Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject: 4th grade

Central Focus: Gathering relevant information

Essential literacy strategy- Note taking from informational text to support
writing topic

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.8.
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information
Date submitted:
Date taught:
from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and
provide a list of sources.
Daily Lesson Objective: After the outline has been completed, students will gather relevant information from their
biographies to correctly fill in their biography project outline. To be successful, students must answer 3 specific questions
from an outline that the teacher will walk around and monitor on a checklist with 100 percent accuracy to receive mastery.
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and Vocabulary):
Essential vocabulary: outline, biographies
Language Function: Gather, recall, synthesize, and categorize
Prior Knowledge: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and
sort evidence into provided categories.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.8
With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources
to answer a question.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.8
With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources
to answer a question.

Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

Have students answer these 4 questions as a warm-up in their notebook. This
is a way the students can practice the grammar that they are working on in
writing, because Im teaching writing. This doesnt really get them engaged
on the topic, but this is reviewing their prior knowledge.
Putting in the words: There, their, theyre, its, or its
Diego was riding his back when __________ wheel fell off. (its)
Emily and Tina went to play ________board games when it started
raining. (their)
Kathrine moaned ________ so hot! Turn on the air conditioning.
__________ is so much packing left to do before we can go to the
mountains. (There)
Today, Youre going to learn how to gather relevant information and taking
notes in the biography outline for your biography project. After this, you will
have plenty of information for your biography project.
Today, I am going to read a book to you about Jackie Robinson. After I read
the book I will model to you how to find some of the questions on the outline,
we will the finish the rest of the questions we can about Jackie Robinson, and
then you will later fill out an outline about your own historical figure. Ask if
students have any questions or if they are confused. Answer any questions if
they have any. Ask them to turn to a partner and tell them what your directions
were.
So if this was me doing this outline, I would first read the directions. Then I
would read the questions, because this will let me know what to be looking for

Time

4 minutes

1 minute
15
minutes

4. Guided Practice

5. Independent Practice

6. Assessment Methods of
all objectives/skills:

7. Closure

and thinking about while Im reading. After reading over the directions as a
class, read the story of Jackie Robinson out loud.
After this, come back out the outline reread the first couple of questions out
loud. Do I remember any of these questions off the top of my head? I know
his name! Thats easy. Hmm. Im not really sure if I remember. I think I
remember, I better go reference my text to find it, because we have to have
relevant and correct information. Sometimes you wont find all the answers in
your books, thats okay. You can find another book or use the computers when
we work on our biographies. I remember at the beginning it said how old he
was. Go to page 4 for questions the first 2 bullets under the body paragraph
section. My next two questions are childhood experiences and family history,
I dont think it really talk about him as a child or his family. Let me flip
through real quick. Nope. Moving on schooling? Hmm, it said something
about college. Let me go look at what it said about college. It said he played
football, baseball, and ran track (page 7). Lets try some more together!
Go through the book, page by page answering the questions on the biography
outline out lout as a class. Allowing students to share what they think the
answer would be based on the text from the book. This will allow room for
12
discussion. Students should refer directly to the text or roughly reference the
minutes
text for their thinking. The students have been working with biographies, they
may add more information to the conversation.
Students will begin working on their biography outlines based on their
historical figure independently. Put up a 10 minute timer, and see where
students are in their writing. Students will probably need the whole time to
15
work, it is okay if they do not finish. Students who happen to finish early with
minutes
the outline should continue working on their biography projects or read
independently.
Walk around with a checklist, checking for his birthdate, major accomplishments, and what
did s/he do to get famous, if students have all 3 them they have earned full mastery. This
will be collected through observation.
What are some strategies that I modeled that can help you read text with a lot
of information? Have students share some examples: reading the directions,
reading the questions before I read my book, putting in sticky notes when I
3 minutes
think I remember something from my outline because these were things to
look for, referencing the text, etc.

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations:

Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:

Walk around and conference independently while students are
working independently with students who you think might be
struggling. I will also leave the filled in example up, so the
students can reference the information that was talked about in
class.
For students who might also be struggling can reference the
outline because it will be on the board, and the book will be
available for them to look at after students are sent to fill in
their outlines.

Materials/Technology:
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/SmartBoard slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at the end of the lesson plan.)

Biography outline, their personal historical fiction, paper and pencil.

References:
Classroom teacher

Reflection on lesson (if taught):

How did the lesson you actually taught to your students vary from this lesson plan you submitted for grading?
The lesson that I submitted for grading is very similar to the one that I taught in my class. My questioning varied as the
students began to be involved and add to the discussion. We worked through the outline based on the book that I read out
loud to them. They even began to make connections to other things theyve been studying and what they had already
learned about Jackie Robinson. In my lesson when I actually taught it I didnt do the closure. Now I understand how
teachers say that its so easy to skip over and move along to the next thing. By the time that I had gotten started, I was
behind and I had to give them time for something I didnt think about when trying to teach my lessons.
What evidence do you have that students mastered or did not master the lesson objective? Based on your
evaluation of their work, how many students mastered the lesson objective? (Be specific. Report this as __
students out of __ students mastered the objective).
I did not collect my students work, and I did not get to monitor and look at every question on everyones papers. But I had
a checklist that I was walking around to check for their information. Although, I didnt really get to see if all the students
have gotten my lesson, because the teacher instructed them to make sure they were done with their first outlines. This was
not something I knew would happen. Although, when I walked around, the students I did see working on the outline I
instructed them on seemed to understand it.
Name at least 1 aspect of the lesson that was successful. What caused it to be successful? How did you contribute
to this success?
I think that my questioning throughout the lesson was successful and I asked them how they figured out that information
and asked them to reference the text. They were able to also bring in their own prior knowledge and current information
they are now studying. I loved the conversation they were able to bring to the table, because they knew a lot about Jackie
Robinson and what he has been doing. The boys seemed more interested and new more information, but the girls added
plenty to the conversation.
Name at least 1 aspect of the lesson that was less successful. What caused it to be less successful? How did you
contribute to this?
I think that my lesson was less successful because my classroom teacher kept instructing the students to do things I wasnt
really sure were happening. My students also took a long time to write down the warm up questions, I didnt give them
enough time because the 5 minutes I planned for wasnt enough. I wish that I could have walked them through it a little
differently, Im not sure how it would have worked but messing with the document camera was very difficult. I think that
I should have written down the warm up questions on another sheet of paper sooner, and gave the students the sentences
already, and had the students fill in the questions on the paper instead.
What changes might make this lesson more successful? Why might these changes help improve the lesson?
I think that maybe I could have given my whole lesson on the carpet, I think this would have brought them closer and
more students could have contributed even more. We started at the carpet at the read aloud, so this could have cut down
on transition time, which might have given me a couple extra minutes for my social studies lesson which I taught right
after. I think that I should have pointed out in the text where I was getting the information from exactly in the text. These
changes will cut down on transition time and give more instructional time.