Elementary Education Program

Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Lesson Plan

Name: Courtney Weathers and Mackenzie Gbbon

Grade: 1st
Topic/Concept: Empathy
Materials/Resources: 18 pieces of printer paper, crayons, and The Invisible Boy

Teaching Behavior Focus: Orchestrating discussion through asking high-level questions and
probing for deeper answers.

Learning Objectives (measurable): Students will be aware of how their actions affect other
people and what it means to be empathetic. They will show appreciation to a classmate through
writing a letter about what they appreciate about them. They will brainstorm ideas of how to
show that other people matter on a daily basis.

Standards:
Essential Standard: I.SE.2 Understanding the relationship between self and others in the broader
world.
Clarifying Objective: I.SE.2.1 Evaluate one’s own behaviors in a variety of situations, making
adjustments as needed to produce more positive results.

Assessment Plan (How will you know that your students met the objective?):
Students will explain during our closing discussion how they will extend what they learned in
this lesson into their future relationships with their peers. They will be able to explain how to use
what they have learned outside the classroom as well. In order to assess what they have learned
we will review the letters that they write to each other to examine the language and ideas that
they produced. If they used the sentence starters and drew a picture that supported the sentence
that they wrote then they will have met the objective.

New Vocabulary:
Content vocabulary
• Empathy - Knowing that other people's feelings matter.
• Appreciation- Recognition of the good qualities you see in another person.
• Fairness- Treatment of others without favoritism or discrimination.
Academic language
• Model - Showing and examples for someone to follow.
• Extend- How to bring something from a small scale to a large scale.
Key non-content vocabulary that is necessary to understand the task/activity
• Letter- A written communication to another person.
• Picture- A visual representation of something.

Note: A detailed lesson plan is specific enough for another teacher to read and teach
effectively. There should not be any question regarding what to do or how to do it.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Lesson Development (hook/engage/launch, step by step in real time, include questions you will
ask in real time, closure/revisiting learning objectives):

• The lesson will be introduced by having the kids come to the carpet and ask them if they
know what empathy is, “What does empathy look like? How do you practice empathy?”.
• After the students have time to discuss the teacher is going to read the book The Invisible
Boy to the class.
• While the teacher is reading the book they will pause to ask the students, “How did
Micah and JT choose players for their teams? Was it fair? Why or why not?”
• “When Madison and her friends talked about her birthday party in front of Brian, do you
think they were just being thoughtless or were they being mean to Brian on purpose?
Would it hurt him no matter what?”
• “What did Brian do to help Justin feel better after JT and the other kids made fun of the
food he was eating?”
• To conclude the book, “How many kids did it take in this story to help Brian begin to feel
less invisible?”
• After the teacher is done reading the book, they’ll ask the class, “If you notice someone
is feeling invisible, how can you make them feel more valued and appreciated?”
• After the kids have time to talk, then have them transition into the activity. The activity is
going to have them each be given a card with a random peer’s name on it and they will
write a card with a message on it to them. Have the cards already randomly assigned and
on the desk of the student who is writing to them.
• They will be given sentence starters such as, “I appreciate you when _____”,
I love being your friend because _____”, “I like when you _____”.
• After the cards are all written, collect the letters and redistribute them to the right people.
Give 1 or 2 minutes for the students to read.
• After reading, have the kids sit back down on the carpet, leaving their letters at their desk
or in their backpack, and ask them, “How did that make you feel? What can you do
moving forward to make people feel special and appreciated?”. These questions can help
to open up the classroom more and get them thinking about how their actions can make a
difference in others.