SAINT FRANCIS UNIVERSITY

Loretto, PA 15940

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

LESSON PLAN Format

Student Teacher Mary Kraus Grade 2

PA STANDARD(S) (Write out standards):

Standard - CC.1.4.2.L
Demonstrate a grade-appropriate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage,
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. • Capitalize proper nouns. • Use commas and apostrophes
appropriately. • Spell words drawing on common spelling patterns. • Consult reference material as needed.

Standard - CC.1.4.2.W
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

BIG IDEAS/ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Writing can be used to express ideas.

ELIGIBLE CONTENT:

n/a
OBJECTIVE(S) (Be sure to include all four parts):

After recounting the differences in the planets, the student will create a postcard including at least 3 details
about their visit to a planet.

MATERIALS:

 Planet cutouts from previous science lesson

ACTIVITIES (There are three sections here):

OPENING (Introduction, purpose, hook)

 Recall the facts about the planets that were discussed the previous week. Go over a few so that students
are given a refresher on the basics of the planets. (Venus is the hottest, Saturn has rings, etc.)
 Tell students that they will be using their imagination to pretend that they are visiting one of the planets.
Pick a planet and ask students to give an example of what might happen if they were able to visit there.
(Clarify that humans cannot really survive on any of the other planets, so they will be pretending.) (ex.
“If you visited Neptune, the coldest planet, you would need to go and buy a hat and a winter coat!”)

BODY (Bulleted step by step/differentiation must be included)

 Each student will be assigned a planet, and they will be required to write a postcard about their visit to
that planet. Have students choose their planet from a hat. (Each planet should have 2 or 3 students
writing about it.)
 Distribute the handwriting paper and have students draft a postcard following the given structure (First,
Next, Last).
 Circle the room and make corrections on student work.
 When students are finished and have had their work corrected, give them the postcard template and have
them copy their story onto their postcard.
 Have students illustrate their postcard.
 CLOSURE (Wrap up and brief summary): How will you plan to restate the lesson objective?

 Collect the postcards and invite a few students to share their ideas with the class.
 Display the student work in the classroom so that other students can view one another’s work.

ACCOMMODATIONS/MODIFICATIONS:

n/a

ASSESSMENT: (How you will determine that student has mastered objectives?): Consider formative and
summative assessment measures for all levels of differentiation.

The student will be assessed by their completion of the postcard including 3 details about their visit to their
planet. This includes following the ‘first, next, last’ format.

SELF-ASSESSMENT/REFLECTION: (Complete this section if you have taught this lesson to peers or in
clinical placement):

In order to more effectively execute this lesson, I split it up into 2 days. On the first day, I had students
fill out the organizer. On the second day, I handed back their corrected organizers and had them copy their
stories onto the ‘good copy.’ This worked out quite well.
The first day of this lesson went well. There were a few glitches that needed worked out, but I was able
to work through them, and I ended up learning from them! Firstly, I decided to turn on the document camera
and show the students the graphic organizer as I explained it, because this way, they would have a better idea of
what to do. If I had simply explained it without them seeing it, there likely would have been a lot of confusion.
When I explained the activity, I mentioned that students should look at the facts that had been recorded last
week, because then students would have ideas about what they would do on their planet. However, some
students got confused and thought that in the ‘first,’ ‘next,’ and ‘last,’ spaces, they were supposed to write facts.
So, some organizers said things like, “First, Mars has two moons.” Obviously, this was not correct, so I had to
clarify that I wanted students to write what they would do on that planet. They did get the hang of it, and some
of the ideas were so creative! I was really proud of them for coming up with so many ideas based on the facts
that they had learned about the planets.
On the second day, I had to meet with a few students who had a few things on their stories that still
needed fixed. I passed out the ‘good copies’ to the students who were ready for them, and then met with the
other students who needed additional help. However, my cooperating teacher noticed that the students seemed a
little confused about the structure of the postcard, so she turned on the document camera and helped them start
out. She suggested that next time, I could give a more thorough explanation using the document camera to the
whole class, and then after making sure that everyone knows what they’re doing, then I could meet with the
students who needed additional help.
From this lesson, I learned that, regardless of how thorough I may be in planning, there are always
misinterpretations. I have to be careful not to get too down about this, however, and rather use it as a learning
experience.