LESSON PLAN Lesson #1Format and Cooperating Teacher Feedback Form

Name: Katherine Pook Content Area: Literacy

Date: 2/5/16 Grade Level: 4 th Grade

CCSS W.4.5 – With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.

CCSS W.4.4 – Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

I do not know a lot about the students in this class yet, however I do know that they have had prior instruction in the topic that I will be teaching (writing detailed paragraphs), but many are still having difficulties adding detail to their writing. From what I have observed so far, students understand the basics of paragraph writing, but paragraphs that they write are often very simple and basic. I think many of the students will understand this topic easily, since they have strong backgrounds in writing, and this lesson is serving as more of a review for them. Many students in this class do struggle to engage in lessons and/or often have difficulties with behavior during lessons. These students will need more attention from me during the lesson. I will give this to them in the form of opportunities to participate in the lesson as I teach such as supplying ideas, answering questions, writing on post it notes, and helping me identify descriptive words in writing.

Students will identify descriptive words in a piece of writing Students will describe a prop using descriptive words and assist in writing a simple paragraph using

these words

Language Vocabulary

o Paragrapho Descriptive

Language Functions o Identifyo Describe

Goal(s):

Use this template to plan, removing the notes in parentheses and this box. Give this form to your cooperating teacher for review and a signature before you teach your lesson.

Assessment:

Objective(s)::

Planning:

Informal: I will observe students who come up to circle descriptive words. I will mark this on a chart after the

lesson. I will have students write their names on the backs of their post it notes before writing their descriptive

words on them I will take notice of who participates in the group writing of the paragraph (mark on chart after lesson)

Formal (not part of this lesson): Have students bring in/find their own prop, and individually write a paragraph about it using descriptive

words to be assessed with a rubric.

1 sheets of lined poster paper Poster with example paragraph on it Descriptive words anchor chart Dry erase markers Foam in bag Post it notes Tape

:

Introduction - 5 minutes

Ask students “Have any of you ever read a story that made you feel like they could see everything that

was happening in your mind?” Ask “What do you think the author did to make the reader able to

picture what was happening?” Allow students to supply ideas.

Discuss that we are going to be talking about adding details when we write paragraphs, by using more

descriptive words.

o Show anchor chart: tell students that descriptive words paint a picture in our minds, and

make writing more interesting.

Materials Needed:

Procedures:

o Discuss example of descriptive words for apples (on anchor chart).

Ask students to imagine an apple, and tell me if they think of any more descriptive

words to talk about it.

o Give example: which sentence sounds more interesting?

The dog is brown, or…

The dog has light brown fur that is smooth and soft

Tell students: Today we are going to work on adding descriptive words to the paragraphs we write.

Steps for instruction

Engagement and Demonstration – 10 minutes

Tell students that when we write a paragraph, we need to use at least one descriptive word in each

body sentence

Show students an example of a detailed paragraph, written on large sheet of poster paper (read it

aloud):

o “My favorite thing to eat for breakfast is yogurt with fruit. I like vanilla yogurt because it is

smooth and sweet. Then I add some big bright raspberries, and some juicy strawberries.

Sometimes I even add some crunchy granola to give my breakfast even more delicious

flavor. I could eat yogurt with fruit for breakfast every day of the week.”

o Summarize the paragraph. Ask students to look at the body sentences and find that words that

help paint a picture in their minds (smooth, sweet, bright, juicy, crunchy, delicious). Call on

students to come to come up and circle descriptive words.

Participation – 20 minutes

Show students bag containing prop (fun foam in a bag that they can’t see through)

Allow students to come up, several at a time, and put their hands in the bag to feel the foam (without

looking at it)

Ask students “what are some things we notice about how this feels?”

o Say “I notice it feels really soft”

o Ask students what else they notice

o Hand out post it notes. Have students write one or two things they notice about how the prop

feels on the post it notes and stick them on the board

o Remove foam from bag

o Ask students “what do you notice about how this looks”

o Allow several students to answer, then have students write how the foam looks on post its,

then stick post its to the board

o Talk about the words on the post its that students have supplied

o Ask students to look at the words and tell which ones make them picture what the foam is.

