TE 405 Literacy Daily Lesson Plan

Text-Based Discussion Project

Spring 2017

Name: Amelia Leng Grade Level: 1st Date: February 7th, 2017

Mentor Name: Lee Ann McElmurry School: Steele Elementary School

1. Overall lesson topic / title: Polar Bears and Animals in Zoos

2. Common Core State Standard(s) (CCSS) (Note: Focus on reading informational text
and speaking and listening standards.)

o CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.9 Identify basic similarities in and differences

between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures)

o CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a

text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

3. Goal (Identify your broad area “big idea” of focus in instruction)

o Reading and listening to an informative text read-aloud prior to making an

informed decision on whether animals should be in zoos or not.

4. Develop 1 to 4 learning goals that are specific to your lesson. (Note: The goals are
questions you wish for the students to be able to answer at the end of your lesson. Ensure that
you take advantage of the text features and provide for an interaction with the text. Also provide
answers to your questions in italics.)
i. What are the good things about zoos? What are the bad things?

The good things are; you can see many different animals from all over the world,
animals are safe from predators, zookeepers feed them, and endangered
animals can be kept from being extinct. The bad things are; animals are not free,
cages in zoos are small, animals may have no family, and animals are often
stressed and unhappy.

ii. What is the difference between endangered and extinct?

Endangered means that there are not very much of an animal left, but we can
still help them. Extinct means that that type of animal is gone forever and no one
will ever seen one again.
 iii. Why is the polar bear’s home melting?

The polar bear’s icy home is melting because of global warming. This means that
the temperature of the earth is getting warmer and warmer making the ice melt. If
there is no ice, polar bears won’t have a home because even though the can
swim, they cannot live in the water like a whale or a seal can.

5. List important new vocabulary that students will need to know in order to
understand the text and meet your learning goals. Also, list child-friendly
explanations that you will use to explain these words before or during your
lesson. Indicate how and when in your lesson you will address these vocabulary
terms: I will go over the definitions of these key terms and they come along in the
reading. I think stopped and talking about it during the reading will be more beneficial
than doing it at the beginning.

 Habitat – where an animal lives, a habitat could be in the wild or in the zoo

 Predators – an animal that hunts another animal, they usually eat meat

 Extinct – this means that the animal has disappeared forever, and there are none left

 Endangered – this means that there are not very many left of the animal anymore

 Species – a group of animals that have similar characteristics

 Food chain – the food chain shows which animals eat which other animals

6. List important concepts or ideas where you will need to provide additional
information (that is not in the text) to support students’ comprehension and to
enable them to meet your learning goals. Share exactly how you will explain these
ideas:
 Students must know the difference between the zoo and the wild personally before I
start to read the texts. Some students have never been to a zoo, so sharing personal
connections before reading may help students who don’t know exactly what a zoo
looks like and what they do. They must know that a zoo is place where animals are
kept in cages or structures and that in the wild there are no cages or structures.
 Students must know why it is that a lot of animals are put into the zoos because they
are endangered due to their loss of habitat. I will explain why the polar bears’ ice is
melting, because of global warming, a concept they may not have heard of. I will first
ask any of the students if they know anything about global warming, and then will tell
 them that the temperature of the Earth of slowly rising, causing the ice to melt where
the polar bears live. Without ice, they wont have a home in the Arctic.

7. Materials and supplies needed (Resources)

i. Teacher:
o Large pro-con (good-bad) chart
o PowerPoint slide shows of Polar Bears and Wild Animals in Zoos
o Globe
ii. Students:
o Index card ballot with “yes, no, maybe” (see bottom of page for picture)
o Large sheet to make a graph of ballot results
o Pencil
o Tape

8. Briefly describe each student in your small group and the learning and/or
participation challenges they face that may require academic, social, or linguistic
support during the lesson. (Note that students may not need all three types of support,
so be sure your ideas listed below in your plan are specific to this student’s needs.)
o Student 1 (K): This is one of the students who struggles the most in the entire first
grade, but I have only really worked with her on math so it will be interesting to see
how she does in a small literacy group. She has had problems fighting with students
physically at recess, but seems very quiet and sweet when you talk to her one on
one. I definitely think she will require academic and social support. I will make sure
she is sitting next to someone who I have seem her cooperate with/ask my mentor
who she should sit by, and guide her with thought provoking questions if she doesn’t
seem to be participating in the group discussions.
o Student 2 (E): This student does very well in school academically, and will not
require any linguistic or academic support. I know he scores very highly on phonemic
awareness assessments and math tests, but he is very shy and I am interested to
see him work in a group setting and see if he takes on a leadership role. He seems
very mature compared to a lot of the other students in the class.
o Student 3 (A): Aubrey is a student that I wanted to include in this text based
discussion because she partook in my science sense making discussions last
semester and had a lot of insightful ideas that other students who were not as
talkative could build on. She also is not bossy and will let other students talk. She is
gifted academically and does not require any academic, social, or linguistic support
in school.
o Student 4 (J): Jackson is a student that seems to be in the middle, and does not
struggle but is by no means gifted. He might be a bit below average, but is a hard
worker and does not fool around in class. I know he will take this text-based
discussion very seriously. He is very quiet, but I can tell he is eager to please and will
often want to show me his work when he is proud of himself. Jackson has major
speech impediments, and it can sometimes be difficult to understand what he is
saying. He may need some linguistic support during this lesson, and maybe a bit of
social support to help him share his ideas.
 9. Construct your lesson plan using the template below:

