EDT 317.E

1

Angela Tomaro Dr. Bautista EDT 317E – A, C 18 March 2015

Lesson Plan Name: Annie and Angela School: Brookville Elementary School Grade Level: Second Subject: Science Date: March 19, 2014

1. Title/Source of Lesson: All About the Moon! 2. Description of learners à percent or numerical description of gender, race, IEPs, ELLs,

etc. a. 22 students total b. 12 boys, 10 girls c. No ELL students d. 5 students with IEPs e. 21 Caucasian students, 1 African American student

3. Standards: a. Grade Band Theme: Observations of the Environment b. Strand: Living and nonliving things have specific physical properties that can be

used to sort and classify. The physical properties of air and water are presented as they apply to weather.

c. Topic: Daily and Seasonal Changes d. Condensed Content Statement: The moon, sun, and stars are visible at different

times of the day or night. e. Note: Our cooperating teacher requested that we teach a lesson from the

National Geographic: Sun, Moon, and Stars book they have been using in the classroom. We found that the only science standard that aligned with our lesson was the kindergarten standard included above.

4. Instructional Objectives: a. Students will be able to identify the moon’s phase when looking at an image of

the moon. b. Students will be able to describe the moon’s surface. c. Students will be able to describe where the moon gets its light. d. Students will be able to describe how the moon orbits the Earth.

5. Differentiations: a. The moon in all of its phases was simulated in the classroom over a 2 week

span, if students were unable to look at the moon at night while they were at home.

b. Visual supports during the introduction of the phases (large moon poster). c. Moon phase cards included both an image and the word representation of the

phase. d. Class discussion and the moon song offered auditory support for students. e. Multiple teachers available to help individual students during the lesson,

especially when making the moon phase books. f. Hands-on activities à making the moon phase book and the birthday phase

chart. 6. Materials/Resources Needed:

a. Poster paper with response

EDT 317.E

2

b. String c. Styrofoam ball to simulate moon d. Black construction paper e. Moon phase cards f. Moon phase poster g. Sample moon phase book h. Paper i. Pencils j. Scissors k. Black crayon/marker/colored pencil l. Stapler m. Coffee filters n. Index cards o. Moon phases worksheet p. National Geographic: Sun, Moon, and Stars book q. “Moon Song” à www.havefunteaching.com/song/science-songs r. Website to find phases for birthdays à http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon s. Lesson ideas adapted from à

http://scienceinaboxmoonphases.wikispaces.com/Lesson+Plans+%26+Websites 7. Key/Academic Vocabulary:

a. Observation b. Surface c. Orbit d. Phase e. Full f. New g. Crescent h. First Quarter i. Last Quarter j. Gibbous

8. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks: Day 1:

• Teacher will first interview students in small groups to find out students prior knowledge and misconceptions about the moon and its role in the atmosphere.

• Interview questions will include: 1. What are some characteristics of the moon?

a. Tell us what you know about the moon. 2. What is the moon made up of?

a. What shape is the moon? 3. When can you see the moon? 4. How does the moon shine? 5. Does the moon orbit or revolve around any planets?

a. How long does it take the moon to go around Earth? 6. What do you know about the phases of the moon? 7. Why is the moon important? 8. How are day and night different?

• Based on the pre assessment and students answers to these questions, the teacher will make sure to address any misconceptions within the lesson.

• After all of the questions are asked to each group, the teacher will announce to the class that students should go home and observe the moon that night. Teacher will tell students to write down their observation and be prepared to share them in class the next day.

EDT 317.E

3

Day 2-9: • The next day, the teacher will write a response for students to follow-up with in their

response journals, recording their observations of what they saw the night before. • When beginning the lesson, the teacher will ask the students to share their responses

while writing these characteristics and observations on the board for students to see. • The teacher will then explain to students that they are going to create a moon simulation

in the classroom, for students to be able to observe the moon and the different phases that it goes through, in a shorter period of time.

• Students will be able to observe the moon simulation for the next eight days, and write down any observations they would like to record.

