Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction — Calvin College Education Program

Teachers: Mikayla Battjes and Lauren Van Vugt Date: Spring 2019 Subject/ Topic/ Theme:

Science--Life Cycles: Lesson Two-- Explaining and defining the four stages of the life cycle Grade: Third Grade

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
Required
This lesson will explain what the students have explored in the first two lessons of this unit. The four stages of the life cycle will be
defined and applied to their exploration from the previous lessons.
cognitive- physical socio-
Learners will be able to: (content & skill objectives) Required R U Ap An E C* development emotional

● C-define the four parts of a life cycle. R

● C-identify the four stages of a life cycle in lesson one life cycle examples. U
● S-observe the four parts of a life cycle.
● S-classify different examples into which stage they fit with.
●
Common Core, GLCEs, or NEXT Gen standards addressed: Required
3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth,
growth, reproduction, and death.
(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular learners
write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.) Optional
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create

II. Before you start

Required
Identify prerequisite Students will have observation and idea of frog eggs. Students will have explored life cycles of various
knowledge and skills. animals to acknowledge the cycle that happens.

Pre-assessment (for learning): --asking students to look at their research and attempt to identify stages the
animal went through.

Formative (for learning): + the teachers will ask students questions about the life cycle of the frog and see how
Outline assessment well they are understanding the concept. Also, observation of student work in identifying/describing the stages
activities
(applicable to this lesson) Formative (as learning): + the students will be checking their own understanding in learning the stages when
identifying them in their posters. They will also check their learning during the kahoot review game.

Summative (of learning): + not applicable in this lesson

Provide Multiple Means of
Representation
Provide options for perception-
making information perceptible
Provide Multiple Means of Action
and Expression
Provide options for physical action-
increase options for interaction
Provide Multiple Means of
Engagement
Provide options for recruiting
interest- choice, relevance, value,
authenticity, minimize threats

What barriers might this

lesson present?
Optional Provide options for language, Provide options for expression and Provide options for sustaining effort
mathematical expressions, and communication- increase medium and persistence- optimize
What will it take – symbols- clarify & connect of expression challenge, collaboration, mastery-
neurodevelopmentally, language oriented feedback
experientially, emotionally,
etc., for your students to
do this lesson?
Provide options for comprehension- Provide options for executive Provide options for self-regulation-
activate, apply & highlight functions- coordinate short & long expectations, personal skills and
term goals, monitor progress, and strategies, self-assessment &
modify strategies reflection

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 Absolute requirement
Materials-what materials
-computers
(books, handouts, etc) do
-research posters
you need for this lesson
-markers
and are they ready to use?
-library life cycle books

Required
The students will begin by getting up and walking to their posters, looking for four stages… they will
How will your classroom then go back to seats and discuss. They will remain in their seats while the life cycle explanation takes
be set up for this lesson? place. They will then go back to their posters to apply numbers to stages. Then they will return to
desks for the reviewing Kahoot game.

III. The Plan

Describe teacher activities AND student activities
Time Components for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order thinking questions and/or
prompts.
Motivation 1. The students will review their guided 1. Write research on chart paper, drawing
(opening/ research worksheets and continue working visuals to go along with written research
introduction/ on their research posters to finish them
engagement) 2. The groups will present their researched 2. Present research posters to class
animal’s life cycle to the class
3. Hang the group’s poster on the wall 3. Hang the posters
Required around the room once the students are
finished presenting (EXPLORATION)