Tell students that we are going to write a paragraph together about the foam using the descriptive

words we thought of

Ask students for ideas for sentences, one at a time. As students supply ideas, write paragraph on

another sheet of poster paper, modeling thinking when needed

o During writing, review basic paragraph rules such as indenting the first line, capitalizing each

new sentence, punctuation, etc.

Just like before, have students volunteer to come up and circle details in the paragraph

Strategies for students requiring additional assistance:

Since this lesson is all full group, and will be guided by me, I will be able to assist students by

modeling as soon as I see that it is needed. If I notice students struggling with a particular part of the

lesson, I am prepared to stop and add additional modeling, before continuing with the lesson. I will

also have students who may need help behaving during the lesson. To help these students, I will

have many chances for students to participate so that they can stay engaged. I will also set very clear

expectations before the lesson, and remind students of these as needed. I will also use strategies such

as saying “I like how (certain student) is sitting and waiting for a turn” and telling students that I will

only call on them if they are sitting quietly and listening.

Closure

Ask a student to describe what we talked about during the lesson. If they struggle, allow other students

to add/help

Restate objective of the lesson

Let students know that this will be something that they will practice in their individual writing

Example paragraph used during lesson with Paragraph about the foam that was created descriptive words circled by students as a class during the lesson

Lesson Self- Assessment

Name: Katherine PookLesson topic: Writing a descriptive paragraph Date: 2/18/16School/grade level/ number of students: Starms/4th Grade/25 students Name of Cooperating Teacher: Janice Pugh

Planning and preparation: Describe how your plan provided opportunities for active engagement. How did you provide for the needs of diverse learners? Did you adjust your plan in any way? Describe how and why if you did.

My plan included many opportunities for students to engage with the lesson. I had many spots during the lesson where students got chances to answer questions or give ideas to add to the lesson. For example in the beginning of the lesson I asked students if they had ever read a book that made them picture what was happening in the story, and if yes, how did the author make it possible for you to picture what was happening. Later in the lesson, I had students use the descriptive words we were discussing to write a paragraph as a group. I also engaged students by having some more hands on parts of the lesson. I had students feel the foam that they were going to try to describe. I had the foam in a paper bag that they could not see through, and had them feel it without looking, so that they could use descriptive words to talk about how it felt and what they thought it was. I then had students write these words on post it notes, and stick them to the board so we could use them to write a paragraph. I provided for the needs of diverse learners by having consistent examples and modeling throughout the lesson. For example I went over a paragraph that I had already written using descriptive words, and talked about my thinking as I read the paragraph. I said things like “I can just picture those big, juicy strawberries when I read that”. I then had students circle the descriptive words in the paragraph so that it could serve as an example. I also made sure that students could participate at whatever level was appropriate/comfortable for them. There were questions that they could answer at any level and many ways to participate such as writing on post its, answering out loud, giving suggestions for the paragraph, etc. Last, I included things in the lesson that served to help many different types of learners. I had visual examples such as an anchor chart, and a sample paragraph for visual learners. I made sure to clearly explain everything and model my thinking for students who learn better by hearing something, and I had hands on participation for student who learn best by doing. I did have to change my plan slightly during the lesson due to time constraints. The students in this classroom have a lot of trouble transitioning from one thing to another, and there was a lot going on in the classroom before my lesson started, so my lesson began about 10 minutes late. Also, students took more time than I had anticipated to write their descriptive words on their post it notes, and this put the lesson even more behind schedule. Because of this, I had to take out the part of the lesson where I would have let students write on post its again, about how the foam looked after I took it out of the bag. Instead we just had a brief discussion about this before writing the paragraph. I also did not have time to review rules for writing paragraphs such as indenting the first line, using a topic sentence, etc. like I had planned to.

Classroom environment: Evaluate the ways in which your encouraged student participation. How did you elicit student responses? How did you engage them in responding to you and each other? Evaluate your plan for individual, small group and/or whole class work. How effective were these different organizational techniques for keeping students involved in your lesson?

