Gwynedd Mercy University

School of Business and Education

Name: Amanda Dunn Grade/Level 4

Topic: Rainbows

PA Core or Academic Standard(s): 3.3 Earth and Space Science

Big Idea(s): Certain weather conditions allow for features in the environment to change
or form
Essential Questions: What conditions need to be present for us to see a rainbow? Where
can rainbows form? Why do rainbows form?
Objective/Performance Expectation: What will students know and be able to do as a
result of this lesson?
Students will demonstrate their understating of the formation of rainbows through
creating their own multicolor art piece and wring a reflection about the process.

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). (2 points)

I have a class of 24 students, 10 of which are boys, and 14 who are girls. In the
entirety of my class members, we have five IEPs that have been implemented. One child
has a visual impairment and needs texts with enlarged print, and seating close to the front
of the room, facing the whiteboard. One child has difficulty hearing, so I wear a
headpiece with a microphone so he can hear me more clearly. Two children are on the
autism spectrum, and they have aides, and allotted break times if they feel over
stimulated. One child is in need of testing accommodations and her IEP states that her
tests need to be multiple choice, with two options blocked out to help her narrow the
options. All of my students seem to have a preference to hands on learning, as opposed to
lecture. At this age they need to be continuously engaged with material that they find
interesting because it pertains to what they know, like, can relate to, or are interested in.
They also have a ton of energy, so it is important to get them to move around while
learning through exploratory methods. In terms of addressing diversity, our class library
is full of books from every culture. Areas of our room are labeled with English words and
Spanish ones. We have a chart that shows the Spanish equivalent for common words in
English. We also integrate culture in our lesson and we celebrate holidays for various
ethnicities.

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 2. List the specific standard and expectations as outlined in the PA
Core/Academic Standards (SAS). (1 point)

3.3 Earth and Space Science

3.3.4.A. Grade 4
3.3.4.A5. Describe the basic weather elements

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

lesson and explain how it is manifested in the lesson. (2 points)

I want to utilize Vygotsky’s theories about Zone of Proximal Development. I will

encourage the students to access their bank of knowledge already stored about
their retention of the specific order and colors contained within a rainbow. I will
also inquire about when they might see this design (in the sky and on blacktop
when oil mixes with water). Then I want to facilitate a deeper understanding
while utilizing her background knowledge by providing them with scientific
reasoning for the phenomenon they have seen before. I also want to include the
concept of connectivism, which was proposed by George Siemens. I want them to
build upon what they already know and acquire new information from that
foundation. I also want them to be able to recall the conditions that need to be met
in order to form a rainbow, based on the conditions that were present anytime
they saw one (example: rain and sunlight). I will promote the ideas of Albert
Banduras’ Social Learning theory, as it pertains with a child’s interactions with
their surroundings, including people and the physical environment. They can pull
knowledge from everything they observe around them.

II. CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT:

4. Describe the effective classroom routines and procedures resulting in

little or no loss of instructional time. (1 point)

Every class commences with a daily “Do Now”. This ranges from two to
five questions on half a sheet of paper. They pertain to the background
information needed for the lessons that day. I quickly collect the papers as
the students finish and reward them over. I determine what the class
collectively knows pretty well, and what could be reviewed further in the
lesson. This will save time because I won’t waste time addressing
concepts they have already acquired. The schedule remains the same every
day, except for specials, depending upon the day of the week, and they are
also adjusted in the event of an early dismissal or a two-hour delay. Other
than that, it remains the same, and the students have adapted to the daily
routines. Transitions are silent between lessons. All materials are prepped
before the lesson, with my at-home planning, and with the help of the
students based on their assigned classroom jobs. All of the experiments

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 and activities are also always tried by me first to ensure that they work.
These are changed very week

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

The discipline in this class will rely mainly on positive reinforcement

through the promotion of internal and external rewards. Because of their
age level and maturity, they are expected to follow the behavioral
guidelines we all agree upon during the first week of school. If they fail to
do so, they will receive one constructive conversation with me to try and
redirect the behavior. If they fail to make the correction, I will deduct five
minutes from their recess time, however that would be more of a last
result. We will also all be represented on the building character chart.
Every time someone participates in an act of kindness, their name will be
added to the chart. They will be stacked one-by-one until they reach the
top of the building drawn on the chart. Once they do so, they can generate
a list of rewards, and vote on the one they like the best. The reward with
the most votes will be granted to them.

