COOPERSTEIN, J.

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Lesson Day Friday, October 6, 2017
How will this lesson support the learning
goal?
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)
(1 point)

Taking the learning goal into consideration, what is

the objective(s) of this lesson that will support How does understanding character aid with comprehension of the text?
progress toward the learning goal.

Objectives should be learner focused (not what the

teacher will do or accomplish), observable (use
verbs that can be measured), and target a specific
outcome. Please refer to the SLO User Guide for the
ABCD method or I CAN statements that can be
used as a guide.

Objective(s) Students will be able to describe character traits of a character in a novel

(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes) by using evidence from the text.
(2 points)
PA Standards CC.1.3.4.C- Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or
(2 points) drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a characters
www.Pdesas.org/Standard/view or thoughts, words, or actions).
https://www.pdesas.org/Page?pageId=11

ISTE Standards (if applicable) Not applicable

Technology Materials/Resources Character traits chart paper- this will give students an anchor
(1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of chart to refer to when determining character traits.
Resources) Character traits handouts- students will practice determining
(2 points)
character traits of a character in a novel they are reading. They
What texts, digital resources, & materials will be will also practice finding supporting evidence for their traits.
used in this lesson? How do the materials align with The handout has spaces for four traits. I will model one trait, we
the learning objective(s)? If appropriate, what will do one as guided practice, then students will be able to do
educational technology will be used to support the
two independently.
learning outcomes of this lesson? How do the
resources support the learning objectives? Theres an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George-
Since this is our current shared reading book, students are all
Cite publications and any web resources. able to participate in the discussion since they know the book
well. I will use this to model finding evidence for my character
trait. Students will use the book to find evidence for their
character traits independently.
Guided reading books- Students will generalize the skill of
finding character traits and evidence with their guided reading
books.
Anticipatory Set Before you come up to the carpet, you will need a pencil, a post-
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content it note, and your Theres an Owl in the Shower book and your
and Pedagogy) whiteboard to lean on to write.
(2 points)
Have a person drawn out on chart paper with Character Traits
____ minutes
written at the top.
How will you set the purpose and help students learn We have briefly talked about this before. Who remembers what
why todays lesson is important to them as learners? character traits are?
How will you pique the interest or curiosity

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 COOPERSTEIN, J.

regarding the lesson topic? Character traits are adjectives that describe a person on the
How will you build on students prior knowledge?
How will you introduce and explain the
inside. Write on chart paper. Some examples of this are
strategy/concept or skill? honest or brave. What could be some other examples of
character traits?
Provide very detailed steps.
Students can write a character trait on a post it and put it up on
the chart paper or they can share and I can write the examples on
chart paper.
Determining character traits help give us a deeper
understanding of the character. They give reasons as to why
they may be acting in a certain way. For example, if we know
that a character is a respectful person and they act in a way that
is disrespectful, that tells us to question why they are acting that
way? What in the story is making them act differently?

Instructional Activities
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content Modeling:
and Pedagogy; 1e: Designing Coherent Hand out character traits worksheet.
Instruction)
Today we are going to talk about Leon Watsons character
(15 points)
_____ minutes traits. We talked about his character traits briefly in the
beginning of the book, but now we have seen that he is
Exploration (Model): How will students explore the changing. Maybe there are new character traits that we could
new concepts? How will you model or provide use to describe him knowing all of this new information about
explicit instruction? You MUST include a teacher him. Write Leon Watson next to character on worksheet.
think-aloud using student-friendly language here.
Write Theres an Owl in the Shower next to story.
Guided Practice: How will you provide support to Based on new things that I have learned about Leon Watson, I
students as they apply the new concept? How will think that one of his character traits could be caring. Does
you allow them to practice (with teacher support)? anyone agree?
Independent practice: How will students review and Since I am saying that he is caring, I have to find evidence in
solidify these concepts to be able to use this new the text to support that. What does it mean to find evidence in
knowledge? How will you monitor and provide the text? How do I do that? Take student responses.
feedback? In order to find text evidence, I am not just going to use what I
Provide very detailed steps and include teacher talk
remember from the story. I have to look back in the text to find
where appropriate. an exact phrase or sentence to support my idea.
In chapter 10, I remember that the crows try to attack Bardy
and Leon reacted by picking Bardy up and hiding him in his
shirt.
Now Im going to look back to chapter 10 and find where it says
that.
On page 75, Leon picked him up and tucked him inside his
shirt so that the crows did not snatch him. Write on character
traits worksheet
This shows me that Leon is caring for Bardy. There are many
other pieces of evidence that I could use from the book to
support this trait. The more evidence given, the more valid your
idea will be. Although Leon may not have acted this way in the
beginning of the book, he has changed so his character traits
can change.

