LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

The following information should be included in the header of the lesson plan:
Marissa Schade
Mrs. Longacre
Waterman Elementary School

(Include the title of each of the following sections in your written plan.)
A. Science is everywhere!
B. CONTEXT OF LESSON AND UNWRAPPING OF THE STANDARD
What pre-assessment did you do that tells you the students readiness, interests, and/or learning
preferences? Why is this is an appropriate activity for these students at this time? How does this
lesson fit in the curriculum sequence? How does this lesson fit with what you know about child
development?
Since the goal of the lesson is to help students better relate to science, I will give the students a survey
of questions as the pre-assessment. The survey will ask the students these questions: Do you like
science? Why or why not? Do you think science plays a big part in your life? Do you use science at
home and if so when? What is your favorite part about science?
This survey will let me know what they think science is and to see how much they enjoy it or if they
have a harder time relating to it like I do. This lesson would ideally be taught at the beginning of the
year in order to gain students interest before teaching science. This lesson better shows the interest
needed in a topic in order for student learning to occur.
C. UNWRAPPING THE VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING and the NEXT GENERATION
SCIENCE STANDARDS (NATIONAL STANDARDS)
Parts of the standards highlighted are the parts I plan to focus on through the lesson.
Unwrapped Concept (nouns)
Unwrapped Skill (verbs)
Taxonomy Level
Data
Collected, recorded, analyzed,
Relational, Blooms 1, Skills
and communicated
and Concepts
Conditions that influence change Identify, inferring, and drawn
Unistructural, Blooms 5, Skills
and Concepts
Time, length, mass, volume,
measured
Multistructural, Skills and
temperature
Concepts
Characteristics and properties
classify
Blooms 6, Skills and Concepts
Observations
Repeated and communicated
Blooms 7, Recall and
Reproduction
Personal interpretations and
Differentiated
Relational, Skills and Concepts
observations
Observations, questions, and
Form and make
Extended Abstract, Strategic
predictions
Thinking
Physical models
Designed, and constructed to
Extended abstract, Blooms 5
Applications
clarify explanations
and 6, Strategic thinking
Reinforce
D. LEARNING INTENTIONS and SUCCESS CRITERIA

Big Ideas
I understand through various observations that
science directly applies to my life.
I understand that science is formed through making
predictions, observations, and questions.

Essential Questions
When during your day are you using science?
When do you make observations, ask questions, and
make predictions? Does this only happen during
science?
What time is it right now?

I understand that science occurs every time I measure

something, look at the time, or check the weather.
Understand what are the broad
Know what are the facts, rules,
generalizations the students should
specific data the students will gain
begin to develop? These are typically through this lesson? These knows
difficult to assess in one lesson.
must be assessed in your lesson.
These should be written in the form
These should be written in the form
of I understand statements.
of I know that statements.
-I understand through various
-I know that it is important to learn
observations that science directly
science because it is apart of
applies to my life.
everything I do.
-I understand that science is formed
-I know that I am using science every
through making predictions,
time I observe something, make a
observations, and questions.
prediction, or ask a question and I
-I understand that science occurs
know that this doesnt occur just in
every time I measure something, look science class.
at the time, or check the weather.
-I know when I am using science in
an everyday task.

Do what are the specific success

criteria for the lesson? Each success
criteria will be assessed in your
lesson. These should be written in the
form of I can statements.
- I can identify how often science
occurs during my day.
-I can identify when I am using
science during an observation, asking
a question, or making a prediction.
-I can give specific examples of when
I am using science.

E. ASSESSING LEARNING
What will your students do and say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your
objectives? Remember every objective must be assessed for every student!

Learning Intention and Success

Criteria

Opportunities to Respond

I can identify how often science

occurs during my day.

In the beginning of the

lesson I will ask the
students how often they
think they use science.
They will all run up to the
board with a dry erase
marker and write down
what they think.
The students will then read
a story about the things a
girl does everyday and will
have the chance to
highlight when they think
she is using science.
I will then talk about
things that happen during
my day students will have
to stand every time they
hear something that related
to science.
The student will then

Evidence

What they write on the dry

erase board
How often they highlight
When they stand
Answers on assessment

I can identify when I am using

science during an observation, asking
a question, or making a prediction.

I can give specific examples of when

I am using science.

answer this through

question format in the
assessment.
Students will discuss about
the different things that
occur during a science
experiment to learn the
three times that science
occurs.
Students will be able to
identify through a story
that they will read and
highlight as well as
through my story.
Students will have a
chance to hear examples of
this before they are asked
to create a story in which
they write about their
personal routine of the day
that all involves the use of
science.
Students will be asked to
list some examples during
their assessment.

