Lesson Sketch for EDT 313 Investigation Hook lesson

Individuals completing this plan: Sara Hofner and Maggie Engels

Lesson title: What is Nocturnal? Investigation Topic: Nocturnal animals

2 Early Learning & Development Content Standards indicators:

1. Sort and classify objects by 1 or more attributes

2. Ask and answer questions, and comment about characters and major events in familiar
stories

Instructional objectives: list 2- 3 observable/measurable objectives for this lesson. Use precise
language w/ action verbs.
The student will:
1. Be able to place nocturnal animals in the correct category when told the animal sleeps during
the day and is awake at night.

2. Be able to listen to a story called Hooray For Today! and answer questions about the story

Experience(s): Describe authentic (real life, hands-on not representational) materials and enticing/
creative experiences in which children are actively engaged. Experiences should encourage
experimentation, problem solving and language development. How will the experience(s) inform you on
the childrens prior knowledge and interest in the topic? How can you use this data to inform the
development of your Integrated Investigation Plan?
1. Sara will remind the students of The Three Billy Goats Gruff story that they read the previous
week. Sara will explain that goats are animals that are awake during the day and sleep at night,
but some animals are awake at night and sleep during the day. These animals are called
nocturnal.
2. Sara will read the students a story called Hooray for Today! by Brian Won. While reading, Sara
will ask the students questions such as, How is the owl in the story different from the other
animals?, Which animals were awake during the day?, which animals were awake during the
night?, and Can you think of any other animals that are awake at night?
3. After the story is read, Maggie will place a t-chart on the board. One side will have a picture of a
moon and the word nocturnal, and the other side will have a picture of the sun.
4. Maggie will hand out a picture of an animal to each student.
5. One by one, each student will come up with either a nocturnal animal or an animal that sleeps at
night. Once the students are at the front of the room, Maggie will ask what animal they have and
say either: this animal is awake at night and sleeps during the day or this animal is awake
during the day and sleeps at night
6. The students will place the animal in whichever category they think is correct.
Assessment of student learning:
1. Data to be collected- Observing whether or not the student correctly decides whether an
animal is nocturnal or not and places a picture of the animal in the right category on a t-chart

2. Method used to record/aggregate data- Checklist with each students name shows whether
or not they placed the picture on the chart correctly

3. Interpretation of assessment data- If more than 7 children were unable to successfully place
the animals correctly on the chart, the topic must be introduced in a different way.

Reflection on lesson: In one page double spaced explain why the instructional objectives, experiences
and materials were chosen. Describe how well the children learned/achieved the instructional objectives.
Finally include a description of how the experience provided data to inform the development of the
investigation.

During our lesson, all of the children were able to listen to the story being read and answers questions

about their predications. The story kept the students attention, and, by the end of the story, most students

were able to identify that the owl in the story was different from the other animals because she was awake

at night and the other animals were not. When completing the t-chart, 8 students were able to correctly

place their animal picture under the correct category without assistance, and 9 students were not able to

correctly place their animal without the help of a teacher. One possible reason that 9 students were not

able to correctly place their picture was because of the timing of our lesson. The chart activity took longer

than we expected, which may have caused some students to lose focus and stop paying attention. If I were

to do this lesson again, I would do the t-chart activity in small groups to limit the amount of time the

children are sitting and waiting and to better keep their attention. While observing the children choosing

which side of the chart to put their animal on, I noticed that some guessed incorrectly at first, but were

able to place their animal successfully when the teacher made a comparison to the animals already placed.

After making this observation, if I were to do the lesson again, I, as the teacher, would place an example

of each kind of animal on the chart for the students to use as reference before asking the students to place

their own. Since more than 7 students were unable to correctly place their animals on the chart, that
indicates to me that we will need to review the topic well with the students in a different way before

moving on to our next lesson. We will keep the chart in the classroom for the children to use as reference

while doing the rest of our lessons.