Grade Level/Subject:

5th grade/ Reading

Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Central Focus: Summarize the biography text by using bubble chart
graphic organizer.

Big Idea Statement: Understand how Thomas Jefferson is an

important figure in the U.S. history.
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
RL.5.2. Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how
they are supported by key details; summarize the text.
Date submitted:
5.H.2. Understand the role of prominent figures in shaping the United Date taught: 3/16/2016
States.

Daily Lesson Objective: Students will be able to summarize the biography text by discovering main ideas and
details of Thomas Jeffersons life. Students will be given with bubble sheet to organize their thoughts and write
out their summary.
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and Vocabulary):
Communication and collaboration
Language Function: Summarize
Vocabulary: Biography, Declaration of Independence

Prior Knowledge: Students should already have the knowledge of summarizing a text in their own writing and a
brief idea of what biography book is.
Activity
1. Focus and Review

Description of Activities and Setting

Show a picture of Thomas Jefferson and ask:
- Who do you think this person is?
Then get students to think about what their prior knowledge of who and
what Thomas Jefferson did that was important in the U.S.
- What do you know about him?
- Where did you see/read about him?
Then the teacher will inform the students with background knowledge:
- Declaration of independence: Back in the old days, America
was not a country, it was made up of 13 colonies. The 13
colonies were at war with the Britains for about 1 year. The
colonies wanted to officially declare/state their independence,
freedom from others.
- Colony: place thats settled by people from another country.
Teacher will also share few interesting facts about Thomas Jefferson to
engage students, then introduce the biography book about him.
- Jefferson had thousands of books and loved reading, and later
sold to the U.S. Library of Congress.
- He helped to start University of Virginia

Time
8min.

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student

3. Teacher Input

4. Guided Practice

He was also an investor, invented many useful items (plowmade farming easier)
What is biography? Turn and talk with your neighbor text about one
persons life; life story.
Students will be able to comprehend the biography text to summarize
with main idea and details. Students will organize their thoughts on the
graphic organizer and write paragraphs about Thomas Jefferson at the
end of the class.
I will show the book through the computer/document camera and read
the first few pages. To demonstrate how to find main idea and details, I
will be thinking aloud as Im reading the texts.
Thomas Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers of the United
States. He helped write the Declaration of Independence. He helped
shape the first laws of our nation. He was the countrys third president.
Hmm.. let me think, what could be the main idea from this
page? Oh, Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers
(writing in the main bubble chart). How could I support this
main idea with details or ideas from the text? Oh I see he was
the 3rd U.S. president AND helped write the Declaration of
Independence (writing in the support bubbles that connect to the
main idea).
Now, well practice one together. We are going to be reading a passage
about Thomas Jefferson and we are going to find the main idea and
details thats related just like I showed you. We will first read the whole
passage together and talk about the text as a class.
Reads the whole text by stopping every paragraph to confirm their
understanding and go over some vocabulary they may be new to
(inscription, civil liberties, ideals, etc.).
Teacher is guiding the students by asking questions like:
- What was the main idea from this few pages we read?
- What other details or ideas can we relate to this main idea from
the text?
- How did you know? Where did you find that?
(First few bubbles are filled out on the board for students to see)
students will now have an idea of where to write the main idea
and details on the graphic organizer
Explain that students could add more bubbles if necessary before
releasing them to do individual practice.

2min.

5min.

10min.

Students will individually finish reading the text (close read) and fill
out the bubble chart (graphic organizer I provide) with main ideas and
details. Teacher will be walking around to check on them and see if
anyone is struggling, and provide with guided questions to support.
5. Independent Practice

When students finish filling out the bubble chart, they are to write 4-5
sentences that summarizes the biography book.

20min.

