Stephanie DiNolfo Paige Simek

208 Differentiated Lesson Plan

Part one, lesson context:
A. Our second grade is made up of 20 students most whose first language
is English though there is a handful that speak Polish also. We have
found many of our students come from large families in middle
socioeconomic status homes. Our first day of school interviews
revealed to us that our students are very interested in animals and
nature. We target these areas to engage the students especially Bill
because he is fascinated with the outdoors. He is excited to learn but
can be discouraged when reading becomes difficult and we have found
he is most successful when given choice. The students also enjoy
learning about dinosaurs, and community jobs. Our class likes and
learns well in groups, they are a chatty bunch so verbal activities work
very well instead of requiring them to be quiet it is easier for them to
talk their ideas out compared to writing. Because of this the group is
generalized as auditory learners. Sophia especially fits in this category
because she is legally blind but has significant residual vision. Group
work is also focused on in our classroom for Amy because she has a
history of picking on others and working as a team can help her learn
to respect others and hopefully form friendships. We keep these
activities very structured to support her learning and improve social
skills. Seeing as they are 21st century learners they are skilled with
technology and love coming to work on the smart board. Our students

are also very creative and can put on a good acting show and like
expressing themselves through art projects too.

B. Because Sophia is low vision blind we have large print posters to

decorate the classroom. These posters reflect the students interest
such as animals and dinosaurs. We also have a number of large print
and braille print books for her use. We have set up our classroom to
have large aisles so that it is easy for her to navigate. We do not
change the positioning of the room often for Sophias comfort and also
for Amys need for structure. Because group work is significant in our
classroom the students desks are grouped in pods of four so that it is
easy to come together and work. We also have a literacy lounge for
read alouds with an alphabet carpet, where everyone has a letter spot
so that the structure continues when we move around the classroom.
Our literacy lounge also has a space for individual reading time filled
with rocking gamer chairs and medicine balls for students with high
energy, like Bill, to sit in/on as an outlet.

TCH 208 Instructional Plan

Name
Stephanie DiNolfo Paige Simek
Section 2
Date 11/12/2014
PURPOSE:
General Literacy Goal: to improve students ability to question, predict,
and make specific text examples.

Lesson Objective: Students will be able to share questions aloud with

the class and later use them with a partner in an interview fashion.

Language Demand : predict-to think about what is going to come next.

Interview- asking an expert questions about their life
or
accomplishments.
Characters- the people the story is about

Targeted Standard(s) : RL.2.1-ask and answer questions as who, what,

when, where, why and how to demonstrate understanding of key
details in a text. RL.2.10-read and comprehend literature including
stories and poetry, in the grades 2-3 complexity band proficiency with
scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range

Content Area(s): language arts, reading,

STUDENT FOCUS:
Age/Grade Level: Second grade, seven and eight year old students
Prior Knowledge: Ducks and geese are different animals, but both can
swim and fly. Foxes pray on ducks and geese. Have concept of
beginning middle and end of stories. Understand that characters can
have different viewpoints.
Rationale: This lesson will help students develop critical thinking
skills and make personal connections to literature. We have found
modeling works best for some of our students that have fallen below
grade level. We will work in partners to practice asking questions your
brain has out loud. Furthermore we chose this book because Bill along
with many of our other students have a strong interest in animals. This
story also talks about competition and making friendships which we

believe will benefit Amy to help her think about her social actions and
how to better relate to her peers.
Grouping Strategy: whole class so that expectations can be modeled
then later pick a partner so that they feel comfortable and able to role
play
Accommodations for Differentiation: To accommodate Sophia who is
legally blind a copy of large print will be given to each group, elmo
was used to portray on bigger screen. To provide Amy the structure
she needs we have previously instilled how read alouds take place,
assigned spots for them, and the expectations of them, we also will
give detailed instructions and time limits. Bill feels less motivated
when the text is not interesting to him therefore we have chosen an
animal book to reflect his love of nature. We will also work as a whole
class and partners so that he does feel singled out and less confident
in his work.

Materials/Resources
Dont Fidget A Feather by Erica Silverman
Whiteboard
Dry erase markers
Enlarged copy of text

Procedure
1. Lesson Introduction: Good morning boys and girls. We have been
working on making meaning out of the books we have been reading;
today we are going to learn another strategy to help us do that. Have
you ever read a story and had a question in your head in the middle of
it; maybe you wondered what is coming next that is called a prediction,
or you wanted to know how someone felt. Today we are going to focus
on asking questions. Would everyone come to their spots for the read
aloud.
2. Introduce chart on white board; with columns for questions before,
during, and after reading.
3. Ask class what kind of would fill each column
4. Introduce Dont Fidget a Feather.

