LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

Evelyn Payne

Carrie Lillard 4th Grade Mountain View Elementary School

February 13th at 12:00

February 6th

Lesson will be 30 minutes long

A. Vocabulary Grab Bag/ Word Study

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
1. What pre-assessment did you do that tells you the students readiness, interests, and/or learning
preferences? No pre-assessment was completed by me for this lesson. The word study list was
compiled and provided to me by the cooperating teacher. She has been working with the students since
the beginning of the school year on word study, and grouped them based on their abilities. However,
presenting the information in a game format I believe will spark the interest of the students.
2. Why is this an appropriate activity for these students at this time? This is an appropriate activity for
these students at this time because it offers them the basic word study curriculum in a more hands on
way. The students will get to participate in the word study lesson, instead of being lectured on the
words or simply sorting them. Since these students are fourth graders, the tasks of this game require
more critical thinking skills and asks the students to use their words in different contexts and formats.
3. How does this lesson fit in the curriculum sequence? This lesson fits into the word study
curriculum sequence because it teaches the students open and closed words (V/CV, VC/V, and VVCV)
as well as the definitions of their words, but in a new way. The game will help the students better
understand their word study list, as well as their definitions, sorting, and how to use them in a
sentence.
4. How does this lesson fit with what you know about child development? According to our textbook,
most middle to upper elementary students are in the syllables and affixes stage of writing. Students in
this stage spell most one syllable short and long vowel words correctly, but they struggle with two
syllable words. This particular list has students work with a mix of one syllable and two syllable words
as well as long and short vowels. This particular word study group is in the middle based on ability so
they have not yet progressed to affixes.

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., Johnston, F. R., & Bear, D. R. (2016). Words their way:
word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction(6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand The students will Know The students will know the Do Students will use both a
understand how to look up words in a definition of their word study words, dictionary and a thesaurus, students
thesaurus and a dictionary as well as how to use those words in a sentence, will practice writing words, spelling
how to sort word study words based how to spell them, and multiple words out loud, and practice sorting
on long V/CV, short VC/V, and long synonym and antonyms for the words.
VVCV. words.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
For assessment, students will be expected to complete each task of the game with all of their word
study words. Students responses to tasks such as definition, using the word in the sentence, and
finding the word in a thesaurus will determine whether they have reached the objectives of this lesson
plan or not. Student achievement will be recorded in the following chart.
Student Understand Know Do

Sam

Good with sorting word

and syllables

Blake M.

Struggled with spelling words

out loud at first, but improved

Gracy

Had trouble using a

dictionary

Anahi

I watched her sort her

words after the lesson, and
she did a great job

Carson

Had trouble using a

thesaurus
E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL STANDARDS if required)
4.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading.
a) Use context to clarify meanings of unfamiliar words
b) Use knowledge of roots, affixes, synonyms, antonyms, and homophones
c) Use word-reference materials, including the glossary, dictionary, and thesaurus

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
Word study list: Carrie Lillard
Large Bag: Evelyn Payne
Dice: Carrie Lillard
Thesaurus: Carrie Lillard
Dictionary: Carrie Lillard
Direction worksheet: Evelyn Payne
White Board: Carrie Lillard
Dry Erase Markers: Lillard
Marker: Evelyn Payne

G. PROCEDURE
Preparation of the learning environment (if required):
In preparation for this lesson, I will make a direction sheet that outlines the rules of the game.
I will cut up a list of each of the word study words and place them in a bag. To prepare the
 area in the classroom in which the lesson will take place, I will put out the direction page, the
bag, a dictionary, a thesaurus, a white board with a marker, and some dice.

