Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

Name: Makayla Coggins

Grade Level/Subject: 2nd Grade Social Studies

Central Focus/Big Idea

of the Lesson:
Students will be able
to explain and
describe the
characteristics of
being a good citizen.

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective: 2.C & G. 2. 2

Explain why it is important for citizens to participate in their
community.

Date taught:
October 26,
2016

Daily Lesson Objective: Students will be able to explain how citizens

participate in their community.
21st Century Skills: (Go to this link for more info
about these skills:
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Frame
work_Definitions.pdf)
Creativity: Students will be creating illustrations
Collaboration: Students will work together in order
to create a classroom anchor chart to be displayed
on the wall.

Academic Language
Demand (Language
Function and
Vocabulary):
Language Function:
Explain
Vocabulary:
Citizenship

Prior Knowledge: Students should vaguely understand citizenship,

communities, and how it relates to them before beginning this lesson.

Activity

1. Focus and
Review

Description of
Activities and
Setting

For social studies today, we are going to

be talking about citizenship! Raise your
hand if you can tell me what citizenship
means. (Call on one or two students.) Very
nice, thanks guys. On page 68 of our large
class textbook, the word citizen as a person
who lives in and belongs to a community.
So citizenship must just mean the act of
being a citizen. With that being said, who
can raise their hand and tell me what being
a good citizen means? (Allow a few
students to answer.) Nice job, ladies and

Time

3 mins

gentleman! That brings us to todays

lessongood citizenship.
2. Statement of
Objective
for Student

Today we are going to learn what it means

to be a good citizen. By the end of the
lesson, you will be able to explain what
good citizens do and how they behave.

>1 min

3. Teacher Input

Read aloud of Being a Good Citizen: A

Book About Citizenship by Mary Small.
In my hands I have a book. This book is
appropriately titled, Being a Good Citizen:
A Book About Citizenship by Mary Small. I
will read this book aloud to you. While I am
reading, I want you to take special notice of
the characteristics of a good citizen. What
are the characters in the book doing? How
are they behaving? How can you be a good
citizen, like them? When I am done
reading, we will discuss.

5 mins

4. Guided Practice

Collaborate as a whole group in order to

make an anchor chart centered on what
makes a good citizen.
Now that you guys have some background
knowledge, we can create a bubble map on
good citizenship. Raise your hand to tell
me what a good citizen does and Ill write it
on our chart. Continue to do this until all
students have had the chance to speak or
until the students start to run out of ideas.
While the students tell you what to write,
make sure to ask why? so that they have
a chance to think about why good citizens
do these things and why they are
important.
Points from the book include:

Pollution prevention

Helping our neighbors (shoveling

snow)

Being kind to neighbors

Cleaning up after yourself & others

Voting for local and national

candidates

Learning about history

Keep others safe

10
mins


Make the world better and happier
(Planting flowers)
5. Independent
practice

Independently, the students will draw a

picture of being a good citizen and caption
it with at least two citizens.
Wow, I think we got some really good
ideas put down on this anchor chart!
Awesome work, friends! Now that we have
worked as a group, its time for you to try it
out on your own. I am handing everybody a
white, blank sheet of computer paper. On
this paper, you are going to choose one
quality of a good citizen (maybe its
something on our anchor chart!) and you
are going to draw whatever that may be.
Then, you are going to write 2 sentences
about your drawing. Think about things like
what your citizen is doing and why its a
good thing to do. Remember to use strong
sentence starters like Being a good citizen
means or Good citizens do Make
sure to do your very best work on this- I
expect to see colors and neat handwriting!

15
mins

6. Assessment
Methods of all
objectives/ skills:

Summative Assessment: Students must get 4 out of 5

points on their good citizen illustrations in order to
demonstrate objective mastery.
Points are allocated as follows:
3 points- Picture is accurate and displays effort
(colored in)
2 points- Sentences are thoughtfully constructed and
match the picture drawn
Formative Assessment: The teacher will formatively
assess students throughout the course of the lesson.
The teacher will be watching for student participation
and general understanding of the content.

7. Closure

In closing, the students will be expected to

share their drawing and two sentences.
Time permitting, sharing can go one of two
ways:

For less time, students will be

instructed to do a turn and talk.
Now that I see everyone has finished up
their drawings and sentences, it is time to

5 mins

talk to your partner. Partner A, turn and tell

Partner B what you drew and why. When
youve done that, switch roles.

For more time, students will be invited

to share with the class at their own accord.
Looks like everyone has finished up their
illustrations and writing! Lets all share what
weve drawn, because Im very interested
to see what youve come up with. Who
would like to share first? (Repeat)
8. Assessment
Results of all
objectives/ skills:

Every student who participated in the lesson, met

objective. While some students could only come up
with one sentence as opposed to two, they still
managed to obtain four out of five points,
demonstrating mastery. All students were effectively
able to convey what they believed good citizens do
and they were able to explain it.

Targeted Students
Modifications/Accommodations:
ELL students will have a translator on
hand to facilitate the language barrier.
Pictures will be provided as well in order
to help aid understanding.

Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:
For higher achieving students or
fast workers, they will be
instructed to keep adding
sentences until it is time to
share their final product.

Materials/Technology:
Being a Good Citizen: A Book About Citizenship by Mary Small
Harcourt Horizons: About My World Unit 2 large classroom textbook
One sheet of computer paper for each student
Coloring utensils to share (colored pencils, markers, crayons, etc.)
Anchor chart materials (Large notepad, marker)
References:
Reflection on lesson: (Write several paragraphs about what you learned from
this lesson. What were the strengths? What were the weaknesses? What did
you learn about teaching and student learning? How would you teach this
lesson differently in the future?
Overall, I am satisfied with how this lesson went. I believe that students
grasped the concept of being a good citizen and they were able to apply it to
their own lives. The class became very engaged in the lesson and behaved
better than I could have imagined. They were particularly interested in the read
aloud and paid close attention. When it came to making the anchor chart, I had
an overwhelming amount of participation! I was so relieved to see the number

of students that had ideas and wanted to share. Some of the ideas came
directly from the book, which made it clear to me that they were listening
intently during the read aloud. There were so many hands raised and good
ideas shared, that we ran out of room on the anchor chart! It was also great
watching them complete their picture and sentence activity. They were so
creative and really had free reign as to what to draw and say. They were all so
proud of their pictures and it was easy to see that they were really thinking
about things that they could do in their everyday lives in order to become good
citizens.
I am a big fan of this lesson, and I dont think very many things went wrong.
However, time was not on our side. My cooperating teacher gave us extra time
to complete the lesson, but I let time get away from us. The students were just
having so much fun completing the anchor chart, that we spent more time than
anticipated. They didnt have as much time to draw and write, but I believe that
this is not the worst thing in the world. Im glad they really took the lesson to
heart and were able to participate completely. Due to a lack of time, the
students did not get to share their work with the whole class, and I really wish I
had made this a priority. I would have liked to have a class discussion about
what each person thinks they can do to be a good citizen and get some
validation from their classmates. The drawings were all so good! In retrospect,
I would probably try to manage my time a tad better, or make time the next day
to do a little sharing.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would probably look for an additional book as
well. While I think that the book I used was very good, I would have liked to
use a second book as extra information. With another book, the students
would have had more examples of being a good citizen, and the more
examples the better. I think this lesson is totally doable with the one book, but
they were so interested in the read aloud, that a second book would totally just
round out the lesson. It would solidify the new knowledge. To be honest, I
would probably write smaller on the anchor chart as well. As an unforeseeable
event, I did not realize that my students would be so engaged in the lesson. I
did not allow enough room to collect all of the answers that I received.