Lesson Plan #2:

Grade: 4th
Social Studies Strand: Geography
Submitted By: Corrina Spidell

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science
Nevada State College Spring 2014
Instructor: Karen Powell




Lesson Plan for Wednesday GEOGRAPHY submitted by: Corrina Spidell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2
Summary of the Lesson Plan: This lesson plan is designed for 4th grade students to introduce
important processes that contribute to the shaping of the Earths surface, and how to identify
them. This lesson uses the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Textbook State & Regions (p. 16-19).

B. Basic Information:
Grade Level: 4
th
grade
Time to Complete this Lesson: approximately 50 minutes
Groupings: Whole group reading; individual activity and assessment.
C. Materials:
Textbook - Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Textbook
State & Regions (p. 16-19) for each student.
Vocabulary words (p. 16,17,18) and 30 copies of the
worksheet (p. 19)
Computer to show video
Color pencils
D. Objectives:
o NV State Social Studies Standards
G5.4.2 Identify spatial patterns on a map of Nevada, i.e., deserts, mountains,
population.
o Student-Friendly Standards
I can understand why there are different patterns on a map.
Lesson Plan for Wednesday GEOGRAPHY submitted by: Corrina Spidell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3
E. Vocabulary
Tectonic Plate a huge slab of slowly moving rock. (p.16)
Erosion a process of wearing away rock and soil. (p.17)
Glacier a huge mass of slowly moving ice. (p.17)
Basin an area with a low center surrounded by higher land. (p.18)
F. Procedure:
1. Engage students by showing them the YouTube video that takes them over many of
the amazing views of the Grand Canyon.
http://youtu.be/ezpqDi42pRM
2. Ask the students to name some facts that they heard or
learned from the video, 3-5 should be sufficient. Go over
some background knowledge with the class.
3. As a class Read: through pages 16-19, stopping to discuss
any salient points with the students. Reading Aloud and
Thinking Aloud to share ideas.
4. Introduce Vocabulary: have students complete the
worksheet given to them with the vocab words.
5. Challenge students to create their own drawings/sketches to represent the vocabulary
words on their worksheets (the worksheet should be blank
on the bottom and the back). (p. 17)
6. Clean Up supplies that were used for the sketches, prepare
them to be turned in.
G. Assessment:
What will you use to measure student understanding?
Students will be asked the following question as a form of informal assessment.

The answer can be found in the text and I would be very curious to know some of the
other ideas the class can come up with.
Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.
I will be able to know that my students understand the concepts based on their
answers and drawing on their vocabulary worksheet as well as the answers I get to the
assessment question.

Lesson Plan for Wednesday GEOGRAPHY submitted by: Corrina Spidell

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4
H. Closure: Many things shape the Earth and it is beautiful to see all the changes that can
and do take place. But we mustnt forget all of the training we did the last two days. Do a
small/informal/out loud pop quiz on concepts and vocabulary words that were learned
on Monday and Tuesday.
Reflection:
1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?
I think that engaging the students will be easy because I will have them watch a
video that is short and to the point, it will grab their attention.
2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?
The assessment will be the most challenging for me, I am not sure if I can expect my
students to remember such a small detail from the text but I certainly hope that not
too much time will be wasted.
3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?
This lesson can be extended with an earth science lesson on weathering or on the
water cycle, or even a geological time scale lesson.
4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts?
Having the students define each vocabulary word on the worksheet given to them
and then allowing them to draw the meanings of each of the concepts learned in
class will help students that are not grasping concepts easily.
5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?
I really enjoyed this lesson and I think that perhaps the only thing I would change is
the fact that the video was from you tube, I would have preferred something from
teacher tube.
6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?
The most difficult part of this lesson was cutting it down to make sure that I only
focus on the important information for now. It is quite easy to get carried away in a
subject that you like, and because this relates so closely to Earth Science I got very
enthusiastic.