Dakota State University

LESSON PLAN FORMAT

**Be sure to reference the Lesson Plan Rubric for prompts and guidance for each section!**

Name: Katie Steckelberg

Grade Level: 1st
School: Harrisburg Journey
Date:
Time:

Reflection from prior lesson:

● In our prior lesson we used the SD WildLife Explorers website to identify the animals that students want
to write about. Students struggled first with the website, but after being shown by the teacher on the
smart board they were able to navigate through the website.Students stayed engaged and were excited
to search through the different animal websites.

Contextual Factors/ Learner Characteristics:

● 22 students
● 2 students on a iep
● 2 ELL students
● 1 student in TAT observation
● Talkative

Lesson Goal(s) / Standards:

● 1.W.2 Write informative/explanatory texts that:. b. supply some facts about the topic.

Lesson Objective(s):

● Students will be able to state facts about their animal with 85% accuracy

Assessment:

● Students will write five facts about their animal.

Materials Needed:

● iPad
● Fact Sheet
● Pencil

Connection(s) to Research & Theory: (What learning theory or research-based method supports your
chosen methodology or assessment? Explain how this theory was used to help develop this lesson.)

● Guided instruction, I used guided instruction to model to my students what they will be doing in class.
The website is new for them so it is important to model for the students so that they don’t become
confused and frustrated.
A. The Lesson

● Introduction (5 minutes)
○ getting attention:
○ One, two, three, eyes on me…One, two, eyes on you!
○ relating to past experience and/or knowledge:
○ Yesterday we chose the animal that we are going to write about on SD Wildlife Explorers.
Today we are going to be writing some facts we are going to learn about our animals.
○ creating a need to know:
○ Today we will be finding and writing acts about our animals.
○ sharing objective, in general terms:
○ I can find and state facts about the animal I chose in my own words.

● Content Delivery (15 minutes)

○ First get out our ipads
○ While you get your iPads I will hand out a five amazing facts sheet
○ First on your sheet, under Five Amazing Facts About, write the name of the animal you chose.
○ If you don’t remember what animal you chose, I wrote everyone’s down on the whiteboard.
○ After you have written the name of your animal down, open up your iPads.
○ Next go to safari
○ Next type into the search bar what I wrote on the board yesterday,
*sdzwildlifeexplorers.org/animals*
○ Next you are going to look through the page and find the animal that you chose.
○ After you click on your animal, I’m going to choose the Capybara to show you.
○ I’m going to be looking for five facts about the Capybara to put on my sheet and then put the facts
in my book.
○ I’m going to scroll through this page and read and try to find facts to put on my fact sheet.
○ I see on the page that it says the area Capybaras are from is South America.
○ How could I put that into a sentence for my fact sheet?
○ I’m going to write “Capybaras are from South America.” *Write this on the board*
○ Now I have my first fact, so now I’m going to keep reading to find more facts about my animal.
○ Under food it says, “Capybaras like to eat grass, and water plants. During the dry season fresh
grasses and water plants dry up. Then, Capybaras eat reeds, grains, melons, and squashes.”
○ How can I write that on my fact sheet without copying what they wrote word for word?
○ I’m going to write “Capybaras eat grass, water plants, reeds, grains, melons, and squashes.” *Write
on board.*
○ Now I’m going to keep reading to find a third fact.
○ I found a sentence that says “...capybaras are rodents. They are related to guinea pigs, hamsters,
and mice. In fact, they are the biggest kind of rodent.”
○ How could I put that into my own words for my fact sheet?
○ I’m going to write “Capybaras are the biggest rodent.” *Write on board*
○ Now I need two more facts.Let’s keep reading to find more facts.
○ I found another fact that states, “All the females in a group help to care for and even nurse each
other’s babies.”
○ How do I put this in my own words?
○ I’m going to write, “Female Capybaras help take care of each other’s babies” *Write on board*
○ Now I need one more fact. I’m going to keep reading to find it.
 ○ I found another fact that I thought was really interesting which is, “Like those of other rodents, a
capybara's front teeth are always growing.”
○ How do I write this in my own words?
○ I’m going to write, “Capybaras have front teeth that never stop growing.” *Write on board
○ Now I have all five of my facts written down.
○ Tomorrow we will start writing our animal facts into our books.

● Closure (10 minutes)

○ Now you guys are going to work on finding facts about your animal, putting that fact into a
sentence, and writing the fact on your fact sheet.
○ You will need five facts about your animal.
○ Does anyone have any questions?
○ I will be walking around the classroom if you need help with the website or turning your fact into a
sentence.

B. Differentiated Instruction
● Adaptations for students with special needs or not meeting expectations
○ Students not meeting expectations will move to the small group table to receive more support.
● Adaptations for those exceeding expectations
○ Students who finish will get the option of listening to reading, partner read, or read to self.
● Language Support
○ We will use a translator app to translate the content on the site into their first language.

C. Resources
https://sdzwildlifeexplorers.org/animals