POWERFUL SOCIAL STUDIES LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program: ELED 434 ALL SECTIONS

The following information should be included in the header of the lesson plan:
 Meghan Kelly
 Debbie Sprouse; Hugh K. Cassell Elementary School
 2nd Grade
 Tuesday, November 13th at 9:45am
 Date written plan is submitted to the practicum teacher: November 6 th, 2018

(Include ONLY the title of each of the following sections in your written plan.)

A. TITLE OF LESSON: Who is the Statue of Liberty and why is she so important?

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON

Prior to planning this lesson, I conducted a pre-assessment where I asked three students some questions about the Statue of
Liberty. I asked them the following questions: “What do you know about the Statue of Liberty?” “Where is the Statue of Liberty?”
“Where did she come from?” “What does the Statue of Liberty look like?” “What does the Statue of Liberty mean?” I received
responses from the students that showed they know the Statue of Liberty is in New York, and that it is located in the ocean. However,
they did not know where it came from or who built it. They knew that the Statue of Liberty is now green, but had some confusion
about whether it had always been or if it changed. They also knew that it was a huge statue, but did not know what it was made of. For
the meaning, one student mentioned that the Statue of Liberty means “you’re in America”, but did not know why it held that meaning.
Other students did not know what the statue meant.

After being in the classroom for many weeks, I have observed the student’s participation in lessons and gathered information
that supports my decision to do a narrative and discussion based lesson. The students enjoy participating in discussions where they can
talk about their opinions and ideas and ask questions. Literature also plays a large part in this classroom, and has been used effectively
in the past as a tool to provide information to the students about various subjects. I believe the combination of these two activities
would be a good fit for my students because it would allow them to share their ideas, but also formulate opinions and statements off of
information from the book. The book I have chosen also does not answer all of the questions they may have, so we can have an open
discussion and think of ways the students may be able to find the answers to their questions on their own. The students will also be
partaking in this activity after completing a general lesson about various US symbols, including the Statue of Liberty. Because they
will have some basic knowledge about the topic already, the activity I am planning will allow them to use their previous knowledge to
expand on what they know and make connections and inferences.
 According to John B. Bigg’s and K. Collin’s model of Structure of Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) Taxonomy, there are
five levels of understanding. These are Pre-Structural, Uni-Structural, Multi-Structural, Relational, and Extended abstract. At this point
in time, the students probably have a Uni-Structural or Multi-Structural understanding of the topic of the Statue of Liberty, meaning
they only know one aspect about the statue or know several relevant aspects, but see them as independent of one another. This is clear
through their knowledge about the statue being in New York, in the ocean, and having the meaning that a person is in the US, but their
inability to draw connections between these aspects of the statue to understand the relationship between the location of the statue and
the meaning it holds for people entering the US. For this reason, the narrative and discussion activities have been chosen to move
students to the Relational level where they will begin to integrate the aspects they know into a coherent whole, and gain at the very
least an adequate understanding of the topic.

C. RATIONALE:

I will be teaching the students some basic information about the Statue of Liberty as well as giving them an opportunity to
discuss and consider the meaning behind the symbol. After hearing their misconceptions, I believe it is very important for the students
to have a basic understanding of what the Statue is, where it is located, where it came from, and how it got to be how it is today before
going deeper into the meaning behind the symbol. I cannot expect them to make connections and dig deeper into a topic if they do not
have some background information that is accurate before-hand. I think it is very important for these students to have a deep
understanding of the Statue of Liberty because it is a national symbol of the United States, and is perceived by many as a symbol that
embodies America. It has served as the image of travelling to and arriving in America for many both in the past and present, and it is
important for students to understand this significance and how it still serves as a symbol for many today. This will also allow them to
be informed citizens as we will be discussing both the values that the symbol conveys and the topic of immigration through this lesson.
Not only is the Statue of Liberty a common topic that students should have knowledge about, but it is also held in very high esteem by
many and students need to understand why to develop as citizens. They need to know why it has served as a symbol for so many who
have immigrated to this country, and consider why people have left their homes to come to the US, why they have chosen the US, and
what many believe the US can offer for them. Through these questions the students will learn what US values the statue conveys, and
become more informed citizens in this way as well. Finally, this lesson will follow students outside of school, as they interact with
other students and people from all over the world. This lesson will encourage them to have an open mind and consider other’s
viewpoints, as well as the fact that it may not seem important to them right now but someday very well could be. The subject of
immigration and US values is both a historical and current issue that is relevant in the community and society today, and students will
have many opportunities to connect what they learn in this lesson to other questions they may have or interactions they may be a part
of in the future.

D. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and related NATIONAL STANDARDS)

2.13 The student will understand the symbols and traditional practices that honor and foster patriotism in the United States of
America by
 a) explaining the meaning behind symbols such as the American flag, bald eagle, Washington Monument, and Statue
of Liberty;
D2.His.14.K-2. Generate possible reasons for an event or development in the past.
E. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand
Today I am learning about the
Statue of Liberty so I can explain
why it is important to people
living in the United States and
people from other countries.
Know
I know…
I know the Statue of Liberty is a
symbol of the United States.
I know that the Statue of Liberty is
a monument.
I know the Statue of Liberty was a about the Statue of Liberty.
gift from France.
I know that another word for
liberty is freedom.
I know the Statue of Liberty
wasn’t always green and it turned
green because it is made of
copper.
I know that the Statue of Liberty
stands for liberty, independence,
and friendship between countries.
I know that an immigrant is a
person who moves to a new
country.
I know that the Statue of Liberty
Do
I can…
I can give information about what
I know already about the Statue of
Liberty.
I can ask questions or provide
information that I want to know
I can provide examples of what I
learned about the Statue of
Liberty.
I can participate in a discussion
with my peers about the meaning
of the Statue of Liberty.
I can describe both basic facts
about the Statue of Liberty as well
as why the statue is important.
I’ll know I am successful when I
can describe the Statue of Liberty
and the meaning she holds to those
around me and across the world.
 welcomed immigrants coming to
the US to their new home.
F. ASSESSING LEARNING:
Task: Diagnostic features:
Think, Pair, - Look for students to be actively engaged
Share for KWL with their peers during sharing time
about the Statue - Look for students to show
of Liberty agreement/disagreement with non-verbal
signals or adding-on opportunities
- Look for students to ask questions
beyond where basic facts about the
Statue of Liberty- prompt them to go
deeper
- Look for students to share what they
learned from the lesson following the
discussion
o Expect these to include both basic
facts about the Statue and the
meaning behind it
Support:
- Provide students with
multiple images of the
Statue of Liberty to jog
their memory or give
them a basis to formulate
questions based on if they
do not have any prior
knowledge of the statue
- Pair up certain students
during the Think, Pair,
Share who feel
comfortable sharing with
one another so that they
can be as productive and
engaged as possible
- Ask for students to share
what they talked about as
a group, rather than
simply their own ideas,
so that they can share the
ideas of others as well if
they are not comfortable
sharing their own
- Students will be asked to
Discussion - Students are engaged listening to their
peers and contributing to the
conversation
- Students show agreement/disagreement
with non-verbal signals or adding-on
opportunities
- Students ask questions during the
discussion to prompt responses from
their peers
Exit Ticket - Students complete a 3-2-1 Exit Ticket
about what they learned from the lesson
o 3 things they now know about the
Statue of Liberty
o 2 things that surprised them about
the Statue of Liberty
o 1 question they still have about
the Statue of Liberty
respond both verbally
and non-verbally
(through hand signals for
agreement and
disagreement) so that all
can participate
- Students will have the
opportunity to write
questions down that they
would like to be
answered/discussed
instead of asking them
aloud
- Students will be given the
opportunity to talk to
their shoulder partners
before sharing during
some parts of the
discussion
- Exit Slips with varying
levels of difficulty will be
provided to various
students in the class
- Some exit slips will
simply ask the question
then provide room to
answer.
- Some exit slips will
provide sentence starters
for students to answer the
questions (I know now…
I am surprised that… I
am still wondering)
- Some exit slips will be
“multiple choice style”,
allowing the students to
choose what they learned,
 what surprised them, and
what questions they have
from a variety of options.

