Morgan Ayers

Presented: 2/9/17 9:45 AM

Submitted: 2/2/17

LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Read-Aloud: Apples A to Z by Margaret McNamara

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
The students are learning about healthy foods in their class. They also have a grocery store
center and a kitchen center. This book is all about apples which are a healthy choice and it is also
an ABC book. This book is at an appropriate level for these students since it goes through the
alphabet, but it is also at a beginning reader level with some challenging words.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand what are the broad Know what are the facts, rules, Do what are the specific thinking
generalizations the students should specific data the students will gain behaviors students will be able to do
begin to develop? (These are through this lesson? (These knows through this lesson? (These will also
typically difficult to assess in one must be assessed in your lesson.) be assessed in your lesson.)
lesson.)
The students will understand that The students will know a few The students will be able to think
apples are a healthy choice and will different types of apples and will be about the different ways that apples
learn different words that relate to able to say their favorite apple during are used and think of their favorite
apples in some way. assessment. types of apples.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
I will go around the circle after reading the book to address each student and ask them what their
favorite type of apple is. We can also talk about the different ways that apples are used once everyone
has said their favorite type.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL STANDARDS if required)

Virginia Literacy Foundation Block 1(Oral Language)
d) Use complete sentences to ask and answer questions about experiences or about what has been read.
g) Listen attentively to stories in a whole class setting.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
Just the book which I will have.

G. PROCEDURE
(Include a DETAILED description of each step. Write what you will SAY and DO.)
Preparation of the learning environment (if required)
Not required
Engage -Introduction of the lesson
Say Today we are going to read a book about apples. Thumbs up if apples are your
favorite fruit. Thumbs down if apples are not your favorite fruit.
Implementation of the lesson (specific procedures and directions for teacher and students)
The students will sit around the edge of the purple rug like usual. I will read the book
all the way through only pausing if a student has something meaningful to say. I might
include other thumbs up and thumbs down questions throughout the book, if the
students are not paying attention.
Morgan Ayers
Presented: 2/9/17 9:45 AM
Submitted: 2/2/17

Closure
Assess learning with the question of their favorite type of apple, and then have Ms.
Carrie transition the students to centers.
Clean-up (if required)
Not required

H. DIFFERENTIATION
I will make sure that all students are able to pay attention and will not be distracted. One student in
particular may need to sit in a teachers lap in order to not cause a distraction. If students have trouble
thinking of their favorite type of apple, then I can turn to that specific page in the book and list a few
of the common apple types to get them thinking.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
The students could be too talkative while I read so I can tell the students to keep their thoughts in their
head and then they will have a chance to share at the end. I do not want to stop any students from
sharing if they have something meaningful to say during the book; therefore, I will only tell them to
keep their thoughts in their head if the talking gets out of hand.

REFLECTION

My read-aloud was fairly successful; however, there were a few things that happened that I did not
expect. The hour before my read-aloud I noticed that a particular student was not having a very good day.
This student has Down Syndrome and is usually is a cheerful boy. On this day, he became frustrated with
everything that he was playing with. When one of the teachers would tell him to do something, he just
started crying and did not want to listen. I was worried that this student would not be able to focus during
my read-aloud, but this student is usually held by one of the teachers during morning meetings anyways.
This student had trouble being quiet all throughout my read-aloud. One other student, who usually
behaves well, started to lay on his stomach and not pay attention either. I told this student that he needed
to sit on his bottom, but he still did not listen. One of the other teachers had to set this student in her lap. I
found out later that this student had been acting like this for the past couple of days. I was not expecting
these things to happen and without the other teachers there, I definitely would not have been able to
handle both of these students by myself.

I believe that my strengths as a teacher include being a caring person, making the learning
environment fun, but also having rules that have consequences if they are not followed. I will always
consider why a student is misbehaving to get to the root of the problem before disciplining them and
making the situation worse. For example, now that I know that the second student had been acting out for
the past couple of days, I can sympathize with him knowing that something else must be going on in one
of his other environments. I also know that the boy with Down Syndrome was having a bad day and
probably did not get enough sleep the previous night, since he has never cried like that in class before,
according to my cooperating teacher. These happenings helped me to identify my weaknesses as a
teacher, in that I did not know what to do in that situation. A preschool class like this would usually have
at least one assistant teacher to keep students focused; however, one person could probably not hold and
control both of these misbehaving students. Thinking about it now, if this did happen in my future
classroom, I would have the teacher assistant put the first student in her lap, and then I would stop
Morgan Ayers
Presented: 2/9/17 9:45 AM
Submitted: 2/2/17

reading and put the second student in my lap. I could have also just ignored the student laying on his
stomach, since he was not being disruptive. I would have then talked to this student after circle time and
explain how we are to behave during this time. I also found out that this book was more informational
than story based. For this age group, if I had to do a read-aloud again, I would choose a story book
instead. The majority of these students did pay attention to this ABC book, but I know that some of the
words went over their heads.

I had a pre-assessment of sorts to see how many of them think that apples are their favorite fruit. The
students did well with the thumbs up and thumbs down questions because their teacher has used this
method before. I also decided on the spot to add a few more of these questions during the book to hold
the students attention, such as Thumbs up if you have gone apple picking before. Thumbs down if you
have not. At the end of the book, I was planning to go around the circle and have the students say their
favorite type of apple as the book mentioned the different varieties; however, I decided that they could
probably only say red or green apples over the specific type. All of the students participated when called
on and either said, red, green, or both. This type of assessment worked well and I would definitely
use it in my future classroom.