Name: Domenica Vargas

Class: 3221-002
Date: 3/21/18

Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Shadows

_____________________________________________________________________________

Central Focus/Big Idea:

When light sources change position, shadows change as well.

Subject of this lesson:

Earth in the Universe: Shadows

Grade Level:
Third grade

NC Essential Standard(s):
3.E.1.2 Recognize that changes in the length and direction of an object’s shadow indicate the
apparent changing position of the Sun during the day although the patterns of the stars in the sky,
to include the Sun, stay the same.

21st Century Skills:

 Critical thinking and Problem solving-
Throughout the lesson students will have to think critically to understand the concept of
shadows. Students will observe the changes in shadows in an experiment using objects.
Students will have to record their observations and with that data students will have to
think reasonably and logically to understand how it relates to earth and the sun. For
problem solving, students will be given a scenario exit ticket where they will have to use
critical thinking in order to answer the question,
 Leadership and Responsibility-
Students will be leading their observational experiment. Students must conduct safe
investigations and appropriately apply results and scientific knowledge to understand
shadows.

Academic Language Demand

 Language Function:
Analyze Argue Categorize Compare/contrast Describe Explain
Interpret Predict Question Retell Summarize

Describe
I chose to describe because in this lesson students will have to describe shadows throughout the
entire lesson. Describing shadows in this lesson is important as they have to notice the size,
shape, and distance to be able to understand the changes in the shadows, and to understand what
is causing the shadow to change.

 Scientific Vocabulary:
o Shadows
o Axis
o Rotation
o Position
Instructional Objective:

Individually and as a class, students will be able to describe and explain the changes in the length
and direction of an objects shadow.
To meet the criteria, students will have to correctly answer and explain their reasoning in their
exit ticket.

Prior Knowledge (student):

For students to be successful in this lesson, students must have prior knowledge on the functions
of the solar system (what a solar system is, the movement of the solar system, the sun, the total
number of planets, stars, and Earths role in the solar system). Hopefully at this grade level,
students must have heard of the word shadows.

Content Knowledge (teacher):

The Sun and stars in the sky move in consistent patterns.

Shadows are created by objects blocking the light.
As the Sun changes its apparent position in the sky, the shadows cast by objects will change.
Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun. When light sources change position,
shadows change as well.

Accommodations for special needs

For autism spectrum:
 The teacher will give instructions slowly and clearly.
 The teacher will assist and guide the student while exploring with the object and
flashlight during experiment.
 Teacher can provide student with a fidget
 Teacher can pair up the student with a partner to help the student.

ELL:
 Provide student with definitions and pictures of scientific terms
 Provide the experiment worksheet in Spanish and English
  Teacher will give instructions laud and clearly using had gestures
 Teacher will assist and guide the student while exploring with the object and flashlight
during experiment.
 Teacher can pair the student with a partner to help the student.

Materials and Technology requirements:

Teacher will need:
- Observation Worksheets (45) -Flashlights for each student (25)
- Exit tickets (45) -Anchor Chart Paper
- Miniature toys (dogs, cats, dinosaurs) (25) - Pre-made index card Paper Stage (25)
- Globe

Total Estimated Time:

This whole lesson should take around 45 minutes
For this lesson I was instructed to teach it in 15 minutes but ended teaching it in 25-30 minutes.

Source of lesson:
I created this lesson on my own. I used videos that I found on Youtube in my lesson.

Safety considerations:
Teacher will go over the rules of handling materials for the experiment. Teacher will have to
teach how to turn on flashlight. Teacher will have to explain how to use the materials, and
teacher will also tell students what not to do with the materials.
 Content and Strategies (Procedure)
In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 E’s. 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. Don’t 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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8aBZZnv6y8
Teacher will show a video of the solar system and its movement. Teacher will ask the following
questions:
Teacher will ask:
(teacher will show video)
 What is this video showing?
Students possible answers: the solar system, planets moving, the sun.
 What do you notice about the solar system?
Students possible answers: The solar system has 8 planets, planets are moving, planets
revolve around the sun
 What does our solar system consist of?
Students possible answers: 8 planets, stars, sun
 What do you notice about earth in our solar system?
Students possible answers: third planet away from the sun, its moving, its spinning, its
blue, its rotating
 What do you notice about the sun?
Students possible answers: Its big, yellow, made from gas, planets revolve around the sun

Teacher will say: (video is still showing the solar system and teacher will point to the video
whenever referring to solar system info)

