EDUC 417 Special Education

Lesson Plan Outline

Design For Learning
Instructor: Abby Diamond
Lesson Title: Writing the Letter A
Curriculum Area: Language Arts

Grade Level: Preschool (modified)

Date: September 30, 2015
Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes

Standards Connection and IEP Goal:

LL.P.1.1 Understand and follow spoken directions.
LL.P.4.2 Respond to questions.
LL.P.5.1 Experiment with a variety of writing tools and materials.
LL.P.5.1.1 Use writing tools appropriately to draw or write.
LL.P.5.2 Progress from using scribbles, shapes or pictures to represent ideas, to using letters or
letter-like symbols or writing familiar words such as their own name.
LL.P.5.2.2 Combine purposeful marks to form letters
LL.P.5.2.3 Make purposeful marks such as lines and circles
IEP goal for Student Al:
-Draw a straight line down
-Attend to and complete 4 learning tasks per work session that represent time on task of atleast 4
minutes
-Follow two-step directions
Learning Objective:
Student An and Student AS: Students will be able to correctly write the letter A when given a
sheet of paper.
Student Al (Modified): Student will be able to
1. Draw a straight line down
2. Write the letter A using a template.
Kid Friendly Objective: Today we will be learning how to write the letter A!
Evaluation of Learning Objective:
Student An and Student AS: Students will be able to correctly write the letter A without
assistance on the first try. All of the lines should be straight with no curved lines or zig zag lines.
Student Al (Modified): Student will correctly draw a straight line down on the first try. The
teacher will use teacher discretion on how straight the line should be to be considered straight.
The student will also be able to write the letter A on paper using a template. The student will stay

in the lines and draw all three straight lines. The lines do not have to be perfectly straight, but
pretty close to being straight.
Engagement: The teacher will state the behavior expectations of the student. She will play the
Letter A video and ask the students what the video was about. She will then explain what they
will be learning about today. Good morning boys and girls! Today I will be teaching you, and I
need you to sit in your chair, keep your hands in your lap, and put your listening ears on. Can
you do that for me? Very good job students! To start off with, we are going to watch a short
video. I want you pay attention while we watch this video. Pull up the video The Letter A Song
on the iPad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beT_KcblaBI and watch the video. So what did
this video talk about? Yes, it talked about the letter A! Have you ever heard of the letter A
before? Awesome! Today, we are going to get to do some stuff with the letter A. Today, we are
actually going to learn how to write a letter A.
Design for Learning:
I.

Teaching: The teacher will begin by showing a letter card with the letter A on it. She will ask
students what they notice about the letter A, specifically what kind of lines make up the letter A.
She will show a sheet of different types of lines to students. She will explain how the letter A is
written. She will model, step by step, how to write the letter A on the white board/chalkboard.
She will then give the students letter cards, which is a paper with the shape of the letter on it. She
will give the student some popsicle sticks with 2 different size pieces. She will have the students
put the popsicle sticks over the letter card. So like I just said, today we will be working on how to
write the letter A. I know you can work really hard, so I want you to show me that you can! The
letter A is special because Student Al, Student An, and Student AS all start with the letter A! It is
really important for us to learn how to write the letter A because you will have to write your
name for the rest of your life. Before we actually write the letter A, I am going to show you a
picture of something. Now, does anyone know what these are? Yes, good job! These are lines! So
there are all different kinds of lines. Some are straight, some are curved, some are zig zaged.
Show the picture card of the letter A with the lines highlighted. Now, I want you to look at this
letter card of the letter A. What do you notice about the letter A by looking at it? Lets look back
at our sheet of different lines. What type of lines do you see in the letter A? Yes, I see straight
lines too. Do you see any curved lines? Me neither. So the letter A is made up of straight lines.
There are no curves or zig zigs in this letter. Get out the letter card again. How many lines do you
see that the letter A is made of? Lets count them together. Count the lines with the students.
Good, I see three too. One, two, three. Two bigger ones and one short one. Before I have you
guys actually practice writing the lines, I am going to let you use popsicle sticks to make the
letter A. First I will model this using these big sticks. Watch how I use two big sticks, and one
short one. Model with the students using the big sticks from handwriting with tears. Then give
out popsicle sticks to students. Notice that the popsicle sticks are straight lines. They are not
curved! You will need two big popsicle sticks and one little one. Your turn to do it! Pass out the
popsicle sticks and letter templates for students to practice on. Have students make the letter A

using popsicle sticks. Now, I am going to show you how to write the letter A. Teacher will model
how to do this on the white board. The first part of writing the letter A is to draw one straight
line in a diagonal. Then, draw another straight line in a diagonal. At this point, you should have
two lines that sort of look like a pointy hat. Last, you draw one straight line to connect both of
the other lines.
II.

Opportunity for Practice: The students will practice writing the letter A by using the app iTrace
on the iPad and using playdough to form the letters. The teacher will first model how to use the
playdough to form the letters. The students will rotate between doing the playdough and then
getting a turn on the iPad. They will take turns using the iPad since there is only one iPad. The
teacher will assist Student Al with playdough. Awesome job making the A with the popsicle
sticks! Now we are going to practice with the letter A using playdough. You will each get to
practice the letter A by making the letter A with playdough. Watch me as I show you how to make
the playdough into the shapes. Show students how to make an A using playdough. Now its your
turn. Great job students! Now, I want Student Al on the iPad. I want Student An and Student AS
to continue making an A with their playdough. Student An and Student As, you will each get a
turn on the iPad, but I need you to show me your best A before you get to use the iPad. Show me
good work so that you get to play on the iPad. Once students have each had a turn on the iPad,
the teacher will have them stop. Great job completing all these activities!

