Megan Griffin

ELED 3221
3/5/16
edTPA Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template
What do plants need to survive?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Central Focus/Big Idea: Plant life cycle/ Adaptations
Subject of this lesson: Student will learn about the needs of a plant in order to survive and grow
(water, sunlight, and nutrients (soil)). Students will also learn that plants sometimes have to adapt
to their environments in order to survive.
Grade Level: 3rd Grade
NC Essential Standard(s): 3.L.2.3 Students should be able to summarize the distinct stages of
the life cycle of seed plants, specifically grass. 3.L.2 Student should understand how plants
survive in their environments.
Next Generation Science Standard(s): Grades 3-5 (Disciplinary Core Ideas):
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms
Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and
animals have unique and diverse life cycles.
LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits
Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents.
Other characteristics result from individuals interactions with the environment, which
can range from diet to learning. Many characteristics involve both inheritance and
environment.
21st Century Skills: Communication and Collaboration - Outcome for third grade students
includes demonstrating ability to work effectively and respectfully and exercise flexibility and
willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises with others; Initiative and SelfDirection - Outcome for third grade students includes utilizing time and managing workloads
efficiently.
Academic Language Demand
Language Function: Students are expected to explain what seed plants need in order to
survive and grow.
Analyze
Interpret

Argue
Predict

Categorize
Question

Compare/contrast
Retell

Describe
Summarize

Explain

Scientific Vocabulary: life cycle, parent plant, germinate, nutrients, adaptation, seed.

Instructional Objective: Students will be able to explain the life cycle of a plant and the things
a plant needs to survive and grow. Students will be able to successfully answer 4 out of the 5
questions in the passage from the explore phase of the lesson. Students will then be able to
successfully create an environment conducive to the growth of a plant, grass, as well as explain
what grass needs to grow.
Prior Knowledge (student): Students should have some prior knowledge about plants and how
they grow. Students should know classroom procedures and how to follow directions.
Content Knowledge (teacher): The teacher should have made a Grass Head as an example for
the class, and to know the appropriate steps to follow when creating them. The teacher should
also have read and answered the passage questions as well as watched the Plant Adaptations
video.
Accommodations for special needs (individual and/or small group): Students with physical
disabilities will be paired with a buddy to help them complete the work in a comfortable
setting. During the creation of the Grass Heads, students with disabilities will sit at a table
where all the materials are readily available to them so that they do not have to get up. ELLs
who are finding the passage difficult to read will work with myself or a volunteer during that
phase of the lesson. They will also be assigned a buddy if they have a hard time understanding
the directions for making a Grass Head.
Materials and Technology requirements:

Smart Notebook PowerPoint slide to guide lesson (Provided by teacher)

Plant Life Cycle passage (one per student)
Clipboards to use while working on the floor (one per student)
Science textbook (one per student)
Projector to display Plant Adaptations video
Panty hose socks (one per student)
Grass Seed (2 tablespoons per student)
Bag of Gardening Soil Mix (1 cups per student)
Clear plastic cup (one per student)
Googly eyes (one pair per student)
Pipe cleaners, foam paper, ribbon, etc. for decorations (enough for class to share)
Notecards (one per student)
Popsicle sticks (one per student)
Hot glue gun (two for teacher and assistant/volunteer)

Total Estimated Time: 50 minutes

Source of lesson: Ag in the Classroom Grass Head Resource, Pinterest (Plant Passage),
Scolastic.com/Study Jams (video)

Safety considerations: Student WILL NOT be allowed to use the hot glue gun. They will be
instructed to stay away from it unless a teacher is present. I will also instruct students to be
cautious when applying the grass seed and soil to the panty hose sock.

Content and Strategies (Procedure)

In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 Es. Your procedure should be
detailed enough for a colleague to follow. If you will be relying on technology (e.g., a YouTube
video), describe your back up plan thoroughly. Imagine your most novice colleague needing to
teach from your plan. Dont just answer the questions. Additionally, I expect you to include
possible questions you could ask for each section. This needs to include higher-order questions.
Engage:
Show students a picture of a plant and ask What do you know about plants?
Give students two or three minutes to discuss what they know with a partner. Have students
come up and write what they know on the smart board.

Questions:
What do you know about plants? (Answer: they need water, need sun, can be different colors,
grow in the ground, etc.)

Explore:
Students will read the Plant Life Cycle passage and answer the questions with a partner. Students
who finish early can read How does a plants life begin? on page A 26 in their science textbook.

