Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject: Central Focus: Native Americans/colonists; continuation of

5th Grade paragraph writing
Social Studies/READ
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

ELA:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.1
Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with
reasons and information.
Date submitted: 11.15.17
Social Studies: Date taught: 11.2.17
5.H.1.1
Evaluate the relationships between European explorers (French, Spanish
and English) and American Indian groups, based on accuracy of historical
information (beliefs, fears and leadership).

Daily Lesson Objective:

Performance: Students will understand and be able to write an opinion based paragraph on how the colonists treated
the Native Americans based on the readings in class.
Conditions: Students will participate in whole group and partner discussion. Students will work independently for the
independent practice (writing a paragraph).
Criteria: Formative - Students will show mastery of these standards based on observations during completion of the KWL
chart, whole group/partner discussions, and completion of their opinion based paragraphs (must have an opinion
statement and three supporting statements).

21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand (Language Function and

Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Vocabulary):
Information Literacy, and Social & Cross-Cultural Describes, Outlines, Comprehends, Defends, Applies, Discovers,
Skills, Analyzes, Explains, Supports, Writes, and Categorizes.
Prior Knowledge: Native Americans, Christopher Columbus/colonists, writing a paragraph, KWL charts

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

Today we will be continuing discussion about the Native Americans
and colonists. I want everyone to take out their Social Studies
notebooks and draw this KWL chart I have written up on the board. 10
1. Focus and Review
Does everyone remember what this chart stands for? K is for what we minutes
already know. W is for what we want to know, and L is for what we
have learned. Once the class have created their KWL charts in their
 notebooks, start with the K in the KWL chart. What do the students
already know about Native Americans and colonists? Ask volunteers to
give their answers. Write the answers under the K section in the KWL
chart. If students begin to get stuck on just Christopher Columbus/the
colonists, remind them about the Native Americans too. What do they
know about them? After discussion and completion of the K in the
KWL chart has ended, bring the class back together.
As I mentioned before, we will be learning more about the Native
Americans and the Colonists. I know you guys have had some
background on Christopher Columbus and other colonists already, but
today I want you guys to think about the Native Americans perspective.
2. Statement of Objective 2
I will read you this book called Encounter, written by Jane Yolen and
for Student minutes
Illustrated by David Shannon, while I read this book, I would like for you
to pay attention to the pictures and think about how the Native
Americans might have felt about the colonists coming to their land. We
will be filling out our KWL charts as we go.
Before reading the story to the students, complete the W portion of
the KWL chart. What do the students want to learn about the Native
Americans/colonists that they do not already know? Again, the students
may be stuck on Christopher Columbus/ the colonists because that is
what they have been learning, but try to bring the discussion back to
the Native Americans. What do they want to learn about their land,
their culture, how they might have felt when the colonists arrived and
after? Ask students to volunteer answers and record them under the
W in the KWL chart. Once discussion has ended, bring the class back
together. Read Encounter to the class. While reading, make sure to talk 15
3. Teacher Input
about the pictures and ask the students what they think is going on in minutes
both the story and the pictures. Ask them how the Native Americans
might be feeling at certain points in the story. Ask the students how the
colonists might be feeling/ what they may be thinking throughout the
story. Have the think about how they might feel if this happened to
them. Talk about any vocabulary in the story that the students may not
know. Have them use their inferencing skills to help figure out what
the words may mean. Discuss use of figurative language used
throughout the book. What particular figurative language was used?
How do you know? Bring the class back together.
After reading the story, ask the students what they thought about the
story? Did the story go like they thought it would have gone? What
happened at the end? Then, begin to fill out the L portion of the KWL 15
4. Guided Practice
chart. What did the students learn as a result of reading this book? minutes
How did the colonists look? Did the colonists actually look like how they
were depicted in the pictures? What did the Native Americans think the
 colonists looked like? What did we learn about the Native American
culture/religion from reading this book? Were the colonists nice to the
Native Americans? They gave them gifts, didn't they? Etc. Fill out the
L portion of the KWL chart as the students go along. Go back and look
at the W section of the KWL chart. Are there questions on there that
we can check off that we learned from reading this book? Talk about
the questions we answered. How do we know we answered them?
Students should be copying all of the KWL chart down in their Social
Studies notebook as we go along. Once discussion of the L portion of
the KWL chart has completed, bring the class back together.
Now that we have completed our KWL chart and we learned more
about the Native Americans and how they must have felt, I want you to
turn and talk to a neighbor about what you would do in this situation.
How would you feel if you were the boy in the story, and the adults
wouldnt listen to your premonitions? How do you normally deal with
new people in your life? Would you have befriended the colonists
immediately when they arrived? Is your culture more welcoming of
outsiders, or no? How was your culture similar to the Native Americans?
What would you do if someone came into your life and told you to live a
completely different way than you've known your entire life? Would
you change? Have these questions listed on the board for the students
to reference. Give the students 3 minutes to turn and talk to their
