EDR 317/318 Lesson Plan Template for SLO

(40 points)

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Alissa Lyons
Lesson Day
Grade 4
Topic: Writing a Thank You Letter Minilesson
Group: Whole Group
November 1, 2017
How will this lesson support the learning goal? (essential question)
How does knowing the parts of a thank you letter impact how the letter is written?
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)
(1 point)

Objective(s)
Students will be able to
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)
(2 points) Compose a thank you letter using appropriate words and phrases.
Demonstrate the parts of a letter through participation in a class discussion.
Taking the learning goal into consideration, what is the objective(s) of
this lesson that will support progress toward the learning goal.

Objectives should be learner focused (not what the teacher will do or

accomplish), observable (use verbs that can be measured), and target a
specific outcome. Please refer to the SLO User Guide for the ABCD
method or I CAN statements that can be used as a guide.

PA Standards (2 points)
www.Pdesas.org/Standard/view or Standard CC.1.4.4.Q Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.
https://www.pdesas.org/Page?pageId=11
Standard CC.1.5.4.A Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on
grade- level topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing their own
clearly.

ISTE Standards (if applicable) N/A

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 Technology Materials/ Resources
(1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources)
(2 points)
What texts, digital resources, & materials will be used in this lesson?
How do the materials align with the learning objective(s)? If
appropriate, what educational technology will be used to support the
learning outcomes of this lesson? How do the resources support the
learning objectives?
Cite publications and any web resources.
Anticipatory Set
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy)
(2 points)
1 minute
How will you set the purpose and help students learn why todays lesson
is important to them as learners?
How will you pique the interest or curiosity regarding the lesson topic?
How will you build on students prior knowledge?
How will you introduce and explain the strategy/concept or skill?
Provide very detailed steps.
RJM Fall 2017 SLO Lesson Plan Template
Writing a Letter Anchor Chart (picture at bottom)
o This will be used as a demonstration after we have had out class
discussion to show the different parts of a completed letter.
Whiteboard
o The teacher will write out on the white board students suggestions for
what can go in a thank you letter.
Letter Paper
o Each student will be given a letter paper to start their letter on.
Crayons and Markers
o Students can use these to color in their letter if they finish early.
Kemper, Dave, et al. Forms of Writing. Writers Express: a Handbook for
Young Writers, Thinkers, and Learners, Write Source, 2000, pp.144-149
o This book was used as inspiration for how to go about teaching the
parts of a letter, specifically a thank you letter.
By a show of hands who knows what Veterans Day is? Have a student explain.
Veterans Day is a day dedicated to all American veterans of war as well as active
military members. For Veterans Day, you will be writing thank you letters. But before
we can write a letter, we have to know the different parts of a letter. We have to know
these parts so that we can write a good letter. Today we will review those parts.
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 Instructional Activities
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy;
1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)
(15 points)
15 minutes
Exploration (Model): How will students explore the new concepts? How
will you model or provide explicit instruction? You MUST include a
teacher think-aloud using student-friendly language here.
Guided Practice: How will you provide support to students as they apply
the new concept? How will you allow them to practice (with teacher
support)?
Independent practice: How will students review and solidify these
concepts to be able to use this new knowledge? How will you monitor
and provide feedback?
Provide very detailed steps and include teacher talk where appropriate.
RJM Fall 2017 SLO Lesson Plan Template
The teacher will have the anchor chart covered so students cannot see the parts of
a letter. Teacher will hand out a letter paper to each student. Im handing you the
paper you will write your letter on. For now, place it on your desk and dont touch
it.
Teacher will ask what is the first thing we put on our letter. Accept student
response. Yes, we put the date, this is also known as the header. Teacher will
lower the cover so student can see the header. What comes next? Have a student
answer. Right, we say dear, this is also known as the greeting. The greeting
begins with the word Dear and is followed by the name. In this case, we will write
