Name: Rachel Strunk

Class: ELED 3221

Date: 11/15/2017

Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Catching the Rain

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Central Focus/Big Idea: Patterns of weather and factors that affect weather

Subject of this lesson: Types of precipitation and how meteorologists measure precipitation.

Grade Level: 2nd

NC Essential Standard(s): 2.E.1.2- Summarize weather conditions using qualitative and

quantitative measures to describe:
-Temperature
-Wind Direction
-Wind Speed
-Precipitation

21st Century Skills:

-Communication- students will have to communicate what theyve learned orally and
through writing.
-Collaboration- students will have to work together to create their rain gauges.

Academic Language Demand

Summarize: I chose this because I will ask students to summarize how meteorologists use a rain
gauge to measure precipitation.

Scientific Vocabulary
o Precipitation
o Rainfall
o Rain Gauge
o Measurement
o Downpour
o Sleet
o Hail
o Freezing Rain
o Snow

Instructional Objective: Students will learn about different types of precipitation and the
scientific tool that meteorologists use to measure rainfall. Students will be asked to complete a
sentence and drawing where they will identify what they would do if an inch of rain had fallen,
and what they would wear if an inch of rain had fallen in which they are required to have all 4
elements of the assignment.

Prior Knowledge (student):

-Students should have prior basic knowledge of the weather.
-Students should have knowledge of basic units of measurement (inches in this case)

Content Knowledge (teacher): The teacher must know what the different types of precipitation
are (rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and hail). The teacher should also understand how a rain
gauge works. The rain gauge measures how much rain we got during a rainstorm. After the
rainfall is measured, meteorologists will look at the other weather instruments to see what the
conditions were like right before it rained. They will record this data. When they see the other
instruments, all measuring the same again before another rainstorm, they can predict how much
rain we will get with the storm coming in.

Accommodations for special needs

Ell students can receive all the student sheets and directions in their native language.
Students with noise sensitivities may not enjoy the sound of water pouring or falling into the rain
gauge. I could employ noise cancelling headphones to allow them to still participate.
A scribe for students with writing difficulties.

Materials and Technology requirements:

Teacher Only Per Team Per Student
Smartboard Rain Gauge (already made) Rainfall worksheet
Pictures of Precipitation Watering Can Pencil
Pan to catch Overflow water Colored Pencils /
(if lesson is done inside) Markers
Clip Board
Rain Gauge Question Sheet

How to Make a Rain Gauge Instructions:

http://blog.zoo.org/2012/06/rain-or-shine.html

The materials needed to create the rain gauges are easy to gather and are relatively inexpensive.
However, you MUST get 2-liter bottles with straight sides (no curve Coca-Cola bottles).

Total Estimated Time: 40 minutes

Source of lesson: Clinical Observation teacher

Safety considerations: Creating the rain gauges ahead of time. A box cutter or other sharp
cutting tool is need to cut open the 2-liter bottles and it is too difficult for them to do safely.
Also, the cut edges of the bottle can be sharp, so having complete rain gauges is important for
student safety.
 Content and Strategies (Procedure)

In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 Es. Your procedure should be
detailed enough for a colleague to follow. If you will be relying on technology (e.g., a YouTube
video), describe your back up plan thoroughly. Imagine your most novice colleague needing to
teach from your plan. Dont just answer the questions. Additionally, I expect you to include
possible questions you could ask for each section. This needs to include higher-order questions.

Engage: What is Precipitation?

1) Gather the students together in front of the Smart Board. Show the students pictures of different
kinds of precipitation (light rain, heavy rain, snow, hail, freezing rain). Ask the students:
a. What do you see in these pictures? (Possible Answers: rain, snow, clouds, hail, etc)
b. Does anybody know what meteorologists call rain? (Answer: Precipitation)
c. As you can see from the pictures, there are several kinds of precipitation. What kind of
precipitation do you think is the most common here in Charlotte? (Answer: rain)
d. What can your senses tell you about precipitation? (Possible Answers: it feels wet, it
feels cold, you can see it when it is falling, etc.)
e. What happens when it rains lightly? (Possible Answers: The ground gets wet and there
are puddles. Sometimes people get wet, etc.)
f. What happens when there is a heavy downpour? (Possible Answers: Flooding, lots of
water on the roads, sometimes there is lightening, etc.)
2) For some of these questions, you should ask the students to turn and talk to a partner about what
they think. This would be particularly appropriate for the higher-order questions like d, e, and f.

Note: It would be a good idea to have backup printed pictures of precipitation in case you
have technical difficulties.