Day 10: • The teacher will first begin the lesson by asking students questions about the moons

surface such as “What characteristics can you use to describe the moon’s surface?” • As students respond, the teacher will write these characteristics on the board. • Students will then be asked to get out their National Geographic Science book Sun,

Moon, and Stars. • The class will read together pages 30 and 31 from the book about what the moon is

made up of. • The teacher will then ask students based on their observations from the moon

simulation, how long they think it takes the moon to orbit, what they know about the phases of the moon, and how the moon shines.

• As students respond, the teacher will write these ideas on the board. • Then the class will read pages 34 and 35 from the National Geographic Science book. • The teacher will show the students the moon phase cards on the overhead projector and

ask students if they can put them in order. • The teacher will call on students to come up and tape the note cards on the board as

they are put in order. • The teacher will then tell the students “Now you are going to make your own moon and

phase booklets to use!” “You will need to get out a pencil, scissors, and a black marker.” • The teacher will put up the poster board of the phases on the board, for students to be

able to look at while making their booklets. • The teacher will then tell students that they are to draw the eight moon phases on each

of the eight coffee filters they are given. • The teacher will hold up an example for students to be able to look at and explain to

students that assistance will be provided if needed. • The teacher will then play the moon song from the website

www.havefunteaching.com/song/science-songs, while students make the booklets. • The teacher will go around and help students make the booklets as needed, and staple

the left side when finished. • After all students are finished with their booklets, the teacher will then pass out index

cards. • The teacher will explain to students that now they are going to be able to see what

phase the moon is going to have on their next birthday. • The teacher will pull up the website http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon, and click through

the months, asking children “Whose birthday is in (blank) month?” Then asking students to look for their birthday and begin drawing the phase on an index card.

• Once all of the months are clicked through the teacher will tell students to flip to the back of their index card.

• Teacher will tell students to put their name, the name of their phase on their birthday, and their birth date on the back of this card.

EDT 317.E

4

• After a few minutes of completing this, the teacher will put up a graph that has the number of students and eight phases of the moon on the axes.

• The teacher will call students up by row to put their birthday moon card in the correct row on the graph.

• After all students have put their cards on the graph, ask them the following questions about the graph: How many pictures are in each phase?

Which phase has the most pictures? Which phase has the least pictures?

Ask students to say something about the graph they find interesting.

• The teacher will then hand out the formal assessment worksheet and give students a few minutes to complete.

• Once students are finished with the worksheet, the teacher will have students go over it as a class.

9. Assessment Plan: a. Informal: Students are observed during class discussion and in their observations

of the simulated moon, with a focus on what vocabulary terms they use correctly. Students will also be evaluated based on successful completion of a birthday moon phase card.

b. Formal: Students will complete a moon phase worksheet that includes questions about the moon’s surface, how the moon orbits Earth, and where the moon gets its light. They also will put the phases of the moon in order and describe what is happening in the new moon phase.

Lesson Materials and Assessment

EDT 317.E

5

Planning Commentary

EDT 317.E

6

Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment, you will write a commentary, responding to the prompts below 1. Central Focus

• Describe the central focus for the lesson. o The central focus for this lesson is for second grade students to learn about the

moon and its role in space and the atmosphere. The students will be able to address any misconceptions that they may have about the moon such as how the moon lights up, the different phases it has, and how long the moon takes to orbit earth.

• Given the central focus, how does your lesson support inquiry-based learning? Explain all strategies you plan to use to ensure inquiry. o To ensure that there is inquiry within this lesson, I want to first engage students by

conducting interviews with groups of students as a pre-assessment to find out any prior knowledge or misconceptions that students may have. Then for students to explore, I am going to have students write in their response journals some observations that they can make about the moon overnight. We will then discuss these characteristics and observations the next day while writing these ideas on the board. Students will be asked what they can tell me about the different phases of the moon, and to describe the moon phase that occurred the night before. I will then simulate a moon phase activity in the classroom for the next eight days and ask students to record in their observation journals the different characteristics and phases they see the moon go through. I will explain the topic in more depth by having students make a moon phase book based on the different phases that they observed. Then, I will have a class discussion on how the moon is lit up, the different phases, and the orbits, using vocabulary cards. I will elaborate on this by having students sing a moon song and then finding students moon phase on their birthdays and allowing them to write this on a notecard. Finally, I will evaluate students by giving them a worksheet including all of the concepts that we will have gone over throughout the lesson.

