Field-Based Lesson Plan: Holidays/Celebrations

Name: Whit Hatton

Grade Level:1st Grade
Teaching Date: Friday Nov 10, 2023
Holiday: Veterans Day
Tuesday tucks me in
Stage 1: Pre-Lesson Stage of Choosing a Holiday/Celebration and Building Your Content Knowledge (15 pts)

1. Considerations for Choosing a Holiday

● Conversation with your Mentor Teachers
○ What lesson might integrate well with what your MT is doing in the classroom this fall?
○ What date is going to work best?
● Pitfalls of Normalizing Holidays
○ focusing on cute crafts
○ normalizing the dominant narrative of who is American and setting up with only Christian-centric approaches
○ conflating the religious with the secular (e.g. Kwanza)
● Creative Solutions
○ context matters (local traditions and stories)
○ students matter (culturally sustaining pedagogy)
■ Who is in the room?
■ What holidays/celebrations do your students observe?
■ Teach about holidays versus actually celebrating them
■ Avoid exoticizing cultures, food, or people

2. Deepening Your Content Knowledge of Chosen Holiday/Celebration

● Use the table provided to create a bulleted list of 3 resources used to increase your content knowledge
■ on the left list and hyperlink the title of your resource
■ on the right list use bullet points to list the main ideas of the resource
■ consult educational websites, books, videos, interviews, and/or textbooks.
■ NCSS Publications- article/lessons–many have open access (Social Studies and the Young Learner,
Middle -Level Learning, or Social Education).
Sources (be sure to provide a hyperlinked title) Important Content/Information (bulleted points of main take-
aways from each source

 Using this image as the opening to the lesson, with a

notice and wonder routine. I will show the students the
image, give them time to process and think about what
they are looking at then we will have a good discussion
to eliciting student thinking. I am using a slide deck and
going to have a space to record student ideas for class
to see.

 This is a first grade friendly read aloud that is about a

veteran and his service dog. I am using this to transition
into how being a veteran is a huge service to our country
but also how being in the field of service can look
different. I am going to have this tie into my students’
own lives, communities and understanding of how
service workers should be celebrated.
 Stage 2: Planning Your Lesson Using the C3 Focused Inquiry Design Model (IDM) (35 pts)

Sample Focused Inquiries (helpful to see language used)

Example: Zoo
Example: Thanksgiving
Example: Use of Technology (student example-2nd grade)

Compelling Question:

MI Standards
1 – H2.0.5 Identify the events or people celebrated during U.S. national holidays and why we celebrate
them.
ELA
Speaking and Listening- Comprehension and Collaboration: 2. Ask and answer questions about key
details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Social Justice
Standards (pg. 5) DI.K-2.8: I want to know about other people and how our lives and experiences are the same and
different.

Staging the What does the word ''service'' mean to you? What about ''sacrifice?''
Question

Supporting Question (s)- (what students need to know before answering the compelling question)

 What is a veteran?
 What goes into being a veteran?
 Why are they celebrated?
 How are service people important to our lives?

Formative Performance Task:

 (find the sources first)

1. Using the image below as the opening to the lesson, with a notice and wonder routine. I will show the students the
image, give them time to process and think about what they are looking at. Then I will have the turn and talk to a
partner about what they noticed. We will then come back together and share discussion so I can elicit student
thinking. I am using a slide deck and going to have a space to record student ideas for class to see.

Once students have done a notice and wonder routine, I will ask opened ended supporting questions:

 What is a veteran?
 What goes into being a veteran?
 Why are they celebrated?
 How are service people important to our lives?

2. Using an interactive read aloud to transition to connecting student lives, communities and service workers. I will ask
questions like:

 How does Tuesday help his veteran?

 Is Tuesday a service worker too? Why?
 How else do service animals help the community?

Featured Sources (be sure these are age-appropriate and accessible)

Tuesday Tucks Me In Read Aloud

Summative Construct an argument supported with evidence that addresses the compelling question,
Performance
Task Now that we have discussed veterans, why we celebrate them, how service workers look different and
impact our lives we will pick one service work or veteran we know and write a thank you letter to them. I
will use sentence stems to help my students start because they are still working on their writing skills. All
of this lesson has a slide to correspond as we work through the lesson to support kids who need visual
direction.

