LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

Kayla Morrissey
Mrs. Lam, Clymore 4th grade
Presenting lesson 3-22-17 at 9:15am
3-15-17
*extended planning day
(Plan must be initialed and dated by the teacher when it is reviewedat least one day in advance.)

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON Dormancy Lesson

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
These students will be interested in this lesson because there are some more creative
ways to learn about dormancy. I think that having the coloring/drawing portion of the lesson
will allow them to show their personalities and personalize their learning. While I had a
difficult time trying to find an engaging video or hook to grab their attention, I loved learning
about drawing in our science class as a way of assessment and students showing their
creativity. The students are ready for this lesson at this time because the students have been
monitoring the plants in their classrooms and making observations about their growth.
This is an appropriate activity for these students at this time because it is incorporating
reading into their science class since they will be reading the class notes, as well as making
and reading their booklets. They will get practice with science vocabulary and literacy, as
well as learning about the topic of dormancy. As mentioned above, these students will be able
to demonstrate their creative side by drawing and coloring pictures, which is also an
appropriate activity for this age group.
This lesson fits in with the curriculum sequence because it is the next topic that they
are learning about in their plant and life cycle unit. The science teacher, Mrs. Stillwell is using
a science kit program and the lesson on dormancy is the next topic. Dormancy is important for
the students to know because it is apart of the life cycle of plants and seeds, and it is an
adaptation certain plants and seeds use in order to survive.
This lesson fits with what I know about child development because the students will
be doing hands on activities to learn about dormancy. From what we have learned in our
classes, I know that hands on activities help students stay engaged in the lesson. Students are
also going to be drawing and coloring their ideas on paper, which give them the opportunity
to choose how they want to represent their thinking and ideas.
 C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand what are the broad Know what are the facts, rules, Do what are the specific
generalizations the students should specific data the students will gain thinking behaviors students will be
begin to develop? (These are through this lesson? (These able to do through this lesson?
typically difficult to assess in one knows must be assessed in your (These will also be assessed in
lesson.) lesson.) your lesson.)
Students will understand that Students will know that seed Students will determine the types
dormancy is a period when growth dormancy can be regulated by of conditions that can cause
and development are temporarily environmental conditions, such as dormancy in different climates.
stopped. temperature, oxygen, light, and Students will determine the ways
Students will understand that moisture. in which a seed can germinate
adaptations can increase the Students will know that plant after dormancy.
chance of germination in a seed. dormancy can help a plant survive Students will describe the purpose
unfavorable conditions. of dormancy.
Students will know that dormancy
is a temporary state.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
What will your students do and say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your
objectives? Remember every objective must be assessed for every student!
For assessing learning, I will be collecting student work. The work students will be creating a
drawing that demonstrates what a plant/seed looks like when it is in a dormant state, and what
a seed/plant looks like in a non-dormant state. They will also be writing a sentence about how
or why their seed/plant became dormant such as using terms like weather, climate, oxygen
and light. I will put two questions on the board for them to answer in a full sentence on the
back of their paper. The first question is: is dormancy a temporary state? I will be looking for
Yes, dormancy is a temporary state. The second question will be: What is the purpose of
dormancy? For this question, I will be looking for answers such as it helps a plant survive
unfavorable conditions or it saves energy since growth is stopped.
I will collect the drawings, and record the results in an observation chart at the end of the
lesson.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL STANDARDS if

