READ Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

Name: Central Focus/Big Idea of

Mykayla Perry the Lesson:
Describing setting
Grade Level/Subject:
1st Grade/ Reading

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Date taught:
Describe characters, settings, and major events 13 October 2017
in a story, using key details.

Daily Lesson Objective:

Students will be able to describe the setting (when, where, environment) of a story.
They will do this independently as well as collaboratively. I will know students can do
this when they have completed an exit ticket with 80% accuracy.

21st Century Skills: Academic Language

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Demand
Collaboration
Vocabulary:
Setting
Describe

Prior Knowledge:

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

During this portion of the lesson plan I

will focus on building the schema of
students. I will ask the following
questions:
What does it mean to describe
something? 5
1. Focus and Review
Does anyone have any guesses minutes
as to what the setting of a story
might be?
I will give students time to have a
discussion about the questions out loud
as a class.
 Today I we will be learning about what a
setting is, what some examples of
settings are, and were also going to be
reading some stories and seeing how to
describe the setting in those stories.

2. Statement of Objective As you guys learn to read better, it is 2

for Student important the were paying attention to minutes
everything that is happening in a story.
Thats how we become the best readers
ever! Being the best reader ever comes
with a lot of responsibility. Your job is to
not only tell me the setting of a story, but
to also be able to describe it!

As a class we will make an anchor chart

together based on the setting of the
story.

Instead of doing the anchor chart on

giant paper, we will be doing the anchor
chart on the promethean board so that
students can take turns adding to the
chart and it will be visible to everyone.

The anchor chart will contain the

definition of an anchor chart:
Write: A setting is where a story
15
3. Teacher Input takes place
minutes
Then have students
describe places that a
story could take place and
add to anchor chart.
Write: A setting is when a story
takes place
Have students add to the
chart words that describe
when a story could take
place.
Write: A setting is the type of
environment in which a story
takes place.
 Have students come up
with descriptive words for
the environment and add
them to the chart.
I want you guys to keep these three
questions in mind and some examples of
descriptions for these questions
whenever you are reading a story! Lets
practice!

Project the story Bug Observation onto

the board:
There was only one thing Andy liked to
do. Andy loved to look at bugs. He
stayed in his yard all day. He even
stayed in his yard some nights. Andys
mom would tell him to come inside. She
told him to do his homework. He did not
listen. She asked him to do his chores.
He still did not listen. Andy got in trouble
a lot. He never listened or followed
directions. He just looked at bugs all day
instead.
7
4. Guided Practice Conduct a read aloud with
minutes
students using this passage and
make sure they pay very close
attention to the setting of the
story.
After reading, have them turn and
talk as a group. They should
discuss:
Where, when, and in what
environment did the story
take place?
Descriptions of the setting

For independent practice, I will project

another story on the board and conduct 10
5. Independent Practice
a read aloud: minutes
Allison was only scared of one thing.
 She was scared of spiders. She hated
the way they crawled. She hated the way
they looked. She hated everything about
spiders. One day, when Allison was
sitting on her front porch, she saw
something out of the corner of her eye.
Allisons mom told her to stay calm, but
she couldnt. Allison started screaming.
She saw the biggest spider ever. It was
sitting on the ledge of her front door.
After reading this story out loud,
on a blank sheet of paper,
students will work independently
to draw a picture of what the
setting in the story was.

The assessment for this lesson will be a

combination of the skills worked on in the guided
and independent practice in order to describe the
setting. Students will be tasked with reading a short
story and then writing a short description of the
setting along with a picture. I will look for descriptive
words that describe where, when, and the
environment of the setting.
6. Assessment Methods of
all objectives/skills:
Rubric:
Where - 2pts
When - 2 pts
Environment - 2 pts
Picture 4 pts
Total: 10 pts

Students should receive an 8/10

So today we talked about what the

setting of a story is. From now on when
1
7. Closure you all read, I want you to really think
minute
about how the book is describing the
setting to you.

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:
Targeted Students
Modifications/Accommodations:
Students will be accommodated
by being able to work
collaboratively and by
incorporating technology, writing,
and drawing into the lesson.
Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:
Students will be accommodated by being able to
work collaboratively and by incorporating
technology, writing, and drawing into the lesson.

Materials/Technology:
Google document with short stories to project on board
Smartboard
Blank sheets of paper for each student
Pencils and colors for each student

Reflection on lesson: (Write several paragraphs about what you learned from this
lesson. What were the strengths? What were the weaknesses? What did you learn
about teaching and student learning? How would you teach this lesson differently in the
future?
While planning this lesson I was taking into consideration how much time I would have
to implement the lesson and how to get the students as engaged as possible. Being that
this is a 1st grade classroom, I was aware that they may learn best from whole group
and small group interactions. I was also keeping in mind how big of a standard it was
that I was given and thought it best to break the standard down to just focus on setting
rather than setting, characters, and major events.

One thing I definitely learned while implementing this lesson is how important classroom
management is. While it was nice to engage the students in a group discussion, I have
to remember that they are in 1st grade so they are not all aware that raising their hands
and waiting to be called on is a constant rule they should abide by. Another thing that is
important while preparing and implementing a lesson is knowing the capabilities of your
class. A lot of the activities I got inspiration from had students writing responses to
things and answering questions in written form. However, this is the beginning of the
year for these first graders and their reading and writing skills are not high enough to do
this.

A strength I had while implementing this lesson was giving them more than one way to
express their answers. I also incorporated drawing into their independent practice for
those students who could not express themselves through writing. One weakness I had
while doing this lesson was probably getting stuck when my lesson was not working the
way I had planned. I also needed work on classroom management.

If I were to teach this lesson differently in the future I would incorporate less writing
tasks this early on in the school year. I would also maybe include some videos or
something else to get them more engaged.