Date: March 15, 2018 Grade: 2

Teacher Name: Ms. Graziadei Subject: Science/Writing

1. Topic-

The students will be preparing to conduct their group science experiments within the first phase
of their unit on forces. These experiments will be based off of questions brainstormed through
the inquiry stage and research within which testable questions were written. This lesson will
entail the introduction to writing procedures. This learning will be necessary in order to write
detailed procedures for their scientific experiments.

2. Content-

Next Generation Science standard K-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the
effect of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.

Next Generation Science standard 2-PS1-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and
classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.

The planning of these two standards will be addressed in this lesson in order to prepare to
conduct such investigations.

Key vocabulary includes terms such as procedure, instruct, steps, elaborate, detail, and materials,
as well as transition and action words that will be collaboratively brainstormed.

3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-

The overarching goal of this lesson is that the students are able to plan and carry out detailed and
specific scientific procedures from which data can be gathered that is associated with their
testable questions that are to be focused on.

4. Objectives-

At the end of this lesson the students will be able to:

1. Write a procedure.
2. Identify what makes a good procedure through analyzing student-created examples of
procedures.
3. Contribute to the creation of a co-created procedure exemplar.
4. Contribute to the creation of a co-created criteria chart for procedure-writing.
5. Reflect on one’s procedure using the criteria chart.
6. Set a goal for revisions and the next day’s writing of a scientific procedure.
6. Maintain a growth mindset throughout the process of becoming a stronger writer.

5. Materials and Aids-

1. Students will be provided with pretend bread, jelly, peanut butter, knives, and plates, which
can be used to practice the procedure of making such a sandwich that should guide them in
writing detailed procedures.
2. A clipboard will be used as a hard surface that will allow the students to utilize flexible
seating options for the lesson.
3. A pencil is necessary for writing a procedure during the activity in the lesson.
4. Sticky notes will be needed for the students to be able to reflect on their procedures and set
goals for their next attempt.
5. An engagement activity worksheet will be used to structure the students' work on writing
procedures.
6. A slideshow will be used as a mini-lesson to address the lesson’s content.
7. The easel will be used for brainstorming transition and action words, as well as
collaboratively designing a strong procedure that a criteria chart will be created from.
8. A data sheet will be utilized by the teacher during the independent practice that the students
are involved in. Data will be collected in the form of a checklist, as well as anecdotal notes.

6. Procedures/Methods-

A. Introduction-

1. The students will transition from the previous lesson by using a level 0 voice, ensuring that
‘marshmallow feet’ are used, and promptly finding their literacy spots on the rug. These are
transition norms that have been reviewed and practiced on a daily basis. A transition song
will be played to guide them.
2. The opening activity will involve the teacher following the poorly written instructions of how
to put a coat on listed on the tag shown on the slide. The teacher will follow the directions
literally in order to exhibit the results of a procedure that is not sufficiently detailed in order
 for the task to be carried out as desired. There will be thinking aloud. The students will watch
and listen carefully and critically.

B. Development-

1. A discussion will take place with the contributions of the students to make evident what went
wrong with the coat procedure that was not yet strong.
2. The discussion will be extended to guiding the students to turn and talk about what a
procedure is, when they are used, why they are important, and why detailed procedures are
critical. Once turn and talk is complete, the students will have the opportunity to share their
thoughts. Prompting will be used when necessary to guide the formation of the accurate
conclusions.

C. Practice-

(To be complete after independent practice)

1. The class will reconvene to collaboratively create a strong procedure. The students will share
their steps that they feel go in order. As each idea is shared, the teacher will literally act out
these steps to help the students identify is any details are missing. With this, the result should
be that the details prevent any mistakes in following the procedure.
2. With the creation of the ‘yes’ exemplar, the students will work to co-create a criteria chart
that can be utilized while writing procedures.

D. Independent Practice-

1. The students will be given the task of attempting to write a detailed procedure of how to
make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Transition and action words will be brainstormed
on the slide that the students can refer to in their writing. The teacher will ensure that the goal
and task for the students is to try their best to write a strong procedure that could be carried
out by someone else. Pretend sandwich materials will be provided to the students should they
feel the need to carry out the process to identify the necessary steps.
2. As the students attempt to write their procedures, the teacher will travel around the classroom
taking notes and gathering data about each student by conducting short conferences with
them, while also providing addition support and prompting when necessary.
3. Once sufficient time has been allowed for the students to write procedures, the students will
be instructed to share the procedure with a partner. The partner is to carry out the procedure
literally. Should any missing details be identified, notes can be written, or they could be
posed as questions for the writer.
E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-

