Lesson Planning

Waynesburg University

Pre-Instructional Planning:
The thought process that leads to the development of quality,
meaningful lesson plans

Guiding questions that will provide the framework for the lesson. (Respond to each question.)
Who will you be teaching? (Identify student grade level as well as academic functioning level and specific needs of individual students)
My unit is intended for grade 4/5, average expected academic level, mildly integrated but without specific known needs.

Who (if anybody) will assist with the presentation of this lesson, and what will their role be?
I expect to be teaching the lesson by myself, but depending on the class and school, I may have an aid or a computer teacher to assist me.

What is the long range goal(s) that is tied to this lesson?

Students will recognize that living things gain energy within their ecosystem by (producers) producing energy from the sun or (consumers)
consuming another living thing.

What is the specific learning objective(s) for this lesson?

Students will recognize that the sun, producers, primary consumers, and secondary consumers can be organized in a Food Chain or Web based
on order of consumption and transfer of energy.

What prerequisite skills/knowledge will students need to effectively access and participate in this lesson?
Ideally, I will have already had students introduced to the instructional tool I will be using for each activity, though if I need to make a mini-lesson
out of this, I can.

When within the stages of learning will this lesson be presented? (Is it a learning acquisition lesson, learning fluency lesson, learning
maintenance lesson, or learning generalization lesson?)
Im unfamiliar with these terms, but if I had to assume what each means, the lesson would begin with acquisition with elements of Generalization
of the vocabulary, with Fluency pertaining to the practice activity.

When will this lesson be completed? (Will it be a one-day lesson or a multiple day lesson?)
If I were to use the lab, I imagine that the unit would take a week and a half to two weeks.

Where should this lesson be presented to ensure maximum student access and participation? (computer lab, classroom, science lab) AND
what materials will be needed?
Half time in the classroom, half in the lab, assuming that I use most of the plans included in this unit. I hope to use a video to introduce the
lesson, so I may need a projector or DVD player. Otherwise, students will need a computer (two students to one computer), the PhotoStory
application, and internet access to Stock.xchng website (a free stock photo database).

Why are you planning to teach this lesson? Why must this information/skill be presented to the students?
To understand how nature and the world is balanced and organized, and to understand how everything in an ecosystem is fundamentally
connected (including us), I feel this lesson must be taught to establish a wider perspective on how we influence the world around us.

How does this lesson relate to the PA Academic Standards?

Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology:
4.6.4.A Understand that living things are dependent on nonliving things in the environment for survival.
4.6.7.A Explain the flows of energy and matter from organism to organism within an ecosystem.
How does this lesson relate to the previous lesson? How does this lesson relate to future lessons?
The previous lesson introduces the terminology and categories to be used in this lesson. Future lessons will build greater complexity upon the
chain, forming it into a web and explaining the energy transfer.

How will you determine if students have met the lesson objective? (Think assessment)
Students will consistently use appropriate terminology, create a food chain, create a food web, create an energy pyramid, and explain how
environmental changes can influence a food chain in a blog response.

How should this lesson be presented to ensure maximum student access and participation? (lecture, whole group activities, small group
activities, cooperative learning groups)
Mixed depending on the activity.