SETON HILL UNIVERSITY

Lesson Plan Template Abridged

(May be adapted based on instructors needs)

Pre-Planning
TOPIC
Name
Subject
Grade Level
Date/Duration
Standards/
anchors/
competencies
PA/Common
Core/Standards
(Plus any others
as may be
required)
Formative
AND/OR
Summative
Assessment
Evidence

Objective
A-B-C-D
Bloom's Taxonomy
Webb's Depth of
Knowledge (DOK)

DETAILS
Maria Emanuele
Social Studies (Geography)
3rd Grade

7.2.3.A: Identify the physical characteristics of places

and regions.

Formal Evaluation
Collect letter from each student to grade their
comprehension of the different characteristics of our
community.
Informal Evaluation
Evaluate their understanding of the characteristics of
our community by the answers they give during the
class discussion.
Go the students individually to observe what they are
writing or drawing in their friendly letters.
After a discussion about the characteristics of our community,
all students will be able individually to identify the physical
characteristics of places and regions by creating a friendly
letter including information about the landforms, bodies of
water, and weather in their community.
Remembering: The students will review/recall the
different parts of a friendly letter.
Understanding: The teacher will provide the students
with examples of each characteristic that they discuss
in order for the students to comprehend each topic.
Applying: The students will use their knowledge of the
different community characteristics and relate them to
the characteristics of their community (Ex. There are no
bodies of water in our community but Twin Lakes is
near our community).
Analyzing: The students will identify each of the four
characteristics and use them in their friendly letter.
Evaluating: The students will volunteer to explain
what they wrote and drew to compare with their
classmates.

CK

Step-by-Step Procedures
RATIONALE for the
CK
Learning Plan
DETAILS
Introduction
Activating Prior Knowledge
Announce that yesterday the class went over the parts
of a friendly letter.
Hook/Lead-In/Anticipatory Set
Put an example of the friendly letter on the ELMO for
everyone to see. Review the heading, greeting, body,
closing, and signature.
Tell the students that they will work on their friendly
letters today and pretend that they are writing to
someone who lives in a different state.
Explicit
Big Idea Statement
Instructions
Someones community from a different state will have
Big Ideas
different characteristics from our community.
Essential Questions
Essential
What characteristics about our community can we add
Questions
to our friendly letter in order to inform someone about
us who lives in a different state?
Key Vocabulary
Community
Characteristics
Urban
Suburban
Rural
Climate
Lesson Procedure Pre-Assessment of Students
Must include
Tell the students that they are going to tell their friend
adaptations &
about their community in the friendly letter because our
accommodations
community is different from someone who lives in a
for students with
different state.
special needs
Ask the students to remind you what a community is and
confirm that it is a group of people living in the same
Accommodations,
place that have something in common and confirm that
Modifications
our community is Greensburg PA.
Modeling of the Concept
Tell the students that we need to think about the
characteristics of our community to include in the letter.
Ask the students if they know what a characteristics are.
Confirm that characteristics are qualities that belong to
a person or place and provide an example by talking
about characteristics that would describe you and also
asking students to describe themselves.
Tell the students that we want to include the different
characteristics of our community in our letter.
Transition
Guiding the Practice

Have the words school location, landforms, climate, and

bodies of water already written on a piece of paper
along with a sentence for each.
(Seton Hill is located in a suburban community, There
are a lot of hills in our community and some mountains
near it, Our community experiences all four seasons so
our climate is different depending on the season, There
are no bodies of water located in our community but
there are rivers and lakes that are very close.)
Have the ELMO already set up and the screen pulled
down.
Tell the student that our first topic we want to include in
our letters is the location of the school and put up a
picture of urban, suburban, and rural on the ELMO.
Ask if they think the school is located in urban,
suburban, or rural community and briefly go over a short
definition of each. Confirm that Seton Hill is considered
suburban.
Next, ask the students if our community has any
landforms and put a picture on the ELMO of a hill,
mountain, and plain as examples. Make sure they say
hills and mountains are also acceptable.
After that, ask about the climate. Put up a picture of the
seasons and discuss that our community experiences
every season so the climate depends on which season
we are in.
Finally, put up a picture of different bodies of water and
ask the students if there is any located in our community
that we should include in the letter. Have the picture
include lake, ocean, and river. Confirm that although
there are lakes and rivers near our community (Example,
Twin Lakes) there are none in community.

Providing the Independent Practice

Tell the students that they will now individually work on
their friendly letters.
Put the paper with the characteristics and example
sentences on the ELMO for the students to see.
Begin passing out the parts of a friendly letter for the
students and tell them that they will need a blank piece
of paper.
Tell them that in the body of their letter, they have to
include something about the schools location,
landforms, bodies of water, and climate of our
community.
Tell them that they can include or use the sentences on
the board but you also want them to add their own,
talking about what activities they like to do in their
community or their classes.

Materials
(reading,
technology,
equipment,
supplies, etc.)

Closure

Other(This area
is to be
determined by
instructor OR
student as
needed)
Supervising
teacher
comments and
signature
Teacher
Self-reflection
What
worked?
What would
you
change?

Tell the students that after they are finished with the
body for their letter, they can draw a picture on the back
using a crayon to illustrate something they wrote about.
Ask the students if they have any questions.
Pass out the crayons as they begin writing.
Adaptations/Accommodations for Students with Special Needs
For the student with behavior disorder, stand by this
student when giving directions to the class and call on
them if they need their attention redirected to the class.
Also, ask this student to help pass out materials such as
the paper or crayons and check on this student
frequently while the class works.
Picture of the format of a friendly letter- along with one
for each student
A paper with examples of pictures for each characteristic
(school location, landforms, climate, and bodies of
water)
Blank paper for each student
Crayons
ELMO
Summary & Review of the Learning
After the students complete their letters, ask for
students to name examples of the different
characteristics of out community.
Ask for volunteers to share what they wrote about our
community in their letters.
Homework/Assignments
No Homework