Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject:
Central Focus:
th
4 grade social studies
Three regions of North Carolina
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
Date submitted:
Date
4.C.1 Understand the impact of various cultural groups on
taught:
North Carolina.
Daily Lesson Objective:
Students will independently identity and describe the three regions of North Carolina. Students
are expected to earn 80 out of 100 points.
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
Collaboration- students will work
Vocabulary):
together to answer the jeopardy
Students will be listening and speaking to demonstrate
questions.
their understanding of the three regions of North Carolina.
Creativity- students will be creating Vocabulary: mountains, piedmont, coastal
their own My Regions of North
Carolina Book.
Prior Knowledge: Reading comprehension skill, basic knowledge of North Carolina, know what
landforms are.
Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

The teacher will lead the students into a discussion about
North Carolina. The teacher is to use the projector to display
pictures of historical site/landmarks from each region and
pictures of activities that are done in each region. Then ask
the class if any of them have visited the area and if they
knew they had visited at least one of the three regions of
North Carolina?
Students will independently identify and label the regions of
North Carolina. Students are expected to earn 80 points out
of 100 points
Today we are going to review the different regions in North
Carolina. There are three landforms that make up the three
regions of North Carolina: the coastal plain, the piedmont, and
the mountains.
Using the projector, I will display a PowerPoint presentation
about the three regions of North Carolina.
The first slide is a map of North Carolina. I will ask the
students Can someone come show me where the Coastal
plain is located? Can someone come show me where the
mountains are located? Can someone come show me where
the piedmont is located? While the map of NC is displayed, I

Time

2mins

1min

1012mins

will show students where we are located in Cabarrus County,

allowing them to see that we are in the piedmont.
Slide two- titled the Mountain Region. This slide displays
pictures of the mountains. I will briefly review activities,
people, and climate of the mountain region. Here we have
the mountain region. The blue Ridge Parkway is a very
popular area in our mountains. Activities to participate in are
hiking, skiing, and visiting Grandfather Mountain. The first
Native American of the NC mountains were the Cherokees.
The slide will display pictures of activities and characteristics
of the mountains including grandfather mountain, the Blue
Ridge Parkway, skiing, hiking trails, and a picture of the
Cherokee Indians.
Slide three Is titled the Piedmont. This slide will display
pictures if the Piedmont. I will briefly review the natural
resources, native foods, Native Americans of the piedmont
and piedmont traditions. This is the Piedmont region of NC.
The piedmont region consists of rolling hills and flat valleys.
The piedmont is known for Reeds Gold Mine. (show a picture
of Reeds Gold Mine) Reeds Gold Mine was the first
documented gold find in the United States. (show a picture of
Krispy Kreme) Krispy Crme was founded in Weston-Salem NC
and is a native food of the piedmont region. (display picture
of the Catawba Indians) the Catawba Indians were the Native
Americans in the piedmont region. The piedmont is known for
is traditions of telling ghost stories.
Slide four- The last slide is the Coastal region. I will briefly
review things to do in the NC coastal plain, one of the top
destinations of the NC coastal plain, popular landmarks of the
coastal plain of NC, the Tuscarora Indians of the NC coastal
plain, and food of the NC coastal plain. The coastal plain of
NC is flat land along the Atlantic ocean. The Outer Banks is
one of the top destination spots in the NC coastal plain.
Popular activities in the coastal plain include fishing, hang
gliding, jet skiing, going to see dolphins, going to the beach
etc. The coastal plain of NC is home to several landmarks
including the Wright Brothers museum and the Cape Hatteras
Lighthouse. The coastal plain of NC is known for making Mt.
Olive Pickles. Also the NC coastal region is home to the
Tuscarora Indians.

