LEARNER ENGAGEMENT

Applicant Information

Name

Sarah Curtius

Email Address Date of Birth

sarahcurtius@gmail.com 06/15/2000

I am a:

High school student

Student in a 2-year college
Student in a 4-year college
Professional teacher (1-3 years of
experience)
Professional teacher (4+ years of experience)
Other (please specify):

My school/employer City/state of my school/employer

Garnet Valley High School Glen Mills, PA

My race/ethnicity (optional):

Hispanic of any race

American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African American
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific
Islander
White
Two or more races
 Prefer not to answer

I am (optional):

Male
Female
Prefer not to
answer

PART 1: Overview Questions

Instructional Context Overview
Please tell us a little bit about the educational environment you were working in to
complete this micro-credential.

Type of school/program and the grade/subject configuration

(single grade, YMCA afterschool program, etc.)

I observed a single grade classroom.

Grade Age Level Number of Students

Kindergarten 5-6 19

Course

Elementary Field Experience

How long have you been working with this class in an educator role prior to the
featured lesson(s) examined in the micro-credential submission?

I have been working with this class for about four months.

Briefly and specifically describe relevant:

State or district mandates that impact the featured lesson

 There are Common Core Standards, along with some of the students having an
Individualized Education Plan.

Type of community

I am observing a classroom in a public school in a suburban area.

Access to current technology

In the classroom I observed, there was access to computers and the classroom also
has a SmartBoard.

Your relationship with the cooperating teacher

I observe this teacher for my Elementary Field Experience class in school and have
a great relationship with the teacher.

Any other information you believe would be important for scorers to know to
understand your micro-credential submission

None

PART 2: Artifacts
Lesson Plan
Submit the lesson plan that you created for the lesson featured in the video. The lesson plan
must include, at a minimum, fully developed responses for the following items:
A clear goal and objective
Alignment to relevant learning standards
Essential questions
A clear progression of strategically selected activities in the lesson that will maximize
engagement of all learners
A plan to assess learners understanding of the content of the lesson
A plan to collect relevant data from the lesson so that the rising educator can make
informed decisions on next steps

Lesson Plan
 Lesson Plan- Making Predictions

Developed by: Sarah Curtius Subject: Language Arts

Date: Tuesday, May 2nd Grade Level: Kindergarten

Learning Standards:
1.1 K.E: Read emergent-reader text with purpose and understanding.
1.2 K.F: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words
in a text.
1.2 K.A: With prompting and support, identify the main idea and retell key details of
text.
1.3 K.K: Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
1.4 K.B: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to focus on one specific
topic.
1.4 K.F: Demonstrate a grade-appropriate command of the conventions of standard
English grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

Objectives:
The students will be able to make predictions of a book based on the artwork on the
cover of the book and prior knowledge.
The students will be able to sound out words to spell them phonetically with little help.
The students will be able to accurately draw a picture of the cover of the book.

Essential Questions:
How do characters convey emotion through facial expressions?
How do illustrators draw pictures to go along with the writing done by the author?

Procedures:
1. Introduce the book to the students
2. Draw the cover and write the title of the book on their paper
 3. Brainstorm possible predictions about what the story will be about
4. Write down prediction on their paper
5. Read book to the students
6. Ask them if their predictions were right

Formative Assessment:
By going back after reading the book and asking the students if their predictions were
right or not, I was assessing them to make sure they understood what a prediction is
and to learn that predictions are not always right, and that is okay.

Video of Teaching
Submit an unedited video, no shorter than 4 minutes and no longer than 6 minutes in length, of
you leading instruction at the start of the lesson or learning experience you described in the
lesson plan. The video must clearly show you leading instruction and the spoken words in the
learning environment must be clearly audible. An unlisted Youtube video is recommended.

Video

Here is the link to the video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BlORelsuh4&feature=youtu.be
Please turn on closed captions, as the classroom environment was somewhat loud
and some parts are hard to hear.
Attached is also pictures of the
completed works of the kids:
PART 3: Reflection
My Reflection Essay
After teaching the lesson, compose a reflective essay exploring your experience leading the
lesson or learning experience that addresses the following questions:
How and why did you select and create this lesson?
How successful do you feel the learning experience was for your students and why?
Please include an analysis of the lesson or learning experience implementation.
What would you do the same or differently moving forward? Please include your ideas
for next steps after this lesson.

Essay

My lesson included reading the book Im A Frog by Mo Willems and asking the

children to make predictions before reading. I decided to create this lesson because the

classroom I am observing was doing an author study unit on the author Mo Willems. The

particular week I taught, they were reading all of the books in the Piggie and Elephant series.

The children were learning how to see emotions in characters faces, so I thought that teaching

them how to make predictions based on the cover of a book would go nicely with what they
were already learning. For these reasons, I believed this lesson would work well along with

what they were already learning. I think this learning experience was successful for the

students because they were all engaged for the entirety of the lesson, they learned what the

lesson was about, and they all had a useful understanding of what was being taught by the end

of the lesson. If I were to teach this lesson again in the future, I would keep most of it the

same, but there are some things I would change. I would try to ask more questions and try to

get all of the students to get involved. Although they were all actively engaged, some of the

kids liked to get involved more than others. This is how it works out for most classrooms, but I

would try to make all of the kids comfortable enough to be able to answer and give their ideas

at any time, and not just when they are called on. Overall, I am extremely happy with the way

my lesson turned out and I hope the children gained useful knowledge from it that will help

them in upcoming grades.