LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

Jennifer Hunt
Heather Crawford, 1st grade, River Bend Elementary School
Lesson will be presented on September 26, 2016 after lunch
This plan was emailed to my cooperating teacher on September 24, 2016

TITLE OF LESSON The book, A Bad Case of Stripes by: David Shannon, will be read aloud to the students to
encourage thought on personal feelings of embarrassment and acceptance. There will also be a final project pertaining
to recognizing and using colors, along with writing a small sentence about something unique about them.

CONTEXT OF LESSON

I have observed over the last two visits to the first grade classroom that there were worksheets on the
wall, and in morning centers, dedicated to recognizing and using colors. I believed that this follow up
art-project would be a good use for the colors as the students can choose their own colors to use in
their projects. Another key point of the book itself is to accept oneself, no matter what anyone else
says, which I believe is a good lesson to be teaching my students.

OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT

Developmental Objectives Plan for Assessment

1. The students will write at least one
sentence reflecting on something that is
unique about them after participating in
the read-aloud.
2. The students will use and describe at
least four different colors that were used
in their completed follow-up art project.
Each student will have a checklist on whether or not they write the
sentence. Subcategories will include more specific SOL standards, such
as including appropriate spaces between words and forming letters
accurately. Their first initial will refer to each student, first and last if
there are two of the same initials. The teacher will put a check mark under
the appropriate box for each of the categories.
I will have a rubric for every student in the class to ensure that they
complete the objective. Each student will have two rubrics, one for using
multiple colors and the other for describing the colors. There will be a
scale from 0-4; 0 represents no colors used/described and 4 represents all
four requested colors were described and used. Their first initial will refer
to each student, first and last if there are two of the same initials.

COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENT DATA

Objective 1 Assessment Sheet:

Student Did the student write Did the student use Did the student
Initial a complete sentence? appropriate spacing accurately form the
between words? letters?
Yes No Yes No Yes No

Yes No Yes No Yes No

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 Yes No Yes No Yes No

Objective 2 Assessment Sheet:

Student How many colors did the How many colors did the students
Initial student use in their completed describe along with their reasons for
project? using the color?
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4

RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

Oral Language 1.3: The student will adapt or change oral language to fit the situation.
b. Follow rules for conversation using appropriate voice level in small-group settings.
c. Ask and respond to questions.
Reading 1.8: Students will expand vocabulary.
a. Discuss meaning of words in context.
b. Develop vocabulary by listening to and reading a variety of texts.
Reading 1.9: The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts.
d. Make and confirm predictions.
e. Ask and answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about what is read.
h. Identify the main idea or theme.
Writing 1.12: The student will print legibly.
a. Form letters accurately.
b. Space words within sentences.
c. Use the alphabet code to write unknown words phonetically.
Writing 1.13: The student will write to communicate ideas for a variety of purposes.
a. Generate ideas.
b. Focus on one topic.

MATERIALS NEEDED

A Bad Case of Stripes by: David Shannon (I will bring in this book)
Colored Pencils/Crayons (Students will already have these)
Pencils (Students will already have these. Extra pencils will be provided by the teacher is necessary)
Drawing Paper (I will bring these)
Lined writing paper (I will bring these)

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PROCEDURE

PREPARATION OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

There will be two parts of the learning environment in this lesson. First the students will be sitting on the carpet
for the reading of the book, A Bad Case of Stripes. Any follow up questions should be asked while still sitting at
the carpet. Once the students have discussed and thought about the reading more closely then they will be
released to sit at their desks. Utilize the two classroom helpers by having them hand out one piece of combined
lined and drawing paper to each student.

INTRODUCTION AND ORGANIZATION

The students know that when they walk into the room from lunch that they have to sit on the carpet. This is one
of the daily routines that I have noticed in the class. Once the students are all sitting on the ground, introduce the
book. For the follow-up art and writing project the students will return to their individual desks to work. In the
classroom there are two sets of desks organized in groups of four while another two are grouped in groups of
five. Taking turns in the groups of four will be easy. Elbow partners will be used to trace the hands of their
partner. In the case of the groups of five, the elbow pairs will help each other first and then one of the students at
the table will help the fifth student by tracing their hand.