2. Knowledge of Children to Inform Teaching

a. What do you know about the children’s prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to the central focus—What do children know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do related to the central focus? o Based on our interview pre-assessment, I was able to understand that students

had a fairly accurate understanding of the moon and its role in space and the atmosphere. Students were able to state some general characteristics of the moon such as that there were “holes in it” and it is gray in color. Students also unexpectedly knew that there was a flag on the moon and people had been able to walk on it. Some students knew that the moon shines because of the sun reflecting off of it, but many students were still confused about this concept. Also, some students were able to understand that the moon orbits earth, but many were confused on how long it takes the moon to orbit earth. Lastly, many students understood that the moon had different phases but did not know the all eight phases or why the moon had different shapes at different times. Students are learning to make observations and be able to construct their own ideas and thinking. Also, students are learning to research different subject materials and

EDT 317.E

7

write about the main characteristics. They will be able to make observations about the attributes of the moon and come up with their own questions related to the central focus of the lesson.

b. Personal/cultural/community assets—What do you know about your children’s everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests?

o The students in my classroom love being outside and talking about nature. Many of

the students live in small farms in Indiana, and they are used to helping their parents and are interested with anything that involves nature. This lesson allows for students to gain an understanding of their atmosphere and about the way the moon works, which will spark students’ interests. They are also able to see the moon outside at any time, which will allow for all students to participate.

3. Supporting Children’s Development and Learning

Use principles from research and/or theory to support your explanations.

• Explain how your understanding of the children’s development, prior academic learning, and everyday life experiences guided your choice or adaptation of learning experiences and materials.

o My understanding of the children’s development with observations and their everyday life experiences with nature helped to guide my choice to do something that involves the outside environment and allowing children to explore on their own. Based on students’ prior academic learning, which was found through the interviews, I was able to integrate any misconceptions that students had into my lesson. I also adapted many of the learning materials to increase students learning experiences, such as the moon song, because the students in my class enjoy dancing and seem to be able to remember things when they have a song or tune in mind.

• Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are appropriate for the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of children with specific learning needs.

o My instructional strategies within this lesson are appropriate for whole class,

individuals, or groups of specific learning needs because I have multiple entry points throughout the instruction. Students are able to visually observe the moon simulation and the different phases through the use of vocabulary notecards with both writing and drawings. They are able to listen to class discussions as well as an interactive moon song. Most of the activities within the lesson are hands-on in which students make their own observations using their own language or drawings, make a moon phase booklet, write or draw their own birthday moon phase, and make a graph as a whole class. There are many supportive materials available at all times for students, such as the vocabulary cards with writings and drawings of the phases, and a poster board that has the phases of the moon in order. Teachers are also able to assist when needed through many of these activities since they are hands-on and open-ended.

EDT 317.E

8

• Describe common preconceptions or misunderstandings (based on prior academic learning and experiences) within your central focus and how you plan to identify and address them.

o Based on my interview pre-assessment with groups of students, I was able to talk

to students about their prior knowledge of the subject and find out any misconceptions that they may have about the moon, to be able to address these within the lesson. The most significant misconceptions that I found students had about the moon is being able to understand the phases of the moon. Many students believe these are caused by a shadow from Earth or because the moon is being covered. Through having students observe the moon outside, as well as having a moon simulation within the classroom I plan to address this misconception. This also connects to the misconception of how the moon is lit up. Students often think the moon makes its own light, when in actuality reflects light from the sun. Through the simulation and class discussion I will be able to identify and discuss with students this misconception. The last misconception is how long the moon takes to orbit Earth, or that the moon rotates at all. I will be able to elaborate and identify this misconception through discussion and talking about the birthday phases with students.

4. Supporting Children’s Language Development

Respond to prompts 4a–c below by referring to key vocabulary for the learning segment.

