Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Name: August Howerton Central Focus/Big Idea of the Lesson:

NC Transportation History
Grade Level/Subject: 4th/ Social Studies
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective: 4.G.1 Understand how human,
environmental, and technological factors affect the growth and development of
North Carolina. Date taught: 3-21-18
4.G.1.1 Summarize changes that have occurred in North Carolina since statehood
(population growth, transportation, communication, landscape).
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will analyze different types of transportation over time in North Carolina in a group
through a timeline. Students will then independently create a letter based on a prompt given to them in the “North
Carolina Studies Weekly” newspaper. Students are expected to earn 8 out of 10 points
21st Century Skills: (Go to this link for more info about these skills: Academic Language Demand:
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Framework_Definitions.pdf) Language Function:
Analyze and Create
Vocabulary:
Communicating, Collaborating and Critical Thinking Steam boat/engine, airplane, Model T car,
trains, railroads, transportation.
NCSS Themes: 2) Time, Continuity, and Change Discourse:
3) People, Places, and Environments 7) Production, Distribution, and Small group discussion, whole group
Consumption discussion, independent work.
Syntax: interactive timelines, exit ticket,
newspaper reading.
Prior Knowledge: Students will need to know most types of transportation and what they generally look like today. That
would be a car, plane, boat, and train. Students may also need to know that transportation is what moves us from place
to place and that it has developed over long periods of times and is still developing.

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

1. Focus and Review
2. Statement of Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input
To get students engaged, the teacher will ask students, How did you get to
school today? Students will respond by saying the bus, car, bike, or walking.
The teacher should write these types of transportation methods on the 3 minutes
board. The teacher will the transition into telling students what the objective
is for the day.
Today we will be learning about how transportation has evolved over time by
making timelines. Then you will write a letter to someone about your 1 minute
adventure on a “seaplane”
The teacher will begin by asking students about timelines. These questions 10
include: What do we use timelines for? How do we organize timelines? The minutes
teacher will then draw a timeline on the board and we will discuss significant

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 dates during the school year. (August-school starts, November- Thanksgiving,
December- Christmas break, January- MLK day, April-spring break, May-
EOGs, June- End of School)
Students will be put into small groups and will be asked to read “North
Carolina Studies Weekly” newspaper. The teacher will instruct students that
while skimming, they should underline important dates that have to do with
transportation and transportation in North Carolina. After they finish they will
create their timeline and draw pictures of the different types of
transportation they found along with a description. (Give them a hint that
there should be at least 5 significant dates). While students are reading and
analyzing the newspaper article, the teacher will handout sentence strips to
create their timeline. The teacher should also be walking around and asking
questions such as “Why do you think Wright brothers came to North Carolina
to invent the airplane? How do we benefit today from Henry Ford? What was
15-20
4. Guided Practice the biggest invention to you? Why? How did people move boats before the
minutes
steam engine was invented?” Once students have finished, we will come back
as a class and I will go over the important dates found that should be on the
timeline. Along the way the teacher should ask some of the same questions
above. Then students will transition into independent practice.

Important dates: 1800’s- NC’s first trains and railroads came through
Wilmington and Weldon.
1818: NC’s first steam boat was invented. Called the “Prometheus”
1820s: The steam engine was invented
1903: Wright brothers flew first airplane in Kitty Hawk
1916: More than 96,000 Model T’s (invented by Henry Ford) were in NC
The teacher will show students that on the back of their newspaper there is
something called “Let’s Write” and gives them a prompt. The prompt says:
Pretend you just finished building your own seaplane. It’s a safe, reliable
airplane that can land on water or on the ground. You’ve been preparing for
years for a trip. You could fly to Alaska or go out West to the Rocky
Mountains. You could check out the deserts in the southwestern United
States. One thing is for sure: You’ve decided to stay in United States because 10
5. Independent Practice
this will be your first trip. When you return, please write to us and tell us minutes
about your trip. Where did you decide to go? What were your two favorite
things that happened while you were away?”

Students should be told to make sure to put their letter in chronological order
of events. If students finish they may draw a picture of the seaplane and
where they went.
6. Assessment Methods of Students will be assessed based on their letter. It will follow the following rubric:
all objectives/skills: Students say where Student lists their 2 Students write Students work is
they are going in or more favorite events in neat (2 points)

2
 the USA (2 points) things that chronological order
happened (2 points) (4 points)
Students say where Students lists 1 Students only lists Students work is
they are going but it favorite things that some events in somewhat neat (1
is not in the USA (1 happened (1 point) chronological order point)
point) (2 point)
Students do not say Student does not Students does not Students work is
where they are list favorite thing (0 list events in sloppy (0 points)
going (0 points) points) chronological order
(0 points)

One or two students will share their letter out to the class and we will
7. Closure discuss why they chose this place and how a seaplane could affect 2 minutes
transportation in NC.
17 out of 25 students received 10 out of 10 points
5 students received 9 out of 10 points because they wrote a place they were going to that
8. Assessment Results of
was not in the USA.
all objectives/skills:
3 students received 8 out of 10 points. These students did not put the events in
chronological order.
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations: Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:
Child who has trouble seeing can have an assistant
help him read the newspaper and help write his letter Struggling students will be in a small group with the teacher
if needed. for extra assistance.
Students who finish early will be able to draw a picture
of the sea plane
Materials/Technology:
SMARTboard, sentence strips, newspaper article, pencil, paper, crayons/markers.

References: “North Carolina Studies Weekly” newspaper and 3223 Wiki website for interactive timelines.

Reflection on lesson:
In this lessons the strengths were that students were able to work well in partners. The students were able to work
collectively as a group and were able to come up with very creative, yet factual timelines. Also students were able to be
creative in their writing piece. This allowed students to combine their writing skills along with social studies. The
students worked on this individually which worked out great. This was the last lesson that I taught at the end of IMB and
I felt the most confident in this lesson. I knew how students worked and were able to give instructions in a way that
students understood.
Some things that could be improved were that the timing seemed to be a little off. I wish that I had given more time
for students to write. I think this would of allowed students to go more in depth. Another thing that could be improved is
classroom management. While some students still worked well together, others would get off task and barely were able
to finish the timeline. Some students would be loud in the classroom and it would raise the overall level in the class. This
would eventually lead to students being off task, and to be as a teacher I had to keep them focused. Sometimes it was
hard just to keep control of the classroom just because the pairs were spread all over the room and it was hard to see all
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the students working.
In the classroom I learned that sometimes direct instruction is good for students. It can help to lead to discussion in
the classroom. Also, I learned that science and social studies are very neglected in schools. Because of this, I saw that
teachers were integrating these subjects not only into the classroom but into specials such as art and media as well. I
tried to implement this in my lesson and was able to allow students to write in their journals. As for student learning, I
saw a lot of differentiation. Students were being pulled into different groups throughout the two weeks. Based on their
groups, I made pairs for my lesson. I knew which students would work well together and which ones needed a little more
support.
If I was able to teach this lesson in the future, I would make this a longer lesson. Instead of just glimpsing over the
newspaper, I would allow the students to actually read it and highlight the important dates on their own. I would then
let students collaborate on the timeline after they read. I also would add more to this lesson and span it over a few days.
I might would even incorporate science and talk about how and why cars move. Students could engage in an activity
called “Puff Mobiles”. This activity would allow students to build their own car and relate it back to the history of
transportation to North Carolina. If a field trip could be associated with this lesson, students could visit the NC
Transportation Museum.