Development
(the largest 1. Explain that every living thing goes 1. Listen and ask questions if needed
component or through the life cycle in one way or
main body of another
the lesson) a. This can look differently for each
Required of living thing
course!!!!!!!
2. (EXPLAIN) Define the five terms for this 2. Listen to definitions
lesson:
a. life cycle: an ongoing process
that follows the stages of life a
living thing goes through
b. birth: the start of a life
c. growth: physical development to
becoming an adult
d. reproduction: offspring produced
by parents
e. death: the end of a life
i. Teacher will put these
four stages on the board
as they explain it.
3. Participate in group discussion
3. (EXPLAIN) Why is it called a “life
CYCLE”? What does cycle mean?
a. cycle = circle, ongoing, infinite
4. (EXPLAIN) Refer back to the life cycle 4. Listen to model
of the frog (show example poster to help
visualize)
a. First they are born as eggs
b. Then they grow into a tadpole
c. When they become an adult they
reproduce to make other frog
eggs
d. Then when they get older, they
die 5. The students will go to posters and put
numbers of the life cycle on their posters
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 5. (EXPAND-kind of→ students applied in the appropriate places
it to their previous exploration… not
to new situation yet) After the
explanation of the four stages of the life
cycle, students will go to their respective
posters they did with their groups in their
6. Students will explain where each stage # is
first lesson. Teacher will tell students to
on their posters and if they are missing
discuss and put numbers of the life cycle
will explain where that would go.
on their posters, explaining their thinking
aloud to their group members.
6. The teacher will then ask students to
explain why they put the numbers where
they did and what numbers they might be
missing
a. each group will have 3 or 4
students, so each can take a turn
talking about one of the 4 steps of
the life cycle.

(This is NOT the 3rd phase of the Learning Cycle)

1. To conclude this lesson, the teacher will explain 1. Students will receive computers and
to students that they will be participating in a prepare to play the kahoot review game.
Closure kahoot about what they’ve learned. The teacher
(conclusion, will pass out computers and put the code on the
culmination, screen.
wrap-up) 2. Students will ask questions and justify
2. Teacher will read the questions and explain their answers.
Required
answers, especially when there is a clear
misconception. She will ask students to raise hands
and why they answered what they did.
https://create.kahoot.it/share/life-cycle/54954e5d-
b15e-42b0-a5aa-65fb83d0e1a8

Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as well as ideas for improvement
for next time. (Write this after teaching the lesson, if you had a chance to teach it. If you did not teach this lesson, focus on the
process of preparing the lesson.)
(Yes, this is important and does need to be completed.) emailed to me within 24 hours of teaching the lesson Required
Lauren: My initial thoughts after the lesson were that the lesson went well! It was exciting to see the students working together and discussing their animals and writing
on their posters. The presentations seemed to go well and students asked good questions to their group members. One thing that I wish we had done was have students
talk about what they each would present of their posters. Some students seemed to dominate the presentations over other students, and while we tried to ask questions to
the more quiet students, it would have been helpful if they each had a part to say. Students gave great answers to the questions we asked during the explanation part of
the lesson. After Mikayla explained each part, we asked students if they could give examples of each, and it was encouraging that they independently saw those
connections right away between the four stages and in their research. They also asked (mostly) relevant questions to the groups presenting, which I thought was good.
Ideally, we would have had enough time to have students look back at their posters to try and identify common steps, but it also worked to ask them for examples.

Mikayla: Overall, I felt that the lesson was successful. The students were excited to get back to their posters to finish working on them. For the most part, all of the
students were engaged in making the posters which was encouraging to see. I also observed that the groups were drawing the life cycle in their posters without us asking
them to do that. I think the presentations went well, but I think they could have gone better if the students had known that they were going to present earlier. The
students asked great questions to their peers about the presentations. Towards the end, we started to run out of time because finishing the posters took longer than we
had intended. We hoped that the students could explore what the 4 stages of the life cycle might be, but we decided to explain it to them instead so we could have some
time to connect it to their animals. At the end we played a Kahoot review game and that went really well. The students were engaged and excited, and it also was a great
review for the students. This also acted as a good assessment for learning for us to acknowledge the students’ level of understanding thus far.

