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Danielson Aligned Lesson Plan Template for Formal Observations

Yunjung Hong
Formal Observation #5 Lesson Plan
Primary Subject Area and Grade Level: List the primary content area for this lesson. List the beginning and ending grade levels for
which this lesson is appropriate.

Science
Language Arts and Social Studies integration
Grade 5
Interdisciplinary Connections: Provide a listing of the subject area(s), in addition to the primary subject area that is incorporated in this
lesson.
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy)

This is mainly a science lesson because the research ultimately will be on a specific invasive insect
that they were assigned. The whole project will be about their insect; however there are bits of
language arts and social studies involved. This lesson is tapping into their researching skills which
includes, citing sources, taking notes, paraphrasing, etc. The topic may be a science topic however the
basic reading and writing skills are also involved.
As for language arts, one non-fiction text is required for their research. This gives students the
opportunity to effectively read non-fiction texts and include it into their presentation. They will also
focus on text features, and components of a poster presentation such as captions, visuals, and citations.
Lesson Duration: State the approximate time frame for this lesson.
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)

The lesson all together will take approximately 45 minutes.

There will be 10 minutes of instruction for the mini-lesson.
15 minutes individual research and activity.
20 minutes for group research.
Final 5 minutes on wrap up and tapping into future plans of the project.
Relevance/Rationale: Consider how your outcomes and plan will engage students cognitively and build understanding. Why are the lesson
outcomes important in the real world? How is this lesson relevant to students in this class (interests, cultural heritages, needs)?
(1b: Demonstrating Knowledge of Students)

I have found that the students are already engaged in this project because it is mainly science. Students
are beginning their insect collecting kits so the fact that the project is about an invasive insect is
engaging them to a whole new level. At this point, the students have collected a sufficient amount of
data for their invasive insect however; they are not correctly citing, paraphrasing, or taking notes on
their research.
This lesson will help the students fulfill research requirements that they will need in the future. When
the students take notes on research topics, they are drawing information from all of the different
websites and copying the material down onto their PowerPoint or poster. They are not taking notes on
the research they are conducting and they are not effectively researching. This lesson will provide
input on taking notes while researching and this will help the students in the future. When students do
research on a topic during Middle School or High School they will take notes and organize the notes
when including it into the presentation. Searching on the internet is something students to on a daily
basis, whether it is for school or not. This can apply to the students in and out of school.
Outcomes/Objectives: What will students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson? Outcomes should be written in the form of
student learning and suggest viable methods of assessment. For teachers of English language learners: What language objectives will be
addressed?
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)

Students will be able to follow the steps in order to fulfill research for a presentation.
Students will be able to take effective notes while researching about a specific topic.
Students will be able to design a poster that effectively shares their research (long term).

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Students will learn about invasive species and why they are a threat to the environment, specifically in
the state of New Jersey (long term).
Content Standard(s) and/or Common Core Learning Standard(s): For example: (CCSS) 4.NBT.3 Use place value
understanding to round multi-digit whole numbers to any place. Content area teachers should include appropriate English Language Arts
Common Core Standards for Content Areas, if appropriate, in addition to content standards.
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)

RI.5.7- Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate
an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
W.5.7- Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through
investigation of different aspects of a topic.
5-LS2-1- Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers,
and the environment (Ecosystems).

3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified
criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each
is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
RI.5.9- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the
subject knowledgeably.
RI.5.10- By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social
studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grade 4-5 text complexity band
independently and proficiently.
W.5.8- Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and
digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of
sources.
Use of Formative Assessment to Inform Planning: Describe your students current levels of understanding of the content related to
the outcome for this lesson. What are some of the indicators that let you know that these outcomes and the lesson activities represent the
appropriate amount of cognitive challenge for all students?
(1f: Designing Student Assessments)

