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Extended Lesson Planning Format for Teacher Education Candidates

Ithaca College School of Humanities and Sciences
Name
Lesson Title or Topic
Grade Level
Course Name or Content
Area

[Student Name Removed]

Geographic Features of Peru
5th
Social Studies

Central Focus of the Learning Segment/Unit

Describe the central focus for the content/skill you will teach in this learning segment/unit. The central
focus should address the important understandings and core concepts/skills you want student to
develop in this series of lessons.

This is part one of a two-part lesson in which students will learn about and map
some key geographic features of Peru, both human-made and natural, and then
apply this knowledge to articulating how humans interact with these geographic
features. In this lesson they will be learning what geographic features are. Students
will also learn some kinds of information maps can give us, how to ready them, and
purposes they can be used for. They will apply this to mapping key geographic
features in Peru as a class, and start discussing how humans and landforms interact
with each other. We will then examine instances of how change to those geographic
features can accordingly result in change and negative consequences to human life
there. This change can be both natural and human initiated. They will be practicing
prediction, generalizing and applying information from one activity to the next,
critical reading, and map interpretation.
Context
1. Explain the larger context in which this lesson fits. Explain how this lesson builds upon lessons
before it and how this lesson fits into the overall learning segment/unit.
2. State the long-range learning goals and/or standards to which this lesson contributes. The longrange goals/standards should deal with mastery of knowledge/skills that students will be able to
transfer to real-life situations.
3. Describe the students for whom this lesson has been developed. Consider the personal, cultural,
and community assets of your students and how this lesson builds upon those assets.

1) This lesson builds upon what students have already been learning about the
effects of geographic features, such as mountains and earthquakes, have on the
lives of people while reading I am Malala. The overall theme in the Social Studies
Unit is the violations of human rights in various places, and role of the United Nation
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They have also spent time
completing world maps of the continents.
2) The long-range goals of this lesson are to learn key features of maps, how to read
different kinds of maps, and what kinds of information they can give us. Students will
begin to be able to make hypothesis based on information on maps, such as how
geographic features may affect our lives, and what life would be like in certain areas
shown on maps compared to others.
3) This class has been immersed in a strong ethos of geographical and cultural
diversity from the beginning of the schoolyear. Students represent eight distinct
cultural identities which are often talked about and always embraced. Thus, the

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structure of the class lends itself naturally to discussing life in a different geographic
region. Furthermore, the diversity and varying interests and backgrounds of the
students will mean a natural interest in how our ways of living are effected by where
we physically are.
Prior Knowledge
What knowledge, skills, and concepts must
students already know to be successful with this
lesson?

How will you know if your students have prior

knowledge, etc.? How/when will you teach/re-teach
if necessary?

Students must understand the basics of

maps, and how to get information from
a map. They also must understand a
basic definition of a country versus a
continent, and why we might be
mapping specifically Peru, and not the
entire Amazon rainforest or South
America.

I will see during the second part of the

opening of the lesson, when students are
pointing to their world maps to find South
America and Peru if there is any
misunderstanding or confusion. If students
are having trouble finding or
differentiating between the two, I will
make a note to check in with them first
during the group work, spending extra
time guiding them. I will also make sure
they are with group members who can
help guide them, making any last-minute
grouping changes I feel they may need.

State/National/Common Core Standards

List the number and full text of each standard that is addressed in this lesson.
Remember to include content and literacy standards, as appropriate to the lesson.

5.4a Physical maps reflect the varied climate zones, landforms, bodies of water, and
natural resources of the Western Hemisphere.
LITERACY.RI.5.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific
words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area
LITERACY.RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources,
demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a
problem efficiently

Objectives and Assessments

--Here list the short-range learning objectives specific to this particular lesson. These objectives should
be items that are immediately observable and easily assessed.
--In addition, you will identify how you will know if the learning objectives for this lesson have been
met. List the types of assessments you will use to determine whether the objectives have been met.
List the types of formative assessments you will use to monitor student learning of your specific
learning objectives for this lesson. What assessments will determine proficiency, excellence, or failure
to meet the learning objectives of this lesson?
--As you consider your assessments, you should think about the kind(s) of feedback your students will

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receive from you related to your assessments and how you will expect them to use this feedback.
- Formal assessments could include an exit ticket, a homework assignment, an in class writing
assignment, a project, or a quiz or a test you will give later, etc. Informal assessments could include
structured observation, thumbs up/thumbs down, think-pair-share, whiteboards, etc.