Engage -Introduction of the lesson :

Hello boys and girls. Today I am going to be doing your word study lesson with you. I have a
fun game planned for us, but first we need to go over your word sort. Today we are going to
look at long and sort vowel consonant words. Lets look at this word first. Does anyone know
what this word is?
The first word will be human. If the students know that, they will say it out loud. If they are
not sure of the word, they will be encouraged to sound out the word with me each letter sound
at a time.
The word is human. Does anyone know how many syllables are in the word human?
Hopefully the students will know it is two, but if not I will have them clap along with the
syllables.
The word human has two syllables. Lets label the vowels and the consonants in the word
human. We are going to focus on the vowel, consonant, and vowel pattern. When we sound
out the word human, do you hear how the u sounds long and drawn out? Well u is a vowel and
is at the end of the first syllable, so that makes this word a long v/cv word. Lets look at the
rest of the long V/CV words. I will mark each individual letter as a vowel or a consonant.
The students should become more familiar with this word sort as we go through the list of
eight words. They should begin to name the number of syllables each word and labeling the
vowels and consonants.
This same process will be used for every single word, as well as for the two other word sort
categories. The words are attached to this document.

Implementation of the lesson (specific procedures and directions for teacher and students):
Now that we have talked about all of our words, we are going to play a game called
Vocabulary Grab Bag. Lets look at the direction sheet I have made. We will each take turns,
drawing a card from the grab bag, rolling the dice, matching the number on the dice to the
activity below, and then completing the activity, either out loud or on the white board. If you
roll a one, you will say a sentence using the word. If you roll a two, you will use the dictionary
to find the definition of the word. If you roll a three, you will use the thesaurus to find one
synonym and one antonym of the word. If you roll a four, you will spell the word out loud. If
you roll a five, you will name which category your word should be sorted in. And if you roll a
six, you will write the word using your non-dominant hand. Does anyone know what a
thesaurus is used for?
I know the students have used a dictionary, but if they have never used a thesaurus then we
will talk about what it is used for. The students could possibly get the two confused and say
that a thesaurus is used to find definitions of words.
We use a thesaurus to find synonym and antonyms. Does anyone know what those are?
The students should say that a synonym is a word that means the same as another word and
that an antonym is the opposite of a word.
We will then begin playing the game, and I will start and model the first round. Each task
should ask students to really think about their word study words and use them in different
contexts. Students may have questions about finding a word in either the dictionary or
thesaurus or having trouble thinking of a sentence off the top of their heads. In that case, I will
be there to aid them by asking questions and modeling how to perform each task.

Closure:
For closure, the students and I will talk about the game.
What did you think about the game? What was your favorite part? Do you all feel
comfortable sorting these words and understanding their meanings?
This part will be an open discussion with the entire group. This will be the time when students
will be encouraged to ask questions or bring up any concerns they have. Students may be
confused on a specific word or category. If that is the case, I will describe it again for the
 entire group. Students will also be informed that they will have more time to work with these
words in the week as to practice with them.
Thank you all for playing Vocabulary Grab Bag with me and letting me help you with your
word study. Were all done, so you all can go back to your desks and put your words away.

Clean-up (if required):

To clean up, I will put each of the items away that belong to Ms. Lillard. The direction sheet
along with the bag and all of the word study words I will take home.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
Since we are playing a game, no student should finish early. We will all play until the 30 to 45 minutes
is up. If there are a few students who are shy or feel worried about completing the tasks of the game on
their own, I can easily adapt it to allow the students to work in groups. This game touches on many
learning styles, so I feel as if it will appeal to the entire group. It also does not require much physical
ability so that should not be a concern. If one of the students is an English language learner and is not
as proficient as the other students in the group with English, I will be there to model and aid them as
they play the game. Since it is such a small group, I have the ability to give each student one on one
direction and help if they need it.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
One thing that could go wrong with this lesson is that the students are bored or not interested. If this is
the case, I can come prepared with more challenging tasks to complete for the Vocabulary Grab Bag
game. Another thing that could go wrong is the range of the students abilities could be very diverse,
leading to some students excelling and others really struggling with the different tasks required of the
game. If that is the case, I could pair up each of the students to compete as teams, or move to sit next
to a particular student who is struggling. A final thing that could go wrong is I may run out of time and
not being able to let the students play the game for an extended period of time. If this is the case, I can
definitely leave behind the different parts of the game for Ms. Lillard so that the students can come
back to it later in the week and play the game on their own.
VOCABULARY GRAB BAG
Directions:
Draw a card from the grab bag
Roll the dice
Match the number on the dice to the activity below
Complete the activity, either out loud or on the white board
Activities:
1. Say a sentence using the word.
2. Use the dictionary to find the definition of the word.
3. Use the thesaurus to find one synonym and one antonym of
the word.
4. Spell the word out loud.
5. Name which category your word should be sorted in.
6. Write the word using your non-dominant hand.
 V/CV VC/V VVCV
Long Short Long