• Identify the key academic vocabulary (i.e., developmentally appropriate sounds, words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs) that will support children’s learning in the planned learning experiences.

o Observation, orbit, surface, moon phase, full moon, gibbous moon, first quarter, crescent moon, new moon, last quarter moon

• Identify a key learning experience from the lesson plan that provides children with

opportunities to develop, practice, and/or use the vocabulary identified in prompt 4a.

o Students are able to listen in a class discussion describing ideas about what the key vocabulary words mean. They read an instructional book from National Geographic Science called Sun, Moon, and Stars that includes this key vocabulary within the reading. They have supportive materials of vocabulary notecards that they are able to look at and use while writing and discussing their observations as well as birthday phase notecard, to be able to practice and use the vocabulary identified.

• Language Support - Describe the instructional supports (during and/or prior to the

learning experience) that help children develop and use the vocabulary identified in prompt 4a.

EDT 317.E

9

o The students have instructional supports of vocabulary notecards that have the word both written and drawn on the notecard. Also, there is a poster of the different phases of the moon in order both written and drawn. These are put up for students on the board to use during their observations as well as class discussions. Students are prompted to use these words within their birthday note cards connecting them to real-life experiences and in their assessment worksheet. Teachers when assisting students also will prompt students to look at and use vocabulary throughout the instruction.

5. Monitoring Children’s Learning

• Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments will provide direct evidence of children’s learning of the central focus throughout the learning segment.

o My planned informal assessments will provide evidence of what the children are learning based on being able to listen to the students during class discussions and exploring their observations of the moon. I will look for key words and vocabularies used and write these ideas on the board. The formal assessment will provide direct evidence through a worksheet that will show what students were able to describe about the moon and its role in the atmosphere.

• Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows children with specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

o My planned informal assessments are designed to be open-ended so that students can include their own questions and ideas through discussions and observations. This will allow for students with specific needs to be able to demonstrate their learning through multiple entry points whether through listening, adding their input, drawing, or writing their observations. The formal assessment worksheet is designed for the teacher to be able to assist any students that may need help, or can be altered to fit students personal needs.

Instruction Commentary In Task 2: Instructing and Engaging Children in Learning, you will write a commentary, responding to the prompts below.

a. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment

a. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to children with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge children to engage in learning?

o I engaged children to participate in the learning by first conducting interviews with

them in small groups. This activated students prior knowledge of the subject and allowed them to begin thinking and building ideas of what they knew through previous experience as well as what they wanted to learn. I also was able to understand what I needed to address within my instruction to meets the needs of all of my students. During instruction, class discussions encouraged the responsiveness of all students through open-ended questions and each student being able to participate. I allowed for students to draw and write their observations, but encouraging students to challenge themselves to practice with

EDT 317.E

10

both. Individual instruction and assistance was available for all students throughout the lesson and mostly during independent activities.

2. Engaging Children in Learning

• Explain how your instruction engaged young children in scientific inquiry or scientific practices.

o My instruction was able to engage children through scientific inquiry through my pre-assessment interview, by allowing students to think about any prior knowledge that they may have on the subject through their own experiences or prior academic learning. This also allowed for students to formulate ideas and questions that they might want answered through this lesson. I allowed students to explore through scientific practices when they were able to write or draw in their response journals observations that they had about the moon, as well as discuss these characteristics and findings through actively participating in class discussions. Students were able to view a simulation of the moon phases in the classroom, and explore their own meanings and interpretations of these phenomenons. The topic was explained more in depth to students by reading a National Geographic Science book called Sun, Moon, and Stars where key vocabulary was discussed and students were able to look at vocabulary notecards that had the words both written and drawn, as well as a poster board of the phases in order. Students had classroom discussions on what they had observed through looking outside and through the moon simulation, and what conclusions they could draw from these. Students’ experiences were elaborated on when they were able to complete a moon phase booklet activity and connect their understanding through real life experiences of finding their birthday moon phase and graphing these as a class. They also were able to listen to an interactive song that talked about the moon and the different phases. Students were then evaluated by being able to apply these concepts to a worksheet describing their understanding.