required)
Life Sciences 4.4 D). Adaptations allow plants to satisfy life needs and respond to the
environment.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
Dormancy notes (students will have a copy)
Highlighters (students will have and I will have my own)
Dormancy notes to make booklets (supplied by me)
Overhead projector (supplied by CT)
Crayons (supplied by the classroom/students)
Construction Paper (supplied by me)
G. PROCEDURE
Preparation of the learning environment (if required): We will switch classrooms at
9:15, with my class brining their crayons or coloring utensils and highlighters with
their science binders across the hall to Ms. Stillwells classroom. Students will sit at
their assigned desks in the classroom, and I will get ready to pass the notes out.
Engage -Introduction of the lesson: For this lesson, we will be talking about Dormancy
in plants. To start the lesson, I will get a grasp of the students prior knowledge by asking
them how some animals survive the cold winter months, or if they make any adaptions
to the environment. I will be looking for bears hibernate, birds fly south for the winter to
a warmer climate, plants have green leaves to capture sunlight for photosynthesis. I will
focus on bears hibernating, since that is similar to dormancy because bears become
inactive during hibernation. They are still alive, but they are resting. When bears
hibernate, they are reducing their energy and need for food, and they enter an inactive
sleep like state. I will say that plants and seeds do something similar in order to survive
colder months. I will have the students look outside the window and tell me what they
notice about the trees. I will be looking for answers like there are no leaves on the
trees or that since the trees are starting to bud, I might have some students say spring is
coming because I see the leaves getting ready to come out. I will talk about what
happens to seeds and plants in the winter months in Virginia (they temporarily stop
growing). I will then transition the class into the Dormancy Notes that they need to
review. I will put my set of notes up on the overhead projector, and I will pass out the
dormancy notes to the students. I will then ask the students to get their highlighters out. I
will have the students raise their hands, and take turns reading a sentence or two of
notes. I will be helping students by reading along with them and offering simpler
definitions or descriptions of the notes for clarification. As we are reading the notes
together, we will be highlighting the important facts as the students use these note sheets
as a study resource for their science exams. Students are used to doing this for their
science class. As we are reading the notes together, I will ask them what they think the
main points of each sentence (helping with their summarizing and main idea lessons in
reading) for highlighting purposes. These notes will give the students information on
what dormancy is, how its regulated, types of adaptations for seeds to germinate, and
plant dormancy. This should take about 15-20 minutes.
Implementation of the lesson: After going over the notes, students will then make a
booklet on dormancy, called Dormancy Details from AIMS Education Foundation.
There are different pages and when you fold the paper the right way, it makes a
sequential book. I will demonstrate how to fold the paper for the students to follow in
front of the classroom, and I will have the students fold the book along with me.
Creating a book will give the students another great study tool, as well as provide hands
on activity for the students after reading notes. This should take about 5 minutes. Once
the book is created, students will take turns reading a page to their neighbor/partner.
Depending on the number of students that day, there can be a group of 3 or students can
move from their seat to make partners. I will be monitoring this and advise students to
make smart choices when reading their booklets with their partners. Reading the booklet
should take about 10-15 minutes. For students that may have trouble reading the booklet,
I will be walking around to help anyone out. I have an idea of which students will need
extra attention. After everyone is finished reading the booklet, we will come back
together as a class and talk about something they learned from reading the booklet, and
something they already knew from our notes page that was stated in the book. We will
also go over the main ideas that we have learned from the notes and booklet about
dormancy. This discussion should take about 5-10 minutes. Next, we will be able to get
 more creative and I will have the students draw. I will have them split their paper in half.
On one half, I will ask them to draw/show/represent what a plant or seed look like when
they are dormant, and on the other half I will ask them to draw/show/represent what they
look like when they arent dormant. I will be putting the two big questions on the board
for the students to answer as well:
Is dormancy a temporary state?
What is the purpose of dormancy?
This should take about 10 minutes. I will be going around asking the students questions
based on their drawings. I am expecting to see a lot of seasonal types of pictures, where
the leaves are out on trees and sun is shining for summer, and seeds are in the ground
showing no growth of a plant. This will be used as a form of assessment, and I will be
collecting it.
Closure: After we have finished with the drawings, I will ask some students to share
with the class and discuss their thoughts on how their picture represents dormancy and
non-dormancy. I will explain once more the key points of dormancy from our
highlighted notes page.
Clean-up (if required): I will collect all the drawings the students made, and they will put
their notes page and booklets in their science binders. All highlighters and colored
pencils/crayons/markers will be put away. We will line up quietly at the door and walk
back across the hall to our classroom.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
For differentiation for this lesson, I plan on meeting the needs of students with varied
learning styles by offering a variety of different activities. We will be reading and
highlighting as a whole class which gives the more advanced learners a chance to go
ahead and read on their own, and lets the kids that need more guidance stay with me and
listen to the words being read out loud. We will be engaging in an activity of making a
book and reading with a partner, and the booklet has pictures so lower level readers have
help from the pictures to make inferences or understand certain vocabulary and
comprehend the reading. They also will have the partner to help them while they also get
to practice reading. I will be going around making sure the students are on task, as well
as helping those lower level readers. For students with IEPs that involved reading, I will
be walking around helping them reading their booklets out loud. I will have them point
to the words as they read (a technique that they are already familiar with) as well as
enforce the meaning of the pictures to help them understand. I will make sure I do this so
they are successful and feel supported in the classroom and the activity. The coloring
and drawing allows them to express themselves and their ideas through a creative outlet.
For students who finish early on the drawings, I will have them write facts or
information they learned about dormancy on the back of their paper. For the students
who are struggling to meet my objectives, I will talk about living things, non-living
things, and how plants are living things. They have to make adaptations (remind them
that it was a word work word they have learned in reading) to help them survive, and
explain that dormancy is a way to help them survive.
I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?
Think about this! It may help you avoid an embarrassing situation.
For this lesson, the biggest thing I am worried about going wrong is being able to finish
everything. This class requires a lot of classroom management to stay on task, so I plan on
doing my best to use whole brain teaching techniques that my CT uses to keep up with the
routine and familiarity they are used to. I will use Class Class, Hands and eyes to get their
focus. I also know that I will be teaching this lesson on an extended planning day, which is
known to the students as Wacky Wednesday so it isnt their normal schedule. This might
throw them off or make them act up. Again, I just have to make sure that my classroom
management is on point. I can picture some students being carless when folding the paper to
make the books or not putting their best effort into their drawings, so I will make sure I am
very clear with my expectations and instruction. Some students need to have the directions
explicitly told to them so I plan on doing that throughout the lesson. I spent a lot of time
trying to find an engaging video for this lesson but it was really difficult. My CT couldnt find
anything useful as well. Im afraid that this lesson will not be engaging enough and that I will
lose the focus of the kids, therefore I need to make sure that I am demonstrating an
enthusiastic attitude towards science and this subject, and that I make sure I project a caring
attitude towards the students and the subject.
I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why
you made them.
a. The teaching of the lesson differed from my plans in that I spent more time trying to explain
dormancy than I thought I would have. Unfortunately, the other teacher in our team teaches
science so I dont have the opportunities to observe that as much. From my understanding, I
thought the students would have more background knowledge of dormancy and the process of
plants germinating so that I could make dormancy seem like the opposite. However, the students
definitely struggled with the concept of dormancy so I spent a lot of time trying to come up with
other ways to describe what dormancy is. There was very little videos and other resources
available to help me teach this, and even the CT I was working with noted the lack of
developmentally appropriate resources to help explain dormancy. I also ended up walking around
and talking to a lot of students individually about the topic and helping to explain it to them rather
than just watching them work. I realized that a lot of them were struggling to understand that the
plant is still alive but doesnt have any signs of growing and so while they were doing their
drawing assessment, I ended up trying to help them more than I anticipated. I thought that this was
a justified decision because I realized that the students were struggling on their own. A lot of them
seemed confused, so I thought it would be unhelpful to let them sit their confused, frustrated, and
upset. I let them sit there for a little bit and try to figure it out on their own through talking to their
peers, but a lot of them started to get upset so I decided to step in and continue to help teach them
about dormancy. Other than that, a lot of my teaching stayed the same from my plans.

