Lesson Plan Synopsis

Synopsis

Zulayka Adamson

Lesson Plan #1: Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Pigs reading lesson provides students with the opportunity to broaden their understanding of key story events by utilizing the story map to summarize and to identify key events. By incorporating the YouTube clip of the story, students who require additional assistance will connect with the story visually and receive a reaffirmation of the lesson.

By starting the lesson off with a discussion, it taps into the concept of theorist Lev Vygotsky who expressed the importance of constructivism which highlights learning by experiences. When I develop a lesson plan, I think it is very important to incorporate a secondary support such as a video clip or diagram as many students are visual learners or need the additional touch point. In addition, for students with special learning needs, it provides them an opportunity to catch up with their fellow classmates.

As part of the lesson plan, I incorporated a diagram as a reference when developing a story map to provide students a stepping stone to retell their stories and to describe the key details within the story. To assess their progress and the lesson plan, they are assigned to recall their weekend and develop a story with correct sequencing based on the techniques they learned during the lesson plan. These steps will help to achieve the common core standards of story retelling and developing complete story that includes a setting and description of an event and the characters.

Synopsis

Zulayka Adamson

Lesson Plan 2: Math Problem Solving

          

Students will be able to identify the key words in a problem to complete an equation by using addition and subtraction to problem solve. To accompany the lesson, students will watch a BrainPop video and practice their new skill by completing a quiz through BrainPop. By utilizing BrainPop, students have a fun and engaging way of learning about mathematical operations and key terms to determine the correct function.

Pre-requisites to complete the assignment consist of the ability to utilize a laptop or tablet to search navigate the BrainPop website. During the class discussion, students will discuss how they use numbers in their everyday life and benefits of incorporating addition and subtraction to everyday situations. Upon completing the video, students will practice on a worksheet in pairs of twos and students will explain how they selected the respective operation functions. By splitting up into intimate groups, students can work with each other to strengthen their weaknesses. The collaborative assignment provides a great way for students who have special learning needs to receive a boost of encouragement from their peers and provide instructors the opportunity to single out students who require additional observation and assistance.

By including an independent quiz assessment via the BrainPop website, students will sharpen their skills and provide the instructor areas in which students are having difficulty with to revisit during a refresher lesson. In addition, students will receive a homework packet that provides additional problems to practice the concepts.

Synopsis

Zulayka Adamson

Lesson Plan #3: Life Cycle of a Plant

          Students will learn and explore the growth process of a plant by watching a Voki video and later planting a plant that will be monitored over the course of the next few months. Based on the common core standards, students will recall evidence from experiences and provide sources to the answers. Upon completing the lesson, students will be able to identify the various stages of the development of plants.

During the lesson, students will split into pairs which provides students with learning needs and require extra assistance the ability to reference the growth diagram which is discussed as a group. While discussing the characteristics of the growth cycle, students will connect the importance of in addition to the diagram, students will watch a brief video to reaffirm the growth process of the plant and the different stages of development. The lesson provides students a connection to the importance of mother nature and an introduction to the ecosystem and how it shapes our life.

As the students monitor the growth of the plant, they will write a summary of the growth process and connect it back to the diagram they learned and developed explaining the life cycle of a plant. Students will discuss how their scientific findings and share with the class the challenges of their growth process and exchange theories based on the different plants they planted.

Synopsis

Zulayka Adamson

Lesson Plan #4 Social Studies: Chinese New Year

            Students will learn about the Chinese New Year and how it compares to American culture and share their personal experiences and traditions. Before delving into the rich Chinese cultural traditions, students will discuss as a group their special family traditions. Upon completing the discussion, students will read about the Chinese culture and watch a brief clip on YouTube to reaffirm the ceremonial practices.

This lesson plan will highlight the common core standard of asking questions and learning to pinpoint the key details. Once students have completed the video, we will work on a collaborative assignment of using a venn diagram to compare the discussed topics of the American traditions and Chinese traditions. Students will practice working on learning about sequence of events by summarizing the venn diagram we developed. By working on the project collaboratively, students who require additional help can rely on their classmates to highlight important details they wouldn’t know to highlight. Students are encouraged to use the vocabulary words they’ve learned to develop their writing assignment.

            Upon completing the written portion of the assignment, students will create their very own fan which they learned about during the book and video clip. Students will share their fans and highlight one tradition of the Chinese New Year they learned about and enjoy.

           

Synopsis

Zulayka Adamson

Lesson Plan #5: Arts- St. Patrick’s Day

Students will learn about the St. Patrick’s Day celebration and use their knowledge of shapes to create a shamrock headband. Throughout their math class, they’ve learned about various shapes and they will translate their knowledge of the shapes to create an art piece and practice their writing using key vocabulary words to express what they are lucky about in their life.
            A video sing-along will be introduced to students and they will begin their discussion on what they know about St. Patrick’s Day and key vocabulary terms that are associated with the holiday. During the discussion, students will tackle the common core standard of learning about an informative text and being able connect their knowledge of the text to their personal life. Students are required to use their previous knowledge of shapes to create a shamrock headband independently. Upon completing the headband, students will write about something they are lucky about using the key vocabulary terms they learned while we discussed the holiday. 

This lesson plan infuses technological support with a sing-along video clip as well as the opportunity to review shapes and have students hone their writing skills by practicing with a brief writing piece. Students who require additional support, will be asked to write 3 sentences instead of the required 5 sentences. In addition, students will be provided additional time if needed for their writing assignment.