Rikki Mueller

ELED 3221 Science

edTPA Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template
Australian Animal Life Cycle
_____________________________________________________________________________
Big Idea: Understanding the animal life cycle and discuss the four main stages of the life cycle,
while also understanding that although every animal goes through the common life cycle, some
organisms have a life cycle that is more unique and diverse than others. (Main focus Australian
Animals)
Grade Level: 2nd Grade
NC Essential Standard(s):
2.L.1 Understand animal life cycles.
2.L.1.1 Summarize the life cycle of animals

Birth
Developing into an adult
Reproducing
Aging and death

Next Generation Science Standard(s):

3-LS1-1 Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all
have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death. (Clarification Statement: Changes
organisms go through during their life form a pattern.)
Four Strands of Science Learning:
Strand one- This is located in the explain stage where the students are holding up what animal
goes to which name and when the teacher explains the steps of a life cycle.
Strand two- This is located in elaborate when the students have to try to pair up the baby animal
with the adult animal.
Strand three- This is located in elaborate when the teacher asks the students how do they think
they know what baby animal matches up with the adult animal.
Strand four-This is located in explore, explain, and elaborate when the teacher ask the students to
share their answers with the class.
21st Century Skills:
Collaboration- I choose this because students are working together in groups during explore,
explain, and elaborate.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving- I choose this because students try to figure it out using
their own thoughts during the explore stage and come up with conclusions based on the material
given.
Academic Language Demand

Language Function: In the table below highlight the one most important language
function for your lesson. Explain why you chose this.
I chose summarize because students will have to summarize the stages of the life cycle in
their own words.

Analyze

Argue

Categorize

Interpret

Predict

Question

Compare/contras
t
Retell

Describe

Explain

Summarize

Scientific Vocabulary: What are the key scientific terms that your students will learn
through this lesson?
Life Cycle: This has four stages; birth, development into an adult, reproducing, aging and
death.

Instructional Objective: Given an index card, students will be able to summarize and write
down in their own words the 5 stages of the life cycle correctly, if students have 3-4 correct this
will show partial understanding and all five correct will show complete understanding of the life
cycle.
Prior Knowledge (student): None is needed. General knowledge of certain parts of a life cycle,
and some background information about Australia animals would be helpful during these
activities though.
Content Knowledge (teacher): The teacher needs to understand what the 10 most popular
Australian animals are and the life cycles that they go through. The 10 most popular animals are
Kangaroos, Koala, Emu, Kookaburra, Platypuses, Echidna, Tasmanian devil, Dingo, Wallaby,
and wombat. The teacher can look up pictures of each of the life cycles on google.com. The
national geographic website also has some videos of some of the animals from this list that will
help with the understanding of life cycles.
Connections to Students Lives: The teacher can explain to the students that even though we
talked about Australian animals and the life cycle that they have, people, plants and common
household pets also go through a life cycle. The teacher can explain that every student right now
is at a stage of their life, and they were born and are getting older and will eventually get into the
adult stage of their life cycle. This will let students see that every living thing around them goes
through a life cycle.
Accommodations for Students with Special Needs (individual and/or small group):
Students that need extra help or if they are confused with the activity given
will be place at a table with the assistant teacher for one-on-one help where
she will go over the directions again with the student and work through the
activity slowly.
Materials and Technology Requirements:
Index Cards
Bag for each group of three students, with animal names and adult animal