Students who finish early can try to find the main idea and details in
their independent reading books, even if they are not biographies.
Formative assessment would be when students are talking to one another about their
comprehension of the text and filling out the bubble chart. Students are to fill out at
6. Assessment Methods
least 3 main idea bubbles with details on the graphic organizer. The summative
of
assessment would be the actual writing of the passage since it will include what
all objectives/skills:
students have comprehended. Students should have at least 5 complete sentences fo
their summary.
As a closure, we will come as a class to share about our summaries. We
7. Closure
will say one thing we learned about Thomas Jefferson by taking turns
5min.
(or to a partner if time doesnt allow).
It took students more time than I thought it would take them, so some of the
students ran out of time to finish the graphic organizer/summary paragraphs. They
were to finish the day after but ended up with students losing the paper and not
8. Assessment Results of having time to finish. I have 6 students who have turned in their work, completed or
all objectives/skills:
not. All six students filled out the bubble chart with three or more main ideas with
details. Three students completed the summarizing paragraphs with more than 5
sentences whereas two students only had about three sentences, and it seems like
one student did not get to write her summary paragraph.
Targeted Students
Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:
Modifications/Accommodations:
Students who might be having trouble comprehending and
ELLs could be provided with vocabulary supports discovering the key points and details may be pulled as a
and/or word banks to use to enhance their
small group so teacher can reteach the strategy or find
comprehension of the text.
another support to help students.
Sentence starters could also be a support for ELLs
who struggle writing the paragraphs to summarize.
[1. Thomas Jefferson is an important figure in the
U.S. history because ____.
2. Thomas Jefferson did ___ to ___.
3. Thomas Jefferson is known for ___.]

Students who finish early could find the main idea and
key details on their own independent reading books, even
if they are not biographies.
Students could also draw the memorial of Thomas
Jefferson summarizing the biography.

Materials/Technology:
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/Smart Board slides, etc.) needed
to implement the lesson at the end of the lesson plan.)
Biography book- Thomas Jefferson
Passage about Thomas Jefferson from ReadWorks
Bubble chart sheet
Sentence starter
Pencil
Paper
White board
Marker

References:
Thomas Jefferson by Simone T. Ribke
Readworks.org
Reflection on lesson:
The fact that I had to integrate Reading with Social Studies was a challenge itself to me, and because this
lesson was the first whole class lesson I got to teach at the school, I was very worried and nervous at the same
time. Time flew when I was teaching this lesson. I did not realize how long it took for the students to
comprehend the task and do it. The 5th grade class I was in is 95% Spanish speaking students, and half the class
is considered ELLs which made this lesson go by slower than I expected.
I feel like I rushed through the teacher modeling section of the lesson because I wanted to get through in
time and give students the opportunity to do it themselves, but I shouldve spent more time on demonstrating to
make sure students fully understood. We spent much time doing one together, which helped students to clarify
their tasks. Student had been practicing to close-read passages over weeks so they knew how to get main ideas
and details from the text, which was a very good skill they are building on. Almost all the students made good
use of the sentence starters to write their summary paragraphs, which kind of surprised me. Some students who
I thought were in a higher level even used the sentence starter to write. I thought, maybe I shouldve provided
the sentence starters JUST to the ELLs instead of having it on the board for everyone to see. Students were not
confident to write their own sentences it seemed like, so I had to come around to guide and support them while
they were working independently.
So many students volunteered to read which surprised me; usually, ELLs do not like to speak in front of the
class or read out loud, but these students were very active and outgoing and of course loved to read. While
reading the passage as a class, I made sure to stop here and there to go over some new vocabulary and made
sure students were comprehending the text. I made sure students knew their tasks before sending them to their
desks by asking students to tell me what their tasks were to do, which made the lesson flow much better.
By the time I finished teaching this lesson, I thought integrated lesson is very powerful. Its a great way to
teach two subjects together and the students love it. They havent had social studies lesson in so long because of
testing and different schedule due to school events, but students enjoy reading and so they loved learning new
things about Thomas Jefferson.
My teacher have told me that everything was well but she suggested for me to look more at the students

rather than at the paper, which I also realized after I taught the lesson. It was one thing I was worried about
before going into the lesson too. I wanted to prepare myself so I wrote down so many notes on the
paper/passage like a script. I wanted to cover all the things I prepared for, so I had my eyes more on the paper
than on the kids. As a result, there were some students who were not paying attention to the reading while other
students were volunteering to read, and these students took more time to finish the work. Next time I teach this
lesson in the future, I will make sure to focus on the students rather than the things Ive prepared. I believe this
will get better as I experience more teaching.