Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking

connection)
Teacher:
Content & Title:
Grade Level:
Cheyenne Olson
Poverty
5th
Standards:

Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):

SWBAT come up with ideas on how to help students in their school that
live in poverty
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
(formative) The rough draft of their poster will allow for me to see if
theyre getting the idea
(summative) The final poster will be graded and will allow for me to see
how much theyre getting the idea of what was expected of them
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from
simple to more complex):

SWBAT understand what poverty is

SWBAT understand how people in poverty live
SWBAT come up with ways to help the students in their school that live
in poverty
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what
students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)

The students will be creating a poster to present to the class with ways they
can help other students that live in poverty. Students should be able to
come up with ways in which to help other people, so I thought this was a
good place to start.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this
lesson)
What poverty is
What some causes are
What people in poverty may or may not have

Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)

People in poverty are hopeless
People in poverty dont want to be helped
People in poverty can just find a job
Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)
Critical thinking and collaboration

Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your

lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of
thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included
meaningfully in the lesson plan.)
My lesson plan connects to strategic thinking because the students are strategizing about
how to help others in a real world situation
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)
N/A

Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)

1. (to explore) What do you think would be good ways to help students in the school
that live in poverty?
2. (to elaborate) Why do you think your strategies would be a good way to help the
students in poverty?
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
Materials: (list item and possible

1. Poverty
2.
3.

quantity)
1. Poster paper
2. Markers
3.

Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students
will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
Ask if theyve ever thought about
Give an answer for whether or
the students at the school that
not they have
live in poverty
Answer if theyve thought
Ask if theyve thought about
about ways to help
ways that they can help those
students
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Explain that there could be students that live in poverty at the school if they
dont understand that
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials
to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in
Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger students,
but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)
Students Will: (list all steps)

Ask what they think some good ways

to help those students could be
Explain that they will be put into
groups of 4 or 5 people and they will
create a poster with different ways
to help these students
Allow them to create the poster

Answer with a few ways they

might be able to help

Listen
Create the poster as a group
with ways to help the other
students in poverty

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Walk around to make sure all the groups are on the right track and
understand what is expected of them.
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects
student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students
articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson sub-objectives
by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Have the students wrap up their
Wrap up their ideas on their
posters and get ready to present
posters and prepare how
theyre going to present their
Explain the requirements of the
poster
presentation:
Listen to the requirements of

They have to give the ways they

the presentation and decide
came up with and why they think
whos going to present what
those are good ways to help
part
Have the students present and

Present their poster as a

grade their posters and
group explaining why they
presentations
chose the ways they did and
how they can help
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and
clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of
this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order thinking in this
stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If? question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
Ask why each group thinks that their
Give their reasons for why
ways of helping will benefit the
they think their ways will
students living on poverty
benefit the students
Explain ways the school already
Listen to how the school
helps the students living in poverty
already helps these students.
and what the programs do
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson
objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big
concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
The evaluation is based on the poster
and presentation
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
Ask for any last questions or last suggestions that may have come up.

**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance
the learning outcomes. In each section where prompted, list the best
practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.