Learning Objectives

Formative Assessments

The students will be able to

(Learning outcomes to be
achieved by the end of this
lesson)

What formal and informal

assessments will you use during
this lesson to monitor whether
your students are developing
the understanding/skills
required to meet the learning
objective you have identified? If
you are using observation as a
form of assessment, write the
questions you will use as a
guide for your observations of
students during the lesson.

Every objective should have

an assessment.
Note: Use as many rows as you
have learning objectives. You
must have at least one
objective, but there is no
maximum number.

Summative
Assessments
What evidence, by the end of
the learning segment/unit, will
show that students understand
and have met your learning
objectives?

Students are able to

describe characteristics of
at least three geographic
features (desert,
mountain, forests, cities,
coast)

Students will chose one

geographic feature
individually and write on
an exit ticket if it is
human-made or natural,
and write some words to
describe it.
Students will be able to
Students will work in
Students will successfully
show on a map and
groups to find their
have completed, by the
correctly name least three assigned geographic
end of the lesson, their
geographic features in
features on various maps,
own maps of Peru, with
Peru
replicated it on their
both their groups feature
groups blank maps, and
and the features other
show and describe this
groups completed and
feature to the rest of the
shared with the class.
class.
If, as a result of the assessments above, students have not met your
learning objectives for this lesson, what strategy/ies will you use to
teach/re-teach?
If students are not able to describe any geographic features, I will build extra time
into the opening of the next days lesson, in which students are to look at pictures of
people living alongside geographic features. For each picture, students will be
prompted to free write lists of words which come to mind when they look at each
picture, which we will then discuss.
If students are not able to show geographic feature of Peru on their maps, I will give
them the Peru map packets to look over in the evening, using them to complete
their own personal Peru map.

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Academic Language Demands

Language function
Choose a higher order language
verb (e.g. analyze, evaluate,
explain, interpret, describe,
predict, argue, or prove) that
students must know how to do in
order to succeed in this lesson.
See your edTPA handbook for
content specific language
function suggestions.

Compare three maps with different information and

synthesize it to create one map with specific
information about geographic features that the class
will need for the lesson the next day.
Explain their findings as a group to the rest of their
class.

Vocabulary

Hypothesize
Map keys
Geographic Feature
Mountain
Mountain Range
Desert
Coast
Lake
River
Students will need to be able to read information on
a map and interpret its meaning. Students will also
need to fairly accurately draw the five geographic
features (bodies of water, desert, forest, mountains,
borders) onto a blank Peru map, properly scaled.

What skill vocabulary (e.g., Venn

diagram, graphic organizer, thesis
statement, symbols) and content
vocabulary (e.g., imperialism,
mitosis, isosceles) do students
need to know in order to succeed
in this lesson?

Discourse
Discourse is a distinctive
communication structure and/or
style specific to your discipline
(e.g. lab reports, literary analysis
essays, document-based
arguments, proofs, critiques, etc.)
In what discipline specific ways
do students need to
communicate in order to succeed
in this lesson?

Students will also need to be able to have a wholeclass discussion about geographic features, and be
able to complete their exit tickets using complete
sentences.

Language supports
How will you help students understand the verbal and written language requirements to succeed in this
lesson? (These should also be included in your step-by-step procedures below.) How will you help them
use Academic Language during this lesson? (Include how you will use students prior knowledge and
your teaching in this lesson to facilitate and deepen student learning.)