Questions:
How do most plants start? (Answer: as a seed)
Where can you go if you arent sure about an answer? (Answer: back to the passage)
What do you do when you are finished reading the passage and answering the questions?
(Answer: get a science textbook and read the plant passages in it)

Explanation:
Teacher will call the class back together to discuss the passage. The teacher will ask the students
to answer the questions from the passage and will lead a discussion about the answers with the
class.
Questions:

Who can tell me what the process of living, growing, changing, and dying called? (Answer:
the life cycle)
What kind of plant will a seed grow into? (Answer: the parent plant)
Where can you usually nd seeds in an adult plant? (Answer: in the fruit)
What two things does a seed need to have with it in the ground to be able to grow? (Answer:
sunlight and water)

Lead discussion into the survival of plants. Ask students What do plants need to survive?
Give students two or three minutes to discuss what they know with a partner. Have students
come up and write what they know on the smart board. Explain to students that most people
think that plants can grow if they have water, sunlight, and nutrients (from soil). Sometimes,
people forget that the environment also predicts what plants will or will not grow. Many plants
have to adapt to their environment in order to survive.

Watch Plant Adaptations video. Afterwards, give students a moment to discuss what they saw in
the video. Then have students brainstorm plants that they know grow certain places because of
the environment.
Questions:

What plants grow in very cold environments? (Answer: cabbage, spinach, kale, etc.)
What grows in warm environments? (Answer: corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, etc.)
Do you think North Carolina is a good place to grow plants? (Answers may differ.yes, the
summers are warm, the winters are short, and fall and spring are beautiful)

Elaborate: After talking about the importance of the environment, depict a picture of some
grass on the smart board and ask students What do you think grass needs to grow and survive?
Students should answer that grass needs water, sunlight, and nutrients (soil) to grow and survive.
Questions:

Did you know that grass is a plant? (Answer: opinion-some yes/some no)
Do you think North Carolina has good weather and is a good environment for grass to grow?
(Answers will varyopinion based)

Say to students Did you know that we can get grass to grow as long as we give it the three
things it needs to survive? Show students an example Grass Head. Explain that students will
be creating these Grass Heads today and will watch them grow as long as they continue to give
the grass what it needs to survive. The students will complete the task in the following steps:
1. Students will first write what grass needs to grow and survive on a notecard. An example
sentence will be provided (Grass is a plant that can adapt to its environment. Grass needs
_________________ to survive and grow.) After this, they will glue a popsicle stick to the
notecard. (As this is happening, the teacher will place a small clear plastic cup on each childs
desk and will write their name in Sharpie on it)
2. Students will travel in pairs to pick up a panty hose sock and will fill it with 2 tablespoons of
grass seed.
3. Students will travel to the Soil Station and will hold their socks as the teacher fills it with 1
cups of soil. The student will then tie their sock end into a knot so the soil and seed will not
escape.
4. Students will then travel to the Grass Seed Accessories table. Students will pick up items they
wish to decorate their Grass Head with and will take the items back to their seat and experiment
with them before gluing.
5. Students will travel to the Glue Station. In this station, the teacher and assistant will use hot glue
guns to glue the accessories onto the Grass Heads. STUDENTS MUST NOT TOUCH THE
GLUE GUN.

Evaluate:
Summative Evaluation:
The Plant Life Cycle passage answers will show that students read the passage and understand
the life cycle of a plant.

Completed Grass Heads with the correct description on the notecard and appropriate use of
materials.
Formative Evaluation:
The questions I asked throughout the lesson and the observations I made while walking around
the classroom during the activities.
CT signature/confirmation: __LB_________________________ Date: __3/22/16_______
Assessment Results of all objectives/skills:
Students completed the lesson successfully and all passed the assessment.
Reflection on lesson:
My lesson began after students came back from recess. I prepared a Smart Notebook
(smart board) PowerPoint slide to help discussion be more interactive. I had students meet me at
the carpet with a clipboard to begin. We started by brainstorming what students already know
about plants. Most discussed physical characteristics and places they know plants grow. Next,
students got into groups of two and read a passage about the life cycle of plants. There were five
comprehension questions that followed the passage for students to complete. Once students were
finished, we came back together as a class and discussed the passage and answers. This was
student led, as I picked one student to start and then had that student popcorn pick the next
student. Once the conversation had finished, I asked students what plants need to survive. This is
a review question that they should all be able to answer. I then asked Well what about their
environment?. I gave students a minute to discuss with each other what I might mean by this
question. I then showed the class a video on Study Jams about plants adapting to their
environment. After the video, I planned to discuss the video in detail but time was running out. I
decided it was in the best interest of the lesson to move on and give students a chance to create
their grass head creatures before the day ended. Instead of discussing the video, I explained that
grass is a plant that has adapted to many environments to grow. I told the class that we could

