Gwynedd Mercy University

School of Education
#MakeMercyReal

Lesson Plan

PA Core or Academic Standard(s): CC.1.1 Foundational Skills

Big Idea(s): Students understand the concept of a sentence and what goes into a
sentence.
Essential Questions: What are the parts of the book GIRAFFES CANT DANCE telling?

Objective/Performance Expectation: Student will begin to learn and understand how a

sentence is created.
I. PLANNING AND PREPARATION:

1. Briefly describe the students in your class, including those with special
needs. Explain how you will meet the needs of ALL learners
(Differentiated Instruction).
a. I am working with a 5 year old.
2. List the specific standard and expectations as outlined in the PA
Core/Academic Standards (SAS).
 CC.1.1.PREK.B: Identify basic features of print. •
Differentiate between numbers and letters and letters
and words. Recognize and name some upper and
lower case letters of the alphabet.
 CC.1.2.PREK.E: Identify the front cover, back cover
and title page of a book.

3. Explain the psychological principles/theories you used in constructing this

lesson.
I will be following Piaget’s theory, which is based on the idea that
children actively construct knowledge as they explore and
manipulate the world around them. My students will be able to
have a lot of free time and breaks because I believe children learn
just as much from their peers as they do from learning on a
chalkboard. I also think that students need a mental break after
learning for a certain period.

II. CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT: Skip this part.

4. Describe the effective classroom routines and procedures resulting in little

or no loss of instructional time.

1
 5. Identify what you will do to set clear standards of conduct and behavior
management of student behavior.

6. Identify what you will do to establish expectations for student

achievement.

III. INSTRUCTION:

List Materials GIRAFFES CANT DANCE on the smart board, white board with
pre made sentences, colored dry erase markers.

Motivation Activities/Strategies:
How will you generate interest or focus your lesson for the students?
My students love story time. My beginning activity allows my
students to get excited to hear the book GIRAFFES CANT DANCE. I will
explain what an author and illustrator do. I will show the title page and
explain what a title of a story means.

Prior Knowledge Activities/Strategies:

How will you activate prior knowledge, build background, or review
previous lessons?
Prior to the story I will have a few sentences pre-made that we will
discuss and break down. We will be discussing a letter, a word, a
sentence, the end of a sentence (punctuation mark). Throughout the
story I will have my students come to the book and point to the
answer of the asked question. For example, “point to a word in this
sentence” and the student will point to what they this is a word. I
will do this several times throughout the story.

Sequence of Lesson: What learning activities/strategies will you use to

engage the students in the learning? What will students do to use and
apply new concepts or skills (independent practice if relevant)? How will
you monitor and guide their performance? Include relevant vocabulary.
Vocabulary is in dark print.
 I will begin this lesson with and explanation of what a sentence is and
how sentences are completed.
 We will be discussing the concepts of a word, letter, upper vs lower
case, space n p0o’,pletter, punctuation at the end of a sentence.
 Once the students understand the concept of the lesson, I will have a
white board filled with 3-5 simple sentences that the students and I will
break down together.
 We will be breaking down the sentence by showing the students letters,
words, punctuation. We will be using simple punctuation for now and just
be using periods at the end of each sentence.

2
  The students will come up and mark each question asked. For example, I
will ask the student to put a circle around the punctuation. I will guide
them as they do this.
 After breaking down each sentence we will review the story.
 I will show the student the front and back of the book.
 Next, I will show the title.
 Following the title page, I will ask the students to remind me what an
author and illustrator do.
 Reminder that the story is on the smartboard.
 Before reading, I will ask the students where I begin reading. (we read
from left to right).
 As I read the story I will stop periodically throughout the story and ask
the students to point to a “word”, “space”, etc.
 After the story, the students and I will create sentences together and
review all that we learned that day.
 After today’s lesson, the students will hopefully grasp the concept of a
sentence.

7. Level of Learning/Assessment Evidence

How will you know if students grasped the material? What
techniques/strategies will you use to assess learning (Bloom’s
Taxonomy)?
Identify what informal and/or formal assessments you will use to monitor
student learning. Also identify if this will be formative or summative.
Assessment is informal and formative. I will ask my students
throughout the story if they can tell me what a “letter in the
sentence looks like”, “show me the punctuation in the sentence”,
“point to the beginning and ending word in the sentence”, “Can
you please show me a word in the sentence”, “Point to a space”,
“where should I begin reading”, etc.

What will you do to bring closure to the lesson? How will you summarize
this lesson and preview the lesson that will follow?
I will bring the lesson to a closure by asking the student what they
learned about sentence structure. Once the students are all able to
understand the structure of a sentence, I will ask students to give
me a sentence of their own. We will then break up the sentence as
review.

IV. PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: Skip this part.

3
 8. Identify the school district’s policies regarding staff attendance and
punctuality on the job.

9. Identify the school district’s plans for professional development.

10. Describe what you have done to effectively communicate, both orally and
in writing, with your cooperating teacher, administrative staff, supportive
staff, students and parents.

11. Identify what you have done to participate in and support school building
or district projects and/or events.

REFLECTION: Skip this part.

12. Describe what went well with the lesson, what didn’t go so well and what
you would do to improve your teaching effectiveness in the next lesson.