ED 345 Calvin College Lesson Planning Form for Differentiating Instruction

Teacher: Beth Kusserow

Date: Oct. 5, 2015

Subject/ Topic/ Theme: English/Reading/Fables

I. Objectives
What is the main focus of this lesson? Reviewing fables and quotations, introducing cause and effect.
How does this lesson tie in to a unit plan? While this lesson only briefly highlights fables, the concept of cause & effect is present
in the fables they are reading, especially in the morals. It also reinforces the quotation mark skills the class was introduced to last
week.
What are your objectives for this lesson? (As many as needed.) Indicate connections to applicable national or state standards. If
an objective applies to only certain students write the name(s) of the student(s) to whom it applies.
1) Students will create cause and effect scenarios, which we will then combine into a story as a whole class
2) Students will connect a cause with an effect from a story that we read/watch.
3) Students will share their quotation work from last week with each other.
4) Students will re-write sentences with quotation marks correctly placed.
II. Before you start
Prerequisite knowledge and skills.

Assessment
(formative and summative)

Identify those students (individuals

or groups) in your class who will
need special attention and
describe the level of support you
plan on giving them. Refer back to
the survey you did of your class.
Materials-what materials (books,
handouts, etc) do you need for this
lesson and do you have them?
Do you need to set up your
classroom in any special way for
this lesson? If so, describe it.
III. The Plan
Time
Parts
8:00 8:10

Motivation
(Opening/
Introduction/
Engagement)

The students already know the routine for the spelling test.
I will refer to a story that grade 1 told in chapel last week, which most of the students were
present for.
Their learning about quotation marks the previous week should make the worksheet page
and phrase sharing just review.
Spelling test - summative
Their cause and effect matching (formative) will give me a sense of their comprehension
When they create their own causes and effects, I will see if they can extend their learning to
creating their own causes and effects.
Their quotation page in their grammar book will be a sort of summative (whether or not
taken for a grade) as we end quotations for now - did they get it, or not?
[Charlie], [Marissa], [Jada], and [Kimberly] are at the F reading level from Reading A-Z.
None of the others in the class indicated that English was hard for them at school on their
surveys.
[Charlie]s fine motor skills are weak.
Spelling test list, folders, paper, pencils
Brian Pop Jr. video, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake video
Slips of paper with causes and effects, cause and effect posters
Scrap paper, pencils for writing their own scenarios
Phrases with quotation mark macaroni from last week, grammar books
Nothing new

The description of (script for) the lesson, wherein you describe teacher activities and student
activities
Start with spelling test. (10 minutes) When the students are finished, they should quietly go to the
morning carpet and think about new words to go on the plurals chart that I still have up. Think, dont
write!

8:10 8:20

Then have students share their sentences that they wrote with quotations (12 oclock buddy). I will have
the papers divided up already, and will call each group up to read their sentences to the rest of the
group. For a couple of them, I will ask them to remind me what the macaroni stand for, and how they
know where to put them. I might have them turn and tell a friend what quotation marks are.
After each group reads their sentences, I will collect them again - we will display them somewhere, once
Mrs. [Smith] gets back.

8:20 8:30

8:30 8:35

When we have finished all of the sentences, I will ask the students to think of a number between 1 and
10. If their number is even they can go. If their number is odd, they can go. At their desks, I have the
supplies helpers pass out grammar books, and I pull it up on the computer. Together we work through
the first two or so, and then the class does the rest on their own. I might ask [Charlie] to just add the
quotation marks where they belong, rather than writing out the full sentences for all of them. When
they finish they should give me a thumbs up so that I can check it, and then try writing their own
sentence with quotation marks somewhere on the page where they have space.
Development

When everyone has finished and put their book away, I pull up the Brain Pop Jr. video about cause and
effect. I play it once, and then review what cause and effect mean with the posters in the classroom.

8:35 8:45

Then I will apologize profusely for showing them two videos in a row, but we couldnt find this book, so
you have to watch a video of it. I will show them the video of If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. The best video
I found seemed to go by pretty quickly, so depending on how time is going and student preference, I
might play it a second time.

8:45 8:50

After the second time I will ask them to look at the number with their name on the desk. If their number
is even, I want them to stand up in one line on the morning carpet, if it is odd, Ill have them stand on
the other side. If the lines dont match up, I might step in or move some students around. Then I will
pass causes down one line and effects down the other. I will explain that I will have the students take
turns reading their cards, then they have to find the card that is the cause or effect. So if one card says
It rained (referencing the poster), the person who has the card saying I got wet should read it, and
they can stand together. But our cards will have to do with the story. I will have the first person start
out, and walk them through the activity. If we have 12 or fewer students in attendance and time to kill,
we could use the cupcake cards, as well, for a round two.

8:50 9:05

I will collect the cards and ask them to sit down at the morning carpet. I will ask them to recall in the
video how Annie had a bad day. I will ask the students to remember some of the things that happened
to her on her bad day. Then I will ask them to remember some of the events from the grade 1 chapel
and their story of [Jacksons] Happy Sad Day. After a couple minutes, I will have them go back to their
desks to get a pencil, then write up a new buddy (3 oclock?). They need to come with their buddy to get
a piece of scrap paper from me (maybe leftovers from the macaroni lesson) and write down one happy
cause and effect (this happened because this happened) and one sad cause and effect, and we will make
our own story.
The students come back to their seats and share their scenarios with me. I will type them up on the
computer screen with cause and effect clearly labeled (two colors?), to create a fun story of the day.

9:05 9:10

Closure

If we run out of time, we can leave this last activity as just a discussion of cause and effect from Brain
Pop Jr. and grade 1s chapel.
Your reflection on the lesson including ideas for improvement for next time:
The kids always like watching videos, and it was fun to have an activity that involved standing up and moving around more like a
game. They were able to connect the causes and effects relatively well, but the vocabulary was not built with the conceptual
understanding. Im not sure even the conceptual understanding was built as much as it could have. Its a really tough concept,
especially if youre trying to learn it in a language that is not your own. I think it would need to be incorporated in multiple subjects,
because it is a universal concept, and bears repeating.