5. Ask class what they think about cover, do they have any questions?
(Model questions: where are these birds a park, the woods etc. Are
they friends? What does fidget mean?)
6. Read while modeling first few pages
7. Explain to students that now it is their turn, if they have a question
quietly put thumb up, when called on share. While teacher fills out
chart
8. Discuss after reading questions (Model: Are they still going to be
friends? Why didnt Gander move?
9. Allow students to pick partners
10.
Give instructions to conduct interview, one partner will be duck
the other gander. An interview is when one person asks another
questions. Sometimes the person answering is an expert sometimes
they are our friends. You may have seen this done if you watch the
news with your parents. Model mock interview
11.
Allow time to complete interview. Teacher will kidwatch
12.
Gather students back as a class
13.
Lesson Closure: Good job questioning today boys and girls. Can
anyone share a question they asked their partner? (have about three
people share) Those are all great ideas, we will practice this again
tomorrow. Remember whenever you are reading to listen to that voice
in your head full of questions.
Assessment
Formative: Students will complete a chart of questions had before
reading, during reading, after reading as a class.

Summative: Partner interviews will showcase if students understand

how to ask questions from the text and that they were listening
attentively during read aloud.

Opportunities for Independent Practice : During independent reading time

post it notes will be made available to children to use to mark questions in
pages. These can later be shared with the teacher.

Supplemental Texts : Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer S Holland, The

Sneetches by Dr.Seuss, The Ugly Duckling by Jerry Pinkney, A Bird Can Fly by
Douglass Florian.

Sources : Dont Fidget a Feather by Erica Silverman illustrated by S.D

Schindler
Part Three, lesson reflection: Stephanie DiNolfo: I believe the execution
of this lesson went well over all. Some common positive feedback we
received included; loud teacher voices, a good job modeling, and they liked
our use of thumbs up for management. I do feel that we performed
confidently in those areas. One aspect that met my expectations specifically
was the organization of the lesson. Things transitioned easily and guided the
students from modeling, to thinking together aloud on the chart and read
aloud, to them using their skills independently on one another. The gradual
release of responsibility is very important for student engagement and
helping retain the material. Some things my peers suggested I improve on is
a more detailed introduction; I explained why and what we were working on,
questioning, but not how. They would have liked an overview of the lesson
before it was started. This could be easily solved by me adding on to the first
step of my procedure by saying something like we are going to practice
questioning today by reading a fun story and while we read writing down
some of the thoughts in our head, afterword we are going to work as
partners and ask each other some questions. If I were to do this again I
would also allow more time for students to think up questions; sometimes
that silence pushes them to speak their mind, and also time to reflect.
Differentiation of the lesson was needed to accommodate for children in our

classroom. We would offer more than one copy of Dont Fidget a Feather
some of these copies being in large print so that our legally blind student,
Sophia, could read comfortably but also not be singled out by using the only
large print copy. We would also assign her a spot on the reading carpet
closest to the whiteboard. We decided to have an organized carpet because
Amy needs highly structured activities and if everyone has a spot this
repetitiveness will be more comfortable for her. These things affected the
structure of our activities, there had to be direct instructions and transitions
and a multitude of texts. What really affected the instruction of our lesson
though was our student Bill and his need for most engaging lessons. Bill was
excited to start school but stopped enjoying it as much when he began to
compare himself to peers. He loves the outdoors and animals so we chose
Dont Fidget a Feather that follows the story of two birds that become friends
while escaping from a sly fox. We will work in partners so that he can
practice with another student, learn from them, and not feel overwhelmed
with a large group or singled out, and most important bring his own
knowledge of nature to the table to contribute. We began with Bills need to
create the lesson because we felt the other girls differentiation could follow
but Bills needs were more content based. We therefore picked the book
according to him, developed the activity for him and also Amy because she
has to practice working with others. Bill reminded me slightly of my younger
brother so I had a more personal perspective when planning for him. It was
then easier for me to find ways to accommodate him and really see where he

is coming from because my brother like Bill loves the outdoors and has an
IEP so I would be able to relate well to his parents and keep them involved as
much as possible. One bias I suppose I have against students with behavioral
issues is that they will just learn over time how to behave appropriately.
However, that may not be true. As a teacher I will have to change my
behavior management plan to best suit my students and it may take many
tries. Even then some students may not ever react the way I hope and I will
have to learn to adjust the class to work with them. I do not have a personal
perspective toward the other students besides Bill that need differentiation
because I simply have not had the opportunity thus yet in my career to work
with a legally blind student or been in a classroom consistently enough to get
experience with a student with behavioral problems. My plan would be to
most importantly develop a relationship with the students and develop from
there.