G. MATERIALS NEEDED

- Whiteboard
- Whiteboard Marker
- Smartboard
- BrainPOP Video: The Statue of Liberty
- Eve Bunting’s A Picnic in October
o Bunting, E., & Carpenter, N. (1999). A Picnic in October.
San Diego: Harcourt Brace.
- Exit Slips (with Differentiation)
H. PROCEDURE
Activity Element Procedures and management
& Time (in minutes)
Introduction- 1 minute What do we know about the Statue of
Liberty? What do we want to know
about the Statue of Liberty? Before we
get started with our lesson today, we
are going to answer these two
questions.
Event 1- 5 minutes We are going to take a few minutes to
think about what we know, discuss
with a partner about what we know,
and then share out as a class. We are
going to make one big list of
everything we know about the Statue
of Liberty- this can be what she looks
like, where she is located, what she
stands for, anything.
Think for 1-2 minutes.
Pair for 1-2 minutes.
As students share what they know
about the statue, I will record their
responses on the white board. I will
Students
Students will think to themselves
about what they know about the Statue
of Liberty.
Students will talk to the person/people
around them and share what they
know about the Statue of Liberty.
Students will share out what they
know about the Statue of Liberty.
Academic, physical, social
& linguistic differentiation,
resources, and support
I will provide students with
multiple images of the Statue
of Liberty to jog their
memory or give them a basis
to formulate questions based
on if they do not have any
prior knowledge of the statue
Pair up certain students
during the Think, Pair, Share
who feel comfortable
sharing with one another so
that they can be as
productive and engaged as
possible
Ask for students to share
what they talked about as a
group, rather than simply
their own ideas, so that they
 ask other students to show if they
agree or disagree by nodding or
shaking their heads (or thumbs up or
down) and if they would like to add on
to anything their peers have said.
Students will listen to what their peers can share the ideas of others
are saying, agree or disagree, and add as well if they are not
on to their statements. comfortable sharing their
own

Transition- 1 minute Now we are going to think about what

we want to know about the Statue of
Liberty. This can be questions you
have, things you are confused about,
or just random things you are curious
about.
Event 2- 5 minutes We are going to take a few minutes to
think about what we want to know,
discuss with a partner about what we
want to know, and then share out as a
class. We are going to make one big
list of everything we want to know
about the Statue of Liberty.

Think for 1-2 minutes. Students will think to themselves

about what they want to know about
the Statue of Liberty.

Pair for 1-2 minutes.
As students share what they want to
know about the statue, I will record
their responses on the white board. I
will ask other students to show if they
also have that question by nodding or
giving a thumbs up, or if they would
like to add on to anything their peers
have said.
Students will talk to the person/people
around them and share what they want
to know about the Statue of Liberty.
Students will share out what they want
to know about the Statue of Liberty.
Students will listen to what their peers
are saying and agree if they too have
that question.
I will circulate and make
sure all of the students are
paired up- if not I will add
them to a group or ask them
questions and have a
discussion with them myself.
Transition- 1 minute Now, we are going to get started
learning about the Statue of Liberty.
First, we are going to watch a quick
video that is going to tell us a little bit
about the Statue of Liberty and see if
that answers any of the questions we
might have.
Event 3- 6 minutes We will watch the BrainPOP video on Students will sit quietly and
the Statue of Liberty. respectfully on the carpet while
watching the video.

