EDU234 - Use this worksheet to organize the information for your theme based activity plan.

Step 1: Enter Basic Information About the Lesson Organizing Theme: I Spy Name of Lesson: Short Stories with Concluding Statements Author: Ally Lewandowski Lesson Grade Level: 3-5 Time Required: 40 min. Step 2: Select the Subject Area(s) and Specify Learning Targets Subject Area(s): ELA - Reading Science X ELA - Writing Social Studies Math Other Other Other Core Standard(s): CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1d Provide a concluding statement or section. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1c Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons. Function of Lesson: Introduce New Skill or Content Remediation/Reteaching Review X Practice

Activity Goals/Objectives: The students will construct their own concluding statements with 100% accuracy, when given a prompt to write a paragraph. What do you want After completing the lesson, the students will correctly use a linking word in a your students to sentence with 90% accuracy. KNOW? What do you want your students to UNDERSTAND? What do you want your students to be able to DO? Step 3: Identify The Instructional Materials &Technology To Be Used With This Activity Plan 5 I Spy Pictures & Clues Paper Pencils White board Step 4: Instructional Strategies & Learning Activities - Specify the procedures that will be used to implement the activity plan. OPENING -Anticipatory Set Time: 3 minutes 1. Write the words: I Spy on the board. 2. Ask the students what comes to mind when they hear this term. 3. Explain to the students that this is the theme of their lesson today. 4. Tell the students they are going to play a fun I Spy game, while also practicing their writing skills. BODY Procedures What will you say and do? Time: 34 minutes 1. Split the students up into groups of 2 or 3.
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Tell the students that each group is going to receive an I Spy picture with lots of objects on it. The students are to look at their page and in their groups find the 10 objects listed on their paper. Tell the students to raise their hands when they are done finding their 10 objects. If a group is still working and others are done, ask the groups who are done to try to find any other interesting objects in the picture. 6. When all groups are finished, tell the students to pick 5 out of their 10 objects that they just found in their picture. 7. Explain to the students that in their groups they are now going to use those five objects to make up their own short story. The short story should be 5-7 sentences. 8. Write on the board the following: use 2 linking words (because, since, therefore, ect.), use 3 adjectives, and provide a concluding statement. 9. Tell the students that within their short story, they need to use at least 2 linking words, 3 adjectives, and have one concluding statement to wrap up their story at the end. 10. Tell the students to Think, Pair, Share with someone around them what an example of these three things are. 11. After they share with a partner, ask a couple students to give an example out loud of each of these three topics to be sure the class knows what each means. 12. Tell the students the story can be about whatever they want, they just need to make sure to use the 5 objects that they chose from their I Spy picture. 13. Give the students time to work on their short stories. Walk around the class to help. 14. Once students are finished writing their stories, have each group choose someone to read their story out loud to the class. 15. Ask a student in the group who did not read the story out loud to tell the class what linking words they chose, the adjectives they chose, and what five objects they used from their I Spy picture. 16. Once everyone is done disucssing each groups short story, tell the class that they are now going to make one big jumbled up class story, for fun. 17. One at a time, have a person from each group write a sentence from their story on the board. 18. Tell them not to write their sentences in the same order. (For example, choose a group to chose a sentence of theirs and have them write it on the board as the first sentence of your class story. Then have another group come write another sentence, then another group writes another sentence and so on until every group has written all of their sentences on the board.) 19. Read the jumbled-up class story out loud to the students. CLOSURE Time: 3 minutes 1. Explain to the students that even though the story sounds funny and is all jumbled up, there are still parts of the story that each student can recognize. 2. Tell the students that there are still sentences in the story that have adjectives, and sentences in the story that are using linking words. 3. Also, point out the concluding sentences to the students. Ask the students if they think those sentences sound better in the middle or beginning of the story, or if they sound better at the end. This is why they are called concluding sentences and sum up the thoughts of the story. They belong at the end. Step 5: Research & Theory - Explain how child development and/or learning theory influenced your activity design. When considering this activity, I decided to place students in groups of 2 or 3 because I studied the theorist, Vygotsky. Vygotsky believed that children learn through language and cooperative learning. I felt the students would make up their own short stories easier and have more fun if they worked with other students. The children are able to use their creativity and work off of other students ideas in order to write their story. I also considered Dewey and the constructivist theory of learning through experiences and social interactions. I believe the children will understand concluding statements and know how to use linking words more because they are making up their own, fun stories and writing the words themselves. They are forced to use their
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2. 3. 4. 5.

imagination and come up with sentences that make sense with these words. The jumbled-up class story at the end of the lesson is also a fun way to show students why condluding statements belong at the end of paragraphs/stories. It is a exciting way for them to remember this activity. I understand that children are growing and developing all throughout school. Although I do not know what exact grade level I am going to be teaching this to, I felt this activity is fun for students of all ages between 3 and 5. It allows students to use their imagination and even play a fun I Spy game before beginning their writing. This lesson will not only improve the students cognitive skills by practicing standards and concepts, but it will also help improve their social/emotional and language skills. The students have a lot of opportunities for developing all of these areas because they work together with other students and practice reading their stories out loud. Internal Consistency & Professional Quality: Are the objectives measureable and aligned to the standards? Are the procedures aligned with the objectives? Is there an apparent purpose for using the specific learning activities? Is the activity plan developmentally and logically sequenced? Are the steps clear, concise and explicit? Can someone else teach from this activity plan? Does the formatting of the activity plan conform to professional standards (computer printed, clearly outlined and formatted, succinct, yet complete)?

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