II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did
they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are
valid?
Student number Purpose of Dormancy/ exit Conditions/Drawing
pass questions
1.
2. Answered both questions Pictures were easily depicted
correctly with proper and had differences. Used lots
evidence and support. of color and made sense.
3. Answered both questions Drawing depicted a winter
nicely, saying temperature scene where tree was dormant
can affect dormancy and in winter to protect itself, and
that something that is not dormant in the summer
dormant is still living but where it could grow.
not growing.
4.
5. Answered both questions Drawing demonstrated
very nicely dormancy growing plants and dormant
happens sometimes, and plants were asleep
helps the plant/seed to
survive
6.
7. Answered both questions Drawing was detailed,
correctly and included organized, and easy to tell
germination in her which was dormant and non
explanation which was dormant state.
helpful.
8. Exit pass questions Did not show the difference
answered, to protect between dormancy and not
against cold season dormancy.
9. Answered both questions A tree in the winter time and in
but said dormancy is only the summer time.
in winter, but said purpose
of dormancy was for
 plant/seed to save energy
and survive.
10. Answered both questions
by saying dormancy is
temporary and helps plant
save energy.
11. Answered both questions
nicely, saying dormancy is
temporary and keeps
seed/plant from dying
12. Said dormancy is
temporary
13. Answered both questions
correctly.
14. Answered both questions
correctly.
15. Questions were answered
but student still might be
confused. Answered that
purpose of dormancy is for
the plants and animals and
offered no other
explanation.
16. Answered questions in
complete sentences and
with plentiful support and
evidence.
17. Answered both questions
correctly and with proper
support
18. Did not answer questions.
19 Answered only one
question and answered it
correctly (that was all she
had time for)
Picture demonstrated
difference between dormancy
and not dormancy
One flower growing and on
flower not growing
Did a great job with the
pictures, and even labled not
growing and growing for
the dormant and non dormant
stages.
States were easily
differentiated and easy to tell
apart.
Picture was easy to tell apart.
Picture was ok, could have
been easier to tell apart. Had
one plant without a flower on
it and another plant with a
flower. Overall understood the
concept.
Picture was excellent qith lots
of colors and details which
made it easy for me to tell they
knew the stages.
Drawing was ok, depicted a
growing flower and a winter
tree with no leaves because
leaves would die in the cold
Drawing was difficult to
follow but labeled dormant
state as Saving energy

a. Based on the drawing assessment after the lesson, I learned that some of the students struggled
with the topic. c