Extension Take informed Action: (this probably would be done in a following lesson but write out your idea here)
Connecting this lesson to understanding community and the first grade standard 1 – C5.0.2 Explain
important rights and how, when, and where members of American society demonstrate their
responsibilities by actively participating in civic life, would be a great way to connect how veterans and
service works are a part of American society, help contribute and protect which is a responsibility they
have to their jobs.
 PART 3: Writing out the Lesson Procedure (50 pts)

Lesson Procedure:
● step-by-step directions--the lesson plan--brings your template (frame) to life
● should be able to hand to another teacher and they would know what to do
● use bullet points not a narrative
● Each bullet point begins with an action verb
● include links to all handouts, videos, and/or resources.
● When completed is should be a lesson you could hand to another teacher and they would have everything they
need to teach this lesson.
● Student Example

Lesson Procedure

Stage the Question (opening hook that taps into prior knowledge, sets goals, and ends with an invite into the compelling question)

● Have Students come to the carpet area.

● Have the slide deck pulled up prior
● Review group norms with students so they know what the expectations are.
● Pull up slide with image and have students Notice and Wonder about the image. Give them time to think then turn and talk to
shoulder partner about one notice they had.

Investigate the Sources (step by step how will you transition and then engage students in investigating the sources)
  I will be having students examine a image, turn and talk to partners and use a notice and wonder routine to develop their ideas.
 I will be connecting this image to the book resource that connects service animals and veterans as service workers which will
lead me into a discussion with my students about service workers in our community and how they contribute to our lives.
 This will then lead me into asking students to share about service works they know in their communities and in their lives.

Make Sense of the Sources as a Whole Group

(set norms and allow students to discuss perspectives, use your knowledge of leading a whole group discussion…launch, orchestrate, record )

Norms for Discussion

● Have Students come to the carpet area.
● Have the slide deck pulled up prior
● Pull up slide that reviews group norms so that students know what the expectation is for this activity.
● Make sure everyone understands and agrees.

Launch the Discussion (compelling question)

● Pull up slide with image and have students Notice and Wonder about the image. Give them time to think then turn and talk to
shoulder partner about one notice they had.
● Have students come back together and have a volunteers share their ideas, record these ideas on the slide deck that has the
notice and wonder chart, use the smart board, or google slides and input responses.
● Use these questions to navigate group discussion:
- What is a veteran?
- What goes into being a veteran?
- Why are they celebrated?
- How are service people important to our lives?
 Launch the compelling question: What does the word ''service'' mean to you? What about ''sacrifice?'' There is also a space on
the slide that you can record student responses.
 Ask students A service workers always people?
● After this do an interactive read aloud with the book “Tuesday tucks me in”
Orchestrate (focus, support questions- not teacher moves but questions about content)
● Once the book is finished uses these questions to develop a group discussion:
- How does Tuesday help his veteran?
- Is Tuesday a service worker too? Why?
- How else do service animals help the community?
- How important is the job of a service animal?
- How important is a service worker to our community?

Recording Student Responses

● Using slide deck space provided to record student responses so the whole group can make connections as they are talked about.

Close the Discussion (bring a natural conclusion to the discussion)

 Summarize student ideas that were share because this will help them with their summative task.
 Thank students for working participating and contributing to a great discussion.

Summative Task (students will answer the compelling question and back up their claims with evidence from the sources--you will need to gather evidence as a
way to assess their understanding)
● Now that we have an idea of what a veteran is, how they contribute to our country and communities as well as service workers
we are going to make a foldable card to thank our veterans and service workers.
● Use the slide to show students an example.
● Explain directions to students using the hardcopy document.
● Have paper passer hand out materials.
● Walk around the classroom as kids are working and talk with them about what they are doing, get an idea of why service
workers and veterans are important. This helps give you an idea of their take away from the lesson.
Closure (bring lesson to a close (summarize), do not start a new activity)
● Once students have finished their card have them clean up their workspace.
● Have them return the cards.
● Once the cards are cut and folded create a display to share these cards to the school community.