• Describe how your instruction linked children’s development, prior learning, and personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.

o My instruction was able to link with children’s development by allowing them to complete observations where they were able to explore on their own, and describe these observations in their own words. Students were able to come up with questions and ideas of their own to participate within class discussions. Students prior learning was linked to instruction through the pre-assessment where I was able to find out what students already knew about the moon and make sure to address any misconceptions they had within my lesson. Their personal, cultural, and community assets were linked to my instruction by focusing the lesson with their interest in the outside atmosphere and their everyday life experiences with nature. Also, to increase students learning interest and experience they were able to listen to a song about the moon since they enjoyed music and dancing.

3. Deepening Children’s Learning during Instruction

• Explain how you elicited and built on children’s responses to promote thinking and develop understandings of how to conduct a scientific investigation and how to use evidence to construct and defend an explanation of a scientific phenomenon.

EDT 317.E

11

o I was able to build on children’s responses when I conducted interviews that told me what students already knew about the subject and what misconceptions they had. This allowed me to come up with the instruction of what to address and probe students to answer in classroom discussions to promote thinking. I had children develop understandings of scientific investigation by viewing a simulation of the moon as well as looking outside, and making their own observations and inferences. I also had students read the National Geographic Sun, Moon, and Stars and discuss key vocabulary terms that were used to construct their evidence and be able to come up with explanations of the scientific phenomenon they were studying. Students were then able to defend their observations and explanations in classroom discussions and construct their own moon phase book to show the scientific phenomenon.

• Explain how you made interdisciplinary connections through the learning experience(s) to promote children’s development of language and literacy.

o I was able to make interdisciplinary connections with children’s development in language and literacy by introducing new key vocabulary to students. The students used this vocabulary when writing their observations in journals as well as orally through classroom discussions. Students main ideas were also written on the board for them to be able to use as a resource and identify new ideas or questions their peers had.

4. Analyzing Teaching

• How did your instruction support learning for the whole class and children who need greater support or challenge?

o My instruction supported learning for both the whole class and children who needed greater support by having multiple entry points for all students to be able to participate. There were class or group discussions through which students could actively participate or listen. The vocabulary cards had the words written as well as drawn out for students to be able to visualize. Hands-on activities were incorporated into the lesson by students being able to view a simulation model of the moon, make moon phase booklets, look at their birthday moon phase, as well as participate in a class discussion and graphing of their birthday moon phases. There was also individual assistance provided throughout these activities if needed.

• What changes would you make to your instruction to better support children’s learning of the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?

o I would make changes in my instruction to better support children’s learning of the central focus by including more instruction or an activity having to do with the moons orbit around the Earth. Most of the instruction was focused on the moons phases, and they didn’t get to fully engage in learning about what the orbit has to do with determining day and night, or this relating to the calendar.

EDT 317.E

12

• Why do you think these changes would improve children’s learning? Support your explanation with evidence of children’s learning and principles from developmental theory and/or research.

o I think that these changes to my instruction would improve children’s learning because this would provide a connection between the phases and the orbit of the moon. Students would be able to better apply their knowledge of the phases by understanding how the moon orbits, and why there are different parts of the moon lit up at different times. They would also be able to make a real-life connection based on why they have a certain phase on their birthday and what this has to do with determining the phase of the moon by looking at our calendar.

Assessment Commentary In Task 3: Assessing Children’s Learning, you will write a commentary, responding to the prompts below. 1. Analyzing Children’s Learning

• Identify the specific standards/objectives from the lesson measured by the assessment you conducted.

o Condensed Content Statement: The moon, sun, and stars are visible at different times of the day or night.

• Instructional Objectives:

o Students will be able to identify the moon’s phase when looking at an image of the moon.

o Students will be able to describe the moon’s surface. o Students will be able to describe where the moon gets its light. o Students will be able to describe how the moon orbits the Earth.

• Provide the evaluation criteria you used to analyze the children’s learning.

o The evaluation criterion that I used to analyze children’s learning was by informally evaluating students through class discussions and observations that they had using the key vocabulary. Also, by looking at their birthday phase cards to see if they were able to draw the right picture or write the correct phase. I formally evaluated student’s learning by looking at how many questions they answered correctly on their final worksheet about the moons surface, how the moon orbits earth, where the moon gets light, and they were able to sequence the phases of the moon.

• Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes children’s learning for your whole class. Be sure to summarize children’s learning for all evaluation criteria described above (1.b).

o Regarding the informal assessment, students were able to use the vocabulary terms of the phases while they were making their birthday moon cards. Some students still referred to the crescent moon as the “banana shaped” one, in which case I would correct the student and make sure they wrote the correct term on the card. The formal assessment involved a worksheet about the moons surface,

EDT 317.E

13

how the moon orbits earth, where the moon gets light, and the sequence of the phases of the moon. The below chart provides for the first three questions, the letter answer the children provided allowing me to evaluate what students were able to answer the multiple choice questions correctly. The fourth question involved all eight phases of the moon, and the chart provides how many of thee correct each student had. Lastly, question five was a short answer question and the evaluation criterion is provided under the chart.

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Student 1 A C B 1/8 2/3 Student 2 A C B 8/8 2/3 Student 3 A C B 8/8 3/3 Student 4 A C B 6/8 1/3 Student 5 A C B 8/8 0/3 Student 6 A C B 2/8 N/A Student 7 A C B 3/8 1/3 Student 8 A C A 8/8 1/3 Student 9 A C B 7/8 3/3 Student 10 A C B 6/8 2/3 Student 11 A C B 4/8 2/3 Student 12 A C B 8/8 3/3 Student 13 A C B 4/8 3/3 Student 14 C C B 0/8 2/3 Student 15 A C B 1/8 1/3 Student 16 C C B 5/8 N/A Student 17 A C B 8/8 3/3 Student 18 A D B 6/8 3/3 Student 19 A C B 8/8 3/3 Student 20 A C B 8/8 3/3 Student 21 D D A N/A N/A Total Correct 18/21 19/21 19/21

Question 5 Evaluation Criteria: 3 points possible 0 points: Student provided no answer. 1 point: Student attempted to answer the question, but answer is not correct. 2 points: Student provided a partial answer and showed a basic understanding. 3 points: Student provided a complete answer, written in a complete sentence, and showed a full understanding. Example Answers: 1 point: “The stars are not shining on it.” 2 points: “The sun does not light the moon.” 3 points: “The sun isn’t getting its light on the moon so the moon doesn’t shine like a full moon.”

2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning

Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanations.

EDT 317.E

14

• Explain how feedback provided to the children addresses their individual and developmental strengths and needs relative to standards and objectives measured.

o Constant communication and feedback was being provided to students’ by

responding to questions and prompting them to explain, or providing them with follow-up questions. If a student didn’t understand the subject material I talked to them individually about it and explained further and followed up individually with their writing response to see if they were able to describe or explain the learning objectives being measured.

• How will you support children to apply the feedback to guide improvement, either within the learning segment or at a later time?

o Discussion is prevalent in the classroom, and students will be encouraged to use the feedback given by the teacher both within the learning segment and in later discussions. They will also be encouraged to use the feedback given to improve their writing and discussion skills with prompting as well as reflection questions.

3. Evidence of Language Understanding and Use Use the children’s work samples analyzed in Task 3 and cite language use Explain the extent to which children were able to use vocabulary to develop content understandings.

o Students were able to use vocabulary to develop their content understandings by being provided with vocabulary cards with the word written and drawn on them. Students were encouraged to use these in their observations and classroom discussions. As students were taught the words and read about them in the National Geographic Science book they began to use them more frequently, and could identify their birthday phase by being familiar with these terms independently.

4. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction

• Based on your analysis of children’s learning presented above (Assessment Commentary, Task 3), describe next steps for instruction for the whole class.

o The next steps for instruction that the teacher could follow is to connect the

learning and experiences presented above to another atmosphere lesson. The teacher could build on this lesson and have students be able to again address some of the misconceptions that were present in the lesson. The National Geographic science book Sun, Moon, and Stars have other lessons that will be able to connect this information to other concepts involving their atmosphere.

• Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of children’s learning. Support your explanation with principles from research and/or developmental theory.

o This learning will allow students to conduct better class discussions based on their new knowledge. Students will be encouraged to use the meaning that they

EDT 317.E

15

acquired from their previous vocabulary words and apply it to their new content. The discussions and writing activities are successful in being able to understand children’s learning and experiences from the instruction.