Instructional Sequence / Procedures: What activities will take place Number of

during this lesson? (Note: Use bullet points to outline your ideas.) Minutes
Preparing for Discussion: How will you arrange the students? What ~2 min
discussion norms will you set? What procedures/ teacher moves will you
use to ensure equitable talk?
o I will be sitting with my students at the half moon table in the back of
the room. I don’t want them sitting on the floor because they seem to
be distracted more easily.
o I will start by stating the rules (no talking over each other, raise your
hand if you have a question or a comment, no talking when I’m
talking or when a classmate is talking) in a clear and loud voice once
all of the students’ voices are on “zero”.
o I will ensure equitable talk by making sure that the same students
aren’t answering all the questions.

Launch (Hook / Warm-up): How will you get students interested in the text ~3 min
and make the purpose for the lesson explicit? (Elicit students’ prior knowledge
and experience with the topic, establish meaning of predicted unknown vocabulary,
present and post learning goals)
o Build on sense-making activities/science lesson on animals from last
semester.
o I will tell the students since they enjoyed animals so much, that we
are going to learn more about animals today.
o Show a picture of a zoo. “What do you notice here? Who has ever
been to the zoo? What did you see/notice about the animals? Has
anyone seen a polar bear in a zoo before?”

Discussion Plan: What is your “road map” for the discussion? (How will you ~10 min
read the text to your students? How will you engage your students during the
discussion? How will you guide your students into comprehending the text and
organize the text ideas? How will you use information about your students
(interests, skill level) to guide your discussion?)

o I will make sure to read the text clear, audible, and at a slower pace
so that the students will be able to comprehend the text properly. I
am addressing the vocab words listed above when they appear in
the text so that we can have a discussion about what they mean as
they come up. The science lesson I taught was on animals as well
so students should have a decent understanding of some of the
 vocabulary words already. First graders tend to interrupt and share
out their own personal connections during read-alouds, so I will
make sure to monitor those and make sure they are thinking critically
not just blurting out random thoughts. Below are the guiding
questions I will ask with the appropriate page numbers while reading
both texts.

~Read Polar Bears first~

o Page 2: It says that polar bears eat meat. What do you think they
eat? Are they a predator? Yes they are a predator and they eat
seals. Not penguins (Antarctica).

o Page 3: Where is the Arctic? Can someone point to it on the globe (I

will pull out the classroom globe here)? The Arctic is the North Pole.
There are no polar bears at the South Pole, or Antarctica.

o Page 5: What is the different between endangered and extinct?

Endangered means that there are not very much of an animal left,
but we can still help them. Extinct means that that type of animal is
gone forever and no one will ever seen one again.

o Page 6: Where do you think humans are on the food chain? They
are at the top, human kill, hunt, and eat animals.

~Read Wild Animals in Zoos second~

o Page 3: Who can remind me what a habitat is? A habitat is an

animal’s home.

o Page 3: Does a polar bear have predators? Who remembers?

Why/why not? No it does not, because it is at the top of the food
chain.

o Page 7: Who can remind me what the difference is between

endangered and extinct? Endangered means that there are not very
much of an animal left, but we can still help them. Extinct means that
that type of animal is gone forever and no one will ever seen one
again.

o Page 10: Who can remind me what a species is again? A species is

a certain type of animal.
Exit Activity (Summary / Closure): Afterward, how will your students ~3 min
synthesize their learning from the discussion? (Ex. take a vote and have students
provide rationale for their choice, quick write, make a chart)

 I will fill out a pro-con chart as the students tell me reasons why zoos
are good and reasons that zoos are bad.
 I will write their ideas to make it faster instead of giving them their
own sheet.
 I will then have students cast a vote anonymously weather they think
animals, including polar bears, should be in zoos (yes, no or maybe).
 Each student will put their index card on the sheet with tape and we
will discuss they choices, and what the majority of the group
decided.

Formative Assessment: What evidence will you have of student learning? ~2 min
How will you know if students met the objective? (What will you collect from or
observe during the lesson that indicates students’ understanding? What will you
use during the exit to assess your students’ learning?)

o The responses from the students’ post-it note ballots will be stuck on
to a graph so that they can see their group’s results.
o We can then discuss the results, and how we can help animals, etc.
as a closing.
o Each student will share with the group what they chose and why
they chose it. I will be able to assess the students and have
evidence of their learning if they use examples and evidence from
the text to support their opinions.