IMPLEMENTATION
Before Reading: 1. What do you think will happen in this book based on the title and picture on the cover?
2. There seems to be a thermometer in her mouth. Does anyone know what a thermometer is?
Wait for student responses A thermometer helps use determine if we are sick or not. We can
probably infer or guess that this girl is sick right now.
3. Has anyone every turned into rainbow stripes when they were sick before? Probably not, so
lets find out what happens.

During Reading: 1. Stop after reading the first page and ask, Why do you think Camilla screamed when she
looked in the mirror?
2. Stop after reading the third page and ask, Do we think that ointment is going to help?
3. Stop after reading the seventh page and ask, Are these pills going to help?
4. Stop after reading the eight page and ask, Does anyone have a guess about why Camilla
keeps changing? Does anyone have an idea for a possible cure?
5. Stop after reading the twelfth page and ask, Does anyone know how this old woman
could possibly help?

After Reading: 1. Why do you think Camilla turned back to normal after eating those lima beans?
2. So when Camilla decided to accept herself she went back to normal.

Instructions for the Art/Writing Activity: The students are still sitting on the carpet at this point.
So now we are going to look at what makes each of us unique. At your desks we are going to do some art and
writing. When you get to your desk I want you to pull out your colored pencils and pencils. Classroom helpers if
you would come help hand out the papers we will be using.
Release the students to their desks and give the classroom helpers the papers to hand out
We are going to be writing something unique about ourselves as well as draw our hands with a bad case of
stripes. So first we are going to trace our hands on the side of the paper with no lines (have everyone flip their
pages to the correct side). You will be working with your elbow partners to trace each others hands. D and K
once the two elbow pairs have completed the tracing one of them will help you okay. After you have finished
tracing each others hands, flip to the side of the paper with the lines (have everyone flip their pages) and write a

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 sentence. I want you to write a sentence about something that you find unique about yourself. After you have
finished writing your sentence you can color the bad case of stripes on your hands. Now I am going to challenge
you guys to use at least four different colors when making your bad case of stripes. But remember that you can
only color once you have finished writing your sentence. So decide which partner goes first and start tracing
each others hands.

During this time you can walk around and assess how the students are succeeding in the set objectives.

CLOSURE
As you start to see students wrapping up, Once you have finished making your bad case of stripes and either
Mrs. Crawford or myself has looked at your sentence you can put your paper into your mailbox to take home. I
want you all to tell your families about the unique thing you wrote about when you get home today. If you finish
early go grab a book and read at your desks.

CLEAN-UP
Most of the clean up is dependent on the students themselves. The only materials that really need to be returned
to their proper location are the colored pencils/crayons and pencils that the student uses. These materials are the
students personal property, so they will be retuned to their pencil containers located in their desks. The students
will also turn their final projects into their mailboxes to take home that day. Seeing as there is no cutting of paper
there will not be any scraps of paper to be thrown away. Any borrowed items, such as pencils from the teacher,
should be returned to the appropriate colored container in the back of the classroom.

DIFFERENTIATION
The reading of the book itself is accessible for every student in my class. The art and writing assignment might
have to be differentiated a bit more. A major distinction I need to provide is time. Some students will take longer
on their project because they want to give their very best effort on the art portion, I need to allow the student to
have their time to color and create. If needed the student can either finish the projects a little later in the day, or
they can bring the project home to complete. Another need is attention span while listening to the story. If a child
is becoming very restless and disturbing the others students, then they can go and stand in the back of the group
quietly to burn some energy. This is not meant to shame the student in any way, it is simply meant to provide the
student a little break from sitting down for an extended period of time.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Some problems that occur within the reading portion of the lesson could include inappropriate answers and loss
of attention. As mentioned above in the differentiation section if a student begins to become disruptive and
distracting they will be asked to move to the back to give them some time to stand. This will hopefully allow that
student to burn off some energy while still participating in the reading. Pertaining to inappropriate answers I will
try to not draw attention to that behavior. I will either politely ignore that particular response or switch the
conversation to another topic quickly.