Guided Practice:
Lets take a minute to think of another character trait for Leon.

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 COOPERSTEIN, J.

Turn and talk to the person next to you and share your idea of a
character trait. Dont look for evidence just yet.
Ask students to share just their traits.
Before we move into finding the evidence, take a second and ask
yourself, does this trait describe Leon on the inside? If not,
your trait might be a physical trait that describes him on the
outside.
Now, since you have determined your character trait, you have
to find evidence in the text to support that. Remember when we
find evidence, we look for exact lines from the book to support
our thoughts. Look back through chapters 8-11 of your text and
find a piece of evidence that supports your trait since these
chapters are where we really see Leon start to change.
Have some students share their traits and the evidence to support
their claim.
Independent Practice:
Now that we have come up with at least two character traits,
your skill work during Readers Workshop today will be to find
two more character traits and evidence about Leon Watson.
When you finish your traits, you may turn your paper into the
Reading bin and we can share our traits next week.

Closure Determining character traits about Leon Watson helps give us a

(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction) deeper understanding of his character. It gives us reason as to
(2 points) why he acts the way he does.
___ minutes
When we read independently, it is important to be thinking
How will students share or show what they have
about character traits of main characters and supporting
learned in this lesson? characters as well. Understanding their personalities gives us a
How will you restate the teaching point or ask deeper understanding of the text.
students to do so and clarify key concepts? In small groups today, we will be looking at the characters in
How will you provide opportunities to extend ideas
and check for understanding?
our stories and discussing character traits as well.
How will this lesson lead to the next lesson?

Differentiation
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction) Students who need more support will be allowed to ask
(2 points) questions regarding the character traits and evidence before they
What differentiated support will you provide for
write them.
students whose academic development is below or Students could use just evidence from chapters 8-10 so that they
above the current grade level? are not searching through the whole book to find evidence.
What specific differentiation of content, process,
products, and/or learning environment do you plan
to employ to meet the needs of all of your students?
How will your lesson be supportive for all students,
including English Language Learners, and build
upon the linguistic, cultural, and
experiential resources that they bring to their

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 COOPERSTEIN, J.

learning?
How will your lesson promote creative and critical
thinking and inventiveness?
Accommodations** Student with 504 for fine motor needs may sit at a desk to write
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction) instead of sitting on the floor.
(1 points)

What classroom accommodations do you plan to

employ to increase curriculum access for students
identified with special education needs or 504?

Describe how these accommodations align with the

current Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for
each student as applicable (avoid using actual
names of students).
Modifications**
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)
(1 point)

What curricular modifications and/or changes in

performance standards, if any, do you plan to
employ to facilitate the participation of students
identified with special education needs?

Assessment (Formal or Informal)

