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Your Name:

Michelle
McCormick

Subject / Course:

Writing

Topic:

Informational Writing

Lesson Title:

All About Apples

Level:

1st Grade

CSU-Global
Course:

OTL 545

Lesson Duration:

4 sessions of 40
minutes

SUPPORT YOUR CHOICES THROUGHOUT EVERY PHASE OF THE LESSON WITH

RESEARCH THAT SUPPORTS ITS EFFECTIVENESS.
Common Core or State Standard(s) & Learning Objective(s):
Standards:
Standard 3.1.b.Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some
facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Standard 3.1.e. Use pictures or graphic organizers to plan writing
Objectives:
Students will be able to write a 5 sentence paragraph focusing on one topic
Students will know what an informational piece looks like
Students will know what a fact is and how to determine if something is a fact or
opinion
Students will understand the writing process
Students will be able to use a graphic organizer, such as a web to organize our ideas

Target Audience
Knowing the Learner
Based on your survey data from earlier in the course, describe the target audience for this lesson;
what types of learning styles will you need to be mindful of?

Based on the survey data from earlier in this course, it concluded that most of my
students are kinesthetic and visual learners. However, I am going to try to reach every
type of learner in this lesson. So, my target audience is visual, auditory, and
kinesthetic learners. In my lesson, I will provide lots of visuals, including a picture
book teaching my students all about apples. Also, my instruction is going to be verbal,
which will help my auditory learners. Finally, my students will be able to get brain
breaks in between my mini lesson and their work time. This helps them focus and get
some energy out. I am a big believer in brain breaks. So, usually we do "gonoodle,"
which is a free website that has exercise and dancing for them to re-focus or reengage. Several studies have been conducted involving primary school students,
where regular physical activity breaks were given during the school day, and there
was a proven impact on their academic performance, as well as their academic focus
and behavior in the classroom (Weslake & Christian, 2015, p. 2).

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Kinesthetic
Auditory
Visual

Pedagogies (Remember to consider relevance and career/workforce readiness skills around

what is being taught):
Pedagogies
(How are technology, content, and pedagogical knowledge working together in this lesson?)
I think technology, content, and pedagogical knowledge are working together in this lesson.
First, the use of popplet as my technology tool was an effective way for students to learn the
content of how to organize facts. Prior to this unit, the students were just learning how to
respond to a prompt through a paragraph. So, this unit requires them to write an
informational paragraph after researching facts about a topic. They need to be able to know
the writing process and how to distinguish between a fact and an opinion. I think creating a
web using popplet was a great way for them to organize the facts about apples. This helped
them with their writing. The pedagogy for this lesson was direct instruction in a whole group
setting. This included reading and researching about apples, creating the popplet web, and
modeling for them what their plan and final copy needs to look like. Then, they got the
chance to practice writing their paragraphs. I provided one-on-one instruction to those who
needed my support. At this age, students need explicit instruction in order for them to work
independently successfully.
Technology Being Used by Students
The students didnt really use technology in this lesson, other than helping me create the web
on popplet, which is mentioned below. This upcoming week, students are going to type their
papers and publish them.

Technology Being Used by Teacher

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The technology that I used was called popplet.com. It is a site where you can create webs or
graphic organizers to help organize their ideas. After reading our story about Apples, the
students gave me facts they learned about apples and we created a web. They were so
engaged in the lesson because the web was on the board, rather than me just writing out a
web by hand. It is a brainstorming tool that helped students visually see what is being
discussed. This tool allows for differentiation because we can add pictures or text to the
popplet bubbles. According to an article by, Wahl and Diffeild (n.d.), Simple graphics
software and word processors, as well as resources and tools found on the internet, offer
students a variety of ways to access content, work with information to develop
understanding, and demonstrate what they know.

Lesson Strategy and Required Materials

Lesson Strategy:
The strategy that was learned during this lesson was how to distinguish between fact and
opinion. The students also learned how to brainstorm and organize their ideas using a
graphic organizer, which in this specific lesson was a web. Then, students started learning
about the writing process of creating a draft and then a final copy.
Required Materials:
Apples storybook
Computer
Document Camera
Popplet website
Rough Draft paper
Final Copy paper

Feedback Strategy (Frequent checks for understanding):

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down/Thumbs Middle
Observation
Individual Writing Conferences throughout the week
Discussions
3-2-1 (3 facts they learned, 2 things they found interesting, 1 question)
Assessments (How do you know students met the learning objectives and targets?)
Their summative assessment will happen at the end of this writing unit, which is where I give
them a topic to research and they are to write an informational paragraph. However, to
assess this particular lesson to ensure they know facts about apples and can integrate them
into their writing, I will assess their final copy paragraphs that they finish at the end of the
week. I have provided some samples below of their rough draft and final.

Modifications/Enrichments (implanted in this lesson or ideas for future lesson delivery)

For modifications in future lessons, I will allow students to draw or find pictures to help
support the facts in the web. This will help connect the meaning of the words to the pictures.
Also, in future lessons, I will allow students to create their own popplet web on IPADs. This
was their very first experience using this tool, so I think that once they get more familiar, I

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will allow them to explore and create their own after researching a topic. For enrichment, I
would let my students pick something that they still want to know more about that particular
topic and let them conduct the research using technology and/or books.

SOURCES: Add a References Page for any research/sources you used to determine
your strategies above (begin on a new page and follow the APA guidelines in the CSUGlobal Guide to Writing and APA Style).

Artifacts:

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References
Wahl, L. & Duffield, J. (n.d.). Using flexible technology to meet the needs of diverse learners:
What teachers can do. WestEd. Retrieved from
http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/kn-05-01.pdf
Weslake, A. & Christian, B. (2015). Brain breaks: Help or hindrance? Teach Collection of
Christian Education: 1(1), 2. Retrieved from
http://research.avondale.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1003&context=teachcollection