The students know how to research a topic. However, they are not taking notes and using the research
in the way they should for a presentation. They are just paraphrasing the words from a website and
adding it straight to the final draft of the presentation. I will know that the outcome of the lesson is
positive when they start to take notes while doing research. They should be using the notes that they
took to put the information on to their poster, not going from the computer straight onto the poster.
The students are aware of conducting research and organizing the research onto a PowerPoint and
presenting it. Their presentation skills lack a little based on the requirements of expectations of a 6th
grade teachers. They have presented their social studies projects on wild life preservation to the class,
however they needed more practice and guidance. They have also made posters before but are
unaware of the specific Dos and Donts.
For the project I will provide a rubric. Students must use the rubric to gain the highest grade for the
project. This challenges the groups to effectively use their time and strategize how they will complete
the project. They have used rubrics before in the Great Egg Scramble, the rubric broke up points of
the whole project so they were able to utilized and manipulate how to gain or lose points but still have
the high enough score to win.
Class Information: Describe any unique characteristics of the class (considerations may include: special needs, language levels, learning
styles, etc.). Describe how other adults (paraprofessionals, volunteers, co-teachers, resource teachers, etc.) will support student learning, if
applicable. Also include any other circumstances an observer should know about.
(1b: Knowledge of Students)

In this classroom there are 5 students with IEPs, I will have to incorporate modifications of the
students into the lesson. There are students with attention deficits which I plan on engaging with turn
and talk and engaging actions like thumbs up activities. Choosing these students as volunteers will
allow them to stay focused. My cooperating teachers will support students learning by making sure
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students are on tasks and participate in the lesson when asked. If students are falling off track both of
my cooperating teachers will guide then back into the lesson. They will assist me with the behavior
and classroom management but not the content of the lesson.
I will keep a close eye on those students who are easily distracted, and have total participation
techniques throughout the lesson to keep them engaged.
I also have a media assistant that takes photographs, records videos of me while I teach. He will be
walking around and sitting in the back snapping photos of me. If he gets distracted by this task, he will
have to drop the job and focus on the lesson. I also told the student if he cannot appropriately assist me
I will have to choose another student for the job.
This lesson is a part of a long term project that the students have already started. They have done some
research on their invasive insects and should soon be ready to put it together on a poster soon.
Overview: Provide a brief overview of the lesson. The overview should provide the observer with a description of the lessons content and how
it relates to the larger unit. Include prerequisite knowledge required to meet lesson outcomes and relationship to future learning.
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy)

The lesson will begin with students at their desk. I will hold my mini-lesson in the front of the room. I
will be teaching my mini-lesson about going from a topic to a full poster. This includes searching
about the topic, taking notes, organizing notes, and placing it on a presentation (in this case a poster). I
will then ask students to go the website about lionfish where they will take notes for about 7 minutes.
When time is up and only notes in front of them. I will ask them to take a survey/ quiz about the
research. They cannot go back to the website and can only use their notes. This will determine how
good the notes were. After this activity, I will allow students to start doing research about their
invasive insect with their group for about 20 minutes. I will give another questionnaire as their ticket
out and wrap up. During the wrap up, I will discuss the next steps of the project and announce a
couple of due dates.
Technologies and Other Materials /Resources: List all materials, handouts, resources, and technology tools that are needed by the
student or the teacher to execute the lesson. Technologies may include hardware, software, and websites, etc. Materials and resources may
include physical resources (e.g. books, manipulatives, supplies, equipment, etc.) and/or people resources (e.g. guest speakers, librarian, etc.).
(1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources)

Students will use their Chromebooks to complete the quiz online and also to continue research on their
invasive insect.
Poster for the students if they are ready to begin adding their materials.
I will need poster paper or white board, and markers for my anchor chart and objective.
This is the link to the website about Lionfish that the students will take notes on while researching
(http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/lionfish/).
This is the link to the quiz that the students will take using ONLY their notes after doing some
research about the lionfish (https://www.onlinequizcreator.com/lionfish-research-quiz/quiz-170857) .
Below is the worksheet students will use to take notes on their research.
Below is the steps to researching worksheet that the students will get as notes.

Name: ________________________________________

Steps to researching a specific topic

that will be presented.
Step 1: Know your topic.
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What is your topic?

What are some keywords you can use?
Determine what you are looking for?
Look back at your rubric.

Step 2: Start your research.

Choose a resource. Is the resource credible?
Skim through the website/article to determine if it is really
useful.
ALWAYS take notes.
Use abbreviations, bullets, and short phrases.
Only take notes on information you can use.
Step 3: Organize your notes.
Gather all information,
Make sure everything is paraphrased.
Is all your information accurate?
Cite all of your sources.
Step 4: Create your presentation.
Put everything together.
Get creative.
Make it look presentable.

