William Paterson University

College of Education
LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE

DAY 1
Teacher Candidate Name:
2

Katelyn Sheridan

Topic: Civics and Opinion Writing

you do to help your community?
Standard/s):
DAY1:
CCSS RL.2.1 Read closely
to determine what the text
says explicitly and make
logical inferences from it.
NJCCCS 6.1.P.B.1 Develop
an awareness of the
physical features of the
neighborhood/community
Day 2:
CCSS W.2.1 Write opinion
pieces, in which they
introduce the topic or
book they are writing
about, state an opinion,
supply reasons that
support opinion, use
linking words to connect
opinion and reasons, and
provide a concluding
statement.
NJCCCS 6.3.4.A.3 Select a
local issue and develop a
group action plan to
inform school and/or

School:

Marie V. Duffy Elementary

Concept: Community

Grade:

Essential Question: What can

Date of Lesson: April 28th-29th

Learning objective(s):

Assessment(s): ( attach assessment tools & rubrics)

Day 1:

Pre/Post Assessment: Community/Neighborhood Quiz

-SWBAT define what a

community is in a full
sentence.
-SWBAT define what a
neighborhood is in a full
sentence.
-SWBAT write a step by step
procedure on how they plan to
reach a goal.

Formative Assessment during read aloud of City Green and Uncle Willie
and the Soup Kitchen.

Day 2:
-SWBAT create an action plan
for one thing they would like to
do for their community.
-SWBAT write an action plan
that mentions the problem
they want to solve, an example
of how they might solve it and
a goal they have.
-SWBAT connect ideas about a
community from our reading

Graphic Organizer Creation: Students will trace their hand and list one
way they can help the community on each finger.
Students will create an action plan for a problem or idea of their
choosing. Action plan should include the problem the student wants to
solve, steps on how they plan to do that and the goal they hope to
reach.

community members
about the issue

in order to form their own

ideas to support their
community.

Planning:

Teacher Resources (Internet Sites, Technology / Visuals): Anchor Chart created with students: 1 for definitions of community,
neighborhood and examples, 1 for What is an action plan?, Epson Touch screen white board.
Academic Vocabulary: Community, Neighborhood, Action Plan, teamwork
Materials (e.g. Props/Manipulatives/Picture Book or Information Text):
Groupings: Students grouped in mixed ability groups. For turn and talks they are communicating with a partner. Full class instruction
unless otherwise noted.
Family Engagement: Homework: Discuss the types of communities you are involved in with your family.
Cite Sources (e.g. textbook page # or pinterest website): City Green by Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan, Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by
Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan, Student Social Studies textbook pp. 58-60.
Student prior knowledge needed: Students have written a How To before, this will help in writing steps for their action plan.
Co-Teaching Strategy: 1 teach 1 assist

Teaching and Learning

Process:

EVALUATE

Teacher
What questions will you ask?
What will you do, say, and/or
write? What tools will you use?
Teacher proctors a short preassessment.

Students
What will students do? What tools will students use? Where in the classroom
are the students? How will students be grouped?
Students are sitting in their desks. They will independently take quiz for 5-10
minutes.

ENGAGE

What is a community?
What is a neighborhood?
List examples of types of
communities.
Read the students the book
City Green by Dyanne DiSalvoRyan.
While Reading ASK:
Old Man Hammer, hard as
nails. What does this mean?
What do you think some of his
personality traits might be?

Students are seated on the carpet in their assigned seats.

Raise their hands to offer responses.

Turn and talk with their partner about what a petition is.
ASK: What is a petition? What
are Miss Rosa and Marcy trying
to do by starting one?
Turn and talk with their partner about teamwork.
SAY: I see lots of teamwork.
What types of things do you
notice?

Students will raise their hands to share their predictions.

ASK: Do you think Marcy was

dreaming? Did Mr. Hammer
plant those seeds?
EXPLAIN

EXTEND

ASK: Marcy is a part of a

community just like you! What
is a community?
Create a chart on the easel.
List student responses on
paper.
Say: These are all great ideas.
All of your definitions have
something in common. A
community is a place where
people come together to
achieve the same goal. For
example our school is a
community. Why is our school a
community?
Ask: Is the definition of a
neighborhood the same as a
community? If not, how are
they different?
Ask: In the book City Green
Marcy helps her community.
What is her community and
how did she help?
Say: Correct! Now what were
some of the steps that Marcy
and Miss Rosa took to reach
their goal? Turn and talk with

Students will raise their hand to answer question. Answers should sound
something like A place where people come together for a common purpose
Have students write their responses to What is a community? on the chart
paper.

Our school is a community because we all come to school to learn.

Students will raise their hands to answer the question. As a class we will fill
out a venn diagram to represent the similarities and differences between
neighborhood and community.