neighbor, then bring the class back together. Tell the class, now I want
you guys to keep in mind what you just discussed with your partner, as
you will be writing a paragraph on what you would do if you were the
little Native American boy in the story. Flip to a new page in your Social 13
5. Independent Practice
Studies notebook. Before I ask you guys to start writing, who can tell me minutes
what makes a good paragraph? Students should respond with, a
sentence stating their opinion, 3 supporting statements why they feel
that way, and hopefully a closing sentence. Students will know that a
paragraph should be at least 4-5 sentences. Students will have prior
knowledge of how to write an opinion based paragraph. Once the class
has reviewed how to write a paragraph and what is to be expected, tell
them, now I want you guys to write a paragraph about what you would
do if you were the Native Americans? What would you do if strangers
came into your life and tried to change how you lived? What would you
do if no one listened to your warnings? How would you be heard? Give
students 10 or so minutes to complete this task. While students are
working, walk around and help those who are having trouble starting
off their paragraphs or are having trouble gathering their thoughts.
Remind students that they can turn back to their KWL charts, or look up
at the board where it is still written, if they are having trouble
 remembering everything that happened. Once students have finished,
bring the class back together.
Assessment of all objectives and skills will be completely formative. I will know
students have mastered these objectives based off of KWL whole group/partner
6. Assessment Methods of
discussion, as well as, completion of their opinion paragraphs. Students must show
all objectives/skills:
they understand the concept through their opinions and three supporting
statement based off of our reading.
After the students have finished writing their paragraphs based on the
story we read as a class, ask a few students to volunteer to read their
paragraphs and why they felt that way. As the students how they came
up with their answers. What part of the story led them to think this
way? Did any other students share the same views? Who thought
differently? Why did you think this? After students have shared some of
their work, bring the discussion back to the Native Americans and
10
7. Closure colonists. Do the students feel a different way about either group? Did
minutes
they learn something new about either or both groups? What did like
you about the story? What did you not like about the story? What did
you learn about yourself after reading this story and writing your
paragraphs? Do you want to learn more about yourself or the Native
Americans/colonists after writing your paragraphs? If so, what? Have
students write the answers to these questions in their Social Studies
notebook for reference later.
Students were able to recall the story and important things that happened
throughout. Students showed they understood how the Native Americans were
8. Assessment Results of treated and how they lived based on the responses given. Students showed
all objectives/skills: mastery based off of their KWL charts, whole group/ partner discussion, and
completion of their paragraphs. Students were able to build off of my questions and
ask further ones.
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations: Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:
This class did have 2 ESL students. These students can For students who finish their paragraph early, ask them
understand English, but can not respond quickly verbally in to see if they can write more supporting statements to
English and prefer to use Spanish when possible. When these go along with their opinions. Or, students can return
students write, they write in Spanish as well. For these back to their KWL charts and write in a new color what
students, I will not change how I am teaching, because they else they wish they have learned about the Native
can understand. That being said, when they answer a question Americans/colonists? For students who are struggling
in Spanish, I will have a dual language learner translate for me. with getting started on their paragraph, I will have
This also goes for the written work to be completed as well. discussion questions listed on the board to help them. I
will also be walking around and helping any student
who need it.
Materials/Technology:
Pencils, Social Studies notebooks, one copy of Encounter by Jane Yolen and illustrated by David Shannon to be
read aloud to the class, whiteboard and dry erase markers, KWL chart.

References: N/A

Reflection on lesson:

Planning the Lesson

In planning this lesson, I had a lot of help from my CT. She actually was the one that mentioned that I read
Encounter to the class. This was the basis for how I planned and what I wanted to include in my lesson. I read the
book beforehand to get myself familiar with it, and to determine difficult vocabulary and figurative language. My
CT mentioned a few of these topics to me as well. At first when we were planning, I thought about having the
students create a Venn Diagram on the Native Americans versus the colonists. Then, I decided that the students
would not be getting that much information out of the story being read, because this was only meant to be an
introduction into the Native Americans, as they had been talking about Christopher Columbus previous to this
lesson. Instead of having the students create a Venn Diagram, I decided a KWL chart would be more suitable to
the needs of my lesson. I am happy with the KWL chart overall and would keep that for future lessons. That being
said, when I was planning for the ELA part of the lesson plan, my CT mentioned that she would really love for the
students to get more practice in writing paragraphs either supporting details. This was something she wanted me
to include. I am happy I was able to get the students to practice their paragraph writing, but they seemed a tad
resistant to write one, so in the future I might try something different there. Overall, planning for this lesson was
not as difficult as I was expecting it to be. This was my first time teaching a Social Studies lesson, and it is not my
favorite subject, but I felt well prepared and had essential questions prepared to spark discussion with the
students, which I did use. For future lessons, I might try to include kinesthetic learning styles in my planning for
students who need it, as I did not have the students move around at all.