(1f: Assessing Student Learning) Informal Assessment will happen mostly as we discuss whole class. I
(3 points) will gauge if they are understanding the topic by the traits they are
giving and the evidence they are finding to support those traits. I will not
How will you and the students assess where the
learning objectives, listed above, were met?
be able to formatively assess during independent practice, as I will be
working with small groups.
Each formal or informal assessment should describe
how it is aligned to the above objective(s). Formal Assessment will happen after students have completed the
handout on character traits. I will collect them and check for
understanding of what character traits are and understanding of evidence
to support those traits.
Reflection on Instruction
(7 points) I feel as though this lesson explained character traits in more depth than
they have been described before to students. Explaining them as
At the conclusion of the lesson you should reflect on adjectives that describe the person on the inside made a clear
the lesson. The reflection should go beyond simply
answering the question Was this a good lesson? distinction between character and physical traits. After I introduced them
Below are some questions to assist you in your in this way, there was no confusion about what was a character trait vs.
reflective process (Danielson, 2008): what was a physical trait.
o What evidence did you collect to
demonstrate that your students have met or
are progressing towards the learning
After viewing some student work samples, I have found that some
outcomes/objectives? students met the objective fully and some only partially. All patterns that
o View student work samples. What do they I came across occurred in the evidence from text part of the
reveal about the students level of assignment. The first and most common pattern was that while students
engagement and comprehension? found evidence from the text to support their trait, they did not elaborate
o What changes, if any, would you make to
the lesson if you teach this lesson in the on how exactly the evidence supported it. They just simply stated the
future? What misconceptions, if any, do evidence. This was not something I demonstrated explicitly so I
you need to clarify before teaching the understand why many students demonstrated this pattern. If I were to re-
next lesson? teach this, I would make sure to explain that while evidence supports the
o Did you stray from your lesson plan? If so,
how and why?
trait, it is important to also explain how or show how with more details.
o Comment on your classroom procedures, For example, one student wrote that a trait was sweet. The students

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 COOPERSTEIN, J.

student conduct, and your use of physical evidence stated When Leon finds out that Bardy has hunger streaks, he
space. To what extent did these contribute tells Sally to find out more about hunger streaks (pg 79). While I see
to student learning?
o Comment on different aspects of your how this student believes this is evidence of Leon being sweet, I wanted
instructional delivery (e.g., activities, them to add more detail to demonstrate exactly how. Another pattern I
grouping of students, materials/resources noticed was that a few students found evidence that did not make sense
utilized). To what extent were they with their trait. This shows me that they did not really understand how to
effective?
find the evidence or what the evidence means. For these students, I
wrote a note on their paper that said does this show that Leon is
_____? For example, one student supported the trait calm with the
evidence Leon has been putting Bardy on his shoulder. While this is a
true statement from the book, it does not demonstrate Leon being calm.
The last pattern I noticed was that many students did not cite evidence
using specific page numbers like I modeled in the lesson. I could have
been more explicit about using page numbers and could have repeated
that part of the direction multiple times.

I did not really stray away from my lesson plan. While planning, I
anticipated some student responses and misconceptions that I made sure
to address in the plan so that when they came up in the lesson I was
prepared.

I believe that having students sit on the carpet contributed to their

understanding of the topic. Since they were all right in front of me, it
was easy to manage their behaviors and respond to misconceptions that I
may have been seeing. If students were at their seats for this, they may
have not been as engaged in the lesson and I would not have been able to
monitor their understanding as well. It also was more manageable
because I prepared them in the beginning with what they would need at
the carpet. This way, students were not going back and rummaging
through their desks for a pencil or post-it notes during my instruction.
Having students bring only the materials that they needed for the lesson
to the carpet ensured that there were no other distractions.

**Accommodations and Modifications

Students with disabilities may need accommodations or modifications to their educational program to participate in the
general curriculum. Both are essential to consider when planning an equitable educational experience for students with
disabilities. Accommodations refer to changes in how a student learns the material but they do not change knowledge
content. With accommodations, a student receives the SAME education as other children, but the student can access
content or express knowledge in different ways. Modifications refer to changes of what is taught or what students with
disabilities are expected to learn. This may include adaptations made to instruction and assessment that change or
reduce learning expectations. (Please refer to the SLO User Guide and SLO template for additional explanation.)

When completing these two sections, you need to describe, if appropriate, how you will ensure that students will access
the material based on the accommodations or modifications listed within the IEP or 504 plan. There should be a direct
connection within the Anticipatory Set, Instructional Activity, and Closure section of the lesson plan template.

SLO Lesson Plan Template 5