Students will return to their desks to sit. They will raise their hand to
respond.

Students will first turn to their partner to discuss. Then they may raise their
hand to share with the rest of the class.

your partner to come up with

two steps she took.
Students turn and talk to partner about other steps they may have taken
Would you have taken any
different
steps?
SAY: Macy helped her
community. Lets think of some
ways we can help out
community.
Hand out construction paper to
each student. Have them trace
their hand and write 1 way to
help their community on each
finger.

Evaluate

Collect the handprints and

redistribute to the class
tomorrow when they work on
their action plan.
Formative: Review students
graphic organizers (handprints)
to see what kind of ideas they
came up with. Adapt lesson
and guide students to pick
ideas that fit the category.

Closing DAY1
Today we learned about
communities and
neighborhoods. We also
discussed the different ways
we can help our communities. I
want you to think more about
one specific thing you want to
do to help your community for
tomorrow. If you have an idea
that you did not write on your
handprint today take out your
writing notebook and jot it
down , you will need an idea to

Students receive construction paper and they will trace their hand with a
pencil. They will fill in each finger with 1 way to help their community. If time
permits they may draw a picture on the palm of the hand and color it in.

Students are sitting in their seats. They have handed in their handprints and
are about to put their writing notebook and folder away to set up for science.

use tomorrow.
Differentiated Instruction: For ELLs I will translate the words community and neighborhood. They will also be seated next to
other Spanish speaking students.
Students with IEPs I will provide a multiple choice pre-assessment.

DAY 2
Teaching and Learning
Process:

ENGAGE

Teacher
What questions will you ask?
What will you do, say, and/or
write? What tools will you use?
SAY: Remember yesterday we
talked about communities and
the difference between
communities and
neighborhoods. Today we are
going to learn about a different
type of community. Yesterday
we discussed a neighborhood
coming together to garden
when we read City Green.
Today we are going to read
Uncle Willie and the Soup
Kitchen.
While reading ASK: Why does
the boy feel kind of sad when
he sees the woman sleeping on
a park bench? How is Uncle
Willie helping?

Students
What will students do? What tools will students use? Where in the classroom
are the students? How will students be grouped?
Students will be seated on the carpet in their assigned rows.

Turn and talk to one other person to come up with a prediction on why the
boy feels kinda sad

Students will work in groups of 3 to discuss what a volunteer is and some of

the things they have volunteered to do.

EXPLORE

EVALUATE

EXTEND

ASK: What is a volunteer?

Read the About Soup Kitchens
page (page 1) after you read
the students the story. It will
clarify what a soup kitchen is
Each day in cities all across
the country, volunteers and
paid workers prepare meals to
feed millions of hungry men,
women, and children who come
to eat at local soup kitchens
Pass out Post assessment.
Open-ended quiz. What is a
community? What is a
neighborhood? List examples of
types
SAY: Remember the story City
Green we read yesterday? Do
you think Macy had a goal?

ASK: Do you think she reached

her goal? What types of things
did she have to do to reach her
goal?
SAY: Just like Macy I want you
to come up with your own goal.
Do you see a problem in your
community that can be fixed?
Is there something you want to
change? Yesterday you all
wrote some great ideas on your
handprint, you could use one of
these ideas.
What you are going to write is
an action plan. You are going to

Students are seated at the carpet. Students will help fill out community chart
on the easel.

Students will work independently at their desks for 5-10 minutes on the post
assessment quiz. If they finish quickly they may work on handwriting while
they wait for everyone to finish.
Students are seated at the carpet
Students raise their hands to share what type of goal Macy had.
As a class we will decide on what problem Macy wanted to fix and the goal
she wanted to reach. We will write these responses on a chart.

Students will turn and talk with their partner to discuss the steps Macy took
to reach her goal. Each pair will come up to the easel and write one step
Macy took to reach her goal.

Students will return to their desk and begin writing their action plan. They
may refer to the example we created on the chart as a guide for formatting
and the different parts they will include in the action plan (problem, goal,
steps to reach goal).

choose something you want to

do, write about a goal you want
to reach and write how you are
going to reach that goal. It is
kind of like when we wrote our
How To and we had to explain
each step.
EVALUATE

Students will create an action plan

for a problem or idea of their
choosing. Action plan should
include the problem the student
wants to solve, steps on how they
plan to do that and the goal they
hope to reach.

If students finish early they may start writing another action plan. Writing of
the action plan will probably take at least 10 minutes more and may be
wrapped up tomorrow.

Differentiated Instruction:
Anchor chart will remain on the easel for student reference. ELL students will be seated next to Spanish speaking students for
translation. Mrs. Glazer or I will take down their responses through translation.
For students with IEPs the instructions for the action plan will be written and printed out to be placed on their desk for
reference.