I will pause the video to emphasize Students will answer any questions I
that the statue was a gift from France, ask to reiterate important points from
that liberty is another word for the video when it is paused.
freedom, that the statue was not
always green, that the statue stands for
liberty, independence, and friendship
between countries, and the meaning of
an immigrant and what the statue
meant to immigrants coming to the
US.
Transition- 1 minute Now that we know a little bit more Look at KWL chart to see if we can
about the Statue of Liberty, can we answer any questions; provide
answer any of our questions? answers if so

Now we’re going to read a book that

talks a little bit more about the
meaning of the Statue of Liberty. This
book is called A Picnic in October,
and it is about a family who visits the
Statue of Liberty.
Event 4- 10 minutes Read the students A Picnic in October. Students will sit and listen to the book.
Pause throughout the book to ask They will answer questions as I pause
questions to the students: to show understanding of what is
What is the family going to? occurring.
Who is going to be at the birthday
party?
 Why does the family have to ride a
boat to the picnic?
Who’s birthday are they celebrating?
Why is the Statue of Liberty so
important to the grandma?
Transition- 1 minute Now that we have read a book about Students will make a circle on the
why the Statue of Liberty is important carpet to have our discussion.
to some people, let’s talk a little more
about it.
Event 5- 10 minutes We’re going to have a discussion to
talk a little bit about the meaning of
the Statue of Liberty. There are a few
rules for when we have a discussion
like this. First, we need to sit on our
bottoms and be respectful, that means
listening to one another and not
interrupting. There is no right or
wrong answers during our discussion,
we are just talking about what we
think.
If you have something you would like
to say, I would like you to raise your
hand. If you agree with something
someone is saying, I would like you to
show a thumbs up. You can also add
on to what someone says and give
your opinion as well.

To start off our discussion, I want you
to think of a time that you went
somewhere where you did not know
anyone. Think about this time, and
think about how you felt. Were you
scared? Excited? Happy? Worried?
Why did you feel that way? What
helped you feel better when you were
Students will participate in a
discussion with their peers. If they
would like to contribute, they will
raise their hand and be called on by
me (since this is their first formal
discussion as a class). They will also
show agreement through a thumbs up.
Students will have the
opportunity to think-pair-
share during this discussion
if needed to increase
participation.
I will circulate and make
sure all of the students are
paired up- if not I will add
 there? them to a group or ask them
questions and have a
How do you think the Grandma in the discussion with them myself.
book we read felt when she came to
the country? Why do you think she During a think-pair-share, I
celebrates the statues birthday every will circulate to ask the
year? students if there are any
questions they would like to
Now a lot of people, immigrants, ask the class, or have me ask
came to the US on boats, so the first the class. They can also
thing they saw when they arrived to write these questions on a
the US was the Statue of Liberty. How sheet of paper.
do you think that made them feel?
How would you feel?

We see the Statue of Liberty as a

symbol for liberty, independence, and
friendship between countries. What
does this mean?
Transition- 1 minute Thank you for a great discussion. I
really enjoyed hearing your thoughts,
and appreciate everyone being
respectful towards one another. Now,
we are going to take one more look at
our chart and see if we can answer any
of the questions we had.
Event 6- 4 minutes Can we answer any of the questions Students will look at the questions we
we had? had and raise their hand if we
answered any of them.

Let’s add some other things to our
chart that we learned. Who has
something they would like to share
that they learned?
Transition- 1 minute Now we’re going to head back to our
seats and do a quick exit slip so I can
see what you learned today from my
Students will share other things that
they have learned from the BrainPOP,
the book, or the discussion.
All the students will return to their
seats and get out a pencil.
 lesson. Please go back to your seats
and grab a pencil to write with.
Event 7/Conclusion- 10 I’m going to hand a piece of paper out
minutes to all of you, and I would like you to
write your name on the top. Please
read the paper, and answer the
questions. I would like you to tell me
3 things that you learned today, 2
things that surprised you about the
Statue of Liberty, and 1 question that
you still have.
Each student will receive a paper and
complete it individually.
Exit Slips with varying
levels of difficulty will be
provided to various students
in the class
Some exit slips will simply
ask the question then provide
room to answer.
Some exit slips will provide
sentence starters for students
to answer the questions (I
know now… I am surprised
that… I am still wondering)

Some exit slips will be

“multiple choice style”,
allowing the students to
choose what they learned,
what surprised them, and
what questions they have
from a variety of options.

