Rivier University

STUDENT TEACHER LESSON PLAN

Camryn Santiago

Day: Friday Date: 11/15/19

Subject:​ The First Thanksgiving

Common Core Standard(s):

● CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

Objective: ​At the end of this lesson my students will be able to retell the story of
Thanksgiving. They will be able to describe events, characters, and relationships within the
story. They will be able to answer the prompt, “What are you thankful for?”

Resource/Materials List:
● A computer
● Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu-jC-z8y5E9h6bYhQQsD9g?view_as=subscribe
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● Pencils
● Thankful writing activity
● Each student’s assembled turkey
● Glue
● Whiteboard
● Whiteboard markers

Procedure:
1. Before starting this lesson, make sure that each student has finished assembling their
turkey from construction paper. Their writing activity from today’s lesson will be
pasted on the back of their turkey from yesterday’s lesson.
2. Introduce the topic of Thanksgiving. Ask what students know about the holiday. Ask
students how they celebrate Thanksgiving. Explain that the Thanksgiving that we
celebrate was started a long time ago.
3. Launch the video.
4. After the video has ended, ask the students to retell you the story from the video. Ask
the students questions about the characters. For example, were they happy in the
winter? Did the Puritans and Wampanoags become friends right away? How were the
characters feeling in the end?
5. Discuss what it means to be thankful. Tell students to brainstorm some ideas of what
 they are thankful for. Ask students to share their examples of what they are thankful for
in the form of “I am thankful for ____.” Write the student’s answers on the board. Tell
your students what you are thankful for.
6. Hold up the Thankful writing activity sheet. Tell students that they are to finish the
sentence “I am thankful for…” with an idea from the board or an idea they came up
with themselves.
7. Write “I am thankful for ______” on the board next to the ideas they brainstormed.
8. Hand out the sheet to students.
9. Walk around to answer any questions.
10. Once they have finished their writing activity, give the students their turkey they
assembled from construction paper.
11. Instruct students to paste their writing activity on the back of their turkey. Make sure to
tell them that the back of their turkey is blank and is not the side with a face.
12. Once students are done assembling the pieces together, collect their work.

Plans for differentiation:

● I will print the dialogue from the video for children who have difficulty hearing or
following along.
● I will provide headphones for students who have difficulty with hearing or sensory
issues.
● I will adjust the volume to accommodate students who have sensitive hearing.
● I will adjust the timing and speed of the video for students who may need more time to
process ideas and concepts.
● Students may also work one on one with a para or in a small group if necessary.

Assessment:​ Students will have met my objective by answering the prompt “I am thankful
for…’ with an idea of their own or one from the board. Students will have met my objective by
retelling me correct information about events and characters from the story.

What’s next?​ Following this lesson, students will be asked to create a picture relating to the
thankful writing prompt they answered. I will hand out a paper with a blank space for
illustrating. This allows students to let their creativity flow while demonstrating that they know
what they wrote about in the prompt.

Reflection:
This mini lesson incorporates differentiation for the benefit of my students.
Differentiation is when the teacher is aware of what varied learning needs students require in
order to succeed. Differentiated learning occurs when students’ needs are actively responded
to. When instruction is tailored to meet the learning needs, goals, and preferences of individual
students, differentiated learning is occuring. (Fingal, 2018) Teachers can differentiate learning
through the learning process and the environment where learning occurs.
Throughout my lesson plan, differentiated learning is used many times. The learning
environment is differentiated because students have the ability to work in a small group or one
on one with a para if they are having trouble with the content or focusing at their seat. The
learning process is differentiated because students are able to view the video, but in many
different ways. Apart from the whole class watching the video together, we are able to supply
a few laptops to individual students if they have sensory issues or difficulty with understanding
the content at the same rate as the class. I am able to adjust the volume for students and
provide headphones if they have sensory issues with hearing. Headphones can also be used to
help a student retain focus on the video and not be distracted. The speed of the video can also
be adjusted for students who need more time to understand concepts or ideas shown. For
students who have difficulty hearing or need something to follow along with, I will print the
dialogue from the video. By having a variety of options available, students are able to reach
optimal learning through a multitude of ways that suits their learning style (What is
Differentiated Instruction,” 2018).
The end goal of my lesson plan stays the same despite the content being viewed in a
variety of ways. Students will be able to retell the story at the end of viewing the video
regardless of what was differentiated when viewing it. Students are able to view the video with
circumstances that cater to their learning needs. This creates an environment where they can
acquire the most knowledge about the content they are viewing. Students are able to
demonstrate their knowledge by retelling any part of the story or answering questions that are
asked by the teacher. By asking questions and having different students answer, the teacher is
able to see what students understand and what they do not. Students are also able to
demonstrate their writing skills by copying the sentence shown on the board and filling in their
answer to the prompt in the blank space. Differentiated learning is crucial to student success
because it benefits each of their individual learning needs, goals, and preferences.
After doing this lesson with my students, I would keep the activity split into two days. I
was contemplating having them complete their turkey and writing assignment on the same day,
but came to the decision that that would have been too chaotic. I will keep it so that each
student makes their turkey background the first day and then I launch the video and writing
assignment the next day. This would avoid the chaos of assembling a turkey and completing a
writing assignment on the same day. I think this activity went extremely well for my students.
They enjoyed the video and liked how the writing assignment went along with it. They also
liked how they could assemble their turkey’s face whatever way they wanted to and with
whatever colors they desired. This helped them express their creativity and individuality.
 References

English Language Arts Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/.

Fingal, D.​ ​(2018) ​Edtech for the K-12 Classroom.​ USA: International Society for Technology in
 Education.

“What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of Strategies.” (2018, August 21). Retrieved from

https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-in

struction/.