KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

PROFESSIONAL SEMESTER PROGRAM
LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Teacher Candidate: Lea Huck Date: _______________________

Cooperating Teacher: Mrs. Dillow Coop. Initials: ________________
Group Size: Twenty-Three Allotted Time: Twenty Minutes Grade Level: First Grade
Subject or Topic: Social Studies- Careers: Police Officer Section: 045

Standard (PA Common Core):

 15.2.2.B. Identify occupations of familiar adults.
 15.2.2.Q. Ask and answer questions related to interests and careers.

I. Performance Objectives (Learning Outcomes):

 The first grade students will be able to identify the characteristics of a police officer by
answering questions during and after a story and article.

II. Instructional Materials:

 Keeping You Safe: A Book About Police Officers by Ann Owen
 Scholastic article, Police Officer (http://teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/officer/index.htm)

III. Subject Matter/Content:

 Prerequisite Skills: The first grade students will need to know what a job is.
 Key Vocabulary:
o Police Officer: a man or woman who enforces the law
 Big Idea: A police officer’s job is to protect people in the community.
 New Content: A police officer responds to calls, enforces laws, makes arrests, conducts traffic
stops, and sometimes even testifies in court. Police officers wear uniforms to work each day that
help keep them safe from harm. Police officers can drive patrol cars, ride on horses, ride
bicycles, or walk, but all report to a police station.

IV. Implementation
A. Introduction:
1. Remind the students what they have learned about careers so far during the unit. Say to
the students, “If you can remember back to the last time we learned about careers, we
talked about a job that helps people who are sick or hurt. Does anyone remember what
job we talked about?” Wait for students to answer.
2. Say to the students, “We learned about the different things that doctors and nurses do.
We watched a BrainPOP Jr. video about going to the doctor, and the different things
that happen when you visit the doctor. Does anyone remember some of the things that
doctors and nurses do?” Wait for students to answer.
3. Tell the students, “The career that you are going to learn about today involves people
who enforce the law and keep us safe from harm. Does anyone know what job that
might be?” Wait for students to answer.
4. Say to the students, “Raise your hand if with your buddies, you researched and told me
that you wanted to be a police officer when you grow up.” Allow students to raise their
 hands.
5. Ask the students who raised their hands, “Why do you want to be a police officer?” Call
on some of the students to share out.

B. Development:
1. Say to the students, “To help us learn more about police officers, we are going to read a
story about police officers and what they do. Be sure to be listening closely during the
story because we will stop reading at some places to talk about what we have learned.”
2. Read the story Keeping You Safe: A Book About Police Officers by Ann Owen. During the
reading, pause at different points to ask the students comprehension questions about
what has been read.
3. Read the story until page 3. Ask the students, “What do you notice about the uniform
that the police officer is wearing?” Wait for students to raise their hand and call on
some students to share out their answers.
4. Read the story until page 9. Ask the students, “What are some of the ways that police
officers get around the community?” Wait for students to raise their hand and call on
some students to share out their answers. Some possible answers include walking,
riding a bicycle, riding a horse, or driving a patrol car.
5. Read the story until page 11. Ask the students, “Does a police officer’s partner always
have to be another person? What animal could a police officer’s partner be?” Wait for
students to raise their hand and call on some students to share out their answers.
6. Read the story until page 19. Ask the students, “What are some of the things that police
officers do?” Wait for students to raise their hand and call on some students to share
out their answers. Some possible answers include teaches us when to call 9-1-1,
teaches us about bicycle safety, helps you if you get lost, makes sure everyone is okay
after an accident, takes notes about what happened at a crime, looks for clues, and
catches people who break laws.
7. Read the story until the end of the book. Ask the students, “What do you think would
happen if we did not have police officers?” Wait for students to raise their hand and call
on some students to share out their answers.

C. Closure:
1. Introduce the scholastic article Police Officer to the students on the SmartBoard.
2. Read the article to the students.
3. After the first page, ask the students, “What is a law?” Wait for students to raise their
hand and call on some students to share out their answers.
4. After the second page, ask the students, “What other ways did we learn from the story
that police officers can get around, besides a police car?” Wait for students to raise their
hand and call on some students to share out their answers.
5. After the fourth page, ask the students, “Should we play near water by ourselves?” Wait
for students to raise their hand and call on some students to share out their answers.
6. Take the short quiz at the end of the lesson. Read each question aloud and talk the
students through the answers. When the students think they hear a correct answer,
have them give a thumbs up. Select the answer with the majority of thumbs up after
each answer has been read. If the answer selected is wrong, talk to the students about
why it is not the correct answer.
 7. Ask the students for a thumbs up if they understand what a police officer does, a
thumbs down if they do not understand what a police officer does, or a hand raised if
they have any questions about what a police officer does.
8. Say to the students, “We just learned about a ton of different things that police officers
do. The next time we have social studies, we will learn all about a new type of job and
what the people who have that job do. The job, or career, we will learn about is a
veterinarian.”

D. Accommodations/Differentiation:
 Students who have difficulty seeing can sit in the front of the group during the story and the
video.

E. Assessment/Evaluation:
1. Formative
i. During the closure of the lesson, the students will be asked for a thumbs up if
they understand what a police officer does, a thumbs down if they do not
understand what a police officer does, or a hand raised if they have any
questions about what a police officer does.
ii. Students will be monitored during the lesson. Students who seem to always
select answers that are not correct will be pulled in a small group during
intervention the next day. During that time, the students will re-learn the things
that they struggled with during the lesson.
2. Summative

V. Reflective Response:
A. Report of Students’ Performance in Terms of States Objectives:
B. Personal Reflection:

VI. Resources:
 Keeping You Safe: A Book About Police Officers by Ann Owen
 Police Officer (http://teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/officer/index.htm)