- You both are circulating and talking with different groups (good). You are also noting that not all of the groups function equally well. Which group, in your
estimation, is functioning the best? What do you think is making it work so well? You also have one group (that I can tell so far) that is struggling. There
are also a couple of individuals who are not functioning so well in their groups. I have watched you attempt to get at least one of them back on track – but he
digresses again when you leave his group.
- I think that chicken group was the group that functioned the best, and the back spider group and butterfly groups seemed to have more problems.
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 There were some students who didn’t stay on track as their group members worked, or multiple students who were talking to one another about
things other than their animal. I think that perhaps to solve this problem, it might be helpful to give those students assigned jobs in the group
(such as fun facts, info on birth, etc.) That way they have a specific job that THEY have to complete and cannot be done by the rest of the group
while they are not engaged. Perhaps the chicken group was functioning best because their capacity to pay attention and complete a task is higher
than the other groups? It also could have had something to do with the personalities within each group and how well they work together.

- You lesson is well thought out and I think you both are on track with how you are interacting with the stds. However, you still have these few stds . . . .
what should be done with him (them)?
- I think that it is important to monitor students who are not on track and be very selective about choosing their groups. Some students seemed to
be a little too chatty with other friends in their group. An option here could be to make their groups a bit smaller so that there are fewer
distractions. Another effective strategy is to put these students in close proximity to you. I know that while groups were presenting, it helped to
have Mikayla up front and me in the back near a group that was struggling to listen to the presenters. As I mentioned earlier, perhaps giving them
a specific duty within their group would be helpful, both when exploring and presenting.

- Butterfly group presenting with their poster on the board. You have different students present different parts of the chart. But the guys are acting goofy. Is
that part of their character, or do you think they are trying to compensate for not knowing the content? Good that you have the rest of the class ask them
questions – that makes them accountable even for things that are not on the chart.
- I think that these students were simply uncomfortable with having to share/teach information to their peers. It seemed that they have not done
peer-teaching many times before so it may just be simply uncomfortable for them to teach information to their classmates. I don’t think it was
because they didn’t know the content, because when we were circulating during the research portion of the class, they were able to answer
questions about the butterfly when they were prompted.

- Things that are in common for all of the animals that they stds researched. You said there are 4 stages – this would be a great opportunity for them to have to
think though this on their own, then have to report out. You (perhaps out of a time constraint?) put the stages on the board as you talk through the 4 stages.
- We discussed our timing prior to teaching, and came up with multiple ways that we could change the lesson if timing became an issue with
finishing the research and presenting the students’ ideas. One of them was shortening this explain time as we will be discussing it a few more
times in the coming lessons. Ideally we could have had students brainstorm stages based on their poster research and then the groups could
discuss as a whole class and come up with the things in common before explaining these.

- You ask the class why it is called a cycle – about ½ the class get the idea. Several stds get to answer. Well done – you are not telling them if the answers are
correct – that makes them all think about it more.
- We wanted to hopefully have students think about it in their own words rather than just take the first answer. If we had more time, perhaps we
could have ALL students jot down an answer and then share it with a partner before taking hands… this way they each have to think about it and
know what they think prior to hearing the answers of others.

Birth ↰
↓ ↑
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 Growth ↑
↓ ↑
Reproduction⤴
↓
Death

Context Options – The Class as a Whole (This whole page is optional)

Variables Class Overview based on observations and data
Individual differences…
Oakes/Lipton (174-178)
Levine (299-302, 321-327)

Cognitive and
Neurodevelopmental
differences
Bridging…(161-166)
Oakes/Lipton (170 - 172)

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Levine (246+ & Table of
Neurodevelopmental Constructs)

Learning style differences

Levine (27-50)

Students with disabilities

—IDEA
Bridging…(156-162)
Oakes/Lipton (295-6 &303ff)

Gifted Students
Bridging…(162-166)
Oakes/Lipton (295, 302-327)

Social Class differences

Bridging…(185-210)
Oakes/Lipton (9-25)
Levine (225-244)

Ethnic & Racial

differences
Bridging…(103-121)
Oakes/Lipton (55-65, 94-104)

Gender differences
Bridging…(212-224)
Oakes/Lipton (277-278)

Language differences
Bridging…(125-153)
Oakes/Lipton (197-202)

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