Part 4: Individual Reflection (100 pts)

Write a well-developed paragraph response for each of the following 5 questions.

● Provide specific examples/evidence to illustrate your points.
● Include artifacts related to your lesson, such as an example of student work or a photo of a finished project.
● An alternate reflection may be submitted if approved by the professor.

Student Learning
1. Explain how students engaged in the content of your lesson. Provide concrete examples.

My students had time to explore and image and find things they notice and wondered about the image. I gave them
time to talk with their peers about what they noticed. As I asked students to share, I wrote their thinking on the board
so they could see and others could see their idea. My students also shared what they though veterans were, why we
celebrated them, what they did for our country and how we can help them know they are retired. Each student also
took what they learned from the discussion and read aloud and applied it to a project creating a thank you letter to a
veteran. We gave these cards to a helper student who comes to our room and her father is a veteran.

2. Explain how the students did or did not meet your lesson’s goals/objective(s). Remember you must provide evidence to
support your claims. When my students were sharing about what a service worker does, they all really understood that it
was someone who help for the good of our society and communities. They made connecting’s to mail people, teacher,
doctors, restaurant servers and they of course made the connection to veterans in their own families. We also talked
about sacrifice and what that means for service workers. A few of my students said teachers sacrifice their time outside of
school for them as students and army people sacrifice their time away from their families to fight for our country. They all
had a solid understanding of why we celebrate their sacrifices because they stated reasons why they were thankful for
them in their letters.
Teacher Learning
3. Describe your enactment of the whole group discussion. Provide concrete examples of how students were directed to the
resources and to each other as sense-makers as they discussed their findings from the sources.
As we discuss the image students notice the dog and how it was wearing a uniform. I made sure to connect how many
service workers have uniforms they were and how animals, just like veterans can be service workers. This led into our
reading of the book and how the service dogs help the veteran. This book helped me transition into now that we know
dogs can be service works, who else is a service work in our community. This brought on a lot of student-centered
discussion about their own lives, they people in it and how service workers are everywhere helping our community every
day. Having these connections throughout the resources help my students make sense of what a veteran is, why we
celebrate them and how valuable our service works are in our lives and for our country.

4. What were the strengths of your lesson? Provide concrete examples to back up your claims.
I would have to say the image and the story were the strengths of our lesson because it led to great discussion with
the students. I was able to see their connections to the questions I wanted them to understand, they made
connections to their own lives, and they talked with each other and build on each other’s ideas which was such a
great thing to see, especially at this age. The activity was a craft which is great for this age and grade, but it had
deeper meant to it. Being able to express they’re thanks to a service worker using their writing skills was
transformative in the traditional holiday craft and lesson.

5. Describe (and use evidence from the enacted lesson) an area of your teaching practice that you want to improve.
One area I always want to improve on is my inner confidence. I know that specific to this lesson, but it is something I always
struggle with. I am sure even veteran teachers deal with this. I would always like to improve on my transitions from one thing
 to the next. Sometimes I feel like I go to long on one thing because I get lost in transitioning or how to smoothly transition to
the next portion of the lesson. I had it built in when it comes to the resources and artifacts, I used but I need to try not to feel
like it has to be a magic show and transition without students knowing. I need to just be like” ok everyone, we are going to
move on to the next part of our activity.”

6. Describe your experience using the C3 Framework (the Inquiry Arc and the IDM Template used to design).
I feel like have an overall question for the students to answer that is specific and something they don’t know the
answer to helps engage the students. They did a great job trying to provide evidence to give the answer before we
even explored the resources which was helpful knowing their prior knowledge. My students might have not had a
lot of opportunity to be asked what they thought before so making sure they understood the process was
important and I am glad I explained that to them. The overall planning template was really helpful because when I
want to teach, I felt like the lesson went smooth because of all the details that were planned out and though
through in the template using the C3 framework. I could see it reflect in my teaching as I look back at how I did.