Human Wagon Reason

River Pilot Visit

Meeting Never Planet

Lemon Frozen Peanut

Finish Student Seven

Leader Lazy Present

Easy Second Music

Sneaker Humor Minute

Lesson Implementation Reflection

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain
why you made them.

Quite a few changes were made during the actual teaching of the lesson. Before writing this lesson plan, I had
only been to practicum once and I had not gotten to see how word study went in the classroom. I also did not have the
opportunity to see the specific students I conducted this lesson with do word study so I was not sure what their abilities
were. When I started the introduction of the lesson, I quickly realized that the students were more advanced than I had
anticipated. In my lesson, I said I would go through each word and break it down by syllable and vowel consonant
vowel pattern; however since the students were so advanced, I only did three words that way (one for each word study
sort) and the rest I handed out to them to sort on their own. We then reviewed the sort as a whole and moved onto the
game. I also changed the way that I did the assessment portion of the lesson. After they had finished the game, they
went back to their seats to cut up their word study words and sort them on their own. I walked around to their desks to
see what words were sorted correctly and which ones were sorted incorrectly.

II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student
learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that
your conclusions are valid?

After teaching this lesson, I definitely think it could have gone better. That being said, I do think both the
students and I learned a fair amount. From looking at the assessment chart from my lesson, students did achieve the
overall goal of understanding long and short VCV words as well as long VVCV words. Watching them sort their words
on their own at their desks made me feel more comfortable and secure in the implementation of my lesson. None of the
students struggled with being able to sort their words. I also feel like I learned in this process. I learned that pre-
assessments for lessons are very important because its useful to know what skills and abilities the students already
have so that you can build on that knowledge and challenge them in developmentally appropriate ways. I also got to
see how students look at word study and approach new word sorts. Up until this point, I had never participated in a
word study lesson before. I had also never gotten to teach students above kindergarten, so it was a learning moment for
me to see what weve been reading about in the textbook actually in action. The students learned how to use a
thesaurus, which I realized they did not have a lot of practice with prior to this lesson. They also learned the definition
of a synonym and an antonym. The students also learned how to identify long and short VCV words as well as VVCV
words and sort them. The evidence I have that supports my conclusions were shown throughout the game. The first
few rounds of the game were a bit slow, as students got used to the rules and using both a dictionary and a thesaurus.
At first, students would hesitate when having to sort the particular word they pulled from the grab bag; however, as
the game progressed, the students became more comfortable with sorting and looking up their words and the game ran
more smoothly and quickly. I know that the students learned how to sort their words from walking around after they
returned to their seats and observing them sorting on their own with no assistance.

III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or
more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.

I think that there are a number of ways I could make this lesson more developmentally appropriate. If I were to
teach this lesson again, I would pick more challenging tasks for the students to complete during the vocabulary grab
bag game. I looked at the 4th grade SOLs to determine which activities I would include for the game, but after seeing
what these students could do I think I could have picked more difficult tasks for them to complete. I also think I could
have included more independent and hands on aspects to this lesson. If I were to teach it again, I would introduce each
category of the sort, and then have the students cut up their words and sort them on their own. I would then have us
come back together as a group and go over each sort. The words that the students got wrong could be where I focused
the discussion. That way, I am not wasting time by going over words that the students already understand and know.
 IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom
teacher?

