Lesson Plan 1 First Formal Observation

Teacher: Matt Dotzman Grade: First

I. Content and Standards: English/Language Arts.

CC.1.2.1.A Identify the main idea and retell key details of text.
CCSS RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
II. Prerequisites: Identify and understand story elements of a text and use text evidence to
answer questions using a close reading.
III. Essential Questions: What makes a good retelling of a story?
How do I use story elements (characters, setting, main events) to retell a story?
IV. Instructional Objective: Students will understand and be able to retell the parts of a story.
V. Instructional Procedures:
Part One: (INTRO) Explain to children that retelling a story can help a reader understand the
important events. Emphasize that a good retelling tells who the characters are and what happens
in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
Part Two: (I DO) I will instruct students to open to page 6 of Stellaluna where the author tells
what happens right before Stellaluna loses her mother. I will read page 6 aloud and ask, What
happens first? I will demonstrate for the students that I can find out by looking at the picture for
clues as well as go back into the text. I read that Mother Bat smells fruit and goes to search for
it. Im going to write this under Beginning on my graphic organizer.
Part Three: (WE DO) I will read the middle part of the story. I will then have the students
Turn & Talk - Think/Pair/Share about what they think the middle part of the story is with their
partner. Students will then share out their ideas with the class. Using the students input, I will
fill in the middle section on the graphic organizer. Now, the students are ready to try to this
independently and will be sent from the carpet back to their desks to identify and write the End
of Stellaluna in their own graphic organizer that is at their desks.
Part Four: (YOU DO): Students will locate and read the end of Stellaluna. Independently, they
will fill in the last section of the graphic organizer labeled End. I will circulate around the
room and observe if the students understand what they are looking for and writing appropriately.
I will provide additional guidance to those students that appear to need it as I walk around the
classroom. Once they are finished identifying and writing the End, I will instruct them to write
and copy the Beginning and Middle parts onto their graphic organizer from the Smart Board.
VI. Materials and Equipment:
*Stellaluna The book will be used to cite evidence from the text that represents the beginning,
middle, and end.
*Smart board Graphic Organizer with Beginning, Middle, and End will be projected onto the
Smart board. This graphic organizer was created to assist students in organizing their thoughts on
the beginning, middle, and end of the text.
*Copies of Stellaluna Graphic Organizer for each student
*Differentiated copies of Stellaluna Graphic Organizer These students will draw instead of
write.
*Secondary Writing Prompt for students that complete work early. This prompt will be displayed
on the front smart board for students to reference as they write in their writing journals.
*Writing Journals these are in students desks and will be used by those students that complete
the task early and are ready to complete the secondary writing prompt activity.
*Pencils used to fill in the graphic organizer
VI. Assessment/Evaluation: I will assess if the students are able to retell parts of a story
through our class discussions and their participation as we fill out the first two parts of the
graphic organizer working together. I will also be circulating around the room observing how
they complete the final part of the graphic organizer. I will collect the completed graphic
organizers for review after completion of the lesson to determine whether a second lesson
reviewing the concept of retelling a story is necessary.
VIII. Differentiation: Individualized Activities: For the students in class that have a difficult
time writing, I am going to create differentiated graphic organizers for them and allow them to
draw pictures of the beginning, middle, and end instead of writing. The differentiated graphic
organizers will not contain lines allowing these students space to draw.
IX: Technology: I will use the Smart Board to engage the students in completing the graphic
organizer. This technology will assist the students in learning how to recognize the main parts of
a story and assist in the retelling process.
X. Self-Assessment: I will assess my delivery of the material through the students participation
in the class discussion as well as the writing they complete on their Stellaluna graphic organizer.
Some questions I will ask myself include, Is the ending the student identified and wrote
accurate?, Did many students ask me for help during the activity or clarification during the
discussion? If it seems like students took a long time identifying and writing the ending of
Stellaluna, as well as referencing the Beginning and Middle portions on the Smart Board that we
completed together, I may need to reassess my lesson and revisit the topic of story retelling
again. For those students that finished early (including the secondary writing prompt), I may
need to reassess how I could extend the lesson further and provide more challenging material for
those students.