Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject: 5th grade;

CentralFocus: Declaration of independence and working on
Reading/Social studies
unfamiliar words
EssentialStandard/CommonCoreObjective:

5.H.2.1 Summarize the contributions of the Founding Fathers to the

development of our country.
Date submitted:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.4.A
Date taught: 3/22/16
Use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text)
as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Daily Lesson Objective: Performance: Students will be able to correctly answers questions about the
meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues and will be able to correctly answer questions about Thomas
Jefferson and the declaration of independence.
Conditions: Working as a whole class and a group of peers to read the article and summarize in with the
teacher.
Criteria: Students are expected to get 2 out of 3 questions correct after the reading. Anything less than 4
correct is unsatisfactory. Students will be asked to take notes and participate in the small group and if not will
get an unsatisfactory grade.
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
21st Century Skills: Communication,
Vocabulary):
collaboration, social & cross-cultural
Congress, committee, Declaration of Independence,
skills, productivity, accountability,
merchants, delegates, all men created equal
leadership
Prior Knowledge: Students must have prior knowledge on how to find out unfamiliar words and
how to collaborate on reading a passage.
Activity

1. Focus and
Review

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

As a class we will go over what we will be doing in the small
groups. We will be reading a passage, looking for unfamiliar words,
and summarizing. We will then watch a brain pop video on the
declaration of independence and one on Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/declarationofinde
pendence/
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/tho
masjefferson/
Today we are going to work on using context clues to find
unfamiliar words and working on our summarizing and learning
about one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson.
As a class we will go, the teacher will read the first two paragraphs
on the passage, Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of
Independence. I will point out anything we think is important and
talk about the unfamiliar words in the passage. I will show you how
we can use context clues to figure out the meaning of these words.

Time

10
minute
s

1
minute

15
minute
s

4. Guided
Practice

5. Independent
Practice

6. Assessment
Methods of
all
objectives/skills:

7. Closure

8. Assessment
Results of

The students will have an opportunity to raise their hand and tell
the words they found unfamiliar and things they found important.
The teacher will mention anything missed. The students will be
taking notes on their paper about what is talked about. At the end
of the small groups the students will be asked to complete 3
questions, where the teacher will direct them to a paragraph where
they can find the answer if the students are unsure.
Each small group is pre-grouped by their reading levels. The
students will be called by their group to the back to work with the
teacher. The other students will be reading their independent
reading books and taking notes on unfamiliar words and how they
used context clues and root words to figure it out. In the groups we
will chunk the paragraphs depending on the size of the paragraphs.
The students (if comfortable) will read a section that is chunked.
After a chunked section is read we will do the same that was done
25
as a whole class which is talking about important things in the
minute
paragraphs and the unfamiliar words. The students should be
s
taking notes. After we go through the whole passage the students
will be assigned 3 questions to go off in their groups to work on
together. What is this text mostly about? Turn to a partner and
summarize Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of
Independence. What are two main ideas of the impact of the
declaration section? What text structure does the author use to
organize Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence?
The students will have 6 questions about summarizing the passage
and main ideas to complete after the small group. They will be able
to work as a group if they would like. The next day we will go over
10-15
the questions as a group and talk about why we got answers and
minute
make sure the students are correct. Students are to also go through
s
the passage and write down unknown words that we did or didnt
go over in the small group and write down how they figured out
what it meant using context clues.
The assessment will include two informal assessments. The teacher will
observe who participated in the group work and made notes. Then they will
be assessed by the questions they had to answer without the teacher.

To conclude the lesson we will summarize the passage as a class

and list the words that were unfamiliar to us as a class. With the
10-15
words we will talk about how we figured out what they meant. We
minute
will also briefly go over the questions we answer as a class. This is
s
so students to get the questions wrong can hear from other
students.
We will need the passage for all the students and the instructor. The
instructor will need to be prepared and know what they are talking about.

They must know what the words in the passage mean so when the students
all
are looking at context clues for unfamiliar words they will know if the student
objectives/skills:
is correct or not. They should also know about the Declaration of
Independence and Thomas Jefferson. I will need a smartboard for the videos.
Targeted Students
Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:
Modifications/Accommodations: For ELL
During the small group the students will be taking
students, the passage and or questions
notes on their papers on the vocabulary words and
will be read to them upon request.
will lead a lot of the small group themselves. This is
useful for students to learn how to take notes on
passages for the EOGs and to be independent of
reading passages because of the EOGs.
Materials/Technology: Smart board, brain pop video, passage for each student
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/Smart Board slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at
the end of the lesson plan.)

References:
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/declarationofindependence/
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/thomasjefferson/

Reflection on lesson:
When I decided to teach this reading lesson I observed a very similar one before and how well
the students like it and participated. I had a great experience teaching this lesson. As a class we
first went over a few paragraphs and read them out loud after watching a couple brain pop
videos. The students all wanted to read which made going over the first part easy. Then we
discussed Thomas Jefferson and a few unfamiliar words as a class. The students have reading
groups that the broke up into for the small group. I worked with each group at a time and we
finished reading the article together, taking notes on it and discussing how we can figure out
unfamiliar words. The students were very active in the conversation then they had questions to
do and I moved to the next group. My teacher instructed me on different things I needed to do
with different groups. The lower level groups took more time to work with then the higher level
groups. With the lower level groups I read the article to them and in the higher level groups I let
them read it. Also I had to make more connections with struggling readers to make sure they
could understand the passage more.
I really enjoyed teaching this lesson and incorporating social studies into reading. The students
love to learn and listened to me. We did a lot of reflecting and connecting to the article and
working with unfamiliar words.