If I was the classroom teacher, I think I would pick more advanced words for this group of students to work
with. Personally, I was really impressed by how creative and advanced they were. I had no idea they would be able to
sort their words so easily. As mentioned in my lesson plan, the textbook states that students at this age are typically in
the syllables and affixes stage of writing. I have never seen any of the students work with affixes before, but after this
lesson I definitely think this group should be working on those. I would also have them writing out their words more,
but not in list form. As the teacher, I would have these students do some creative writing with they could integrate their
word study vocabulary. Some of the students struggled with spelling the words out loud, and I think this could help
them. They seemed to have moved beyond just simply sorting their words on slips of paper. Its time for them to move
into using their words in different contexts and introducing and working with affixes.

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
young children as learners?

` As always, young children surprise me with their abilities and creativity. As a result of planning and teaching
this lesson, I learned that children have very different ways to solve the same problems. Watching how each student
tackled the different word study tasks showed me that each student learns in different ways and as a result, solves
problems in different ways. I also learned that fourth graders are way more independent than I had assumed. I wrote
out my lesson plan with the intention of having to take the students step by step through the word study lesson, much
like I would with kindergarteners. However, I quickly realized that upper elementary students need and want to be
challenged when it comes to curriculum. Another thing that I realized was that children have short attention spans. I
had a hard time keeping them on task. Their typical word study lesson is only about 10 minutes long, and this lesson
was triple that amount of time. It is up to me as the teacher to keep them interested and on task while implementing my
lessons. I think that more challenging lessons, as mentioned above, could help with this.

VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
teaching?

As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, I learned that pre-assessments are a very important part of
curriculum planning. As a teacher, it is essential that we know where our students are with learning so we know where
to take them next. If I had more time to plan and teach this lesson, I definitely would have worked on some sort of pre-
assessment or watched my CT teach her word study lessons. I also learned that if teachers are going to do group work,
they need to carefully plan out those groups. My CT had me do this lesson with two of the most rowdy and loud boys
from the class. The entire lesson, I was trying to calm them down and keep them on task. I also felt like this particular
groups members had a wide variety of readiness and ability. Teachers need to group students carefully and based on
many different factors. As mentioned above, I also learned that students have short attention spans. If a teachers lesson
isnt challenging enough or hands on enough, then they will lose the students attention. Teachers need to create active
and fun lessons in order to keep their students engaged.

VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
yourself?

I feel as if I learned a lot about myself during this lesson. One of the biggest things I struggle with when
teaching is differentiation. I am not sure if its because its at the end of the lesson plan so I dont take enough time
to plan it out, or if Im just not flexible enough while teaching. I really was not prepared during this lesson to
handle the skill level of these students. I planned out my lesson assuming they wouldnt really have any
background knowledge on this subject, and I was completely flustered when I realized that was not the case. When
writing lesson plans, I need to spend a lot more time on differentiation. I also need to work on being more flexible
during lessons if they dont go exactly as I had planned out. Hopefully the more I teach, the more comfortable I
will feel with approaching this task. I also learned a lot about how to handle more outgoing 4 th graders. As Ive said
before, this was my first time working with upper elementary school students. After this lesson, Ive learned that
these students are way more independent than lower elementary school students. I learned that I do not yet know
the best way to teach fourth graders. Overall, I was not thrilled with this lesson. There were quite a few things I
would have done differently knowing what I know now. However, instead of being upset over this lesson, I am
going to take it as a learning moment for myself. Though this lesson did not go totally smooth, it did help me to
grow as a teacher. I feel better in a way about teaching in the future, and I am going to use what I learned in this
lesson to create an awesome reading comprehension lesson plan.