In my lesson I encouraged student participating by the way I asked questions, and responded to student answers. When I asked students something I made sure to use words like “what do you think” and

“describe how” to encourage students to think more deeply about the questions and their answers. This also helped engage students in the lesson. I engaged students in responding to me by asking the questions, and then giving them some time to think before calling on any students. I also made sure that I did not call on students who were misbehaving/not following the expectations I had stated. I reminded students of this several times, and it always helped to refocus them on the lesson.When students did give an answer I always restated what they said so that they knew I heard them and was listening to their thinking, just as I expected them to listen to mine. I also made sure that I never told a student that their answer was wrong. Instead, if a student had an answer that didn’t quite work, or was not correct, I said things like “that’s a good thought but it’s not quite what I’m looking for” or “you’re almost there, can anybody help him/her out?” This made sure that all students felt comfortable answering, and would not be afraid to be incorrect. I believe that the many chances for students to participate and answer questions was very effective for this full group lesson. This group of students often struggles to stay engaged during lessons, and there are a lot of behavior difficulties in this class. During the lesson I did struggle to keep the whole class quiet and engaged, but the engagement was the best during the times I was asking students to respond to questions out loud. From observing in the classroom, and teaching this lesson, I have noticed that this is one thing that really gets students to listen and engage with what is being taught. The times that I was doing this with students were probably the most effective parts of the lesson, and I will definitely keep that in mind as I plan for future lessons.

Instruction: Evaluate your choices of instructional strategies. Did they have the effect you intended? Were the needs of all learners met? What changes would you make if you repeated this lesson?

In this lesson I used several instructional strategies. Like previously stated, I did good amount of questioning during the lesson. This definitely had the effect I intended. I added so much questioning because I know that these students have trouble staying engaged, but they do much better when they can answer questions aloud. So far questioning is the best way I have found to engage this group of students. It also serves to get them to think about the learning, rather than just hear it from me, which I hoped would give them a deeper understanding of the content. I also did some modeling in the lesson. I modeled my thinking often, in hopes that students would pick this up, and think in a similar way. I also modeled by creating and showing examples, which I then thoroughly discussed with students. I think this was somewhat effective. I think many students didn’t really pick up on my modeled thinking. From what I have seen in the classroom, my CT does not do a lot of modeling with students, and does not do think-alouds, so I think students aren’t really used to this technique. Next time I use this I will be sure to explain why I am doing this, and what I want students to do during/after modeling, so that they are more clear on the purpose for this. The students did however respond well to the examples that I showed, and created with them. They were much more engaged when I used things such as the anchor chart to help explain things. In the future I will be sure to add more visuals to my lessons because of this. Last, I used the strategy of explaining. I explained to students several things such as my expectations for the lesson, what we were going to be talking about, and how they can use it in their own work. I feel that this was not very effective for students. They were not very engaged during the times I was just explaining to them, and I had to explain things like behavior expectations several times throughout the lesson. Despite this, I feel that I met most of the needs of these learners. Like I said before I had visual examples such as an anchor chart, and a sample paragraph for visual learners. I made sure to clearly explain everything and model my thinking for students who learn better by hearing something, and I had hands on participation for student who learn best by doing. The only thing that I feel was missing was that I do not know of any accommodations that my CT uses for students who may have more specialized learning needs. While I have not had a chance to discuss this with her yet, I have not seen any accommodations happening. My CT did tell me that many of the students were performing well below grade level in literacy, so I feel I should probably do some things to meet the needs of these students better, if I teach another literacy lesson in the future. If I repeated this lesson I would change a few things. I would first

find more ways of explaining expectations to students, so that I would not have to keep repeating them. I would also make sure that I added more visuals to the lesson, rather than having so much time where I was just talking to students. I noticed that students had trouble staying engaged when I just talked to them, but did better when I could talk to them while referring to a visual aid. I would also change the way I had students use post it notes to write answers. I think the first problem was that I did not state clearly enough what I wanted students to do with the post its. I told them I wanted them to write one or two words on the post its to describe the foam they felt, and then stick the post its on the board. Many students however wanted to write a sentence on the post it about what they felt, or wanted to have more than one post it to write more words. If I explained what I wanted them to do more clearly, I think I could eliminate this problem. Also, I know that these students have trouble with transitions, so I now know that I should not have them all come to the board to stick their post it. It took a long time for me to refocus students after doing this, and it used up a lot of time in the lesson. In the future I think I should just collect the post its, or have students wait until everyone was done, and then come up a couple at a time to the board.