Dear Veteran or Dear Soldier. Move the cover so the greeting is showing.
Teacher will hold up their letter paper and pointing to the upper right corner on
the blank side say Now I want you to write the date up in the right corner. Teacher
will demonstrate on their paper. When you are done, I want you to skip two lines
and go to the left-hand side and write your greeting. Remember to put a comma
after their name. When you are finished, put your pencil and paper down and look
at me.
Who can tell me what comes after our greeting? Have students answer. The body
comes next. This is where we write out our thoughts as a message. What are some
things you can include in your letters? I want you to turn and talk with a partner.
Allow about a minute, then ask for student ideas. As students answer, write their
ideas out on the whiteboard. These are all great ideas to write in a letter. Uncover
the body section of the anchor chart. Some ideas I came up with are thank you
very much for, I really appreciate that you, I think you are, I hope you
and thank you for everything you do. Also, remember that when you write the
body, you skip a line under the greeting and indent two finger spaces.
So, after we have written out our body, what comes next? Have a student answer.
Yes, we sign our name. First. we write either from or sincerely. This is known as
the closing. Then we write our name, this is known as the signature. Today, you
will only be writing your first name. Unveil the rest of the anchor chart.
Take some time now to start your letter. Feel free to use our sentence starters as
inspiration for what to write. Or if you have your own ideas, you can write those
as well. Allow 5-7 minutes for student to write. Walk around to monitor, making
sure everything written is appropriate. If you finish your letter early, you can color
in the picture on the front or draw a picture in your letter.
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 Closure
After allotted time has passed, teacher will regain student attention. Give me five,
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)
four, three, two, one. Now its time to stop writing. If you are completely finished,
(2 points)
you can hand it in up front. If you still need to work on it, put it in your writing
1 minute folder and we will come back to it.
How will students share or show what they have learned in this lesson? Today we learned the parts of a letter, who can tell me what the five parts are?
How will you restate the teaching point or ask students to do so and Have a student answer. It is important to know the parts of a thank you letter so
clarify key concepts? that your reader is able to understand your letter. Thank you notes need to be
How will you provide opportunities to extend ideas and check for especially specific because that person has to know why what they did or gave to
understanding? you was important.
How will this lesson lead to the next lesson?
Differentiation
For students who are below level with writing, they will be able to use both the
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)
anchor chart and the sentence starters written on the board. This is also an
(2 points)
example of universal design for learning because even students who are not below
What differentiated support will you provide for students whose level can benefit from it.
academic development is below or above the current grade level? For Students who are above level, I will challenge them to make their letter more
What specific differentiation of content, process, products, and/or detailed or think of ideas to write about that were not written on the board.
learning environment do you plan to employ to meet the needs of all of This lesson promotes creativity and critical thinking by asking the students what
your students? they think should go into a thank you letter. The students have to think about and
How will your lesson be supportive for all students, including English then discuss their ideas before sharing with the class. The discussion allows them
Language Learners, and build upon the linguistic, cultural, and to extend on possible ideas they may have had.
experiential resources that they bring to their learning?
How will your lesson promote creative and critical thinking and
inventiveness?
Accommodations ** (see note below) One boy in my class struggles with the physical act of writing. For him, I would
have the one-on-one aide write out the body of his letter for him. He would tell
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)
her what he wants to say and she would scribe it. This way he can still compose
(1 points)
his letter without actually having to write it.
What classroom accommodations do you plan to employ to increase
curriculum access for students identified with special education needs or
504?
Describe how these accommodations align with the current
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for each student as applicable
(avoid using actual names of students).