I. DIFFERENTIATION:

There are many ways that I will differentiate the lesson to meet all of the needs of the students in my classroom. First, there is a
student who is lacking previous knowledge about this topic and is very low on a developmental level. To support her, I will show her
images of the Statue of Liberty so that she learns what the statue looks like. During think-pair-shares, this student will be paired up
with another student who she works well with and will be able to have a conversation with. During thinking and sharing times, I will
check in to make sure that she is on task and provide any support that is necessary. When completing the exit slip, she will be given a
multiple-choice version and complete it with me. I will record her answer choices and anything else that she states. There is also a
student who has Autism. This student will be shown images of the Statue of Liberty, and will be paired with either Mrs. Sprouse or
Mrs. Coleman during think-pair-shares. The student will sit where he would like to during the discussion, either with the class or in a
quiet place if he needs a break. Finally, the student will complete the exit slip with sentence starters.

There is also a student who has severe ADHD. To jog his memory and keep him engaged, the student will be given images of
the Statue of Liberty that he can hold and interact with. He will be paired up with another student during think-pair-shares that he
works well with. During the discussion, this student will sit next to me, and be asked to show if he agrees or disagrees with the
statements his peers are giving. If at any time the student needs time to refocus or needs something to do, he will be my helper and I
will provide him with an activity or task to complete. Finally, the student will complete the exit slip that has the sentence starters on it.
A few other students in the class may need the difficulty of the exit slip adjusted so that they can successfully complete the task. These
students will also be provided the exit slip with sentence starters on it.

There will likely be a few students who may find the content minimally challenging. The day of the lesson, these students will
be encouraged to think deeper during the discussion and participate with their peers. These students will also be given an exit slip that
simply poses the questions without options to choose from or sentence starters. The day of the lesson, I will have other books available
in the classroom for students to reference after they complete their exit slips, and I will tell these students that this is an opportunity to
find the answers to any questions they may still have.

J. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

One thing that could go wrong is that we could have a longer discussion than expected, and run out of time to complete the
exit slip. If this occurs, I will conduct a quick review of what we learned (filling out the L of the KWL) and then ask the students to
complete the exit slip during their reading time. This could count as part of writing time in the afternoon, and if this were to occur I
would stress that the students should write complete sentences to connect it to the writing curriculum.

Another thing that could go wrong is the discussion could go off topic. My goal is for this discussion to be student-led, but
also kept on topic with the Statue of Liberty and discussing it’s meaning. If the discussion went off topic, I would first encourage
them to take a minute to themselves to think about the questions they still have about the Statue of Liberty or connections they
made from the book. Then, I would ask if any students would like to start us off by making a statement or question, then ask other
students to add on or agree/disagree. This way, I can get the conversation back on track but also keep it student-led.

A third thing that could go wrong is that a student gets pulled out during the majority of the lesson but then returns for the
exit slip. This could easily happen due to the timing of the lesson being dependent on the length of our discussions and sharing of
ideas. If a student were to return in the middle of the lesson or right before completing the exit slip, I would first give them some of
the Statue of Liberty books to look at while I get the rest of the class situated to an independent-working point. If all the other
students are then working on their exit slips, I would go over to the student who returned and talk to them a little bit about the
Statue of Liberty. I would then get them a device so that they could watch the BrainPOP video and gain some information about the
 statue. Then, I would give them the exit slip and ask them to answer the questions based on the video and what they learned. I will
also have the KWL posted in the room (or still on the whiteboard) so the student can answer that as well.

Finally, the last thing that could go wrong is that students could be talking or messing around during the reading of the
book, and not listening. If this were occurring while I was reading the book, I would stop reading and take a minute to regroup the
class. If they are wiggly and need to get some energy out, we will stand up and take a lap around the room/get wiggles out/stretch
to get ready to listen. If some students are experiencing difficulty sitting next to their peers or on the carpet in general, I will ask
them to find a new seat that they know they can do their best listening in. It also may get to a point where I ask some students to
return to their desks (where they will still be able to see the book). These strategies should allow the students to become re-centered
and focused on listening to the story

Lesson Implementation Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be
thorough in your reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why you made them.