1. Based on analyses of previously collected data, all students should be able to access the
content and activities in this lesson. However, the teacher will place a focus on the ELLs and
students with IEPs to ensure that the necessary processes are taking place by providing extra
scaffolding that will help them better understand and retain the new content.
2. The students identified to exhibit need will participate in intervention activities during
morning work within a strategy group that will allow them to review and continue to practice
skills before advancing to the next stage in phonics learning during the days lesson.
3. Prompting and modeling will be utilized when appropriate to make expectations and content
explicit to all students, especially ELLs, students with IEPs, and others who exhibit academic
needs.
4. As the teacher walks around the classroom while the students work on the assignment,
additional prompting and guidance will be utilized should any ELLs and students with
special needs exhibit the need in order to fully engage in the reading and activity.
5. The teacher can offer alternative phrasing or methods for what they are being asked to do and
guide them through additional examples.
6. The teacher will utilize any accommodations that could benefit the students with special
needs to maintain their activeness in the lesson.
7. Beyond the teacher’s guidance, other students will be able to collaborate with ELLs and
students with special needs that can allow for information to be presented in a different
manner that the child can better understand.
8. Based on data gathered from checking for understanding, a strategy group may be conducted.
This strategy group may be useful for the students with IEPs and ELLs who would benefit
from the prompting of physically carrying out the process and pausing to track steps.

F. Checking for understanding-

Mud-bugs-clear: Throughout the mini-lesson’s discussions, the students will be asked to show
with their thumbs how they feel about their understanding and retention of the new content that
must be used in the activity. This will be done at points deemed appropriate and necessary by the
teacher. Based on the student responses, the teacher will rephrase the information and ask for
questions that can be answered in order to help the larger population of students. If necessary, a
strategy group will be used to guide those in need of additional support identified through
checking for understanding.

G. Closure-

The students will reflect on the criteria chart in relation to their procedure drafts. They will make
determinations as to whether they are at ‘not yet’, ‘starting to’, or ‘yes’ for each
component. Based on these reflections, goals will be set and written on a sticky note that will be
referred to as a reminder the following day when the scientific procedures are written, while also
using the criteria chart to revise and refine before implementing the experiment. The students
will be briefed on how their learning from this lesson will be used the following day to help
them prepare for the goals that will be set in the next lesson.

7. Evaluation-

1. Self-reflection: The students will reflect on their procedures in relation to the criteria chart
that is created collaboratively at the end of the lesson. They will make judgements within the
‘yes’, ‘starting to’, and ‘not yet’ framework that has been utilized repetitively throughout the
year. The students will use this feedback to set goals for themselves on sticky notes that will
be used during the next day’s task of writing scientific procedures for their experiment on
forces. The teacher can use this information to analyze who may need additional explanations
of the material, if the teaching method needs to be altered, and how to conduct a review in
the lessons over the following days to gradually expand upon and advance the skills of the
students.
2. Mud-bugs-clear: Throughout the mini-lesson’s discussions, the students will be asked to
show with their thumbs how they feel about their understanding and retention of the new
content that must be used in the activity. This will be done at points deemed appropriate and
necessary by the teacher. Based on the student responses, the teacher will rephrase the
information and ask for questions that can be answered in order to help the larger population
of students.
3. Anecdotal notes: The teacher will walk around the classroom checking on the progress of the
students. Notes will be taken on progress of each student. During the conversations
conducted with these students, questions will be used to further their thinking. Such data will
be tracked for the teacher’s reflective purposes. This will help to get a perspective of their
thought processes. Notes will be taken on any questions students may have because if one
child has a misunderstanding, it is highly probable that other students will as well. In the case
that help is needed, guidance will be provided through prompting so that students can arise to
the correct answers themselves. This will help assess the students’ abilities, enabling the
teacher to to collect data by listening to them interact with their peers.
4. Activity worksheet: The teacher will collect their worksheets to analyze and provide
feedback in the form of a ‘glow’ and ‘grow’ that can be used to support their writing
processes the following day.
5. Portfolio: In this case, the drafts of the procedure written the following day will included in
the overall lab report that is to be produced by the students. The lab report will function as a
portfolio to exhibit their development that has taken place within the unit on forces. The final
product will be used and discussed during student-led conferences. The finalized lab report
will be graded with a rubric with defined guidelines to give the student the appropriate score
and provide some written feedback.
6. The teacher can use the information from the assessments to analyze who may need
additional explanations of the material, if the teaching method needs to be altered, and how
to conduct a review in the lessons over the following days to gradually expand upon and
advance the skills of the students.
7. The assessments taking place within the lesson can be used to make swift determinations
about any alternative directions that must be taken to increase success, which includes the
additional of detail, restructuring the lesson, and using strategies for additional guidance.
8. Observations gathered from the teacher’s anecdotal notes provide a context for any questions,
confusions, or individual student challenges that should be addressed in future lessons. The
teacher can use this information to structure review sessions for skills and concepts.

