Teacher Education Lesson Plan Template

Teacher: Jennifer King

Date: 02-10-15

Title of Lesson: Introducing Biographies

Cooperating Teacher: Cynthia George

Core Components
Subject, Content Area, or Topic
English, Reading & Writing, Biographies, Determining Important Ideas
History, Civil Rights, Rosa Parks
Student Population
23 4th grade students; gifted cluster

Learning Objectives
VDOE English SOL 4.6 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of nonfictional
texts. d) identify the main idea.
VDOE History and Social Studies 3.11 The student will explain the importance of the basic
principles that form the foundation of a republican form of government by (b) identifying the
contributions of. . . Rosa Parks. . . .
Virginia Essential Knowledge and Skills
VDOE Technology Standards
English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)
Materials/Resources
Open Sort (1 per student)
Martin Luther King Jr. video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ank52Zi_S0

Biography Graphic Organizer (1 per student and 1 for teacher)

Adler, D. A. (1993) A picture book of Rosa Parks. Robert Castilla (Illustrator). New York, NY:
Holiday House
Exit Ticket (1 per student)
Safety (if applicable)
Time
(min.)
10

Process Components
*Anticipatory Set
Open Sort: Students sort academic vocabulary for biographies with events from
Martin Luther King Jr.s life. (Walk around and check students sorts).
Watch biography on Martin Luther King Jr.: Introduce video as biography, ask
students to compare their sort with the information in the video.
Ask students how/if they altered their sort after watching the video.
*State the Objectives (grade-level terms)
Today we are going to learn about biographies. We are going to look at what a biography
is and how to identify the important elements within the biography.

McDonalds Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.

10

15

*Instructional Input or Procedure

Introduce characteristics:
Ask students What is a biography?
- Biographies are about real, famous people.
-Biographies are written by another person. Biographies are not about the author.
-Biographies present the real, famous persons life in chronological (starting at the
beginning of the persons life until the end of life) order.
*Birth/Childhood (what does childhood mean?) The state of being a child. This
part of the biography tells us about when the person was a child, what his or her
family was like, and a few important experiences.
*Adulthood (Use the definition of childhood to help you figure out what adulthood
means.) State of being adult. In a biography this from the time they start college or
establish a home of their own.
*Accomplishments. What do you think accomplishments means? This is what the
person did that made the person famous. An accomplishment is a deed or
achievement done admirably.
* Awards: Biographies also tell us what awards the person received for their
accomplishment.
*Biographies tell us about the persons death and how he or she is remembered.
Biography Organizer: show students the organizer under the document camera. Tell
students that this helps us track the important information in a biography. Review the
academic vocabulary words: childhood, adulthood, accomplishments, & awards.
Preview book:
Today we are going to read a biography about Rosa Parks. What do you know about
Rosa Parks? (Allow students 10 seconds to think.)
Now share with your shoulder partner what you know. (Allow students 2-3 minutes to
share, walk around the room and listen to conversations.)
Times up, raise your hand if you would like to share what you and your partner knew
about Rosa Parks. (Allow 2-3 students to share.)
*Modeling
Name of Person: Who are reading about? Rosa Parks. I am going to write Rosa
Parks in the box. Write Rosa Parks on your organizer as well.
Read first section: Ask students where we can note the information we just read
(Under Birth/Childhood). When and where was Rosa Parks born? Tuskegee,
Alabama Feb. 4, 1913.
Read next section: What happened during Rosa Parks childhood? Segregation under
Jim Crow laws and racial violence (KKK), Rosa worked on grandparents farm, Rosa
went to a segregated school.
Read next section: Now in adulthood section. What happened when she became an
adult? Married Raymond Parks, joined NAACP in 1940s, forced off bus due to
segregation.
Read next section: Point students towards accomplishment section. Why is this
person famous? She refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man and was
arrested. This sparked a year-long bus boycott to protest the segregation of buses.
Supreme Court ruled segregated public buses were against the law. She helped
spark the Civil Rights movement. Stress the importance of her actions in fighting
unjust laws.
*Check for Understanding
Shoulder Partners:
What did we learn about Rosa Parkss childhood?
What are some problems she and her family faced?

McDonalds Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.

10

*Guided Practice
Read next page: What happened next? Rosa Parks and her husband moved to
Michigan because of threats. She worked for a member of the House of
Representatives. Her husband, brother and mother all died in the 1970s. Ask
students: In what section of our organizer does this information belong? Adulthood.
These are things that happened to her.
Read the last section: What did these two pages tell us? We read that Rosa Parks
achieved a change in the laws so that discrimination against people because of race,
color, nationality and religion is illegal. We also see that Rosa Parks received the
Spingarn Medal, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Pease Prize, the Eleanor
Roosevelt Woman of Courage Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (p. 26),
and people are now treated equally.
*Independent Practice
Students will write a summary using their graphic organizers.

Assessment
Collect Exit Ticket and examine for relevant information that demonstrates an
understanding of the lesson.

*Closure
Exit Ticket (3-2-1)
3 most important events in Rosa Parkss life
2 questions you would like to ask her.
1 way in which you are like Rosa Parks.
(Rutherford, 2008, p. 114)

Differentiation Strategies (enrichment, accommodations, remediation, or by learning style).

I read aloud so students of all reading levels could experience the text.
Visual, oral, and interpersonal learning needs met.
Classroom Management Issues (optional)
Make sure students are listening before continuing with instruction.
Move students who are talking so they can pay attention and not disrupt their classmates or their
own learning.
Lesson Critique. To be completed following the lesson. Did your students meet the objective(s)? What part
of the lesson would you change? Why?
The students met the objectives. I would make this lesson more interactive in the future. The students got tired of
listening and not all were paying attention.

*Denotes Madeline Hunter lesson plan elements.

Intern Signature

Cooperating Teacher Signature

Date

Reference
Rutherford, P. (2008). Instruction for all students. (2nd ed.) Alexandria, VA: Just ASK Publications

McDonalds Draft (2010). Modified by Kreassig and Gould (2014) for use with student teachers.