The actual teaching of my lesson differed from my lesson plan in many ways, due to lack of time and also some technological difficulty. During
the think-pair-share, we actually skipped the “think” part the first time because I told them about shoulder partners beforehand, and they were so
excited to pair up that they began talking to their partners about their ideas. I didn’t want to use time to re-center the students as they were having
on-topic discussions, so we just continued with the pair and share. The students all wanted to share their ideas, so while I did ask them to show
agreement with a thumbs up, I did not ask them to add on to other’s ideas due to the number of ideas that were being shared out. During the
creation of the KWL chart, we were using a new program on the smart board that was having some technical difficulties. Because of this, I only
ended up writing down the K and W sections, and then asked the students to verbally discuss the L. We had a great discussion and answered all of
the questions that we wanted to know, so at the time it appeared to be successful. However, when it came time for the exit slip, I believe many of
the students could have benefitted from having the “L” displayed for them to reference. The displaying of the “L” would have largely helped the
students with the spelling of vocabulary words during the completion of the exit slip, so instead I had to write many words on the board for them.
Finally, our discussion was cut short on time (it was about time for specials and then lunch) and the students were getting very antsy. They got off
topic pretty quickly and went from making connections through times they went somewhere new to being jokey about it- essentially turning it in
to a story time. We tried to move on to the next question, but they kept getting distracted by what was previously discussed and shared by their
peers. To wrap up the discussion, we briefly talked about the grandma from the book and attempted to make some connections, but with only a
few students contributing I decided to summarize the content and then move on to the exit slip.

II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned?
What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?
Based on the completion of the KWL, I was able to clearly see the misconceptions and the questions the students had. This ensured that I was able
to answer a majority of the questions they had. The students verbally told me what they learned by answering the questions that we had after
watching the video and reading the book. We were able to answer a majority of the questions the students had with multiple students contributing
to the discussion of what they learned, so I could tell a majority of the class had learned.

The discussion did not serve as a very good representation of the student’s learning. This served more as an opportunity for the students to make
connections, but they did not make the connections that I was hoping they would. I attribute this to the timing of the lesson and its length (they
were losing interest) as well as the amount of content that was jammed into this lesson. We put such a large focus on our KWL chart at the
beginning of the lesson, and once this was completed they were not as focused on the book or the discussion. I think that this discussion would
have served as a better assessment if I had split the lesson into occurring over two days- allowing the students to better interact with the meaning
behind the symbol after learning the facts, instead of trying to do both in one day.

The exit ticket was a very good representation of the student’s learning, especially the part where I asked them to name three things they had
learned. A majority of the students named things they learned from the video and our KWL chart, again confirming that the discussion may have
been more effective at another time. Some students struggled with the “surprised” part of the exit ticket, mainly because they did not know the
meaning behind the word. We were also low on time to complete this exit ticket, so some of the students were overwhelmed which impacted their
success in answering the questions. However, I was able to meet with the students who struggled later that afternoon and they were able to
demonstrate their understanding to me one-on-one verbally. This exit ticket was a great lesson in giving different opportunities for assessment for
each individual student. For example, many of the students who struggled to fill out the exit ticket struggled because they do not have strong
spelling skills or handwriting so they were focused more on that than the content they were writing down. By asking these students to verbally
respond to me later, I was able to put the focus back on the content and remove the writing element that was causing them difficulty (as the writing
itself was not being assessed, just the information they could convey).

I believe that all of my students learned something, even one student who had no previous knowledge about the statue. This student was able to
look at books about the statue and learn what it looked like, and because of this was able to be actively involved in the activity and convey her
understanding to me. A majority of the students learned basic facts about the statue- such as what color she used to be, why she is green, where she
came from, and where she is located. A few students also conveyed that they learned what the statue stands for and what the word liberty means.

