Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Name: Laritza Suero Central Focus/Big Idea of the Lesson:

A constitution provides the guidelines, or “rules”
Grade Level/Subject: 4th grade/ Social Studies, Literacy of how things should work in our government.

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Date taught: March 21, 2018
4.C&G.1 Understand the development, structure and function of North
Carolina’s government.

4.C&G.1.1 Summarize the key principles and revisions of the North Carolina
Constitution.
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will be able to analyze the articles of the North Carolina constitution and refer to
details in the text to explain the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Students are expected to list
a job for each branch of the government and refer to the text to support their explanations. They should obtain 8 out
of 10 points to demonstrate mastery.

21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand

 Critical thinking
 Communication Language Function: Analyze
 Collaboration
Vocabulary: government, constitution, executive,
judicial, legislative

Discourse: turn and talk, whole class discussion, small

groups

Syntax: sentences, anchor chart

Prior Knowledge: students should be able to read, be aware that there are different people with specific jobs to run our
country and state, they should also know that each government branch has a function

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

1. Focus and Review
The teacher will start the lesson by asking the students “what do you think 2 min
school would be like if rules didn’t exist? Why do you think rules are
important? Who is in charge of making up rules?” The teacher will allow
some time for students to gather their thoughts and then share with a
partner. Once the students have shared their thoughts with one another,

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 the teacher will ask for volunteers to share with the whole class. The
teacher will explain that the North Carolina constitution provides the
guidelines, or “rules” of how things should work in our government. She
will also tell the students that they will be taking a look at the North
Carolina constitution to find out about how government works.

2. Statement of Objective Students will read and analyze the North Carolina constitution and list details
for Student in the text to explain the different branches of government and their jobs.
When we explain something we read, we use evidence to help support our
explanation. I am going to read from the declaration of rights in the
constitution and at the end, I will show you how we can do this.” The teacher
will put up the passage on the overhead so that the whole class can follow
along. After the teacher is finished reading, she will model how to explain
what the text says using details in the text. “The first right is saying that
3. Teacher Input 5 min
everyone should be treated fairly, because we are all the same. Nobody is
‘better’ than anybody.” The teacher will then go back to the text and circle
key details that support her explanation (equal, endowed by the Creator,
liberty). “These are all details straight out of the text that support my
explanation. Now we will practice in groups!”

Students will have the opportunity to analyze parts of the constitution in

groups. The class will be divided into three groups and each group of
students will be responsible for analyzing Articles II, III, and IV of the North
Carolina constitution. Each of the articles will focus on one of the
government branches (one group will have executive, another legislative
and the other group will have judicial). Before they begin, the teacher will
explain the directions and also show them on a Powerpoint slide. Students
will read through their documents, and as a group they will agree on what
they will report to the class. This should be in their own words. One
person of the group will be the recorder and another one will be the
4. Guided Practice speaker. In addition to this, students will need to be prepared to share 20 min
what details from the text support their reports. The teacher will give the
students a few minutes for the groups to read over the documents and
share their thoughts with each other. During this time, the teacher will go
to each group to observe and interview the students about their findings.
When finished, each group will be able to present information about their
branch to the rest of the class (in their own words) and state what key
details support their explanation of the reading. After each group shares
with the whole class, the teacher will fill out a chart that she will put on
the board with the three branches of government.

Students will be given a worksheet. On the left side, there will be three
different passages (one from each of the articles reviewed in the guided
practice). On the right side, students will need to explain a job of each branch
5. Independent Practice 10 min
in complete sentences, and circle evidence in the reading that supports their
answers.

6. Assessment Methods of Informal Assessment: questions during activities, observations

all objectives/skills: Formal Assessment: the teacher will assess student learning through the independent
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 practice worksheet

To wrap up the lesson, the teacher will review the three branches of
government and what the roles of each are according to the NC constitution.
As a class, they will also review what it means to refer to details when
explaining their reading.
7. Closure Finally, students will complete an exit ticket sticky note with the following: 5 min
1. First , they will define constitution in their own words
2. Second, they will list one thing that “stuck” to them about the
lesson.

We did not get to the independent practice of the lesson, due to time. I did however,
collect an exit ticket in which the students had to state one job of each of the government
branches. There were 10 points available: 3 points for each job matching each branch, and
1 point for putting their name on the ticket. Out of the 25 students, 10 students obtained
10 out of 10 points, hence mastering the concept. 9 students scored 7 out of 10 points,
8. Assessment Results of and 1 student scored a 6. The patterns I noticed in this group of students, is that they only
all objectives/skills: described two of the branches or they got one wrong. Three students got 4 out of 10
points. Some only described one of the branches, and the others got the legislative and
executive jobs confused. Finally, one student got 3 points because they only got one of
them right and one student did not do the exit ticket. 40% of the class seemed to
understand the content. This tells me that overall, the students needed more practice and
time with this.
Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations: Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:

English Language Learners: English Language
Learners: Provide students with the reading in their
native language; make directions clear and visual.
Autism Spectrum: Students will be able to have a
fidget object, such as putty or a stress ball.
Early Finishers: Early Finishers: Students will draw a picture
or a symbol representing each of the branches of
government; they will also have the opportunity to research
more information on their Chromebooks about the topic if
they want.
Struggling Readers: Students will be placed in a group with
more higher-level readers, to support them. The teacher
will make sure to check in with them and provide
scaffolding with the reading.

Materials/Technology:
Poster paper, markers, overhead projector, computer, sticky notes, independent practice worksheet, reading passages
from the NC constitution

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?
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My lesson went pretty smooth overall. One of the strengths of my lesson was that I related It to the real world in the
introduction. My lesson also flowed from one part to the next, which was nice. One of my weaknesses was that I
struggled to get the students’ attention back at times, but for my first time I don’t think it was too bad. Another
weakness was that I realized that the reading was too challenging for certain students. I had asked my clinical teacher
what she thought about the students reading the “real” documents, and she had said it was fine as long as certain words
that were unknown to them were defined. I think this definitely helped, but it was still a bit too hard. One other thing
that was a downside to my lesson was that we didn’t have time for the independent practice. The time available for
social studies is just not enough. However, I did want to collect something from the students, so I just had them take out
a scratch sheet of paper and write one thing they learned from each of the branches.

This was a great experience for me as a pre-service teacher. I actually felt confident while I taught and it was rewarding
to see that the students were engaged and learned something from this lesson. I learned that sometimes you have to
improvise your lesson as a teacher. Not everything is going to be perfect. I learned that developing classroom
management strategies is super critical in order for the class to function smoothly as a whole and it really saves time
during transitions, which means more time for instruction. This is something that I plan to keep working on in my future
clinical experiences.

As far as student learning, I was able to see how students like to learn when the teacher provides a variety of activities
and processes for them to learn the content. I could’ve had the students sit in their seats and listen to me as I read the
excerpts and then have them imitate what I did when circling key details, but I wanted them to feel a little more
independent by figuring it out in groups and then have them “student teach” about what they learned. My goal for my
future teaching is to become more creative and find more fun ways to teach in every discipline. I also had the
opportunity to ask some of the students what they thought of the lesson. They told me they had enjoyed it, and that
even though it was a bit challenging, they liked having the challenge to read those excerpts of the NC constitution.

If I was to teach this lesson in the future, I would create a bit more kid-friendlier versions of the readings. I would also
have to shorten up some of the activities or find others that won’t take up as much time, so that we don’t run out of
time. Also, if this was an introductory lesson to referring to key details in a text, I would provide the students with more
time to practice this skill using different type of texts.