LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Name: Andrew Morgan Date: March 18th, 2013 Grade Level:6th

1. Content Objective(s)/State Standards: Science: Research how ancient cultures explained patterns in the night sky. Language: Take organized notes and write a summary. Behavioral: Follow classroom code of conduct and classroom rules 2. Instructional Focus: Historical explanations of star patterns in the night sky. 3. Interesting Texts/Materials for Instruction What text(s)/materials are you using for your lesson? Ursa Major and Ursa Minor information sheet Constellations note taking activity sheet. Constellations Legends packet (students will pick one and read it in partners) 4. Student Engagement: What engagement principle(s) are you choosing for this lesson? ____x____choice, ____x_____collaboration, ____x____building concepts, ____x____relevance real world interaction I will engage students in this lesson by: I will engage the students in the lesson by reading to them the Greek Mythology story of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

5. Student Activity/Differentiation. What will your students be doing to meet the purpose of your lesson? (listening, reading, searching, writing, strategy instruction, group work, etc.) What my students are actually DOING: Before, During, and After. Students will start by following along as I read to them the story of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. During points of the story I will stop, and as a class we will and talk about what we read (comprehension). After we have read through the story as a class we will complete a Who-Did What chart. For the chart I will assign a scribe to write what we come up with and the students will write the information down in their science notebooks. I will model for the students on the whiteboard how I would like them to set up their paper for this activity. After we have completed the chart and it has been modeled for them one person from each pair will come up and grab a story from our constellations myths packet. Together in partners the students will read the story, then in their notebooks they are to create their own Who-Did What chart. Some pairs will finish earlier than others, for early finishers they are to get a new story and repeat the same steps as the first story. After the students have around 20-25 minutes to create a Who-Did What chart I will then model for them how to do a 25 word summary using our Ursa Major and Ursa Minor story. Students will then create a 25 word summary on the story that they have written.

How will you differentiate your instruction for struggling/gifted students? For the Struggling students they will be in pairs, so their partner will be able to work with them through the steps. For our very low students (Rohit specifically) the lesson will be adapted so they are having the story read to them and they will be drawing the constellation and labeling it as opposed to the rest of the class. This is a brand new unit, and something that these students have not seen much of, our gifted students should be working well with the new information they will learn. They are also forced to work with a partner that might not be at the same level as they are, so they might have to slow down to help their partner understand the information we are learning.

6. Writing/Communicating/Assessment: How will you know students have met the purpose of the lesson? What will students do to record their understanding? Our assessment for this lesson will be the students Who-Did What chart as well as the 25 word summary. For the Who-Did What chart students will be graded on if they could navigate the chart through the story properly. The 25 word summary will be graded on whether they could meet three criteria: 1. Major characters are identified, 2. Events are in chronological order, and 3. The final event tells how the character or object ended in up in the night sky. 7. Reflection: Strengths? Improvements? Be specific.