What worked? What didnt work? Why?

Overall, I felt my lesson went very well. The students were very engaged. They really enjoyed the story and the
illustrations that went along with it. The students enjoyed the KWL chart and telling me what they already knew,
wanted to know, and what they learned. The students actually started asking even more questions about the
Native Americans and the colonists than what the book was going to offer them. This gave them something to
look forward to in future lessons. Originally, I planned to put the book on the overhead projector to show the
class, however, I had students who were not quite finished writing their KWL charts that was listed on the board,
so I decided to leave the KWL chart on the board for the students to use as reference. Instead of using the
overhead projector, I decided to read the book like I would with a Kindergarten class. I allowed students to sit on
the mat if they would like to, or remain at their desks. Only two students decided to come to the mat. Because of
this, I walked around the room while reading the book and showed the students the illustrations as we discussed
them. I did have some students who were getting distracted. With those students, I would walk over to them and
stand while I read to keep their attention. This worked for the most part. I did have to call attention to those who
 were sitting at the mat. These students ended up being the most interested in the story and had the most
questions. Of course, not everything went completely well. When I mentioned the students would need to write
an opinion paragraph, they were not excited about this. I had to discuss questions with them that they could
think about to write about. Some students just wrote their paragraphs quickly to get it over with and did not put
in quality time. I also ran out of time to have the students discuss their writings with the class. We got caught up
in the KWL charts and the reading that we did not have enough time to discuss their writings after they wrote
their paragraphs. That being said, all students had enough time to finish their paragraphs which I was more
concerned with. We also were visited by the Principal whilst I was teaching. This, of course, had me nervous, so I
was not as calm and collected as I would normally be during a lesson. That being said, for my first time having a
Principal sit in on my lesson for well over 10 minutes, I feel I did pretty well. I am happy with how my instruction
went and I feel that the students understood the concepts being discussed.

Based on the implementation of this lesson, what instructional changes would you need to make to prepare for future
lessons?

As I mentioned above, I was unable to show the students the book on the overhead projection like I wanted to.
Even though I was able to adapt, I feel that my lesson would have gone more smoothly had I placed the book on
the overhead projector for everyone to see. I spent a lot of time walking to each student to show them the
illustrations, so that, we could talk about that. That being said, I am also happy I was able to leave the KWL chart
on the board for the students to copy down and finish completing. I think If I were to do this lesson again, I would
make the KWL chart on anchor chart paper instead, so I had the board for the Projection screen. That way
students could still finish writing, and we could continue discussion after reading the book. Plus, all students
would be able to see the illustrations at once, instead of me wasting time walking around to each desk. We ended
up not having enough time for the students to discuss their paragraphs and what they wrote due to taking up too
much time on the story and the KWL chart. I will also need to be more aware of the time, next time.I would also
change allowing students to either sit at their desks or sit on the mat. I would prefer that all students are in one
place in the future, mostly for management purposes. Also going along with that, I felt that my back was turned
to students constantly, and in the future, I am hoping with the above changes, I will not have to turn my back to
any students. I think I would also like to change having the students write an opinion based paragraph as their
independent practice. The students were not too happy about having to write a paragraph. Although it needs to
be taught, I feel I could find a way to make the independent practice more exciting.

How might these changes improve student learning? What research and theory in education would support the
implementation of these changes?

These above changes would improve students learning by allowing the students more time on their independent
practice and closure. Meaning by cutting back on the time I spent managing the class and walking around to show
the illustrations, the students would have had time to share their paragraphs and we could have discussed them
more. By making the independent practice more exciting, I will have had the students more engaged and
hopefully more willing to participate. The students who hurried to finish their paragraphs just to be done, would
not have been a factor if I made it more interesting to them. That being said, I feel that some students really did
enjoy writing from the perspective of the Native American boy in the story. So this was engaging for some, but I
would like to incorporate more learning styles in my future lesson. I know my kinesthetic learners did not get
much love, but next time I might do a four corner strategy where the students will roundrobin and write their
own words on different charts based on the readings. Overall, I am extremely happy with how the lesson turned
out. Even getting to ask the students as a whole at the end of class what they learned, they were able to express
to me mastery of the concepts I wanted them to learn that day. I also got a good review from the Principal who
sat in on most of my lesson, which is such a huge compliment! Next time, I will be sure to implement the above
changes, so the students may improve their learning.