Teacher Candidate: Kristin Foster

Title of Lesson: When/how to use a Venn diagram.

Grade Level: 3/4
th
grade
Subject Area: Language Arts
Lesson Location: General Education classroom
Grouping: Large group

Lesson Topic:
Learning Targets:
3. Common Core Standard/ 21
st
Century skills
4. IEP Goal

5.Specific Strategy
6.Background knowledge

7. Behavior management

1. Anticipatory set
The students will walk in from PE. I will tell them the expectation is to meet
me on the carpet in their assigned grid with a pencil and their writers
notebook. Start talking with your turn and talk neighbor about what their
favorite TV show is, what is similar and different about each TV show. I will
begin by saying Today we are going to learn how compare and contrast two
different topics. We will organize our information in a graphic organizer. The
graphic organizer is called a Venn diagram. I will explain that we are talking
about similarities and differences. I can ask students which TV show is their
favorite and what is different about it that makes it special.
2. Teaching-direct instruction
I will then draw a Venn diagram on the board. I will demonstrate using a
Venn diagram by comparing and contrasting kittens and bears. I will explain
that one category goes in the yellow circle (kittens) and the second category
goes on the blue circle (bears). Then where the circles cross, the green area,
is information that both categories share. Get it? Yellow and blue make green.
But the colors are not the important part; they are just to help you remember
it. The circles crossing over is the important part. I am going to start in the
middle with information kittens and Grizzly Bears share. They both have fur
and they are both mammals. They both have 4 legs. Both of them live in
America. Do they both live in the mountains? No only bears live in the
mountains so I will put that information in the circle about bears. Can you
give me any information that you know about Grizzly Bears? You are right
Grizzly Bears live in the mountains. Bears eat berries and shrubbery. Now
can you give me information about kittens? Kittens eat cat food and mice. I
will put the information about kittens in the circle titled kittens. Kittens live
in humans houses. Look now I have three different paragraphs already out
lined. I could talk about the similarities in one paragraph then I could talk
about information specific to kittens in the next and then information specific
to bears in the next paragraph. Of course I would need an opening and
closing paragraph too.
Okay, are you guys ready to try a Venn diagram? We will compare and
contrast your favorite TV shows. What do I need to draw? I need to draw a
circle and another circle. Where does the second circle go? They have to over
lap. Okay. Where does our first TV show go? In the second circle? And now
what information goes in the middle? Then I will ask the students to help me
fill in the Venn diagram with information about the TV shows. I will ask
which circle the information the child gives me will goes in. If a child gives
me information about one TV show I will ask if the information also fits the
other TV show. If it pertains to both, I will ask them where we should put the
information. After we are done, I will point out that we could now write a
compare and contrast essay about the TV shows.
I will have an empty Venn diagram with lines for each of titles. This is
for students feel as if they need the already created Venn diagram. I will have
the already printed Venn diagram in color so that one circle is yellow and the
other is blue so that students understand that the middle section is mix of
both. It will also have bullet points in each section for information.
3. Checking for Understanding
I checked for understanding during the guided practice and I will also check
before they do their independent Venn diagram.
Knowledge- Where does the second circle go? What does the middle part
symbolize?
Comprehension-When should I use a Venn diagram? What is a Venn diagram
used for?
Application- What are some categorize we can put in a Venn diagram?
Analysis- Can you explain why we use a Venn diagram?
Evaluation- Do you think you will use a Venn diagram in the future?
4. Reteach
If the students do not understand I will tap into students kinesthetic learning.
I will have students stand up. One side of the room will be bacon the other
side will be pancakes then in the middle it will be both. We will compare and
contrast bacon and pancakes. Students will stand on one side and say
something about bacon (bacon is a meat) then run to the other and say
something about pancakes (pancakes is flour and eggs) then run to the
middle and say something about both (bacon and pancakes are both
breakfast foods). They could even just say different on each side and same in
the middle if it needs to simplified more.
5. Generalization
I will explain that now that we know how to use a Venn diagram we can
compare characters in books, types of narration, themes in books and types
of genres! It will also help us write compare and contrast essays in the future.
We will use it tomorrow to compare and contrast the themes in the book we
read in class.
6. Closure
We learned how to organize information into a graphic organizer. We
learned how to compare and contrast two different things. Some things we
can compare and contrast are weekdays verse weekends, or breakfast and
dinner. What are some other things we can compare and contrast? We could
compare and contrast your mom and dad, or me verses Mr. Patterson, or
hockey verses baseball. You have 5 minutes to fill in your graphic organizer.
You only need to fill in one thing for each column.
7. Independent Practice
They will independently practice while doing their own Venn diagram for
topics of their choice the last 5 minutes of the lesson. Then the next day we
will compare and contrast themes in the two books we just finished. We have
been talking about both of the themes so this will be a perfect time to apply
their knowledge on theme as well as the strategy of using a graphic
organizer.
8. Evaluation
I will evaluate their understanding when I check for understanding and take
mental note. I can move their name magnets on the white board around if I
need help remembering. Then I will also do an evaluation of the Venn
diagrams that the students complete at the end of the lesson.