Daniella Goodman

SPEDE 774
Writing Lesson Plan
10/20/2014
Early Childhood Special Education Lesson Plan
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Lesson: Writing Unit
Unit of Study: Feelings & Moods
Goal of Lesson (Common Core State Standards/Division of Early Childhood where appropriate):
(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.8, 2014) With guidance and support from adults students will be able to recall
information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2, 2014) Students will be able to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and
writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply
some information about the topic.

Objectives:
Students will be able to expressively recall 3 different names of moods/feelings from the lessons target
vocabulary, with minimal verbal prompting.

Students will be able to inventively spell 3 different names of moods/feelings from the lessons target
vocabulary, with minimal physical/verbal prompting.

*Please see modifications in Differentiation section of lesson plan for further details
Pre-Assessment:

Teacher will ask prompting questions prior to thematic unit on Feelings/Moods to gain knowledge of childrens
understanding of the unit through experiential knowledge as well as from previous mini-lessons (Eg. How are
you feeling today? I feel excited to be in school! From my the way my face looks/my voice sounds, do you think
excited is a happy feeling or a sad feeling?)

Post-Assessment:

Teachers will collect worksheets and check off 3 inventive spelling/approximations of target vocabulary of
various feelings/moods

Teachers will use an attendance list and mark s beside each student that can expressively recall 3 vocabulary
terms from the lesson

Teachers will take pictures of dictation/writing work for individual student portfolios

Materials:
Emotions and Feelings: How Do You Feel Today? by Jenny River
Mini-lesson worksheets with sentence prompts: Yesterday I felt___________. Today I feel________. Tomorrow
I will feel_________. (Because_______ can be added for students as needed who can modify up during the
lesson) *please see below lesson template for sample worksheet
Paper

SPEDE 774

Daniella Goodman

Pencils
Digital camera
Student portfolios
Whiteboard
Dry erase pens
Smartboard/overhead projector

Use of Technology:
Teacher will use digital camera to record writing work for student portfolios

Teacher will use Smartboard/overhead projector to display group work/teaching samples for lesson

Differentiation:
Modifying up Students needing higher-level literacy instruction will write their own pieces without dictation.
Students will be given access to increased verbal support if needed for writing their pieces.

Modifying down Students needing more literacy support will be able to dictate their stories and ideas for their
writing pieces.

Modifying across Students needing minimal support for literacy learning will be given verbal support,
prompting, and dictation as needed for their writing pieces. (Leo: 1:1 support for lesson and writing portion)
*Leo will receive push in services if indicated by future evaluations

Seating Configuration/Use of Physical Space:

Students will be seated on the main rug area for initial mini-lesson with the head teacher

Students will move into their small-groups assigned seating tables for writing workshop portion of the lesson

Teaching roles and collaboration:

Head teacher will be at the front of the classroom leading initial instruction and writing example for
Feelings/Moods writing workshop lesson

Lauren will be positioned with Leo throughout small-groups activity/writing workshop portion of the lesson

Elyse and head teacher will be floating from group-to-group helping/dictating/prompting those students as
needed

Classroom Management:
Leo: Will be given support and prompting appropriate to his behavior management support system as needed
o Will be given 1:1 support from assistant teachers/head teacher throughout the lesson

Students will be verbally prompted and praised as needed for motivation of completing the writing workshop
tasks

Teachers will use positive reinforcement to encourage students engagement and participation to remain on-task
and attending

Teachers will ignore functionally negative/attention seeking behaviors, reinforcing positive interaction and
attention to the lesson
*Leo, Elai B. are typically attention seeking, need lots of encouragement for on-task behavior

SPEDE 774

Daniella Goodman

Engagement of students/anticipatory set/Motivation:

Between the teachers initial instruction mini-lesson and small group activity time students will go back to their
seats while expressing various emotions (eg. table 4 go back to your seats while showing me happy faces/table
3 go back to your seats while showing me sad faces etc.)