4. Guided Practice

5. Independent
Practice

6. Assessment
Methods of
all
objectives/skills:

7. Closure

Now that I have briefly reviewed the three regions of North

Carolina. We are going to play jeopardy. The questions you
will see come from the review today and the previous
activities you have done with the three regions of North
Carolina. I am going to break you into three groups. Table
one and two you are going to team up and be the coastal
plain region. Table three you are going to the piedmont
region. Table five and six you are going to team up and be
the mountain region. I am going to give each group a white
board, maker, and eraser. You will write the answer to the
question on the white board. You are to take turn writing,
everyone and your group should get a chance to write. (give
each group a white board, maker and eraser)
I will give each student a My Regions of North Carolina
Book. The first page is the cover page that I have printed
out for them. The remaining pages are blank. Open up your
book, turn to the first page, title this page Coastal Plain, turn
to the second page, title this page Piedmont and finally turn
to the third page, title this page Mountains.
For each region you will a picture of the region, for example
for the mountain region I would draw a picture of the
mountains. You will also draw or list 4 things about that
region you learned (activities, traditions, food, climate,
wildlife, etc.)

2030mins

15mins

The independent practice will be the assessment for this lesson.

Students who title each page with the correct region, draw a picture, and
draw/list 3 or more items they learned about each region will have met
the objective. Students who do not title each page with the correct
region, do not include a picture of each region and draw/list 2 or less
items they learned about each region will have not met the objective.
I will end the lesson by having a short discussion of the three
regions of North Carolina. Asking students to share what they
5mins
have learned and if they have any questions.
All the students meet the objective earning at least 80 out of 100 points.

8. Assessment
Results of
all
objectives/skills:
Targeted Students
Modifications/Accommodations:
Students with hearing or visual disabilities
will be placed in the front of the classroom
so they can hear instructions clearly and
see the information that is being presented

Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:
While students are working on the assignment, I
will walk around making sure everyone
understands. If there are students who are
struggling, I will plan a small group lesson to

to them. I will paraphrase reading materials

for students who are below grade level in
reading.

explain further. If the majority of the class does

not understand, I will go back over the three
regions of North Carolina as a whole class.

Materials/Technology:
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/Smart Board slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at
the end of the lesson plan.)

-projector
-3 region of North Carolina PowerPoint
-20 My Regions of North Carolina Books
-3 markers for each group(1 per group)
-3 white boards(1 per group)
-3 erasers(1 per group)
References:
Lessons plans provided by my cooperating teacher
Reflection on lesson:

Reflection:
This was my first time teaching social studies. My cooperating teacher asked
me to do a review lesson on the three regions of North Carolina. Since social
studies was not my favorite subject growing up, I wanted my lesson to be
something the students would enjoy. I thought it would be fun for them to play
jeopardy and my cooperating teacher agreed. Overall, my lesson went really well.
My cooperating teacher was kind enough to let me borrow her lesson plans from
each region to create the questions for jeopardy. I wanted the questions to be
information the students were familiar with. The students loved the opportunity for
friendly competition against their classmates. I started the lesson with a discussion
of each region. Instead of me doing all the talking, I allowed the students to lead
the discussion. I wanted them to tell me what they remember about each region. I
was surprised to see all the students participant in the discussion. I added in any
information the students missed. This group loves to talk. Next, we played
jeopardy. I was worried about the students behavior during jeopardy. However,
they really surprised me. Whenever the students were too loud I simply reminded
them we were inside and we needed to keep our voices down. I never knew how
time consuming it was to create jeopardy. It took forever but in the end, it was
worth it. For the independent practice, the students made a book of the three
regions of North Carolina. They loved it. However, the students were more
concerned with coloring then drawing or writing the actual information into the
booklet. If I were to teach this lesson, again I would add in a few questions that
would challenge the students more. I would also do something different to keep the

score. During the game, I keep score on the board but I did not add the scores up at
the end. Instead, I erased the scores before each group had their score. I did not
like the idea of having one winner. The classes reaction to this was priceless. I told
them they did a great job and that everyone was a winner in this classroom. Since
everyone was a winner, I rewarded each team with candy.