III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more
thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.
a. If I were to teach this lesson again, I could incorporate more developmentally appropriate
practices through trying to use better resources to help explain this topic. I think if this was my
actual class, I would try to collaborate with other teachers in the team or try to find other resources
that could be helpful for teaching this complicated topic. I think I would try to make the lesson
 more engaging by bringing a game or activity into the activity where the students can learn
through play with this drier topic. I would have to work to try to come up with something and try
to use different teachers or colleagues for resources. I would also try to maybe spend more time
explaining dormancy so that I wouldnt have to spend so much time individually going around to
everyone. Even though after noticing a lot of their questions were the same and I would stop the
class and explain to them as a whole, I feel like if I had more of those resources I wouldnt have to
do that as much.

IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom
teacher?
a. Based on the assessment data I collected, I would definitely start my next lesson off with a review
of dormancy and go over what we did for my original lesson. I think that this would make sense,
and would be important to do considering the class struggled to understand the concept in just one
lesson. I would start by reviewing what we had gone over for my first lesson, and then expand
more to specific types of seeds and plants that go through dormancy. I would explore these
specific seeds and plants with the students, and talk about the specific conditions that make these
plants go through dormancy and how it specifically helps them survive. I would ask what they
look like during dormancy, and just try to use specific examples to make this topic seem more real
life or that it actually occurs. I would also restate that the plants are still alive during this time, as
that was another thing that some students struggled to understand. After talking about specifics of
plants to try to make this more relatable to the students, and to answer that how does this affect
us in real life type of question, I would then think to start moving onto other life processes of
plants and how they live with other plants and animals in their communities and ecosystems.

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young
children as learners?
a. From teaching this lesson, I have had many things reinforced about young children as learners.
One of these things is that it takes time for students to understand. A lot of students arent going to
understand everything at the same time, let alone understand something after the first explanation.
I need to remember to be patient, as I was one of these students that learned at a slower pace.
Being in a teachers position where you know how to explain the content, it could be frustrating if
students are having trouble understanding but that is where we get to challenge ourselves as
educators. We get to come up with different ways to explain the material, or demonstrate so that
students who dont understand or are struggling to understand can do that. I appreciated having
this time because to be honest, I started getting frustrated having to repeat what seemed like the
same thing over and over again. I was struggling to understand why the students werent getting it.
Even though it could have been because this is a difficult topic to understand and I wish I had
more resources to use, having the opportunity to talk to each student one on one to try to explain it
to them seemed to help a bit. Children can be so eager to learn, and others can be not so eager. It is
important to show equal amounts of enthusiasm to all these students to help encourage them to
want to learn.

VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about teaching?
a. As a result of planning this lesson, I learned that sometimes being a practicum student means you
have to really compromise with your CT on lessons. This was without a doubt not a first choice
lesson for me to teach, as coming up with a lesson for this topic was really challenging for me and
something I had a hard time trying to be creative with. This was why I decided to go with a
drawing assessment. I wanted to incorporate this so that the students had opportunities to be more
creative instead of just learning from the CTs notes that she wanted me to use. I really had to try
to be creative to and come up with ways to make this lesson engaging. I relied a lot on my tone of
voice, body language, and enthusiasm. As a teacher, this is important for all subject areas, not just
science. I think that it is especially important in science in this instance since these students dont
really like it that much from what I hear from them. As a teacher teaching this lesson, I have
learned that I need to make sure I am demonstrating enthusiasm and a positive attitude towards the
topic to help other students feel the same way, and want to learn. I learned that teaching can
 actually be frustrating, but that it offers me opportunities to learn and grow as a teacher. I had
never experienced that feeling until this lesson.

VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about yourself?
a. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, I have learned that myself as a teacher and how I
present myself can have just as strong an impact on the students as learning the material. I learned
that I need to make sure I dont let myself get frustrated easily. I had never really had that
experience before and that is something that can definitely happen one day in my future classroom
so I just need to remember to be aware that it could happen. I will take some deep breathes and
remember that everyone is different and has different needs just as I did in elementary school.