LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A. Story Problems

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
Students completed a short informal pre-assessment. Students were asked a simple story
problem “Mrs. Anderson and Ms. Wydler had 6 dogs. How man dogs were Mrs.
Anderson walking and how many dogs were Ms. Wydler walking.” This was the first
time they were introduced to a story problem. Students were sent to their table to work
with their table mates using manipulatives. Students struggled with this concept. Students
were then brought back to the rug to talk about what they were thinking. Students need
more guidance, so a group lesson will be more beneficial. We will use manipulative and
student actors to work through story problems to help students work through their
problems. Students at this age need to work using concrete objects to understand. So this
will be developmentally appropriate.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand – Students will Know – Students will know how Do – Students will solve
understand how to solve story to use concrete materials to addition and subtraction story
problems (this will not be done solve problems problems using concrete
in this one lesson) materials.
Students will know what
words in the problem tell
them if they are subtracting or
adding.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
My assessments will be informal for this day. When having a class discussion, I will ask
multiple students for answers to all my questions. I will ask multiple questions so
hopefully, I will have each student answer 2-3 questions. Students will then be working
with their partner to solve a problem. During that time, I will be walking around and
asking questions and listening to what they are talking about.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL

STANDARDS if required)
Focus: Whole Number Operations
K.6 The student will model adding and subtracting whole numbers, using up to 10
concrete objects.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
 Smart Board (has in classroom)
 Pictures of Fish and Bees (I will make)
 Popsicle sticks (CT has)
 Paper (has in classroom)
 Pencils (has in school)
 Glue (Classroom has)
  Teddy bear counters or blocks (classroom has)

G. PROCEDURE
 Prep: Glue fish and bee pictures on popsicle sticks for students to hold when
acting out the problems
 I will put materials on the tables while the students are watching their morning
video on the rug.
 Students will already be on the rug from morning meeting and the lesson will
continue on the rug.
 I will start by saying “I am going to tell you all a story. As you listen, try to
picture the story in your mind. If it helps, you can close your eyes to help picture
it.”
 “Here’s a little story about fish: Three little fish were swimming in the clear
pound. Then three more little fish came swimming up to join them.”
 “Now who can tell me what happened in the story? What happened first?”
 I will call on a multiple people to explain it in their own words not just get one
person to give the right answer.
 After students clearly know the the story is talking about I will call up three
students to be the first fish “So we started with 3 fish and then 3 more swam up”
I will call on three more students to come to the front of the class.
 “So how can we figure out how many fish were in the pond?”
 I will try to guide students to talk about their strategy and not just the answer. I
will again call on multiple students even if they say some of the same answers.
 I will send my students acting as fish to sit back down.
 I will say “We are going to listen to another story. Five bees were buzzing around
a flower. Two more bees flew over to join the others at the flower. So, what
happened in this story?”
 I will do the same thing of asking students to explain what happened in the story
in their own words.
 I will again call up student actors to act out our story.
 We will then talk again about the strategies they used again.
 I will send any students standing to sit back down
 “I am going to tell you another story about bees. This time there was 7 bees on a
flower. 2 of the bees left and flew back to the hive.”
 I will ask students to explain the story in their words.
 I will call students up to act it out.
 I will ask how we know how many bees are left on the flower and their strategies
to figure it out. I will repetitively say “How did you know that” or “what did you
do to get that number” to promote students to share their thinking.
 I will stand my student actors back to their spot.
 I will ask “How were our two bee stories kind of the same? And how were they
different?”
 I will try to have the students focus on the actions of the students when talking
about the difference. Some were added in the first one and some left in the
second one.
 “Now you will do the same thing we did as a class with your partner.”
 I will put a problem on the smartboard and read it. “4 frogs hopped into a pond.
Later 3 more frogs hopped into the pond.”
  I will explain “You and a partner will get some blocks that you can use as your
frogs. You can also write on the paper that is at your table to help think through
the problem. I want you and your partner to work together to find out how many
frogs are in the pond.”
 I will send students back to their table by pairs or tables.
 I will give students time to work through the problem with their partner
 I will be walking around making sure students are on task and will be asking
promoting questions to students who need help or need to be pushed a little more.
 After I have noticed all pairs have come up with some kind of answer, right or
wrong, I will bring them back to the rug.
 I will bring any students papers that have writing on it and some of the blocks, so
students can share he work they did.
 I will first ask for students to share how many frogs they think are in the pond. I
will write the answers on the board as them say them, right or wrong.
 Students will then get into a circle on the rug.
 I will sit in the circle and ask students to share their ideas.
 I will call on many students to share ideas. I will specifically call on some
students that I noticed using different ideas or writing on their paper. However, I
will call on a range of students.
 After the discussion, if there is time, students will go to math centers that they
have around learned from earlier in the week.
 If time is up one student form each table will be called to get the blocks from
their table and put them on the back table. The rest of the class will be called one
by one to get in line for recess.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
I have one student who is selective mute so during a discussion it would be hard to assess
them. This student is out of the country and will not be there during this lesson. However,
if they were there, they are very capable of writing well. So, I would have them write in
their communication notebook that they use during class. This way they can still share
their ideas. I would also include this person by calling on them to be one of the student
actors. Besides that, none of my students have a learning disability that would need
modifications of the lesson. I will be sure to include all students and ask many students
questions. I will also be helping my different level students by walking around when my
students are working in partners. This way I can provide assistants anytime students need.
For any of my higher-level students who figure out the answer very fast when working
with partners, I will ask another question by changing the numbers. This way they can
think through basically the same process just with new numbers, possibly bigger
numbers.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?
My first worry is having my students be very talkative. This early in the morning,
especially after our warm up video, students can be talkative and move around a lot.
Students not listening at all or moving around to the point of distracting students will be
sent to their sit. I will continue to ask these students questions, so they are included. Once
they have calmed down some, they will be asked if they are ready to come to the rug and
listen. This is a common tactic my CT and I use. I will also remind students that I will
call on many students but only as they are raising their hand. I will also remind them that
I will ask many question and many students will get a chance to talk, because I also have
one student who gets very upset when he is not called on.
My other worried is that my lower level student will not want to share. I will have to
remind them that we are going to work together and there is no wrong answer to what
you are thinking. So, hopefully because we have an open feeling, all students will share.
For these students, I will also be sure to ask them questions when they are working with
their partners. This way if they are too scared to share in front of others, at least I can get
some assessments on what they are thinking.
During our pre-assessment I had some students that did not understand how to work with
their partner. They were only given 6 manipulatives and they tried to divide them
between the 4 people at the table. They were not able to work through the problem this
way. I am worried that this will happen again. However, since we have done this now
once it will hopefully not be as bad an issue. Also, because they will be working in
partners not groups of 4. This is also an addition problem and not a division problem
which could have been confusing the last time. I think it would also be a better idea to
give them more manipulative than just the number needed for the problem. That would
give them the answer and they would not have to think it through themselves.