LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A Read Aloud of Farm Patterns by Nathan Olson

B CONTEXT OF LESSON
The students have been working on identifying and creating patterns throughout
the week of October 17th, they were introduced to patterns before this week. This
tells me that this book will enhance and enforce their knowledge of patterns. It
will also allow them to see real life examples of patterns and be able to
acknowledge patterns in their everyday lives, in natural settings. I will read this
book towards the end of their instructional book on patterns, which will allow the
students to notice the patterns throughout the book.
C LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand what are the broad
Know what are the facts, rules,
generalizations the students should specific data the students will
begin to develop? (These are
gain through this lesson? (These
typically difficult to assess in one
knows must be assessed in your
lesson.)
lesson.)
The students will understand what The students will know how to
a pattern is.
recognize a pattern.
The students will understand what
it means to extend a pattern.

The students will know how to

extend a pattern.

Do what are the specific thinking

behaviors students will be able to
do through this lesson? (These will
also be assessed in your lesson.)
The students will correctly identify
patterns throughout the book and
use a letter sequence to name the
pattern.
The students will correctly extend
patterns throughout the book,
demonstrating their ability to
extend it using what the pattern is
made out of and using a letter
sequence.

D ASSESSING LEARNING
Some phrases students will use to indicate that they have achieved the desired
objectives are:
this is a pattern because it is repeating
"________ comes next in the pattern
the pattern is_______
o Ex: red, blue, green, red, blue, green or a,b,c,a,b,c
Vocabulary to discuss: pattern, repeat
E RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL
STANDARDS if required)
Patterns, Functions, and Algebra 1.17 The student will recognize, describe,
extend, and create a wide variety of growing and repeating patterns.

F MATERIALS NEEDED
Farm Patterns by Nathan Olson
My teacher has checked this book out of the Smithland Elementary School
library. I am going to borrow it for my read aloud.
B PROCEDURE
Preparation of the learning environment (if required): Have all students sit
crisscross applesauce on the rug.
Engage -Introduction of the lesson: I will introduce the book we are going
to read Farm Patterns by Nathan Olson. I will then ask about the cover of
the book and if they think that it illustrates the city or the country (as this is
something we had a unit on in the classroom) to access their ability to
remember what we had learned previously.
Implementation of the lesson (specific procedures and directions for teacher
and students): Read through the book. Stop on page five and ask what the
word repeat means. Stop on page thirteen and discuss the pattern on the
caterpillar with the students. Have them say what the pattern is with me.
Next have them turn and talk to their shoulder partner to extend the pattern.
Come together as a whole class and extend the pattern. Stop on page twenty
four and talk about the color pattern of the hens.
Closure: Ask students to turn and talk to their partner about their favorite
pattern in the book. Have two or three students share.
Clean-up (if required): N/A
C DIFFERENTIATION
Reading this book aloud in class will allow students of all abilities to enhance
their learning of patterns. By having the students talk with a partner to extend a
pattern they can either get extra support on what it means to extend or be the extra
support for someone of what is means to extend a pattern and how to extend a
pattern.
D WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU
DO ABOUT IT?
Students could become off task, distracted, or disruptive while I am reading. If
these things happen I will use methods, like counting down from three, to get
them back on task.

Lesson Implementation Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the
questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use
specific examples to support your insights.
I How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the
changes and explain why you made them.
When I chose a date to do my read aloud with my cooperating teacher neither of us know
she would have to be out that day and I would instead conduct the read aloud with a
substitute teacher in the room. The first grade classroom that I am in for practicum has
quite a few students who are disruptive and do not respond well to teachers who are not
my cooperating teacher. We do math at the end of the day so by this time the students
were particularly off task. It was difficult to read them a story and keep the whole class
engaged and on task. There were certain pages I wanted to stop on and discuss the
patterns on the page that I did not get to because the students were being disruptive. I also
tried to adapt it to other things we were learning about in class. The day I did my read
aloud we were also talking about the seasons so on page eleven, which had icicles on it, I
stopped and asked questions about what season we would find icicles in and what the
characteristics of that season were.

II Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on
student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What
evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?
For my assessment there were key phrases I was listening for from the students during
our discussion throughout the book and also when the students would turn and discuss

with their shoulder partners. The concept of patterns and extending patterns was
something that we had been working on as a class for over a week so the reading of this
story was to reinforce and extend what they had already learned. I was able to tell if they
understood what they had been learning. I was listening for key phrases such as the
pattern is______ or I know that this is a pattern because it repeats. I heard ten out of
thirteen students using this phrasing on their own when discussing with their shoulder
partners or sharing with the whole class. The three students I did not hear using this
phrasing or directly discussing patterns when asked to talk with their partners I went and
talked to individually to prompt these phrases out of them. It was clear they understood
what they had learned about patterns when I went over and asked them questions such as
what is the pattern can you give it a letter sequence and how do you know that this
is a pattern. After reading the story a few students also shared patterns they noticed on
the way home or at home Monday after school. This reinforced the concept that they
know what a pattern is and how to identify one.

III Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice
in a better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.
If I were to teach this lesson again I would use this story when patterns were first being
introduced or earlier in the pattern unit. I think it would have been more appropriate to
establish the fact that you can find patterns in everyday life earlier on in the unit. I
would have also included a pattern activity for the students to complete individually so
I could better assess their knowledge of patterns.

IV Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you
were the classroom teacher?
The students seem to have a firm grasp on the concept of patterns. They know how to
define patterns, using their own words. They are able to identify patterns and label them
with a letter sequence. They are able to create their own patterns. They are also able to
extend patterns on their own. If I were the teacher next I would teach them growing
patterns. Since they already have a solid concept down of regular patterns, I think they
could grasp the idea of growing patterns. Another option would be to move into sorting
items. After having a strong foundation of patterns down, I think they would be able to
move on and learn this new topic.

V As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about young children as learners?
Something I learned about young children as learners is that they need lots of
reinforcement to fully grasp a concept. They had been working on developing and
understanding patterns for over a week already. Yet, after doing this read aloud I know
that I reinforced their knowledge of patterns. They also discovered that they could find
patterns in their own lives every day. This was lesson showed that it is important to keep
going over things with the students so that they better learn it.

VI As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about teaching?

As a result of planning and teaching this lesson something I had reinforced about
teaching is that you need to have a lot of patience. It is hard sitting up there in front of a
classroom of first graders and there not be a single student out of fourteen that is
listening to you. It also reinforced that you need to have things that you have practiced
with your classroom of students that work to get them back on task. One thing my
teacher does if count down from three, at the beginning of the year she was counting
down from five. This is something I tried when I was up there reading and the students
were not focused and it brought them back in.

VII As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about yourself?
After teaching this lesson I have learned that having patience is something that I still
need to work on. I felt frustrated sitting up there trying to read and having students be
off task. This is not something new for my class, students are off task when my
cooperating teacher leads whole group as well. My cooperating teacher is easily able to
bring them back on task though. This is something that I still need more practice with.