make grass grow in a cup if we gave it the things it needs to survive. At this point, I began
explaining the procedure for creating the grass head creatures and we began. I was thankful this
lesson was taught at the end of the day because this gave me and a few helpers time to clean up
as car riders and walkers were being dismissed.
After teaching this lesson, I have some mixed emotions about how it went. I knew going
into the two-week intensive clinical experience that I would be teaching science during week
two. I was overwhelmed with making sure things were set for week one of the clinical teaching
that I put this science lesson on the back-burner. I was also somewhat hesitant to write a lesson
early on because things change so rapidly due to scheduling conflicts. My cooperating teacher
explained that by the second week, the students would have finished a lesson on landforms and
that she was open to whatever I wanted to teach. She told me that each year she does a fun lesson
on comparing soil. This lesson however would take two weeks because students would need to
observe the soil samples each day for two weeks. I knew this would not work for myself but I
still wanted her to be able to teach it after I left because I knew the students would love it. I
decided to look over the third grade common core standards and see if I could find anything that
might help lead up to my cooperating teachers lesson on soil. After doing some research, I
decided that it might be a good idea to teach about the needs of a plant. This would give students
a wide scope of knowledge that could potentially help them when they began their soil lesson,
I remembered making the grass head creatures in my science methods course and thought
that might be something I could have students do in this lesson. I wanted to make sure the lesson
was fun and allowed students to be creative because I knew they would be tired from completed
mock EOG testing on Monday and Tuesday of week two if the IMB experience. Another issue I
dealt with during the planning phase of this lesson was time. I was told I would have 50 minutes

to complete the lesson. This was a foreign concept to me because I had never really thought
about time before when writing lessons. This is because all of the lessons I have ever written
have not actually been taught. Knowing I only had 50 minutes probably made the depth and rigor
of the lesson fall a little short and that is probably the biggest draw back to the lesson. I wanted
to give my students time to create their creatures and knew it would take up a good bit of time.
Because of this, I did not spend as much time as I would have liked, discussing the life cycle of a
plant and having students explore plant needs on their own more in-depth.
After the Engage and Explore phase of the lesson, I felt students had a firm handle on the
needs of plants as well as the life cycle of a plant. It is often hard to predict how quickly students
will grasp concepts and ideas. In this case, it did not take them long to understand the message of
the lesson. If I could go back, I would have given students a more difficult passage and would
have had them complete some sort of quiz to test their knowledge before moving on. Although I
feel the passage was a bit too easy for some students, the creations of the grass head creatures
were an absolute hit. The students were shocked when I told them what they would be creating.
Some ran up to hug me, thanking me for letting them do something so fun. I wanted to tweak the
process used when I first observed the creation of the grass heads just a bit though to help
students understand how making these creatures correlated to what we learned in the lesson. I
decided that the best way to do this was to have students create plant labels that would explain
what they learned. I think this added step put the finishing touches on the grass head and made
them all look amazing. These labels helped students apply what the learned about plant needs to
a specific plant that most of them know a lot about. Overall, I think the students knowledge
about plants grew from this lesson as well as their experience with actually planting something.

I was very impressed by the work ethic of these students. I knew they would be overly
talkative since they had spent the entire first four hours of school completely quiets in testing
mode. The students were surprisingly very well behaved during all phases of the lesson. They
worked together and listened when I asked them to bring the noise level down. All students
followed the directions I gave during the creation of the grass heads and no one picked up the
glue gun which is a major plus! I wish I would have listed the steps for completing the grass
heads on the board instead of giving them the steps orally. Although this didnt really affect my
lesson that much, there might would have been a little less chaos as far as students being out of
their seats.
Overall, I can nitpick little things that went wrong during this lesson, but I feel the
students successfully understood what I set out for them to at the beginning of the lesson. I am
proud of the way things went for this being the first time I have taught science. The students
responded well, asked great questions, and deliberated in discussion that helped them gain
knowledge about plants. I am pleased with how things turned out and was excited to find a
picture of a growing grass head in an email from the parent of a student weeks after the lesson
was taught.