Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Name: Maggie Deal Central Focus/Big Idea of the

Lesson: State symbols often
Grade Level/Subject: 4 Grade Social Studies - North
th
represent a state’s history
Carolina State Symbols and culture.

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective: Date taught: 3/7/18

4.H.2.2: Explain the historical significance of North
Carolina’s State symbols.

Daily Lesson Objective: Students will be able to describe North Carolina state symbols.
Students will complete an exit ticket during independent practice. Students are expected to
earn at least 6 out of 8 possible points on the exit ticket.

21 Century Skills: (Go to this link for more info about these
st
Academic Language
skills: Demand
Initiative and Self-Direction: Manage goals and time and
work independently- students will need to manage their time Language Function: Describe
wisely when working on the guided practice and when they
are working independently on the exit ticket. Vocabulary: state symbol,
mammal, reptile

Discourse: Turn and talk

about inquiry questions

Syntax: flip books, exit ticket

Prior Knowledge: From my Seeing Student Thinking assignment, students were able to define
a state symbol and knew that the cardinal was NC’s state bird. All students will need to know
what a symbol is. Students will need to know what a mammal is as well as what a reptile is.
Students will need to know the basics about state symbols which will be reviewed in the focus
and review portion of the lesson.

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

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1. Focus and First the teacher will review what a symbol is. 2 minutes
Review “What is a state symbol?”
The teacher will call on a few students to hear their
definitions of a state symbol and then restate student’s
answers.
“Why do we have state symbols”
The teacher will call on a few students to hear their
answers to the question and then state the Big Idea of the
lesson, “We have state symbols to represent each state
and the history that the state has to offer.”

2. Statement of “Today we will learn about North Carolina state symbols. 30

Objective Together we will complete a flip book of a few of the seconds
for North Carolina state symbols. At the end of the lesson
Student you can use the flip book to answer a few questions on a
worksheet”

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3. Teacher Input The teacher will explain to the students that they should 5 minutes
pay close attention to the presentation because they will
need the information when they fill out their flip books.
Using the PowerPoint, the teacher will introduce the gray
squirrel, the state mammal. The teacher will discuss where
the gray squirrel can be found as well as what they gray
squirrel eats. The teacher will also mention the year the
gray squirrel became the official state mammal.
The teacher will ask the following questions to check for
understanding:
“Where might you find the gray squirrel?”
“What does a gray squirrel eat in the fall and winter?”
“What does a gray squirrel eat in the spring and
summer?”
The teacher will explain to the students that they will fill
out the other three sections on their own using the
presentation shared with them.

3
4. Guided The teacher will pass out the premade flip books for the 10
Practice students to work on. The teacher will also share the google minutes
slides presentation with the students on their chromebooks
if possible.

Using information from the presentation and with help

from their peers, students will fill in their flip books with
information on the 4 state symbols. The teacher will
premake the flip books for the students and glue in
pictures of each of the state symbols before teaching the
lesson. The flip book will be made from 3 sheets of paper
folded one on top of another and stapled allowing for one
section for each of the covered state symbols and then
one extra section for early finishers to find a fifth state
symbol.

5. Independent The students will independently complete a North 5 minutes

Practice Carolina state symbols worksheet. The students will be
able to use their flipbook as a reference to complete the
worksheet.

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6. Assessment For a formative assessment, the teacher will use the answers to the
Methods of questions asked throughout the presentation as well as during the closure
all portion of the lesson.
objectives/skills:
For a summative assessment, the teacher will grade the worksheet
completed in the independent practice portion of the lesson. The
worksheet will have 4 questions and each question will be worth a
possible 2 points. To meet mastery for this objective, students should
earn at least 6 out of 8 possible points.

7. Closure The teacher will ask students to share 1-2 things that they 2 minutes
learned about state symbols. The teacher will call on 4-5
students to share. The teacher will then summarize the
lesson by sharing that the North Carolina state symbols
are characteristics of North Carolina and that they can all
be found throughout the state.

8. Assessment 18 out of 19 students achieved mastery for the assessment. Only one
Results of student got full credit for the extra credit question, five students got
all partial credit on the extra credit problem, and 13 students received no
objectives/skills: credit on the extra credit problem.

Targeted Students Student/Small Group

Modifications/Accommodations: Modifications/Accommodations:

English language learners: Pictures will be used
in the presentation to show each state symbol.
The presentation will be provided to students so
they can refer back to it during guided practice
and won’t have to rely only on memory to
complete the activity.
Struggling readers: The presentation will
be shared with the students for them to
use to fill in their flip books during
guided practice. The teacher will also be
walking around the room to observe and
check in with students.

Early Finishers: students who finish early

will use the extra tab on the flip book to
independently research a state symbol on
their chromebook. They will draw the
state symbol and they will write a few
facts about the symbol.

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 Materials/Technology:
Class Set of premade flip books for the students to fill in, a class set of the assessment
worksheet, the NC State Symbol PowerPoint.

Link for the presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lD5GgbDRO25n-
Fqw0_surJhEeJevLUAuc4Tkp91jVwI/edit?usp=sharing

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?

The decision to complete a flip book for the lesson was a good decision as the students
were engaged while filling it out and they kept it and glued it into their social studies notebook
to use for future reference and future lessons that the clinical educator will teach. Sharing the
google presentation with the students on google classroom was also a strength of the lesson as
it was easier for the students to refer to for filling in the flip book at their own pace. It was also
a good way to cut down on the lesson time as I didn’t have to spend time on each slide of the
presentation and wait on the students to fill out each section as a class.
One weakness of the lesson was the assessment. The assessment that I created was too easy
for the students and by allowing them to use the presentation as a reference as well as the flip
book almost all of the students received full credit on the assessment and I didn’t get a good
idea of what the students actually understood through this assessment. I also didn’t have
anything planned for the early finishers on the assessment portion of the lesson so I had the
students read independently until all students were finished with the assessment.
I learned that students learn better when they are creating something rather than just
listening to a lecture and being left to take their own notes. The flip book allowed for a visual
aid to enhance student learning and made the lesson more engaging for the students. I also
learned that for some students, I need to provide more explicit directions or I might need to
state directions in a different way to make it easier for students to understand what they are
supposed to be doing.
In the future, I would like more time to teach the lesson or to teach the lesson over a span
of two or so days so the students could create their own flip books and select and glue the
pictures of the symbols in on their own. I would also like to do a follow up lesson and add more
North Carolina state symbols to the flip book to build upon today’s lesson. I would also give
more explicit instruction to the students throughout the lesson to make sure that there is a good
understanding of what everyone is supposed to be doing. I would also create a different
assessment for the students that would allow me to get a better idea of the students
understanding so I would know what to teach next or review again if needed.