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 Lesson Implementation Reflection

I walked into my classroom this morning believing that I was going to be completing my entire read aloud
after lunch. Instead my cooperating teacher had some extra time before lunch and asked me to read the book before
lunch and complete the activity after lunch. I was not exactly mentally ready to start my assignment; my nerves were
getting the best of me and I kept thinking about all the worst-case scenarios that could potentially happen. I
remembered just then that I had actually told my teacher that the split up time was what I wanted, I just forgot about
that email until now. Once I asked my opening questions and had my discussion with the students I was pleasantly
surprised by how serious they were taking the activity. I decided to add a few more questions during the reading to
really challenge the students. I also looked for moments when some students were getting restless, during a long page
like page seven for example. I would then ask a question to have the kids return their attention to me. After the first
few pages I began to notice some of the students whom were too shy to share a verbal answer in the discussion. After I
observed that behavior I began to include more class votes. I would continue with my normal question and response
style making sure that I asked at least two people. After I finished taking answers I asked the class to raise their hands
if they agreed with a certain statement on of their classmates made. This led the entire class to participate in
predictions and show their thinking without calling them out to the class. I was also worried about the students simply
voting with the majority, but I was pleasantly surprised that my students actually thought about my questions and
raised their hands for different answers in the same question. The rest of the read aloud went surprisingly well, I am
still amazed by how attentive the students were. After the reading I asked the class to tell me what they believed to be
the reason why Camilla turned back to normal when she ate the lima beans. I was expecting, and received, answers
like, The beans were magic instead of the actual reason. Just when I was about to give up one student raised their
hand and told me along the lines of, Camilla turned back to normal because she finally accepted what was unique
about her. She was ashamed of liking lima beans which sparked the change, but when she admitted to herself and
others that she liked them she turned back to normal. She should not have hidden a part of herself. I am pretty sure I
sat in awe for a few seconds at his brilliant answer. I did not even have to come out with the answer as I was expecting
in my lesson plan, shown by statement two under after reading.
Once the after discussion was finished the class went to lunch. Another thing that I changed was the use of the
classroom helpers. Once lunch was over and everyone was in the hallway going to the bathroom my cooperating
teacher asked if I wanted to go back to the classroom and get ready. I agreed and set the pieces of paper out on
everyones desk before the class came back. It would not have been a big deal to have the classroom helpers pass out
the papers but I did it anyway because there was time available. I had the class return to the carpet to have a recap on
the read aloud. I wanted to ensure that the students had the books main points in their mind after they had a break for
lunch. I was not really planning on having a recap originally so I started asking the students what they remembered.
After getting a few responses I asked the students to close their eyes and think about what made Camilla unique in the
story. I wanted the students to remember and visualize what Camilla looked like throughout the book. After a minute
of that I asked the students to tell me what was unique about Camilla. Once I had enough responses I explained the
activity to the students that they were going to complete. I started to explain to the class what an elbow buddy was for
them to use in the art activity, but all the students told me that they wanted to try to trace their own hands. I was
surprised by how well all the students did tracing their own hands without the help of a partner. Once the lesson was
over and the students went out to recess I realized that I had severely underestimated my classs skill level and
competency in the assignment overall.
During the follow up activity I could tell which students really cared about the writing aspect of the project
and who was more focused on coloring their hands. I did not realize that I had taught the students the vocabulary word
unique. I actually had not planned on using that word so much; I just repeated the word subconsciously in the
discussion. I later saw that I really did teach the students the new word. As I looked over some of the students work, at
least four students used the word unique in their sentences. They even sought out teacher aid to ensure that they spelled
the word correctly. There were only three students who did not care at all about their sentences. One student wrote the
sentence, I draw. When I asked her to tell me a little more about what she draws and why that was special to her she
told me and then preceded to write, I draw better than you. I was a little taken back by that sentence and was very
glad that my cooperating teacher overheard so that she could help me discipline that behavior. The other two students
rushed through writing the sentence to get to the coloring; I had told the students that they were not allowed to start
coloring until they had finished their sentence. These two students ignored basic sentence writing, such as spaces
between the words and punctuation. One student did notice his mistake when even he could not read what he wrote. I
then asked him to rewrite the sentence with proper spacing. I know that proper spacing between words has been a