III.

Assessment: The student will be given 6 pictures and will have to sort those pictures with the
letters M, S and T on a separate piece of paper. The student will correctly match all 3 letters to
their corresponding picture. The student will then have to say the sound of the letter out loud to
the teacher. Okay great job with all your hard work students! You all have done a great job
paying attention. Now we get to do one more activity. The last thing we are going to do is for you
guys to actually write the letter A! I am going to give you a piece of paper and I pencil/crayon
and I want you to write the letter A for me. Remember, what type of lines does the letter A have in
it? Yes, it has all straight lines. So remember this as you draw your letter A. Student An and
Student As, I want you to draw me the best letter A I have ever seen. Student Al, I want you to
just draw one straight line for me and then trace over this template of the letter A using your best
straight lines. Let student work independently and draw the letter A. Assist Student Al as needed.
You did a wonderful job writing the letter A!

IV.

Closure: Teacher will praise the student for working hard on her assignment. They will talk
about why letter A is especially important to know how to write. The teacher will give the
students a coloring sheet to color as a fun activity at the end. Great job today students! I am so
proud at you for following directions and writing the letter A. The letter A is a special letter
because each of our names start with the letter A. So it is important to know how to write the
letter A. Now, I have a coloring sheet for you to color that is the letter A. What is the letter A in
the shape of? Yes, an alligator. An alligator starts with the letter A. Once the students are

finished, praise them for their hard work. Great job today students! I am so proud of your hard
work!
Differentiation Strategies and Plans for Individual Learners:
Accommodations and Modifications:
Student Al: The teacher will seat Student N near the teacher to make sure that she stays on task.
During all of the activities, the teacher will explicitly model everything for Student A. She
struggles with hearing verbal directions only and not anything visual, so the teacher will always
show Student Al what to do. Because Student AL struggles with fine motor skills, writing the
letter A with a writing tool is difficult with Student A. So, the teacher will uses hands on
manipulativesthe popsicle sticks and playdoughto give the student practice with lines and
forming the letter A, instead of just having the students write the letter A. In opportunity for
practice, the teacher will assist the student in using the playdough to form an A. The teacher will
do hand-over-hand. The teacher will let the student do the iPad game first during opportunity for
practice, then the teacher will assist student for the rest of opportunity for practice. For the
assessment, the teacher will require the student to draw a straight line on her own. Instead of
having to draw the letter A completely on her own, the teacher will give the student a letter A
template and instruct the student to trace over it and stay in the lines. The teacher will assess the
students ability to draw a straight line and stay in the lines.
Extensions:
If the student already knows how to write the letter A, the teacher will give the students an extra
sheet to practice writing the letter A, first tracing it and then writing it on their own. The teacher
will also have the students write their own name, since this starts with the letter A. The teacher
will have the student practice writing the next letter in the alphabet, the letter B.
Materials and Resources:

Letter A Song Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beT_KcblaBI

iPad
iTrace app on the iPad
Crayons/pencils
Letter A cards (one for each student)
Playdough
Dry erase board
Marker
Popsicle sticks (put in individual bags for each student)
Letter A template for practice
Letter A template for assessment
Paper for assessment

Sheet with different types of lines on it

Date Analysis:
The students partly met the learning objective. Student A was able to met the first part of
the objectiveto draw a straight line down on the paper. However, she was not able to trace the
letter A on the template. The other students were able to correctly draw a letter A on their paper
without a template and without any assistance.
Reflection:
Overall, the lesson went fairly well, although there were definite things that I would do
differently. The students met the learning objective that I expected. Student A was not able to met
the second part of the learning objective, but looking back I realize that having her trace the letter
A on her own was probably a little too hard for her and asking her to draw a straight line was all
that I should have asked. She was able to make an appropriate writing mark which is an
important standard. In addition, student Al was able to follow two-step directions in the lesson
like when I asked her to form the letter with the popsicle sticks and get the playdough out and
form the letter A. Student Al was also able to hold the writing tool correctly when she drew the
straight line.
The students really enjoyed the hands on activities and manipulatives in the lesson. They
especially loved getting to form the letter A with the popsicle sticks. That was their favorite part.
They did not enjoy the play dough as much, and all of them struggled to form the playdough on
the letter A car. Student Al especially struggled with the play dough, and was not able to shape
the playdough on the letter card. Instead, she got bored and started to eat the playdough. Looking
back, I realize that I should have more explicitly modeled for the students how to form the
playdough on the letter card, especially for student Al. One of the main things that I could have
done differently in my lesson is to seat student Al closer to me. This is one comment that m
teacher made, and she was right. Student Al struggled to stay focused throughout the lesson and
even got out of her chair once. Although she was sitting in the chair next to me, she was sitting
on the other side of the table, and I should have put her chair literally right next to me. This way I
could have done more hand over hand with the activities and even kept my foot behind her chair
to keep her from getting up. In addition, this would have kept her more attentive because
preferential seating is proven to help keep students on task.
The biggest thing I struggled with in this lesson was keeping student Al engaged and on
task. A couple of times throughout the lesson she did not follow my verbal directions, and I
struggled with what to stay to bring her back to the lesson and get her to complete one task. One
of the suggestions my teacher made was that I should have stressed more the fact of student Al
working towards the iPad. Although I verbally told her work for iPad when she was not
wanting to complete the playdough activity, it would have been better if I showed her the iPad on

the table and visually had it in front of her to show her that when she completed the task given
her, she could have the iPad. My teacher suggested that I incorporate as much visual cues as
possible with student Al, since she is really slow at processing things and doesnt always
comprehend what is said and is often not able to reply in words.