Bag for each group of three students, with baby animal

Big copy of picture for teacher of adult and baby animals
Pencils
Total Estimated Time: I expect my lesson to take around 20 minutes. I had to make my lesson
shorter because of the time limit I was given.
Source of Inspiration for the Lesson: None.
Safety Considerations: Students should stay in their seats and only get up when needed. The
stop look listen skill will be used to get students attention so there isnt any confusion.
Content and Strategies (Procedure).
Engage: The teacher should start off by asking the students if they think they know what type of
exotic animals they talk about that live in Australia. The teacher should then ask the students if
they know what a life cycle is and what they think the stages of a life cycle are. The teacher
should then let the students know that they will be learning about life cycles and the stages that
the animals go through and what they look like during that stage of their life cycle.
Explore: Teacher should tell the students to get in groups of three, and provide them with a bag
with 8 Australian animal names. The eight animal names are Kangaroos, Koala, Emu,
Kookaburra, Platypuses, Echidna, Tasmanian devil, and Dingo. In the bag along with the eight
animal names will be the animal and a full grown adult version of the animal. The teacher should
tell the students to match the name of the animal with the picture. The students should get around
3 minutes to complete this. They should then have to talk to each other about why they think
their match ups is correct. Give the students 5 minutes to discuss this with their group.
Explain: The teacher should then start with the first animal and ask them to all hold up the
animal that they think is a kangaroo. The teacher should then hold up the correct picture. The
teacher should then go to the second animal and ask the students to all hold up the animal that
they think is a Koala and so on till all of the animals have been discussed. The teacher should
then talk about the adult life cycle and how these pictures are at the adult part of the life cycle.
The teacher should ask questions like What do you think needed to happen first before these
animals became an adult? This should then lead to the discussion about how each of these
animals was once a baby and how after they become an adult they have more children, and then
eventually will die and this is called a life cycle. The teacher should tell the students that they are
now going to look at how these animals look when they are babies. The teacher should go over
what the life cycle is like for humans and how it is the same for animals except they might live
longer. This will help them relate this to themselves and their daily lives. The teacher should
answer students questions, if needed during this time.
Elaborate: The teacher should then hand out another bag of all of the animals when they were a
baby and have a number from 1-8 located on the back of the picture. The students should use the
names from the first bag to match the baby animal with the animal name they think it belongs to.
They should do this with their group and discuss why they think the baby animal matches the

adult animal. They should discuss this for about 5 minutes and try to come to a conclusion to
what baby animal belongs to what name. Groups should also discuss the difference they see
between the adult and the baby animal. The teacher should then ask the kids to hold up the baby
animal that they think belongs to the kangaroo, the students should hold up the animal that they
think it belongs to. The teacher should tell the class the correct number that it should be for
example the baby kangaroo would have a one on the back of the picture so students could look
for this. This should continue until all of the baby animal pictures have been discussed. The
teacher should discuss questions like, how did you think you knew what baby animal matched
up with the adult animal? What were the similarities that you saw? The teacher should talk
about how this is the birthing part of the life cycle and it is very important or these animals
wouldnt be alive.
Evaluate: The teacher will then pass out an index card and will have the student write down in
their own words the steps of the life cycle. The teacher should be able to evaluate the students
understanding by looking at the way the students wrote about the steps of the lifecycle. The
students will show complete understanding if they get all 5 steps of the life cycle, and partial
understanding if they get 3-4 steps of the life cycle. Anything below 3 steps shows no
understanding of the life cycle.
To be completed after the lesson is taught (if applicable)
Assessment Results of All Objectives/Skills:
Nine of the students had complete understanding and correctly identified all of the steps
of the life cycle. The other twelve students correctly identified 3-4 steps of the life cycle.
One student showed no understanding of the life cycle. This one student is the only
student that is below grade level. While I was teaching the lesson, the assistant had this
student pulled and was slowly going over what I was teaching step by step to modify and
help.

Graded Elements

Developing (Level 1)

Acceptable (Level 2)

Exemplary (Level 3)

Initial Planning
Several required components are
missing. The components presented
do not align well with the lesson.

Most required components are present.

One or two may be missing, require more
detail, and/or not be completely aligned
with the lesson.

All required components are present and align with the

lesson.

(0-1 point)

(2 points)

(3 points)

One or more required components

are missing. The components
presented do not align well with the
lesson.

All required components are present. One

or two may not be completely aligned with
the lesson.

All required components are present and align with the

lesson.

(0-1 point)

(2 points)

(3 points)

Identification of academic
language demand (both
language function & vocab),
instructional objective, and
content knowledge

Several required components are

missing. The components presented
do not align well with the lesson.

Most required components are present.

One or two may be missing, require more
detail, and/or not be completely aligned
with the lesson.

All required components are present and align with the

lesson.

(0-1 point)

(2 points)

(3 points)

Identification of connections
to students lives, prior
knowledge, and
accommodations for special
needs

One or more required components

are missing. The components
presented do not align well with the
lesson.

All required components are present. One

or two may require more detail or not be
completely aligned with the lesson.

All required components are present and align with the

lesson.

(0-1 point)

(2 points)

(3 points)

Identification of central
focus, lesson subject, grade
level, materials, time, lesson
source, and safety

Identification of NC
Standards, NGSS, 4 Strands
and 21st Century Skills

Lesson Introduction

Engage

Engage stage states pre-skills rather

than using questions to gauge
readiness and generate curiosity.
Misses opportunity to motivate
students and help them make
connections to their lives and prior
knowledge.