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 Modifications**(see note below)
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)
N/A
(1 points)
What curricular modifications and/or changes in performance
standards, if any, do you plan to employ to facilitate the participation of
students identified with special education needs?
Assessment (Formal or Informal) Formative
(1f: Assessing Student Learning) The teacher will check to see if students can compose a letter using appropriate
(3 points) words and phrases throughout the lesson. As the teacher asks what can go into the
How will you and the students assess where the learning objectives, body of a paragraph, she will be able to assess for understanding. The teacher can
listed above, were met? also check this during the turn and talk by walking around and listening to groups.
The teacher will check for demonstrating the parts of a letter though class
Each formal or informal assessment should describe how it is aligned to discussion while they are having the discussion. The teacher will be able to
the above objective(s). formatively evaluate if students are understanding the parts of a letter based on
how they participate in the discussion.

Summative:
The teacher will check to see if students can compose a letter using appropriate
words and phrases after they have completed their letter. When students hand in
the final product, the teacher will evaluate their letter to make sure all five parts
and present and to make sure they used appropriate wording throughout their
body.

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 Reflection on Instruction
(7 points)
At the conclusion of the lesson you should reflect on the lesson. The
reflection should go beyond simply answering the question Was this a
good lesson? Below are some questions to assist you in your reflective
process (Danielson, 2008):
o What evidence did you collect to demonstrate that your students
have met or are progressing towards the learning
outcomes/objectives?
o View student work samples. What do they reveal about the
students level of engagement and comprehension?
o What changes, if any, would you make to the lesson if you teach
this lesson in the future? What misconceptions, if any, do you
need to clarify before teaching the next lesson?
o Did you stray from your lesson plan? If so, how and why?
o Comment on your classroom procedures, student conduct, and
your use of physical space. To what extent did these contribute
to student learning?
o Comment on different aspects of your instructional delivery
(e.g., activities, grouping of students, materials/resources
utilized). To what extent were they effective?
RJM Fall 2017 SLO Lesson Plan Template
During the lesson, I had students write out the heading and greeting. I was able to
circulate a check them all to see that they had done it correctly. At the end of the
lesson, I collected the student letters that were completed. From what I could see, all
the students met the learning objectives. They had formatted their letter right and used
appropriate words and phrases to convey their ideas. Since some students did not
finish, they took it home to complete it but Mr. R said he would hold them until
Monday so I could check the rest of them. During the turn and talk, I also walked
around and listened to what students were saying, everything sounded appropriate. I
also had at least one student from each group share. The letters showed that students
were engaged during the lesson and that they comprehended the material.
Since the students were just coming back from lunch, Mr. R gave me full reign to gain
their attention and start the lesson. I had to wait a few minutes until all the students
were seated. I changed my lesson plan and handed out the letter sheets before they got
back from lunch, this saved me time during the lesson. One downfall of this was that
before the lesson started, the students got distracted with what was on their desks.
Some asked if they should fold it, I told them to wait until the lesson started, but some
students folded it anyway. They also told me that they had done this in previous years.
I told them I knew that but that we were going to review what was appropriate to
write. I did a give me five to gain their attention, which worked well.
The students were very respectful throughout the lesson. Mr. R told me I had much
better control of them this time around. I felt more confident in front of them. They all
waited to be called on patiently and did not call out. During the turn and talk all
students were engaged with a partner. This seemed to work well because it gave them
much needed time to talk instead of just listening to me or their peers. They were all
eager to share ideas. Some students kept mentioning thanking them for protecting our
rights. Mr. R stepped in and asked them to think about what rights specifically they
were protecting. This furthered the discussion and got a lot more responses from
students. Expanding on questions is something I will have to work on. In the future, I
will think more about possible responses and be more diligent about expanding on
them. I would not have thought to ask that but I am glad he did because it really
seemed to get the students thinking more in depth.
The lesson went longer than expected, 30 minutes instead of 20, but I decided it was
okay since the students were so engaged with writing their letters. Also, the discussion
lasted 2-3 minutes longer than I had anticipated. Mr. R agreed that the time spent was
an appropriate amount of time, even if it went over. I had planned to cut them off
earlier but the students seemed really focused on finishing their letter. Even at the end
when I told them to pack it up, a few students continued working to finish their last
sentence or add one more detail to their drawing.
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 The anchor chart also seemed to be a big help. I noticed a lot of students used my
sentence starters in their letters and then used the ideas we came up with on the board.
One girl went on to write about how they fought for womens right and how without
them England might still be controlling us. This took me by surprise because I did not
think they knew that much about history yet. It was nice to see some students
expanding and incorporating their own ideas. Overall, I feel the lesson was very
effective and students met the objectives I set in place.

**Accommodations and Modifications

Students with disabilities may need accommodations or modifications to their educational program to participate in the general curriculum. Both are essential to
consider when planning an equitable educational experience for students with disabilities. Accommodations refer to changes in how a student learns the material
but they do not change knowledge content. With accommodations, a student receives the SAME education as other children, but the student can access content or
express knowledge in different ways. Modifications refer to changes of what is taught or what students with disabilities are expected to learn. This may include
adaptations made to instruction and assessment that change or reduce learning expectations. (Please refer to the SLO User Guide and SLO template for additional
explanation.)
When completing these two sections, you need to describe, if appropriate, how you will ensure that students will access the material based on the accommodations
or modifications listed within the IEP or 504 plan. There should be a direct connection within the Anticipatory Set, Instructional Activity, and Closure section of
the lesson plan template.

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