Explore: How do Meteorologists Measure Rainfall

1) In advance, prepare all the materials for the lab. Also, determine if the weather that day is nice
enough for the lab to take place outside.
a. Each team will need all the materials listed in the Per Team list of the materials section.
These should be laid out at each teams work station, either inside or outside, depending
on where you are performing the lab.
b. If you are doing the lab outside, it would be preferable to choose a place that is close to a
water source. If one is not available, lab groups will need to fill up their watering cans in
the classroom sink before going outside.
2) Introduce the lab by pointing out to students that meteorologists need to know how much rain
falls each day. Ask the students if anyone knows what tool a meteorologist would use to measure
rainfall.
3) Show the students one of the rain gauges. Explain to them that today they are going to investigate
how a rain gauge works.
4) Divide students into teams if they dont already sit at table groups. Pass out the Rain Gauge Lab
student page. Tell students that you would like them to take turns reading the directions aloud
throughout the lab. Be sure to emphasize that following the instructions is VERY important and
that you are there to answer questions if they have them.
 5) Allow the students to complete the lab. You should be circulating in the room to assist when
necessary, observe how students interact with one another and ask questions. Each group much
check in with you at various points in the lab before they can move forward. This is a good time
to ask questions such as:
a. Did all the rain fall into the gauge?
b. How will the rain gauge help us gather information about the weather?
c. How do you know?
d. How did you come to that conclusion?
e. Is this what you thought would happen or does it surprise you?
f. Does this remind you of anything?
6) During the lab, students will investigate how the rain gauge works. Students need to set the gauge
in a pan or in the grass and use a watering can to simulate a rainstorm over the pan. After each
storm the students will study the rain gauge and record the rainfall in the gauge. Students must
perform activities for a light rain, heavy rain, and a day with no rain at all.

Explanation:
1) Bring students back together as a whole group.
2) Ask the students, How much rain did you collect in a light rain?
3) Would you expect to collect more or less rain during a heavy rain?
4) Ask students to compare and contrast the light rain and the heavy rain. Ask them to use the
measurements that they took to explain their answers.
5) Did anything change in your rain gauge when there was no rain at all?
6) Did all of the water from your storm make it into the rain gauge? (Answer: no, but because
the rain falls evenly over both the gauge and the ground, the measurement is still accurate)
7) Ask each group to pick a place around the school that they think would be a good spot for
their rain gauge. Remind them that the rain gauge needs to be placed in a clear spot, away
from anything that can cover it, so that we can get accurate measurements of rainfall.

Elaborate:
1) Ask students to return to their desks.
2) Why do you think meteorologists needs to know how much rain has fallen? (Answer: Having
that data will help them to make predictions about the weather in the future)
3) Why is it important that meteorologist have data to help them predict what the weather will be in
the future? (Answer: So that they can use the data to make informed predictions about the
weather. That allows the rest of us to prepare for the weather!)
4) Can you think of any other people who might use a rain gauge to know how much rain has fallen?
(Answer: Farmers, city planners, regular people who garden!)
5) Give each student a Rainfall Worksheet Inform the students that they will be answering two
questions and drawing a picture of their response for each question. Encourage students to be
creative and that you would love them to add color to their picture. Let students know that you
would like the to use complete sentences in their responses. Also let the students know that this
will be graded, so they should be as creative as while also including all the required elements.
Give the students their Must Do List:
1. Answer the questions with complete sentences.
2. Draw your pictures with pencil
 3. Color in your pictures
6) Give students time to work on their Rainfall worksheet. The teach should be walking around to
monitor progress and answer and questions students may have.
7) If time allows, you may allow some students to share their responses under the document camera.

Evaluate:
-In this assignment, I will be looking for all the required elements that students were
asked for. These include:
1. Two complete sentences that answer the question.
2. Two pictures that depict the students answers to the questions.

Summative Assessment: Rainfall Worksheet

- I am looking for reflection on how weather effects a students actions.
-The questions asked are:
-What might you do if 1 inch of rain had fallen?
-What might you wear if 1 inch of rain had fallen?

Scoring Rubric for Rainfall Worksheet

4 Point Response Student has two complete sentences that answer the
question and two drawings depicting the contents of the
sentences.
3 Point Response The student answered the question but did not use complete
sentences OR The student used complete sentences that
answer the question but was missing a picture depicting one
of their answers.
2 Point Response The student did not use complete sentences that answer the
question AND was missing a picture depicting one of their
answers OR The student answered the questions using
complete sentences but was missing both pictures.
1 Point Response The student used incomplete sentences that did not answer
the question.
0 Point Response The students used incomplete sentences that did not answer
the question and was missing both pictures.

Formative Assessment- The formative assessment is all the questions that you are asking
throughout the course of this lesson. The teacher should be asking questions to assess students
understanding of core concepts as well as their ability to follow the lab directions that are clearly
written on the lab activity sheets.

To be completed after the lesson is taught as appropriate

Assessment Results of all objectives/skills:

Reflection on lesson:

CT signature/confirmation: _________________________________ Date: ________________