III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more thorough way if you were to
teach this lesson again.

If I were to teach this lesson again, I would better incorporate the discussion element to be more developmentally appropriate for the group. These
students had never participated in a large group discussion like we were completing, so many students were not comfortable talking in front of
their peers. However, they excelled earlier in the think-pair-share, where they had the opportunity to think longer about the question and have their
ideas validated by their peers before sharing out. For this reason, I would adapt the discussion to begin in small groups or partnerships before
moving into larger groups. I would follow a format of “here’s a question, talk about the question, share out about the question” so students would
have more think time and more confidence when sharing out. Formatting the discussion in this way may have also helped the students to stay
better on topic. By using the discussion in this manner, students would ultimately become more comfortable with the strategy and eventually be
able to move to a more student-run discussion.

IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher?

Based on the assessment data I collected, in my next lesson I would definitely revisit the idea of people coming to America and the influence the
State of Liberty had on them. The students have a very good handle on what the statue looks like, where it comes from, and other facts about the
statue. However, they need to focus more on the meaning. They know the meaning of the word liberty and what the statue stands for, but do not
know and understand the meaning of the statue to citizens of the United States and people coming from other countries. Ultimately, they need to
answer the question: Why is the Statue of Liberty so important? To answer this question, I would create a jigsaw for the students to complete,
where groups of students would read various primary sources from the view point of people coming to America and seeing the statue. Hopefully,
reading these accounts would help the students to understand the meaning behind the statue and the importance she holds as a symbol in this
country.

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young children as learners?

As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, the idea of solo taxonomy levels of students has really been reinforced to me. This started when I
began to talk to the students about immigration a little bit and the meaning behind the statue. When I tried to relate it to being in a place where you
do not know anyone, a lot of students jumped on the connection because they were able to understand it and had some knowledge about it. They
were able to connect to the idea of being in a place where you know no one, but when asked to connect it to the feelings from the book, they were
not able to integrate their prior experience with the new information. This was because they were not yet at this stage, and I was asking them to
integrate this knowledge fairly quickly before confirming that they did indeed understand the new knowledge. With more time and more
information, through a jigsaw or other activity, we could focus more on experiences students and others have had before connecting it to what we
have learned, instead of trying to quickly combine the two steps.

VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about teaching?

I have learned that when teaching a lesson, it must be differentiated for different learners but also for different interests because that is what will
lead to student engagement. Aligning a lesson with student interests is going to answer the “why” question of why they are learning the
information in a way that applies to them as well, and this will lead to further engagement and participation. I have also learned the importance of
offering wait time to students. During the think-pair-share, many students had great ideas but struggled finding the words to convey them. By
giving them wait time, I allowed students to participate and convey their ideas at their own speed, instead of moving on to another student “for the
sake of time”. This gave many students the opportunity to participate that they may not have otherwise had.

VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about yourself?
Through the planning and teaching of this lesson, I have learned that I am a complete over-planner! I need to work on going with the flow and take
advantage of “teachable moments”. I know this will be easier to work on in a classroom of my own with my own students who I know well, as
well as when I am able to adapt a lesson to take place over two days instead of one (when I am not in practicum meeting such specific deadlines
and requirements). One “go with the flow” moment I had during this lesson was when one student who has autism wanted to answer the questions
in the KWL chart for the class. He came to the front of the room, and looked at me, waiting for me to ask him questions to answer. This was not
expected, and not the way I was planning to go over the “L” of our KWL chart- especially since I was planning on using it as a whole-class
assessment. I was able to quickly adapt and have the student answer some questions but also serve as my “helper” to call on other students to
answer questions as well. This opportunity gave this student a chance to participate in the lesson (which sometimes does not happen due to being
pulled out or completing other work) but also have a role as an “expert” in the classroom that he otherwise may not have had. I have learned that it
is so important to take advantage of these opportunities because they allow for development in other areas as a class and as a student, and this
development can be so beneficial and worth a slight detour from the plans.