- Today you will be able to describe and explain the changes of a shadow.
-The earth is always moving in more ways than one. At the same time that the earth spins on its
axis it also orbits and revolves around the sun. The sun is at the center of the solar system and it
is a 5 billion big ball of super-hot gas
-This is important to know when understanding shadows.
Teacher will ask:
 What is a shadow? (call on several students)
Students possible answers: the dark shape of you that you see when you go outside, a
shadow is made when something blocks the light

Teacher will say:

- Shadows are created by objects blocking the light.
-A shadow is the dark shape made when something blocks light. A shadow is the light that
cannot pass through an object. You must have a source of light to have shadows.
Teacher will ask:
 What are a few of sources of light? (teacher will write in the anchor chart)
Students possible answers: campfire, iphone flashlights, sun, lightbulb, fire,

Teacher will say:

Some sources of light include the sun, lightbulbs, flashlights, fire, etc.
-We all have shadows, everything has a shadow.
Teacher will ask:
Has anyone ever noticed this?
Its super early in the morning, you go outside in the morning let’s say… 8 am and you notice our
shadow on the floor.
Later that day, you go outside again and its way later, like 4 pm and you notice your shadow is in
a different spot than it originally was at.
 Why do you think this happens?
Students possible answers: later in the day, the suns position on earth has changed

 Did the sun move? Explain.

Students possible answers: no, sun didn’t move earth moved

Next teacher will refer to the globe to explain that the sun is not moving, but that earth is always
moving and rotating around the earth.

*Backup plan: instead of using the video of the moving solar system, teacher can use a solar
system 3D moving model to show the movement of all the planets. Teacher can still ask all the
questions listed above.

Explore:
Students will explore and learn about shadows. Students will be given a paper stage, a miniature
toy, and a flashlight. Students will play around with the light and the position of the miniature
toy on the paper stage. Students will write down their observations.
**Teacher will go over rules to make sure students behave with the materials when exploring
shadows******
Teacher will say:
-You will be given a set of materials to explore shadows. You will get a miniature toy, and paper
stage, and a flashlight. You will be given a worksheet to fill out as you explore. I want you to
follow the directions carefully.
Before student exploration teacher should emphasize:
-For this experiment I want you to think that the source of the light is the sun. In this experiment
it may appear that the source of light, the sun, is moving, but it is not, remember that Earth is
always moving and rotating around the sun. The sun is not moving and rotating around Earth.

Worksheet observation questions:

  When you shine the flashlight close to the object, what do you notice about the size if the
shadow being made?
Students possible answers: shadow gets bigger
 When you shine the flashlight far away from the object what do you notice about the size
of the shadow made?
Students possible answers: shadow get larger, shadows stay the same size as the object
 How can you change the position of the shadow?
Students possible answers: by moving the object, by moving the source of light
 What other observations do you notice?

While students are exploring the teacher will walk around and ask the following questions to
several students:
 What do you notice about the objects shadow?
Students possible answers: it gets bigger, it gets smaller, it changes when the light source
if closer or further away from the object
 How does the lights position effect the shadow?
Students possible answers: changes how big or small the shadow gets, can make the
objects shadow long and short
 What do you notice about your shadows size? What did you have to do to get it that size?
Students possible answers: its small: I had to move the light source further away
Its big: I had to move the light source closer to the object
 Why do you think your shadow is small/ big/ short/ long?
Students possible answers: light source is close to the object, object is close to the light
source, light source if far from the object, object is far from the light source

Explanation:
After the students have explored shadows on their own, as a class we will get together and go
over the observations made.
Teacher will record some of the students answers on an anchor chart and will ask the following
questions:
 What did we observe when the light was closer to the object?
Students possible answers: objects shadow was bigger
 What did we observe when the light was further from the object?
Students possible answers: objects shadow was smaller; same size as object
 How could we change the position of the shadow?
Students possible answers: move the light source around the object
 How was the shadow similar to the object you used to make it? How was it different?
Students possible answers: shadow had the same shape, sometimes the same size,
different because shadows got bigger and smaller than the object, sometimes different
size than the object
 What other observations did you notice?
  How can we relate what we just leaned to earth and the sun? Think about the source of
light in this experiment and the changes of the shadows.
Student possible answers: the sun makes shadows on earth, there’s shadows everywhere
thanks to light source, shadows can change as earth rotates around sun, etc. (many
possible answers)

Teacher will say:

As you can see when the light source changes position, the shadow changes as well
Remember, Earth is always spinning and rotating around the sun. The sun is not spinning and
rotating around Earth.

Elaborate:
Next, students will watch a quick 4-minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SN1BOpLZAs

*Backup plan: Teacher will take the key ideas from the video beforehand and teach it using
drawings.