Assessment: What assessment processes did you plan and how did they work? What did you learn from listening to student responses, examining their work or listening to their interactions? How well did your assessment procedures inform you about student attainment of your lesson’s objectives?

The assessments I planned were: o I will observe students who come up to circle descriptive words. I will mark this on a chart after

the lesson. o I will have students write their names on the backs of their post it notes before writing their

descriptive words on themo I will take notice of who participates in the group writing of the paragraph (mark on chart after

lesson)These assessments worked pretty well, but they could have been better. I did make a chart that I could mark down if students participated during the lesson, and if they showed understanding. After the lesson, when the students went to specials, I marked down on the chart which students I really noticed demonstrated understanding. This helped me know that these students understood the lesson content, however it did not tell me anything about the other students, who did not participate as much. With this assessment technique, I cannot be sure if the students who did not participate just didn’t feel like participating, or really didn’t understand the content. I also had students write their names on the back of their post it notes, so I could look later and see which students showed understanding. This worked well for me to see which students clearly understood, but it took a lot of extra time during the lesson. From these assessment processes I learned that students mostly seemed to understand the concept of writing a descriptive paragraph, which is good since this lesson was designed as a review of this. I learned mostly from listening to student responses, as well as looking at the post it notes, that students have a pretty solid understanding of what descriptive words are, and are good at coming up with them. I could not really tell however if this lesson really helped students be able to use these descriptive words in their own writing. The lesson did not however show me if students understood well enough to do this on their own. In the future I would like to give students a chance to work a little more independently during the lesson, so I can see that they understand well enough to perform on their own.

Professional responsibilities: What did you learn from your cooperating teacher’s feedback on this lesson? How will you apply it to future lessons?

Unfortunately, my CT was not there today when I taught this lesson. There was a substitute teacher in the classroom who was pretty stressed because there was no lesson plans left for her from my CT. While the students were at specials I asked the substitute if the lesson looked ok, and what she thought, but she really only said that it looked good, and that the students seemed to enjoy it. While I’m glad she thought it was a good lesson, this did not really help me prepare to teach again in the future, but it was clear that she was not really in a place to give a lot of feedback, since she was just trying to figure out what the students were supposed to be doing that day, so I didn’t want to bother her too much.

Reflection: What did you learn about student learning and assessing from this lesson? How will it affect your planning for future teaching?

From this lesson I learned a few things about student learning and assessing. First, I learned that my assessments need to be designed better so that they actually show me that students fully understand what I am teaching. My assessments showed that students could use descriptive words, but did not really show me that they could write a full descriptive paragraph, which was what the lesson was really on. I think in the future I need to better evaluate my assessment procedure, and think about whether they are actually assessing all of what I am teaching, not just parts of it. I also need to have assessments that show me that all students understand. My assessment of checking for understanding and writing it on a chart for example, worked well for students who actually participated, but for those who didn’t, I couldn’t really know if they understood or not. In the future I will make sure to add things that all students have to participate in, so that I can see what each student knows individually. As far as student learning goes, I learned that I still need to work on ways of engaging students for the whole lesson. I know that engagement is the most important thing, and during my lesson students were not consistently engaged in the learning. The students did very well when they could answer questions aloud, so in the future I will definitely be adding more opportunity for this in my lessons. Beyond that, I need to add activities to my lessons that engage students, but aren’t too distracting for them. For example the post it note activity. Having students get up and come to the board to stick their post its was a big distraction, and students could not refocus after this. It was clear that students were engaged in thinking of words to write on their post its, but still lost focus with so many of them moving around in the room. In the future I will definitely continue to have activities like this, but will have to rethink them, so that students don’t have to get up and move around so much.

Lesson # ______Lesson date: ___________Cooperating Teacher Feedback: