a brief folk tale called "Why the Evergreen Trees Keep Their Leaves" from Savannah's Native American Creek tradition.
Provide differentiated versions: some students receive the full text, others receive a modified version with key passages pre-highlighted, and students with significant reading challenges receive an illustrated version with simplified language.
[Teacher Note: This independent work is diagnostic. Note which students struggle with identifying relevant evidence versus those who struggle with the citation format itself.]
Reflection (15 minutes)
Students participate in a "Harvest Circle" where they return to their morning groups to share their claims and evidence from the independent work.
The lesson concludes with students completing an exit ticket in their Field Journals responding to the prompt: "Using specific evidence from today's texts, explain one way that folk stories preserve historical knowledge. Include at least one properly cited quote."
[Teacher Note: The exit ticket is your formative assessment. Sort responses into three categories: students who can cite and explain evidence independently, those who can cite but struggle with explanation, and those who need support with both.]
MTSS Tiered Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports: Visual anchor charts, graphic organizers for ALL students, color-coding systems, consistent journal structure.
Tier 2 Targeted Interventions: Pre-highlighted texts, sentence frames, word banks, small group reteaching, extended time.
Tier 3 Intensive Interventions: One-on-one support, scribing services, simplified texts with visual supports, break cards, alternative demonstrations through recorded verbal explanation.
[Teacher Note: This is sophisticated special education compliance. The lesson doesn't just mention differentiation - it specifies WHAT supports, for WHOM, and WHEN.]
Co-Teacher Actions
During Relationships and Routines: The special education teacher provides proximity control for students with behavioral IEPs.
During Rigor: They lead parallel teaching with manipulatives.
During Reflection: They facilitate a modified exit ticket station with verbal response options.
[Teacher Note: This is complete role definition. Both teachers know exactly what they're doing at every moment.]
Appendix: Complete Implementation Toolkit
Section 1 - Curated Digital Resources
Every resource is vetted, connected to standards, and ready to use. For example: Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Video (National Park Service) with annotations explaining WHY this resource matters and HOW it connects to your learning objectives.
No more spending two hours Googling hoping to find something relevant. These are working URLs with pedagogical context.
Section 2 - Generated Text-Based Assets
Ready-to-use, copy-and-paste graphic organizers with biophilic language: "Planting Claims & Growing Evidence," "The Seed," "First Root," "Second Root," "The Bloom."
Modified exit tickets for IEP students with sentence starters, word banks, multiple choice scaffolds, and self-assessment tools already built in.
You can copy this, paste it into a Google Doc or worksheet maker, and you're done. No formatting, no designing - just implement.
Section 3 - Visual Asset Prompt Log
Want an Evidence Tree bulletin board featuring a Southern Live Oak with Spanish moss? Here's the exact prompt, written in detailed visual language, ready for DALL-E, Midjourney, or Canva's AI generator.
You copy this prompt, paste it into your AI tool, and you get professional-quality classroom décor that matches your unit theme. The visual design work is done.
Dual Track Guidance
Teacher Notes (Yellow): Pedagogical reasoning, trauma-informed alerts, formative assessment guidance.
Student Notes (Blue): Ready-to-use language you can share directly with students to build metacognitive awareness. Example: "Your Field Journal is your personal garden of ideas. Treat it as a safe space where all your thoughts can take root and grow without judgment."
You can project these, include them in assignment sheets, or use them for verbal framing. They're written in student-friendly language that reinforces the biophilic metaphor.
What This Framework Delivers
The 5Rs Framework providing complete lesson architecture: Relationships, Routines, Relevance, Rigor, Reflection.
Root, Grow, Bloom daily structure within each lesson. Trauma-informed design in seating, story prompts, and emotional regulation supports.
Cultural responsiveness centering Gullah-Geechee and Creek traditions. Gradual release of responsibility with I Do, We Do, You Do.
Three-tier MTSS supports specified for every section. Sophisticated co-teaching coordination with explicit role definition.
Plus curated digital resources with working URLs, copy-and-paste graphic organizers and assessments, and AI-ready visual design prompts.
This isn't just a lesson plan. It's a complete teaching toolkit that respects your expertise and saves you hours of preparation time.
The RootWork Framework Lesson Plan Generator creates this level of pedagogical sophistication in minutes instead of hours.
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INTRODUCTION
This isn't just a lesson plan - it's a masterclass in trauma-informed, culturally responsive, rigorous instruction.
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Pedagogical Elements
Trauma-informed care
Social-emotional learning
Routines & executive function
Biophilic design
Cultural responsiveness
Instructional structure
Co-teaching coordination
MTSS differentiation