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Name:_______________________________

Animal Facts
(Practicing Online Research)
Conduct independent research on the animal of your choice. You MUST get approval of your animal by the
teacher in order to continue.
Step 1: Go to http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/lionfish/
Step 2: Start your Lionfish research using your Chromebook.
Step 3: Take notes while conducting research from the website.

Notes

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Grouping Strategy: Describe how you will group students to facilitate learning of the outcomes of this lesson. What is the rationale for the
grouping strategy?
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)

For this activity students will work individually. They will be note taking on research on their own and
taking the quiz on their own. This will allow me to see who is effectively taking notes and who is not.
For the project itself the students are groups into groups or 3 or 4. There are a total of 8 groups and 4
different insects. This means that 2 groups have the same insect. The reason that I decided on
assigning 2 groups to the same insect is because I thought students will be more motivated with a little
competition. Students this age are very competitive so seeing another group with the same insect
might stimulate their will to do their best.
As for the groups themselves, I randomly assigned students into groups based on how well I thought
they worked with other students. We have done lots of partnerships, and group activities in the
classroom so I was aware of which students could not be together and which could. I also took into
consideration all of the students strengths and weaknesses so the groups can be will balanced.

Academic Vocabulary: What key terms are essential to this content? What terms are essential to develop and extend students vocabulary?

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(1a: Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy; 1b: Knowledge of Students)

Keywords: a word or concept of great significance.

Plagiarism: The practice of taking someone elses work or ideas and passing them as your own.
Paraphrasing: expressing the words of another person using your own or different words.

Lesson Procedures: The procedures should clearly describe the sequence of learning activities and should identify where and how all
materials, technology tools and student-created technology products, and reproducible materials/handouts are utilized in the lesson. Describe the
lesson sequence:

How will the lesson launch?

How will the material be presented?

What questions will be posed to the students? What are the expected responses?

How and when will the teacher model?

What opportunities will there be for guided practice, group work and individual practice?

How and when will you monitor student understanding throughout the lesson?

What opportunities will there be for reflection and closure?

Include approximate time allocations for each portion of the lesson. Be very precise when explaining the teacher and student tasks during the
learning activities.
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy; 1e: Designing Coherent
Instruction)

I will have the students at the desk for this lesson.

Good morning scientist! Today we are diving right into our invasive species project! I need everyone
to clear their desks off expect your science journals. Everything else should be cleared off. Can
someone read the objective for me? Okay so today we are going to be learning about taking notes
while doing research. I know that you think you know how to do research but there is a lot more to it
than you think. When researching a topic, you MUST take notes. I know that Dr. G and Dr. Strnad has
said this to you many times but I still dont see students doing it, and if you are, you are not using it
properly. So I will teach you today on effectively taking notes on research.
I will show anchor chart with the steps of creating a presentation on a topic.
Step 1: Searching your topic. Choose some keywords. Determine what you are looking for.
Step 2: Start your research. Skim through the whole website once. Take note. They should be
short notes, use abbreviations. Dont write full sentences. Only write what is important,
interesting, or you can use.
Step 3: Organize your notes. Make sure everything is paraphrased. Make sure everything is
accurate. Site all of your sources.
Step 4: Create your presentation. In this case it is a poster. Putting everything together.
Today we will be focusing on step 2. Taking notes while doing research. The very first thing you
want to do is skim through the article or website. This will allow you to do a quick check to see if this
website will even help with your studies. If it is okay, you will then start to re-read and taking notes.
Only jot down the notes that you think are important. Abbreviate words, use bullets, and do not use
complete sentences. As long as you remember what was said you can write down whatever you want.

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I will show you how this is done.