Engage activity somewhat sets the stage

for attending to the lesson, but important
connections to students lives and/or prior
conceptions are missing.

(0-2 points)

(3-4 points)

Engage activity creates interest and generates curiosity in

the topic by connecting it to students lives. Identifies prior
conceptions to gauge readiness for the lesson. Clear
connections made to prior learning or knowledge. Provides
focus for the remainder of the lesson. Highly relevant and
compelling questions are present.
(5 points)

Lesson Development

Explore

Explain

Elaborate

Students are given a limited

opportunity to explore with materials
or phenomena. Not clear how the
exploration will provide a common
experience for students to build
conceptual knowledge and
communicate their ideas with others.

Students have the opportunity to get

directly involved with phenomena and
materials. They are provided with a
common experience so they can share
and communicate their ideas about the
core concepts addressed. Teacher
direction may drive instruction rather than
student inquiry.

Students have the opportunity to get directly involved with

phenomena and materials. Students are provided with a
common experience that assists them in sharing and
communicating their ideas about the core concepts
addressed. Student inquiry drives the instruction. Highly
relevant and compelling questions are present.

(0-2 points)

(3-4 points)

(5 points)

Explain stage does not introduce

students to common language, terms,
or vocabulary, and is entirely teacherdirected. No opportunities are given
for students to communicate their
ideas with others through writing,
drawing, or speaking, and/or the
product or activity does not relate to
stated objective(s).

Students have some opportunities to

explain concepts, but this process may be
primarily teacher-directed. There may not
be sufficient opportunities for students to
communicate with others to develop and
demonstrate their mastery of new
vocabulary or terms through writing,
drawing, and speaking.

Students are encouraged to explain concepts in their own

words based on what they did in the Explore phase.
Teacher introduces common language, terms, and
vocabulary and helps students build on their initial
explanations to construct more accurate and sophisticated
explanations. Some form of writing, drawing, or speaking is
used to assess students development, progress, and
growth with the new information presented. This stage is
predominantly student-led, with the teacher asking highly
relevant and compelling questions to guide the process.

(0-2 points)

(3-4 points)

(5 points)

Activities are unrelated to concepts

learned and/or do not facilitate deeper
understanding in students.

Activities provide some opportunity for

students to expand their understanding of
the concepts or to make connections with
related concepts.

Activities allow for students to elaborate on the concepts

learned, make connections to other related concepts, and
apply their understandings to the world around them.
Highly relevant and compelling questions are present.

(0-2 points)

(3-4 points)

(5 points)

Lesson Evaluation
Assessment is limited to one form in a
single stage and does not relate to
the objective(s).

Assessments gauge student learning of

the objective(s) but may not directly align
with the conditions or behaviors of the
objective(s). Only formative OR summative
assessments (not both) are used and are
not fully incorporated through all stages of
the lesson.

Candidate effectively proposes multiple strategies for

determining levels of mastery of lesson objective(s).
Assessments are clearly aligned with the objectives of the
lesson. Both formative and summative assessments are
seamlessly incorporated throughout all stages of the
lesson.

(0-2 points)

(3-4 points)

(5 points)

Evaluate

Additional Lesson Components

Alignment/structure of
lesson

Lesson focuses on how to complete

an activity, rather than on developing
student understanding of content and
skills.
Several key activities do not align to
the objective(s) and standards.
(0-1 point)

Accurate science content

Communication of ideas

Lesson sequence is clear and time is

allowed for student questions and practice,
but important details regarding some
segments may be missing from the lesson.

Sequence and organization of lesson is effective, logical

and structured to increase student understanding. Lesson
sequence allows for student questions, practice and
success during each important segment.
All activities align to the objective(s) and standards.

Most activities align to the objective(s) and

standards.
(2 points)

(3 points)

Science content is not accurate.

Science content is accurate in most of the

lesson plan.

Science content is accurate throughout the entire lesson.

(0 point)

(1 point)

(2 points)

The plan is difficult to read or hard to

follow because of excessive
mechanical (spelling, grammar)
errors.

Ideas are communicated somewhat

clearly, with some mechanical (spelling,
grammar) errors found.

Ideas are communicated clearly, with no mechanical

(spelling, grammar) errors found in the lesson plan.

(0-1 point)

(2 points)

(3 points)