In the beginning of the lesson I will use modeling and whole-class discussion to show
students how to read each different map and recognize the differences between
them. I will also show them the map key. As a class, we will verbalize descriptions of
each of the geographic features listed above, but they will also be grouped
heterogeneously in a way that will facilitate working together to come up with
descriptions of their groups particular feature. Students will be familiar with most of
these features already from previous discussion in science learning about climate
and ecological zones. When each group comes up to show the class their feature, I
will encourage them to use correct terminology.
Lesson Procedures: Instructional Strategies/ Learning Tasks
Describe, in detail, the steps you will follow in this lesson, attending to both what you will be doing and

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what the students will be doing.

Time
Step-by-Step Procedures
Opening (Launch)
How will you begin your lesson in a way that motivates and engages students in learning this lessons
content? (Motivation for lessons should be interesting, age-level appropriate, brief, and directly related
to the learning objectives of the lesson.)

10
min

1. Student will come to the carpet with their social studies binders. We will
start by discussing as a class the learning objective which is written on chart
paper:
I can name, locate, and describe major geographic features of Peru
I will underline geographic feature, and ask the class if anyone can tell me
what this means. I will illicit and write down a definition that is something
close to A human-made or natural characteristic on the earths surface.
Next, I will make a T-chart with the headings human-made and natural. I
will ask the class to give me some examples of each. I should have by the
end bodies of water/lakes and rivers, oceans, deserts, mountains, mountain
ranges, cities, fields, forests

Procedures
List the next steps of your lesson. Provide a detailed description of what teacher and students will be
doing. Your planned formative assessments and language supports from above should show up in this
section as part of your lesson procedures. Add rows below as needed.
Write lesson plan procedures so that another teacher could pick up your plans and actually accomplish
your objectives for the lesson. The following procedural terms are too vague: introduce, discuss,
review. How will you introduce something new? How will you organize discussion? How will you
conduct a review? Include specific questions you will use.

8 min

2. I will hand out one map packet for each group, and ask students if they
can identify what country this is (Peru). Then, I will ask students what
continent Peru is on (South America). I will tell students to open their social
studies binders and point to South America on their world maps. I will make
note of any students who have trouble finding it. I will then ask them to
point specifically to Peru.
I then explain the activity. The map packets have three maps of Peru, each
with different types of information. Each group looks at their map packets
along with me. One map is a landform map, which will show all of the
natural geographic features. Another is a political map, which shows
country boarders, major cities, and major bodies of water. The third map is
an ecological zone map, which shows climate, landform and soils, and/or
land cover.
After we discuss these differences, I will assign each group one specific
geographic feature forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, big cities, and
hand out blank maps to everyone. I tell the groups they are in charge of

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15
min

15
min

finding this particular feature in their map packets, and then drawing it onto
their blank maps.
3. Groups will go back to their tables. At their tables, they will look for their
specific feature and draw it and label it on their blank maps. When they are
finished, they will discuss in groups how they might describe these
geographic features, and how they might describe what it would be like to
live there. I briefly model discussing life in the desert eliciting it would be
hot, you might have to travel to find water, you might not grow crops, you
might need ways of transportation.
As groups are working or discussing, I will walk around to each group,
listening or seeing their work.
4. Once everyone is finished, a person from each group will come to the
document camera and tell the rest of the class what their groups feature
was, what the name of it was, and show us where to draw it on our blank
maps. We will copy this onto our maps. In this way, all groups will eventually
have all geographic features on their blank maps. They will also briefly talk
about how they described it in their groups, and we as a class might add to
the descriptions, or how we think life might be like in that area.
By the end we will have:
Amazon Rainforest
Andes Mountains
Bordering countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia
Atacama Desert
Amazon River, Maranon River, Ucayali River
Lake Titicaca

Closure
How will you bring this lesson to closure? How will students reflect on what they learned today, and
how will you prepare them for whats ahead?

5 min

5. After completing their maps, students will choose any geographical

feature to write on an exit ticket and describe. It can be the feature their
group was responsible for, one another group was responsible for, or one
from their map packet that did not end up on the class maps, such as Lima,
Machu Picchu, the coast, etc.

Inclusiveness
Universal Design
What general features of your procedures and/or assessments support the learning of all students by
making this lesson accessible for every student in the class? Make sure to address each of the 3 major
principles of Universal Design (i.e. providing multiple means of (1) representation, (2) action and
expression, (3) engagement).