After watching the video, students will receive a worksheet where students will have to draw a
trees shadow based on the position of the sun.
(** note** due to time restrictions I was not able to let my students explore the tree drawing
activity. I did show the video to the class and we discussed what we just learned and saw from
the video. Students were able to share what they thought was interesting, what they liked about
the video, what they had questions on, and comments on the video.)

After the activity, teacher will go over the answers with the students.

Next teacher will say:

As the sun changes it apparent position in the sky, the shadow will change in length and
direction.

Evaluate:
Formative: Questions asked throughout the lesson
Summative: Students will receive an exit ticket and will have to answer the following question.
 Do shadows stay the same throughout the day? Explain your answer

Assessment Results of all objectives/skills:

Total students in class one: 19
Total students taught: 16
Out of the 16 students taught, all 16 students wrote that shadows DO NOT stay the same
throughout the day.
Out of those 16 students, 11 students were able to correctly explain why shadows don’t stay the
same throughout the day using examples from class.
Out of 16 students, 3 students wrote an explanation to their answer, but their reasoning was not
able to correctly explain why shadows do not stay the same throughout the day.
Reflection on lesson:
For this lesson, I really wanted my students to get a hands-on experience where they can be able
to describe and explain the changes in length and direction of an objects shadow. When
planning this lesson, I thought it would be crucial to have my students interact and create these
shadows. I spent a lot of time contemplating what I would do that allows all students to create a
shadow themselves. In this classroom they do a lot of science learning using their chrome books,
and boy where my students excited and surprised to do an experiment. All my students jumped
up and down from excitement and that moment right there gave me so much power to begin and
teach my lesson with confidence. During the lesson I asked a lot of questions to gauge their
understanding. The question that I asked that surprised me the most was when I gave my
students a scenario about my shadow in the day and in the afternoon, I then asked the class why
this happened. I had a bunch of hands up and most of my students already knew that the sun is
not the one who is moving, that earth is moving. I was shocked that they knew this, I was so
excited because if they understood that, then I knew they were going to be able to make
connections from the experiment and earth and the sun. In observations of shadows experiment, I
purposely did not group the students because I wanted each and every single one of my students
to make a shadow and observe by themselves. I didn’t want others to give them the answers, I
wanted to see what they came up with. Before the experiment even started I made sure to
explain the experiment, and how to behave with the materials. With such an advanced
technological world, I assumed all my students knew how to use a flashlight and it tuend out they
didn’t. I didn’t explain how to use a flashlight when I taught the first class, and it turned into
chaos. My students behaved well with the materials in the experiment, because I had told them
that if they played around they would not be doing the experiment themselves, instead they
would have to watch another student do it and write observations from them. By having a lot of
open-ended questions, I was able to gage their understanding throughout the lesson, which I
thought was beneficial because if they didn’t understand I was able to ask more questions to help
them better understand the concept. Students were able to relate this activity to their everyday
lives because they see shadows everywhere and every single day. I had a student in the
classroom in the autism spectrum, with the student I had to talk slowly and give very clear
directions. I assisted her in the experiment to make sure she understood what she had to do but I
let her explore on her own. I also helped read the directions, and the question for the exit ticket. I
thought I used the technology effectively. I showed 2 great videos that connected with the lesson
and the standard, I thought these videos were super helpful because students were able see the
solar system moving, were able to make connections with shadows in their everyday lives. I was
happy to see that the students understood that as the sun changes its apparent position in the sky,
the shadow will also change in size and direction. Since I got to teach two classes, I was able to
change the lesson for the second class based on what I experienced when I taught the first lesson.
For example, in the first class, I didn’t tell them how to use the flashlight, and in the second class
I explained how to use it. In the first class, I passed out the materials alone and used some of the
valuable time, and in the second class I assigned helpers. In the first class, I used a long scenario
that was tricky and repetitive, and in the second class I shortened it and went straight to the point.
I was able to change the lesson plan based on what I thought didn’t work and how I could
improve it. I would definitely teach this lesson plan again. Although it was time consuming to
find flashlights, and make the index card paper stages, I thought that it really helped the students
explore with shadows, and in the end, it helped students understand and make connections with
the concept. As a learner in the classroom, I learned to give examples that students can relate. I
learned that all students work in different paces, and that it is okay if students don’t understand
the concept. As a teacher in the classroom, I learned not to assume. I learned to manage time,
which helped me be super flexible. I was told teach my lesson in 15 minutes, but I went
overboard and extended my lesson to 25 almost 30 minutes so that my students could have more
practice with the concept.

CT signature/confirmation: _________________________________ Date: ________________