8. Teacher Reflection-

This lesson was implemented during my final observation of my student teaching experience. I
could not have felt any better about the success of the lesson. In planning, I felt that in order to
properly prepare the students to approach the task of creating science procedures for their
experiments on forces, it was necessary to engage them in the writing of a procedure for a task
that they were familiar with. This building upon prior knowledge would allow them to
acknowledge the detail necessary in a procedure, and make connections to how daily experiences
they may partake in are associated with scientific studies. In planning for each student to attempt
to write a strong procedure on the same topic, this united front would increase the collaborative
opportunities, particularly in the co-creation of the exemplar and criteria list. The background
skills that were to be developed within this lesson would enable me to make appropriate
judgements as to whether or not the students would be prepared to plan and conduct science
procedures. To simulate these experiences, I also chose to design materials that were purposeful
and relevant, which would be a resource to guide the thought processes of the students. Their
understandings would be more sound in being able to physically carry out the procedure
acknowledging every step that is taken, while recognizing its relevance to a piece of writing.
Beyond this, I felt that it was necessary to structure the lesson in the backwards manner that I
chose. By beginning with the acting out of a poorly written procedure, I hoped to motivate the
students to be detailed in their writing. In allowing them to attempt to write their own procedures
afterwards before explicit instruction and then reconvening for collaboration, active engagement
could be maintained.

Throughout the lesson I was very proud of the students for their behaviors that eased the task of
classroom and behavior management. This group of students amazed me with their consistent
respect, careful attendance to task protocol, swift transitions, and appropriate use of materials.
No time was lost to the need for management strategies to be implemented. I feel that this is a
reflection of a positive response to the lesson structure, topic, and activities. With that being said,
consideration of this lesson design due to the the behavioral and instructional successes will be
taken into account in future lesson planning.
Much like the successes observed within the classroom environment, the instruction that took
place resulted in equal, if not greater achievements. From the opening activity, the students were
immediately engaged and excited to take on the task of writing a procedure. The entertainment of
me putting my coat on wrong due to poorly written instructions resulted in laughter, but more
importantly the swift identification of details in which the procedure fell short. After
brainstorming transition and action words, as the students took on the task to attempt to write
strong procedures, all could be seen using the tools provided in an appropriate manner by acting
out the task, pausing after each step that was physically carried out, and writing these ideas on
the procedure template. As I traveled around the classroom gathering data and supporting
students after I completed my work with a group of students at the rug who desired additional
guidance, I continued to see the specificity that was desired. The opportunity came for the
students to trade procedures with a partner who would carry the steps out as literally as possible.
Through discussion and reminders prior to the task, the students could be heard providing
feedback to their peers by posing questions and offering suggestions for modifications should
any details have been missing. In reconvening to create an exemplar and criteria list, the students
were able to identify each stage necessary for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There
is evidence of this in the document provided. The exemplar procedure was carried out by me,
and the students determined if each step was at a ‘not yet’, ‘starting to’, or ‘yes’ level from which
adjustments were made if necessary. As I encouraged the students to more closely analyze the
exemplar, through turning and talking, the students collaborated to co-create the criteria list that
can be seen in the other document that has been shared. With the exemplar and criteria list that
has been produced, I feel confident in the students being prepared to write drafts of their science
experiments tomorrow.

Given my close analysis of the completed worksheets, goals that have been set by the students,
and co-created documents, the achievement of this lesson’s goals exhibit that the students have
developed the necessary skills to write their scientific procedures. Tomorrow the students will be
able to use their peanut butter and jelly sandwich procedures and the co-created exemplar as
‘mentor texts’. Once a draft has been created within their groups for the forces projects, the
criteria list can be used to self-reflect on the specificity of the plan that has been created for the
experiments. This reflection will allow the students to set goals and make the necessary revisions
in order for the experiments to be carried out properly, as well as be reproducible by any other
individual interested in observing the results of the testable question that the procedure
addresses.