Teachers will provide positive reinforcement and verbal praise for students remaining on task and attending to
the lesson

Connection to Previous lesson/Prior Knowledge:

Students will have been working with this particular book/Feelings Study for previous lessons in word study,
readers workshop, and several read-alouds (along with other books in the same category)
Lesson Presentation:
Estimated Time: 30-35 Minutes
Introduction (7-10 Minutes):
Teacher will prompt students with an introductory question of 'How are you feeling today?'
o Students will attend to their peers, teacher will ask a handful of students to share their answers during
introduction to the lesson
o

1 Assistant teacher will note various vocabulary words used/if used appropriately or needing more
correction for definition

Teacher will introduce the book for the read-aloud as one previously used for past literacy lessons

Teacher will prompt students to listen closely for the feelings and moods talked about in the book

Eg. Target Vocabulary:

Happy
Sad
Feeling/s
Mood/s
Angry
Upset
Bored
Confused
Dislike
Like
Love
Exhausted
Goals: Attend to teacher, respond to questions, use full sentences when responding, turn-taking

Teacher will read: Emotions and Feelings: How Do You Feel Today? by Jenny River
o Teacher will ask leading questions throughout the read-aloud as needed
o

Teacher will use turn and talk strategies to engage students throughout the read-aloud

Goals: Attend to teacher, respond to questions, use full sentences when responding, turn-taking
Mini-Lesson/Teacher Model (7-10 Minutes):

SPEDE 774

Daniella Goodman

Teacher will model a 3-sentence paragraph using Yesterday I feltToday I feeland Tomorrow I will
feel.(because.) written out on the Smartboard/projector
o Teacher will model the thought process as well as the writing process (eg. Hmmm yesterday I was sad
because I dropped the last piece of my sandwichso I will write Yesterday I felt sad. Whats the first
sound we hear in sad? S-A-D etc.)
o

Can use leading questions if too easy (eg. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldnt go back to
sleep! How do you think I felt in the morning? Etc.)

Goals: attending to the teacher, responding to questions, using full sentences when responding, introduction/continued use
of target vocabulary
Guided Practice/Active Involvement/Small group work/Independent Practice:
Estimated Time: 10 Minutes
Small Group Work:
Students will be given mini-lesson worksheets (see below lesson plan for sample worksheet) to continue
vocabulary practice/writing workshop

Students needing modification up will be able to write out their own Emotion/Feeling sentences/can add a
because onto the end of the embedded sentence in the worksheet

Students needing modification down will be able to dictate their feelings to teachers as needed

Goals: on-task behavior, use of target vocabulary, writing practice, comprehension practice, attending to teachers.
Final Summary/Closure:
Estimated Time: 5 Minutes
Pair/Share
Students will use turn & talk to share their answers to prompting questions from teacher
o Eg. turn and talk to your partner and tell them how you are feeling today or, how do you think you
would feel if you could eat ice cream every day from now on?, or, What makes you feel really happy?
etc.
o Assistant teachers will split the paired groupings and take brief anecdotal notes from each student

Students will be asked how they sounded their words out/thought processes on writing their feelings down

Students will be reminded that their writing will continue to be worked on to add to it/improve skills

Goals: attending to partner/teachers, turn-taking, reading/speaking practice

Extension:
Art: Students will use their comprehensive works to eventually create artistic puppets of themselves to act out their
Feelings pieces.
Math: Students will spend a mini-lesson counting how many feelings/mood words they read in one book.
Homework: Students can take blank worksheets home to practice writing/sentence work with their families and
caregivers.
Movement: Teachers can implement Simon Says games using feelings/moods to project.

SPEDE 774

Daniella Goodman

Sample worksheet for mini lesson:

Name: ______________________

Today I Feel

Yesterday I felt _____________________________________.

Today I feel ________________________________________.
Tomorrow I will feel _________________________________.
5

SPEDE 774

Daniella Goodman

References
Brinkerhoff, J. D., & Keefe, E. B. (2007). Effective literacy instruction for students with moderate or severe
disabilities. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Common Core State Standards Initiative (2014): http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/SL/K/6/