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

achievement. (1 point)
At the beginning of the lesson I will state the objective of the lesson verbally,
and I will also have it written on the board next to the science section of our
daily agenda. I will encourage them to take note of what they notice about
rainbows in their lives, and how often they see them. I will want them to then
reflect upon when they look the most vibrant and are the most visible,
compared to when they are fainter and less defined.

III. INSTRUCTION:

List Materials Needed

 A bowl
 Water
 Clear nail polish
 Three by five cut-outs of black paper
 Journal

7. Motivation Activities/Strategies: (1 point)

How will you generate interest or focus your lesson for the students?

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 We will look at various examples of rainbow art. Some will be more abstract,
painted, contain melted crayons, etc. and others will be actual photographs of real
rainbows. We will examine the colors included and compare and contrast the
renditions of the rainbows. We will generate a list of what characteristics every
rainbow has in common.

8. Prior Knowledge Activities/Strategies: (1 point)

How will you activate prior knowledge, build background, or review
previous lessons?

The class will complete a KWL chart. I will preface this by asking them some
guiding questions. I will ask them things such as: when do we see rainbows, what
do they look like, what colors do we see, what colors are excluded, does there
always need to be rain for a rainbow, what about sunlight? This will prompt them
to identify what they know and what they are unsure of and it may spark some
additional interest about something I didn’t ask relating to rainbows. They can
add that to their column of what they would like to learn.

9. 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.
(Please use bullets to sequence your lesson) (3 points)

 The lesson will begin with a gallery walk in which students look at photographs
and paintings of rainbows and generate a list of commonalities between them all. 
 I will ask a series of questions upon the students returning to their seats about
rainbows. I will ask questions such as: when do we see rainbows, does there
always have to be sunlight, does there always have to be rain, etc. They will use
this to begin their KWL chart. 
 We will watch a video about rainbows. 
 We will go through a slideshow about the science behind rainbows. 
 I will demonstrate the experiment before they conduct their own. You pour clear
nail polish into a bowl and then soak a sheet of black paper in it for 20 seconds.
Then I’ll take the sheet of paper out and place it on a paper towel to dry. 
 We will split into groups with five students in each group.
 Every group will receive a bowl of water, clear nail polish, and black slips of
paper.
 As it dries a rainbow begins to form on the black paper. The children will list their
observations in their journals, along with a brief explanation as to why they think
the changes are occurring on the paper. 

 At this point each child will have a complete rainbow art piece. We will mount
these on mounting board so we can then make a gallery of our own rainbow art,
similar to the gallery walk in the beginning.

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 After the kids have cleaned up, we will compare the lists of the characteristics of
the rainbows they made to the common qualities of the rainbows they looked at in
the beginning of the lesson.
 As a class, I will have three students tell me one thing they remembered about the
lesson, and this will also be an open forum to ask questions and clear up any
confusion.
 The students will then complete the last column on their KWL chart, and they will
turn this in to me along with their observations ad reflections within their journals.

10. Level of Learning/Assessment Evidence (1 point)

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.

Throughout the lesson I will glance at their journals and take mental notes
of their observations. I will also be attentive in listening to contributions in
the class discussions and within the small group setting as well. I will ask
questions as I circle around to each group, and I will be mindful of the
students’ responses. This will be the formative assessment. The
summative assessment will be within my feedback on the chart and the
observations that were submitted to me.

11. What will you do to bring closure to the lesson? How will you summarize
this lesson and preview the lesson that will follow? (2 points)

We will summarize the lesson with a group discussion and an individual

reflection of content acquired through filing out the “learned” column of
the chart. I will then inform the children that tomorrows lesson will be
about cloud formation and classification, which can be another effect of
rain, just like the rainbow was.