Name Lexi Bodford

Class ELED 3221

Date taught 2-28-18

Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Looking at Minerals
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Central Focus/Big Idea: Beginning to look at minerals

Subject of this lesson: Minerals

Grade Level: 4th grade

NC Essential Standard(s): 4.P.2.2 Explain how minerals are identified using tests for the
physical properties of hardness, color, luster, cleavage and streak

21st Century Skills: Critical thinking and problem solving- students will think critically about
rocks and minerals and their similarities and differences. Creativity and innovation- students
will have to think creatively when working with unknown minerals in order to make good
assumptions about each of the minerals. Communication- students will need to be using their
communication skills to collaborate with other students when observing the minerals. They will
also need to communicate with the class to talk about their observations.

Academic Language Demand

Analyze Argue Categorize Compare/contrast Describe Explain
Interpret Predict Question Retell Summarize

Analyze- students will analyze minerals

Describe- students will describe each mineral by using certain tests
Explain- students will explain what each mineral is based on the observations and tests done.
 Scientific Vocabulary: rock, mineral, observation
Instructional Objective: When given 3 minerals, the students will be able to record at least 1
observation about each mineral and record it.

Prior Knowledge (student): students must have prior knowledge of rocks. This will be necessary
when comparing rocks and minerals. Students will have prior knowledge of doing tests on rocks.
This will be necessary when starting to do tests on minerals. Students must also know how to
conduct observations. This will be necessary when making observations on the minerals.

Content Knowledge (teacher): Teachers need prior knowledge of rocks and minerals. Teachers
will need to know the 12 minerals that the students will be observing as well as the 3 minerals
that they will be looking at. Teachers will also need to know information about each of the rocks
and minerals. Teachers will need to know and be able to explain each test that is done on the
rocks and minerals.

Accommodations for special needs (individual and/or small group): The teacher will provide
explanations of how to do each test in a native language. Students with a learning disability will
be able to work with a partner on all activities.

Materials and Technology requirements: 1 science notebook for each class member, 1 hand
lens for each class member, 1 pair of gloves for each class member, 1 set of rocks labeled 1-12
per every 2 students, 1 set of 3 minerals labeled A-C per every 2 class members, 1 cardboard tray
per every 2 students, 1 sheet of news print, 2 colored markers, 1 pad of post-it notes

Total Estimated Time: 30-40 minutes over the course of a few weeks

Source of lesson: “Rocks and Minerals” Teacher guide from Smithsonian/ The National
Academics National Science Resource Center

Safety considerations: Students will use gloves when observing all minerals. Students will also
use a cardboard piece to place each mineral on while observing so that no pieces get lost,
dropped, broken, etc. Students will also make sure to wash their hands after handling the
minerals.
 Content and Strategies (Procedure)

Engage: To engage the students I will ask the question, “What have you been learning about the
past few weeks?” Students will or should answer by saying rocks. Then, the teacher will draw a
large circle and put rocks at the top. The teacher will ask, “Did you all write observations about
rocks? What are some properties that are shared by all of the rocks?” Students will use their
previous observation notes on rocks and write down specific shared properties on sticky notes
that they wrote about rocks. The teacher will then have the students post their sticky note onto
the circle for rocks. This will test their prior knowledge of rocks and what they observed from
them. This piece of paper will be the start of a venn diagram between rocks and minerals. Then
the teacher will ask, “Have you heard of minerals? We are going to be looking at 12 new
minerals starting today and we are going to observe them and do tests on them to try to find out
what the minerals are.” The teacher will let the students get into partners for the explore activity.

Explore: Students will be in pairs to explore. 1 person in each pair will gather materials of 2
pairs of gloves, 1 set of rocks, 1 set of minerals and 2 hand lenses. The teacher will say, “Today
we are going to be making observations on the minerals. We are also going to be comparing the
new minerals to the rocks we have already observed. The teacher will ask the questions, “Which
rocks have tiny pieces in them? What do you think they are?” Students will make these
observations while just looking at the rocks. When they get out the minerals students will answer
the questions, “Do any of the minerals look like these pieces? (referring to the minerals) Which
rocks look like they might have little pieces of mineral A in them? Mineral B? Mineral C? (and
so on)” Students will take time to make observations and answer the questions. Students will also
make specific observation notes on the minerals that include notes on, “How it feels, what it
smells like, what it looks like and a drawing of the mineral.” Students will record their answers
in their science notebooks. When finished, students should return their materials, throw away
their gloves and wash their hands.

Explanation: Students, after cleaning up their materials will come back together as a whole
class. The teacher will facilitate a discussion about their observation notes. The teacher will ask
different students to share their observation notes. During this time, students can make
connections to other students observation notes. Teacher will then facilitate a discussion about
“What students want to know about minerals.” This will be done with a large sheet of paper. The
students will ask the question to the class and the class will give answers of what they want to
know about minerals. The teacher will write their responses on the paper. These questions should
be able to be answered by the end of the minerals lesson.

Elaborate: After sharing their thoughts with the class, the students will be able to elaborate on
what they observed and make new observations based on testing. The students will get out the
mineral kits and get into partners. The students will use testing (streak, hardness, magnetic,
luster, and transparency) to guess what minerals they are observing. Over the course of the next
few weeks the students will be getting out the mineral test kits to do testing on them. Students
will test each mineral by all the tests, one at a time. The students will be able to make guesses as
to which mineral they are testing on.
Evaluate: For my informal assessment, I will be asking students general questions throughout
their observation time such as “Have you found anything interesting? Have you noticed any
similarities and differences between the rocks and minerals?” My formal assessment will be their
observation notes. Each student is required to make observation notes about each of the 12
minerals. Students will receive credit for making an observation of “How it feels, what it smells
like, what it looks like and a drawing of the mineral.”

Assessment Results of all objectives/skills: All students were able to write good observations of
the minerals that they were able to observe. No student was able to get through all 12 of the
minerals because of the time constraint. I graded on completion of the observations they made
for the amount of minerals that they were able to get through

Reflection on lesson: on separate sheet

CT signature/confirmation: _________________________________ Date: ________________