Student: Caitlin Kellegher Professor: Dr.

Mason
Course: EDU 537 Due: 06/16/15
Grade: Third Topic: Space Content Area: English Language Arts

Instructional Objective
Following the students going through stations that simulate space, the students will read the first
chapter of The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osborne. Then, the
teacher will help the class write a middle and an end of a story using the first chapter of The
Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon as the beginning. Students will then create their own
stories using the first chapter of The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon as the beginning.
Students will swap stories and read them when they have been completed. This will be done with
85% accuracy.

NYS Standards and Indicators

Common Core Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English
Students will demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage
when writing or speaking.

Indicator:
● This will be evident when the students correctly identify nouns and verbs and use them in
their own sentences.

Common Core Language Arts: RL.3.3

Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations or feelings) and explain how their
actions contribute to the sequence of events.

Indicator:
● This will be evident when the students create a personality for the main characters that
affects the plot of their stories.

Common Core Language Arts: W.3.3

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
descriptive details and clear event sequences.

Indicator:
● This will be evident when the students create an original plot for their stories using
various details that help the plot make sense in the order the information is presented.

Motivation
 ● The teacher will read The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole to
the students.
Materials
● Paper, pencil, The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System, The Magic Tree House

Strategies
● Direct instruction and indirect instruction

Adaptations
● Christopher has difficulty spelling and will be provided with a device that provides text to
speech capabilities. Additionally, he will be provided with a list of events that occurred in
the first chapter of The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon.
● Herbie has difficulty identifying word sounds and thus has difficulty reading. This
problem also creates a difficulty in learning how to write since sounds often follow a
specific pattern of letters. He will be provided with a device that provides text to speech
capabilities.
● Wu Lin has difficulty with fine motor skills and thus has difficulty writing. She will be
provided with a rubber pencil grip in order to help her develop the necessary muscles and
skills for writing. She also does not have a large sight vocabulary in English due to her
bilingual upbringing and her recent relocation to the United States from Malaysia. She
will be provided with a proscribed list of vocabulary words with translations from Google
Translate.

Differentiation of Instruction
The teacher realizes that students learn differently. The auditory learners will have a mock
interview with an astronaut who tells them what their day is like. The visual learners will watch a
video on the creation of the universe. The tactile learners will look at a picture of the Milky Way
galaxy and write a story about it. The auditory learners will make a song or rap about space.

Developmental Procedures
● The students will read the first chapter of The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon
by Mary Pope Osborne. (Who is Jack? Who is Annie? What does the tree house do?
Where is the tree house taking Jack and Annie?)
● The teacher will help the class write a middle and an end of a story using the first chapter
of The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon as the beginning. (What happened?
What was the last M object? How did the class describe the moon? Did the class free
Morgan Le Fay from the curse?)
● Students will then create their own stories using the first chapter of The Magic Tree
House: Midnight on the Moon as the beginning. (What happened? What was the last M
object? What was the moon like in your version of the story? Did you free Morgan Le
 Fay from the curse? What characteristics did you give Jack? What characteristics did
you give Annie? )
● Students will swap stories and read them when they have been completed. (Did you like
your classmates stories? Why or why not? What did your classmates do differently than
you? What were some objects selected by your classmates as the M object? Would you
change anything about their stories after listening to your classmates? Explain.)

Assessment
● As a class, the teacher will help the students create a class list of characteristics used in
each student’s story. Additionally, the teacher will create a class list of vocabulary words
the students used to describe the moon and space.

Independent Practice
● The students will go home and write a short story from the point of view of an alien
visiting Earth. The students must write the story as if the alien has never been to Earth
before. They will include details about what the alien sees, feels, hears, tastes, and
touches. They will also include what he does and whether or not he finds Earth and
humans to be strange or exciting.

Direct Teacher Intervention

● For the students who did not meet the objective, the teacher will allow the students to
create a story map graphic organizer as a plan for a story. The students will be required to
name the characters, setting, events, mood, problem, and solution. This will promote
attention to detail and still inspire the student to think creatively.

Academic Enrichment
● For the students who met and exceeded the objective of the lesson, they will be able to
create an creative short story about space using the characteristics and vocabulary words
made in class. They can use new characteristics and vocabulary words in addition to the
ones previously listed.

Teacher References
Cole, J. Deagan, B. (1990). The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System. New York, NY;
Scholastic Inc.

Osborne, M. P. (1996). Chapter 1. In The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon. New York:
Random House.