Pull up the website : http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giraffe/
Using an anchor chart paper, I will take notes on the whole site.
After doing so, I will give the students the Lionfish research notes worksheet. They will go to the
website and take notes on Lionfish for about 10 minutes. After they will be taking a quiz using only
their notes. This will determine well they did with note taking.
Okay now that you have become successful researchers, you can apply it to your group projects on
invasive species. You can use the next 20 minutes to get into your groups and do some more research
about your invasive insect
I will give the students some time to work. During this time I will walk around while taking a look at
the results of the quiz. When time is up I will wrap up the class.
Okay scientist! Time is up and it is time to put all of your stuff away. The only thing you need on
your desk is your notes on the Lionfish. Here is your exit ticket. Complete the questions using your
notes, and hand it in Students will complete the quiz, flip over the paper, and wait till the rest of the
class is done. I will collect then and wrap up the lesson. Alright, so now that you are getting closer to
finishing research. It will be time to move on to step 3 and 4. I have found a due date for the poster.
Your final poster presentation will be Wednesday 4/27. Write this down and remember that your
posters and presentation MUST be ready by this date. Dont forget to practice with your group and
have all of the information memorized
Differentiation: Describe how you will differentiate instruction for a variety of learners, including students will special needs, English
Language Learners, and high achieving students to ensure that all students have access to and are able to engage appropriately in this lesson.
Be specific.
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)

One form of differentiation is the grouping, I grouped the students heterogeneously. Each group has
one high achieving student and the other students have other strengths that they can bring to the group.
I will also give the students who need it more time on the research and note taking. They will be
allowed to work at their own pace because the quiz it available whenever they are ready. Only when
they believe they have fully taken notes on the website will they be allowed to take the online quiz.
Assessment Criteria for Success:

How and when will you assess student learning throughout the lesson (formative)?
How will you and your students know if they have successfully met the outcomes?
What is the criteria for mastery of the lesson outcome(s)?
Describe any (formative and summative) assessments to be used.
(1f: Designing Student Assessments)

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The assessment to the lesson will be in the form of an exit ticket. This exit ticket is a Lionfish research
quiz. Students will be able to take this quiz using their notes that they took while researching about
lionfish. This is very similar to the quiz they will be taking online, however, there are some different
questions and this is to test if they remember the research they just did on the lionfish. Depending on
how well the students do on this exit ticket it will determine how good their notes were and how well
they are using them to gather information.
The long term assessment is the final poster. If students used what they learned in the lesson, then their
poster will be an appealing visual of the research they have completed on their invasive insect. If not
then I know that the students still needs some help stepping back from the poster and looking at the
big picture that the poster provides.
The final assessment will be the final project as a whole. Students will have to follow the rubric that is
given to them as a guide to provide an adequate presentation with all the information asked. The rubric
includes a section about the poster so they must work on getting the highest score in this section. I
will also see if they used the non-fiction text given to them in the invasive insect library and if it is
correctly cited and paraphrased. This will also give me the opportunity to see if they effectively
withdrew information from the non-fiction text.

Name:

Lionfish Questionnaire
Scientific Name:
Habitat:

3 Other Facts:

1.

2.

3.
Other names for
Lionfish:

1.
2.
3.
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Average size of an
adult Lionfish:
What does it rely on
to capture prey?

Above is the exit ticket that I will be giving students as an assessment.

Anticipated Difficulties: What difficulties or possible misunderstanding do you anticipate that students may encounter? How will you
prevent them from occurring?
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy)

This is the first lesson I will be doing with the students on their desks. I am worried that I will not be
able to see students who are not paying attention from the front of the room.
This is also the first formal lesson that I will be teaching in the morning (1st period). I am not aware of
how the students behavior is in the morning and how willing they will be to learn.
To make things a little more difficult, this lesson will be taught on a Friday, the first day off of
PARCC. The students may already be checked out because they are tired from taking the PARCC for
the past 2 weeks, but it is also Friday. The one day of the week where students really do not want to be
in school. It will be interesting to see how the students behave during this lesson.
With the online quiz, students will need to be honest and not flip back to the website to answer the
questions.
This lesson is the beginning of the poster project. If the poster boards are handed out, then the students
will get overly excited about the whole project. Students may just want to begin without concern about
the rubric and what they have just learned. They may want to complete it for the sake of having it
done. I am also concerned about the size of the room. Since they room is small and there is not much
floor space, I may have to send some students out into the hallway.
Reflections: List at least three questions you will ask yourself after the lesson is taught.
(4a: Reflecting on Teaching)

1. In general, how successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you
intended for them to learn? How do you know?
Overall, I thought my lesson went as well as it could have. Everything in my
lesson went well even though I strayed away from my plan. The objective
of the lesson was to take effective notes when conducting online research
for a topic. I believe that the students learned just that. When the students
split up into their own project groups, they were fully able to model what I
did during my lesson with their own project topic. I saw students using the
strategies that I taught them while conducting research on their invasive
insect by themselves. I was also able to tell they learned what I intended
them to learn because they were able to complete notes on the Lionfish

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sites on the given time, and use ONLY their notes to complete the online
quiz.
2. If you have samples of student work, what do they reveal about the students
levels of engagement and understanding? Do they suggest modifications in how
you might teach this lesson in the future?

