Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Direct Instruction Lesson
Direct Instruction Lesson
Brenda N. Angeles
This lesson plan is ideally a two-day lesson. The first day should focus on the elements of
the plot diagram. The second day of the lesson is focused on the reading of New Shoes by Susan
Lynn Meyer and the student creation of a plot diagram about the book.
The class is a third grade class with 25 students. There are 2 English language learners
and two students who have reading dyslexia. The students are seated at big tables with 4 to 5
students sitting at each table. All students are seated where they do not face the opposite way of
Subject
This lesson plan is subject is under reading and writing. Students will learn about the
elements of a plot which include: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and
Objectives
The lesson plan is for students to learn about the elements of a plot and being able to
recognize a plot diagram. Below are the main objectives for this lesson plan:
1. Students will be able to list and define the elements of a plot with 80% accuracy.
2. After reading New shoes, s tudents will be able to construct a plotline from the events that
Procedure
The teacher will first introduce what a plot diagram is. The teacher should explain what
the purpose of a plot diagram is and how it will relate to almost every book that the student will
DIRECT INSTRUCTION PLAN 3
read. The teacher should explain the plot diagram (and elements) by creating a PowerPoint. Each
element should have individual PowerPoint slides that describe the definition of each plot
element.
After the PowerPoint presentation, the teacher will pass out a physical copy of the plot
diagram with definitions of each element. This paper will only be used as a reference for the
project that the students will create about New Shoes. This part of the lesson is in relationship to
On the second day of this lesson, the teacher should then introduce the book New Shoes
by Susan Lynn Meyer at the front of the class. The teacher should give a brief synopsis of the
book by saying:
“ The book that we are about to read is called New Shoes. It is a book that is based around the
1950s about a little girl named Ella Mae. In this story, Ella Mae will experience a problem when
she tries to buy a pair of shoes but finds a new solution to that problem with the help of her
friend, Charlotte.”
The teacher will read the book aloud at the front of the class. Students will all have copies
of the book by accessing their Google Classroom application through their Chromebooks. Each
student will have a Chromebook in order to access an online copy of the book. This online copy
should be used while working on the project. The teacher should simultaneously show the online
Once the reading is over, the teacher will then pass out a copy of a fill-in-the-blank
plotline. The teacher will then explain to the students that a copy of the book is available in their
Google Classroom and that they will be able to use the plot elements reference paper that was
DIRECT INSTRUCTION PLAN 4
handed out at the beginning of this lesson. The teacher will then give instructions to write in the
empty plot diagram by using the events from New Shoes and that it is an individual assignment.
Students should write in the events in the diagram as well as the page number that their
answer is from. The teacher should go around the classroom to assure that the students are on
task and that the Chromebooks should be used for their intended purposes. This assignment
The last part of the lesson part should be a comprehensive class diagram. An empty plot
diagram will be drawn on the whiteboard. The teacher will go over the plot diagram with the
class by asking questions such as, “What is an exposition? Is there an exposition in the story? If
so, what is it? Who do we meet?” the questions should be able to fill the whiteboards diagram.
The diagrams that the students created on the handout will then be turned in.
Materials
Each student should have a Chromebook with access to the internet. The Chromebook
should have access to copies of the presentations that the teacher will present in this lesson.
Additionally, the student should have a physical handout of a plot diagram with definitions and a
handout of an empty plot diagram that needs to be filled out with a pencil.
The teacher will need to have a computer to be able to present the plot diagram
PowerPoint and a projector to show the slideshow. Finally, the teacher is responsible to put
Modifications
The teacher should check in with the ELL and the students who have reading-dyslexia
because they could be struggling with the lesson. The teacher should be able to help them with
DIRECT INSTRUCTION PLAN 5
an audio file of the reading or a group reading of these students to help them fill out their
assignments. The audio reading is available on youtube if a student has difficulty reading the
book. Gifted learners are able to support their claims by explaining why they chose their answer
Assessment
The teacher should be walking and supervising the class so that students stay focused on
the project but also ask questions to students on what they need help with or checking if they
understand a part of the story. Asking questions toward the end of this lesson, the teacher will
have an understanding of how much the students have learned in this lesson. Additionally, their
New Shoes worksheet will show how much a student has learned. Students must have at least 5
of the 6 plot elements correct on their New Shoes worksheet in their correct order.
Closure
Objectives should be met during this lesson by consistently reviewing the plot element
concepts and definitions after any future book that a teacher reads to the students. For example,
teachers should ask: “What is the climax of this book?” A teacher could also provide extra credit
for a written plot diagram for other books. Teachers should then proceed to teach the figurative
language that is featured in More Parts by Tedd Arnold. Teachers should be able to to still fit the
objectives of this method to the next method. For homework, a teacher could assign an empty
plot diagram for their homework reading that is done each week.