Through students
responses on mini dry erase
boards
Through highlighting the
story
Through standing

What they write

Answers during assessment

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
List all materials that will be needed to teach this lesson.
Who will be responsible for securing each item?
15 expo markers
15 highlighters
15 reading passages
15 mini dry erase boards
G. MISCONCEPTIONS or ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS
Anticipate how your students will respond to the tasks and activities of the lesson. Identify the
possible misconceptions or alternative conceptions about the lesson content. Where do you think
students will have difficulty? What questions will you pose or changes will you make to help nurture
student thinking and understanding of the content?
I think students will have some difficulty understanding why some topics are considered science, but I
feel that this is hard to grasp in one lesson. This is something I think should be carried on year round
and as students learn science they can look back and remember how we discussed that weather is a
form of science. Through this lesson, I worry that students will begin to think that literally everything
pertains to science without really understanding why. Due to this, I plan to give some examples of
things that are science and then asking students why. This will help them to understand how and why
science applies. I also want them to get that there are different forms of science, which I hope will
show through the activities they complete.
H. PROCEDURE

Procedures and management

Step-by step procedures including questions and
Students
Activity
main points visualize what you are going to say Describe what the students
Element
to the students. It might be helpful to script out will be doing as a result of
& Time (in
what you are going to say, although during the
your instructions
minutes)
lesson you do not need to use this language
verbatim.
After answering survey: Hey do any of you know
what subjects time it is supposed to be? (Students
will answer reading and writing.) Exactly but today
we are going to read and write about science. I Students will be answering my
Engage
gave everyone an expo marker and put it on your first question, listening, and
Introduction
running up to the board to
desk now when I say go you will run up to the
(10 minutes)
white board and write down your answer to my answer my second question.
question. When are you using science? Ready, go!
After looking at some of the student responses, I
will ask students to return to their seats.
The students will then work on reading a story
about a girls everyday tasks that involve science.
Prior to this activity, I will give the students some
Students will be reading the
Event 1
examples of science. They will then read and
passage quietly and
(15 minutes) highlight what parts of the passage explains
highlighting what applies.
science. They will have the option to do this with
partners or by themselves. We will then go over
this passage together.
I will then have the students go back to their seats
Transition (5
and begin explaining the next activity. Students Students will return to their
minutes)
will have to sit and will stand when they hear an
seats.
activity that involves science.
I will begin reading the passage: Today I woke up at 7
am. I picked up my phone and checked the weather. It
will be 46 degrees and partly cloudy. I then heated up
some food in a microwave. I ate the food then began
getting ready for my day. I drank some coffee so I Students will listen to the story
Event 2 (20 would have energy. I then drove to school. The sun was and will be standing when the
so bright that I needed some sunglasses. I also had to
story mentions something
minutes)
wear a coat because it was really cold. I then got to
pertaining to science.
school and looked at the dying grass that was in front of
my car. I got to the computer in the front office and
checked in. I went upstairs to start my day in Mrs.
Longacres class.
Then explain the next activity to the students. They will
Students will be getting
Transition (5 be writing a piece about their daily routine that includes
ready for the writing portion
science. Ask them to get out their writing journals and a
minutes)
of the lesson.
pencil.

Event 3 (20
minutes)

This time will be for the students to create their Students will then be writing at
this point.
writing.
Students will be finishing
Transition (15
Allow for students to share their writing with a partner. their writing and sharing
minutes)
what they created.
The students will be given an assessment to show what
they have learned through this lesson. The assessment
Students will be completing
Conclusion: (20
will ask the students how often science occurs during
and turning in their
minutes)
their day. They will then be asked to provide three
assessments.
examples of science that occur in everyday experiences.

I.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Think about this! It may help you avoid an embarrassing situation. This CANNOT include fire drills,
interruptions due to announcements, weather, or other emergencies.
I worry that students who get frustrated reading and writing will have a lot of difficulties with
this type of lesson. This may cause some distractions in the class as some of the students stop paying
attention due to lack of interest. This is partially why I created an activity that involves listening and
movement for my kinesthetic learners. For these types of distractions I plan to use various call and
responses in order to regain student attention especially when giving directions.
I also worry about time constraints. I feel like due to all of the different activities it would be
easy to lose track of time. In order to deal with the time, if something takes too long I will shorten
another activity or cut out something altogether.
REFLECTION:
So far, I have been able to emphasize the impact I would have on the students who would be
taught this lesson. I think that this lesson is crucial for students who feel like science is irrelevant to
their life. If I had been taught a similar lesson as a child I probably would have been able to better
relate to science and some of its ideas. I have struggled to create this lesson and find a way to apply it
to the standards. This has made me realize why many teachers would skip over teaching this type of
lesson to their students since it doesnt really help students learn a particular part of the science SOLs.
However, I feel that even though it is hard to apply it in that way it will help students better learn
future science lessons as they can start to apply what they are learning to real life experiences.