Here are the results to the quiz that my students took after taking notes on
Lionfish. This shows the amount of time students got a specific question
right, or wrong. Although I have 25 kids the number of questions answered
is almost doubled because after taking the quiz once, my students wanted
to take it again. So most students took the quiz again because they were
engaged and understood how important note taking is when doing
research. Although there were some students who got some question
incorrect, I do not think I need to modify anything within my lesson.
Question 3 I added into the quiz as a trick questions, I was just curious to
see how students will respond. The other questions only provided a few
students who got it wrong. This is okay because I provided one full website
page to conduct research on and some students may not have finished
research before taking the quiz.

3. Comment on your classroom procedures, student conduct, and your use of

physical space. To what extent did these contribute to student learning?
My classroom procedures were very smooth compared to my previous
lesson. This was the first lesson of the day after 2 full weeks of PARCC on a
Friday. I predicted that the students would be misbehaving and it would
have been difficult to get my students engaged. However, this is the
opposite of what I believed. They students were giving me their full
attention and followed all directions that I provided. I tried many different
ways to gathering the students attention and they all seem to work. This
time around, I did not ask the students to the carpet because I wanted to

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try something new. I was curious to see if the students will get distracted at
their desks during my lesson. I thought that my students were even more
engaged at their desks than on the floor. I think all the decisions that I
made increased student learning to its greatest capacity.
4. Did you depart from your plan? If so, how and why?
I followed my plan all the way until I got the wrap up. My lesson stated that
I was to give an exit ticket to the students to complete and give the due
date for the project. I decided that I change this and instead of the exit
ticket, I would share some real-world connections. After the lesson ended I
showed students some photos of myself in Washington D.C. where there
was an environment activist group talking about invasive insect. I then
mention that these insects are not invasive so New Jersey but also other
areas of the country. I then shared some personal stories to the kids, and
then wrapped up by providing the due of the final project for the students.
5. Comment on different aspects of your instructional delivery (e.g., activities,
grouping of students, materials, and resources). To what extent were they
effective?
I used lots of scaffolding strategies with the students for this lesson. I did a
To-with-by method with the students in this lesson. I taught the students
what to do, I then did it with them by having then help me what to do, then
the students were able to do it by themselves. In order to test how well the
students did after this model I gave an online activity for them to complete.
I thought this was very effective because the student understood exactly
how to complete taking notes on research after I modeled it and they got to
practice it. I also went out of my comfort zone and used technology within
my lesson. I used a resource on the internet called Online Quiz Creator in
order to make a quiz for the students as a small assessment. I thought this
was very effective because it was engaging, the students did not even
know this was a form of assessment because it was on the computer and
almost seemed like a game.
6. If you had an opportunity to teach this lesson again to the same group of
students, what would you do differently?
I was very content with the way my lesson turned out, so there is not large
part of my lesson that I would change. The one small thing that I might add
to my lesson is to provide the link to the quiz and the website through an email to the students. Some of the students were not typing the website URL
properly with made the transitions from activity to activity a little bit longer
than it should have. But even so, I thought the problem was easily solved
because the students were helping one another getting to the presented
websites.
7. What were some of the things you discussed with cooperating teachers?
My cooperating teachers at first saw a problem with the online quiz. This is
because there is a possible chance of students going back to the website to
answer the questions rather than using their research notes. However,
after I taught my lesson they both thought that it was a great lesson, even
my best one yet. They stated that not a single student tried to go back and

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cheat using the website. They did not have any negative comments about
my lesson. Another thing that they mentioned was how well behaved the
students were. For a lesson taught right after 2 full weeks of PARCC I was
able to manage then well.