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problem for this particular student before so I took the time to remind him the appropriate amount of space between
words. Another aspect of learning that I saw was the recognition of colors. Many of the students were worried about
using at least four colors in their drawing and knowing their names, but as I was walking around every student could
label and describe every color used. I knew then that the entire class had passed the second objective and was
confident on their colors. I believe that the art project was a pretty good way of finishing up the unit on colors as well
as provide the students with confidence that they did know their colors. I would also write down my observations if I
were to do this lesson again. After the students had finished the activity they went outside to recess. I forgot all about
writing down my observations in the assessment sheets, as I was worried about my formal observation during recess. I
also need to think of work for the students to do if they finish early. I was started having the students silently read a
book until my teacher pulled out incomplete work for the students to accomplish.
If I were to do this lesson again I would go with my original plan and have the students cut out their completed
rainbow striped hands and glue them on another piece of paper. This other piece of paper would already have the
written sentence on it. This would challenge the students to not only handle the scissors correctly to ensure that they
cut on the lines, but also see if they remembered the song about the proper amount of glue to use, Dot, dot, not a lot!.
I would also have the students write their sentence before I even mentioned that other part of the assignment. I was
hoping that the students would be able to focus more on the sentence, but as I saw some students rushed the sentence
portion of the assignment. The use of the scissors and glue would help the students focus on their fine motor skills. I
also might introduce a pattern to the coloring section of the activity. Some students tried to recreate the pattern that
was shown on the cover of the book while others randomly chose colors. Two students actually worked to create a
very convincing camouflage hand, which was very impressive. I believe that the inclusion of a pattern would create a
slightly more challenging activity.
Based on my observations, I would review how to write a sentence, especially the appropriate amount of space
between words and correct punctuation. Almost all the students forgot to end the sentence with a period; something
that I know is emphasized in the reading of the morning message. The students need to be able to write a period at the
end of a sentence without even giving it much though. The period should be second nature for the students. There
should also be review over the proper spacing. I do not think an entire lesson needs to be taught, as not all the students
were taking away spaces between words. Possibly in future writing assignments the teacher could mention leaving
correct spacing in the directions. There is no need to point out names or embarrass any student, hopefully just
mentioning the issue of spacing would bring the students attention to it while writing.
I have really noticed that young learners listen to everything you say. Going back to the new vocabulary word
of unique, that was something that I had not intended on focusing on, yet my students still picked it up and worked
with the challenge. Students are not passive learners who sit in silence during a read aloud. The students would ask
questions, make predictions and tell me things that they noticed in the illustrations that corresponded with the text read.
Students actually want to learn while they are in school if they are motivated. I also saw the effect that the teacher had
on the students. Something as simple as asking the entire class to raise their hands for their opinion raised their
confidence levels. When I really engaged with the students and actually listened to what they had to say, the group
discussion improved.
As cheesy as it sounds, the planning and teaching of this lesson has given me the knowledge and confidence
that I can be a good teacher. This was really the first actual lesson that I have planned out in this much detail and
executed. I kept second-guessing myself while creating the lesson plan, which led to underestimating my students
skill and abilities. I was worried that I was asking too much of the class when in reality I was not even asking enough.
Even just reading my cooperating teachers comments and talking with her about the lesson helped me to not fear
teaching anymore. I knew that I had the passion and the drive, I just did not know if I had the execution of an effective
teacher. I now know that I can make the transition from teacher aid and observer to actual teacher with real lesson
plans and a real impact on these students.

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Teacher Comments

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