EDU 251 Lesson Plan Template

Student Teacher: Kara Doherty

School and Grade/grouping (whole, small, one-on-one):
Small Group
Date/Time of lesson: 11/20/14; morning
Brief description of lesson: I will read The Three Billy Goats Gruff to the group while asking open-ended
questions and predicting what will happen next. Then, we will act out the story by building our own bridge
(out of big blocks) and assigning roles to students. We will act out the goats travel across the bridge and their
encounters with the troll. We (my mentor teacher and I) will continue the lesson outdoors by constructing
another bridge for choice playtime.
Stage One-Desired Results
Subject/Content/Rationale/Connection to Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS):
III.1. Children engage in play as a means to develop their receptive and expressive language skills.
VII.2. Children engage in group or individual activities that represent real-life experiences, ideas, knowledge,
feelings, and fantasy.
Children must comprehend the books main ideas in order to answer group questions and reenact the story.
They get a chance to express themselves through readers theatre in the fantasy/folk genre.
Objectives
Students will know. . . (facts go here!)
Students will be able to. . . (1 3 objective w/answers)
The Three Billy Goats Gruff plot
Retell the story
Act out the main ideas of the story
Continue the ideas to a new (outdoor) setting
Stage Two-Assessment Evidence
How will you know students have met your objectives? What will be your feedback?
I will know the students met my objectives if they can correctly answer questions about the main points in the
story or the characters. I also will know if our reenactment of the story is close to what actually happened.
Hopefully children will want to continue acting out parts of the story in arts expression.
Stage Three-Learning Plan
*Introduction/Hook: How will you introduce and get students excited about this lesson?
I am going to present the goat and goblin masks to the children before I introduce the books. I will ask what
they think we could be doing with them. My students have a strong interest in wearing and making masks
lately so this ties in well to the emerging curriculum.
*Steps: How will you implement this lesson, step-by-step?
1. Introduce masks
2. Observe book cover and make predictions
3. Read story
4. Retell story through readers theatre
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*Closure: How will you support student reflection and summary of the lesson?
We want to continue the ideas and story throughout the day, possibly even after. I want to make sure every
child that wants a turn with the masks or to have a role gets a turn. I will pull all the students that did the
activity back together after we go outside and we will compare the two experiences (indoors vs. outdoors). We
can recap the story one last time and talk about why someone would want to write a book about this.
*Accommodations and/or adaptations for diverse abilities?
This might be harder for the 3-year-olds or the two students that are transitioning in from the toddler room. I
would like them to stay for the reading and I want them to try and participate in the grand conversation, but I
wont push them to take on a role if they dont know enough about what happened. I will let students volunteer
for roles so no one is embarrassed or pressured.
Student Teacher Reflection
What evidence is there to demonstrate that students have achieved understanding of what I had intended?
During this lesson students were able to. . . Understand what the story was about and could retell major plot
points and who the characters were.
I know this because. . . They made the connections between the masks I had and the characters in the story
(baby goat, middle goat, biggest goat, and troll)
During this lesson students were not able to . . .Focus and follow directions for the activity. They all wanted to
be different characters before trying the one they had been gives originally.
I know this because. . . They also wouldnt line up behind the bridge rather they all just jumped on top. Also,
They all wanted to be different characters before trying the one they had been gives originally. It was more
chaotic than planned.
Were the students productively engaged? How? (site specific examples)
Students were engaged during the story. I knew because they were answering questions we had from the cover.
Jameson said, The biggest one looks mean! (I asked why) because he has a scary coat and glasses!
Jameson was right and then the goat pushed the troll off the bridge. Also, when we looked at the title page, it
had a picture of a toad. When a toad appeared on a page, Graham said, Theres the toad! He had
remembered it from the title page.
Students were not actively engaged during the activity. They were more concerned about the masks and each
other than focusing on themselves, their roles, and what they should be doing.
Did I alter my objectives or implementation as I taught the lesson? How and why?
I didnt alter much. I did read the story much slower than I had expected because students would stop me to
make comments or ask questions.
I should have made alterations to the activity so it was more engaging and a lot more focused but in the
moment I wasnt exactly sure how to fix it. I tried to redirect the students by asking them what each character
was saying and tried to give them roles, but it was a bit too chaotic and they didnt want to listen to me (which
is hard in an emergent preschool because they technically dont have to do anything they dont want to unless
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its a safety issue).

As I facilitated this lesson, I used my knowledge of child development to make this lesson developmentally
appropriate by..
I made this lesson developmentally appropriate by reading a book that challenged them a bit but I knew they
would be able to comprehend. I asked open-ended questions to stimulate discussion and to get them thinking
about what could be happening next. The activity was appropriate because they have been very interested in
masks lately so I knew it would be a good hook to get them excited. I also had students cutting out the masks
with me before the actual lesson so they were excited to see what we would do. I think the activity was
developmentally appropriate, I just went about it in the wrong way (Ill address better ways in the next
section).
If I had the opportunity to teach/facilitate this activity/lesson again to this same group of children, what
would I do differently?
If I had the opportunity to teach this lesson again, I would:

Not introduce the masks beforehand, because it takes away from the books and the students keep trying
to get at the masks before the activity

Make sure the children are far enough away from me that they are all in my hug and can see easily

Hold the book at childrens eye level

Introduce the activity before we leave the circle

Have a better closure grand conversation at the end?

Have some children watch while others participate in the activity and switch groups

What are some of the next steps to this teaching episode?

We continued the play outdoors. We built a bridge with a piece of wood and tires. They lined up in two lines:
one that wanted to be the troll and one that wanted to be the goats. They each got a chance to cross the bridge
while the troll popped up and said get off my bridge! the goats got to get to the side with the green grass.
The children worked much better this time because they had very specific instructions.