This lesson offers a combination of direct instruction, modeling, discussion, group

work, and individual work, meaning students will be able to participate in a variety of
structures. There will also be both reading and visual representation, with vocabulary
words written, and drawn on colored maps students are free to examine,

p. 7

manipulate, and draw on during the mapping activity.

This task will also be done simultaneously as a group and individually; students will
be looking for their particular geographical feature on the maps collaboratively, but
will be responsible for individually representing it on their own maps, in whatever
manner they choose. Students can at any point in this activity be looking to their
group members for guidance if they need, or break away and work individually if
they need.
They will also be both labeling and drawing their own map, meaning multiple means
of showing their finished product, and a degree of individual choice in this
performance task. Students will also be showing the rest of the class what their
group was responsible for, and guiding the class in replicating that particular feature
on their own maps. This means students will have the opportunity to teach others,
verbally expressing what they learned in order for the entire class to ultimately
create a complete map of Peru, with the same information but represented
individually.

Students with Specific Learning Needs (to be completed below)

What are some of the specific learning needs possessed by students in your class, and what will you do
to intentionally support students learning specific to this lesson?

IEP/ 504 Plans

I. Extra time to complete work
- Breaks
- Questions read aloud to him
Y Questions read aloud to her
- assistance writing responses

Specific Language Needs

Supports, Accommodations,
Modifications, Pertinent IEP Goals
- will be able to complete assignments at
the end of the day
- will be allowed to get out of his seat
during work time
- will be paired with a group in which
answers can be discussed and written
collectively
-Questions will be read aloud first by
teacher
-Ample modeling and pictures
Supports, Accommodations, Modifications

Examples: English Language Learners, regional

varieties of English

ELL: M., D., and C.,

For some questions translations will be

provided by myself or ELL support
teacher. Other reading will be done out
loud, as most of the language barriers for
all three are in reading. The two Spanish
speakers will be grouped together, and
will be given their map packets in
Spanish AND English. There will be
ample modeling and pictures.

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Other Learning Needs

Supports, Accommodations, Modifications

Examples: Struggling readers, students with gaps

in academic knowledge, students working above
grade level, etc.

J. gaps in formal schooling

T. high energy, focuses best when can
move his body

J. Grouped with students who are

engaging and eager to help J. with any
difficulties he may have/ will make sure
he is keeping up with them. The
particular landform they have (bordering
countries), is fairly straightforward, but is
also something that will help build his
basic understandings of continents
versus countries, and Perus location in
the larger context of the world, which he
will need in order to scaffold the rest of
the information.
T. - Will be grouped with a group seated
in the back of the classroom, where, if he
needs to get up, stand while working, or
take a short walk away from his desk and
back, he will be free to do so with no
worry of distracting the other groups. His
groups task will be slightly more
challenging, finding the border of the
rainforest, which will keep him engaged.

Instructional Resources/Materials
List here the resources you will use to engage your students and assess their learning in this lesson.
Include handouts, slides, supplies, images, grouping plans, manipulatives, equipment, rubrics, answer
keys, or anything else that requires advance preparation. Written materials should be attached to this
plan.

5 packets of various Maps of Peru, 22 blank maps of Peru, colored pencils, Students social
studies binders, Chart paper
Theoretical Principles/ Research-Based Practices
Describe clearly how the theory/research supports your selection of learning activities for this lesson.

The idea of giving students the raw materials and time to explore them, discuss
them, examine them, and begin to form their own conclusions about them can be
found in Petris (2010) advocacy of using primary documents to develop critical
literacies and a sense of discovery for children in the social studies. Although the
maps are not specifically primary sources, they nonetheless put investigation in the
hands of the students.
This idea of student-led investigation, especially collaborative investigation, is
echoed in Vygotskys (1933) sociocultural theory of education. The emphasis on
group work in this lesson, and on students constructing their own knowledge through

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investigation with each other. The idea of social learning is also present in the final
activity, in which students in each group present their findings to the class,
essentially teaching each other.
References
Include here any professional resources from which one or more parts of this lesson plan have been
borrowed/adapted. (If a mentor teacher shared plans, please credit him or her.)

