Alicia Eldridge

November 4, 2013
J.E. Robins Elementary
2nd Grade/ Reading
The First Thanksgiving

Instructional Outcomes/ Student Objectives
Students will be able to explain what happened on the first Thanksgiving, what the Pilgrims were
thankful for, and who they spent the first Thanksgiving with through a teacher/student led
discussion and reading from a book. Students will complete a webquest where they will
investigate the first Thanksgiving. They will be able to distinguish between a noun and adjective
when they fill in a Thanksgiving story worksheet.

WV CSOs
SS.2.H.CL1.3 explore the impact historical figures have had upon our society.
ELA.2.W.C11.2 recall information from experiences or gather information from provided
sources to answer a question.

National Standards
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate
texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their
knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their
understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context,
graphics).
11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety
of literacy communities.

Management Framework
Overall Time- 30 minutes
Time Frame- 5 minutes teacher introduction and reading of pages 75-80 in our book
20 minutes student worksheet and webquest
5 Wrap up and discussion

Strategies
Teacher/student led discussion
Reading of a book
Guided instruction
Online instruction

Differentiated Instruction/Adaptations/Interventions
See attached
Procedures
Introduction/Lesson Set
We will assess prior knowledge of the first Thanksgiving, and I will read pages 75-80 from the
book that we have been using in the class.

Body and Transitions
After reading and discussing the section of the book, we will do a Thanksgiving: Add the Nouns
and Adjectives worksheet. After the worksheet the students will complete a webquest that
investigates the first Thanksgiving.

Closure
Review what students found in the webquest and share thoughts and opinions.

Assessment
Diagnostic:
See what students already know about the first thanksgiving. Access their prior knowledge, and
ask questions essential to the topic.

Formative:
Observe students as they work on their webquest and work with them on the nouns and
adjectives worksheet.

Summative:
Grade students webquests to see if they were able to navigate the website correctly and find the
correct answers.

Materials
Smart board
Book (The First Thanksgiving)
Worksheet
Pencil
Webquest worksheet
Computer

Extended Activities
If student finishes early
They can get onto the Mayflower website for kids and take a interactive tour of the Mayflower.

If lesson finishes early
Go to thr Mayflower website and take a tour of the Mayflower online.

POST-TEACHING Reflections

Planning
When planning the lesson, the time frame was what I was most concerned about. I had to fit in a
lot of information into a 30 minute lesson. I think if I had more time, we could have read more of
the book, but I feel that I chose a good portion of the book to read aloud and discuss. I enjoyed
investigating the first Thanksgiving to find the questions for the students to answer.

Student Response
In regards to the lesson itself, all of the students were engaged, and wanted to raise their hand to
answer questions and tell me what they knew about the first thanksgiving. They struggled a little
with the worksheet, but I was able to get on the white board and go over nouns and adjectives
with them to help them better understand the concepts. It ended up working out in the end, but
next time I will be sure to go over the concepts of the worksheet before passing it out and
expecting them to know what they are doing. I did explain it a little, but when I noticed them
struggling, that is when I realized I needed to explain in more detail, what they needed to know
before they began. The response to the webquest was great. The students had fun interacting with
the website and it was kid friendly, so they really didn't mind looking for the answers to the
webquest. All in all, the students enjoyed the lesson.

Strategies
I was worried the students wouldnt get much out of the short section of the book I had time to
read and discuss, but in the end, it was just enough to not overload them on information. I feel I
did a good job of starting with the reading and discussion before doing the art activity at the end,
because if I had started with that, then they wouldnt want to pay attention to the most important
part of the lesson, which is where they learned the most.

Assessment
The assessment for this lesson was a very simple question and response, to see if the students had
retained any information that they learned from the reading and the worksheet. They learned the
most I feel from the webquest. They ended up doing a wonderful job, and I had great responses
from the students. They knew a lot more than I expected, but at the same time learned a lot. I
feel that I just needed more time with them at some points, because in elementary education, you
need to delegate your time because you only have so much time to teach one subject.

Learning Differences
Allow students to work through their differences and give assistance when needed.

Attention Differences
Work individually with student or group them with another student

Ability Differences
Implementation of information to allow students of different abilities to participate.