Vygotsky L. (1933). Vygotsky and education: instructional implications and

applications of sociocultural psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Petri, G. (2010). Primary sources and elementary students. Teaching with Primary
Sources Quarterly.

The following questions should be answered after you teach your lesson. Some
instructors or supervisors may ask you to submit these responses separately from
your extended-format plan, so please ask your instructor/supervisor for more detail
about expectations for the completion and submission of lesson reflections.
Lesson Reflection
After the lesson has been taught, write your reflection.
How effectively did I promote a positive learning environment? How do I know?
During this lesson I made it clear the goal was to work together to create something the students
could teach their fellow classmates, in order to cooperatively create one, cohesive class map of Peru.
Students could be overheard working together to find their landforms. Each student completed the
task and everyone paid attention as their other classmates showed them where the different
landforms they researched were.
`
Most students were engaged throughout the lesson. I could tell by frequent circulations around the
room I made, taking note of the conversations I was hearing. For example, the group who was
assigned the rainforest were highly engaged in a friendly debate about whether or not they should
make the border of the Amazon the upper forest border, or the one simply labeled forest.
Students seemed to enjoy finding and creating something they would be teaching their classmates.
One group was not as engaged, and that was the group assigned to bordering countries. They found
the bordering countries quickly, and due to the nature of this particular feature, were not able to
engage in a conversation about how this might affect life in this area. If I were to do this lesson again I
would take bordering countries out of the assignments for the groups, and do it myself to model.
How did I elicit and build on student responses to deepen their learning?
I walked around and listened to conversations and questions throughout the activity. When students
asked a question about what they were doing that I felt they themselves could find the answer to, I
prompted them. For example, when the group mapping the Andes Mountains asked if the border of
the mountains went all the way to the Ocean, I told them to both look at the last map in their packet,
and to ask the group of students mapping the desert. Working together, the two groups were able to
find a clearly defined border where the mountains stop and the desert begins, before the coast. Later,
we had a whole-class debrief about the activity, in which I asked them to share what they learned.
This prompted a discussion among the students about why the rainforest, mountain range, and desert
all align in the way that they do, if the mountains location did anything to block rainfall, keeping it in
the forest and not allowing it to reach the desert. I allowed extra time in the debrief for this discussion
to continue, trying to maximize students responding to each other with minimal prompting from me,
and mostly question posing.

p. 10
What changes would I make to my instruction to improve student learning? Why?
After teaching this lesson I realize I want to build lessons which are more grounded in what students
are already learning or already know. When I taught this lesson, students were learning about Malala
and events in Pakistan. It would have been a richer experience if I had had students working on a map
of Pakistan instead of Peru.
I also think having the two goals of understanding what kinds of information different maps can give
us, and creating our own maps of a country the students have never learned about before, was too
much. In the future, I want to work on creating lessons that have a more narrowed, specific, focused
goal, which students can spend a lot of time on. Just learning about different kinds of maps could have
been its own unit. Just introducing students to Peru couldve been a single lesson.
What did I learn about my students learning from my assessments? If I didnt learn what I hoped to
learn from the assessment(s) I used, how would I modify the assessment(s) for next time?
I learned that all students were able to correctly label their maps of Peru. I also learned all students
understood the characteristics of geographic features, and the difference between man-made and
natural, from the exit tickets.
Because students worked almost exclusively in groups for both assignments, I did not learn if students
individually were able to find and name geographic features of Peru. In the future, I would have the
groups makes their maps of Peru, but then apply what is on their maps to some sort of information or
pictures individually as an informal assessment to insure individual students understood the
characteristics and locations of geographic features of Peru.

Rev. 06/26/15

Exit Ticket

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Name of Geographic Feature:

Is it human-made or natural?

What are some words you could use to describe it:

Exit Ticket
Name of Geographic Feature:

Is it human-made or natural?

What are some words you could use to describe it: