DIRECT INSTRUCTION LESSON PLAN GUIDE AND TEMPLATE

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Name: Megan Kupsky

Lesson #:

Lesson Title: Five Themes of Geography

Grade Level/Subject:

Fourth Grade/Social Studies

NCES/CCSS Standard and

Objective (1)

Revised Blooms level of

thinking/type of knowledge
(1)
Behavioral Objective (2)

Objective Rationale (1)

Prerequisite Knowledge and

Skills (1)
Key Terms and Vocabulary
(1)

Focus/Review (prepares
students for the lesson) (2)

Topic: 5 Themes of Geography

4.G.1- Understand how human, environmental and technological

factors affect the growth and development of North Carolina.
4.G.1.2- Explain the impact that human activity has on the
availability of natural resources in North Carolina.
4.G.1.3- Exemplify that interactions of various peoples, places and
cultures in terms of adaptation and modification of the
environment.
4.G.1.4- Explain the impact of technology (communication,
transportation and inventions) on North Carolinas citizens, past
and present.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.9- Integrate information form two
text on the same topic to write or speak about the subject
knowledgeably.
Understanding (illustrate)
Applying (show)
Creating (compose, design)
The fourth grade student will be able to:
-Define the five themes of Geography
-Provide detail examples for each of the five themes
-Understand how each theme can be seen in North Carolina
Fourth grade students need to learn the basics of geography and
how to think like geographers. They need to know how and why
we classify things as such and how places can be talked about
geographically. This can be accomplished by teaching them the
five themes of geography. Since fourth grade focuses largely on
North Carolina, I incorporated North Carolina examples the
students could easily connect to in my lesson.
Students need to know basic facts about North Carolina geography
such as regions (mountains, piedmont and costal). Students should
also know local geography such as their hometown or city and
school.
Movement, Region, Human and Environment Interaction,
Location, Place, Mountains, Piedmont, Costal, hometown
information.
Content and Strategies
Instructional
Strategies
Gather the students on the front carpet. Ask
ask questions
students What do you know about the world
Revised for spring, 2012

Expect students to answer with a wide variety

of answers. Ask students Some people study
the world for a living. What is their job called?
Let students answer but most will not know the
answer..
Objective as stated for
students (helps students set
their own goals for the lesson)
(1)
Teacher Input (provides the
content to students in a
teacher-directed manner) (3)

Today we will be learning about the five themes of geography;

Movement, Region, Human and Environment Interaction, Location and
Place. At the end of the lesson students will create a foldable book to help
remind them of the five themes.
talk and
Tell the students that today we will be learning
respond
what it means to think like geographers!
Geographers study and describe our world.
They help us understand where we live and
other places around the globe. To think like
geographers, we need to get ready and make
sure to grab all of our material because we start
on our journey we cant make any pit stops to go
get pencils or notebooks. At every location I am
going to ask some of our geographers to give
me an example so be paying attention! Ok
everyone ready? Hold on tight! Today we will
be learning about themes. There are five themes
that geographers found that help us understand
our world. Our first theme is Movement.
Everybody write movement in your notebook!
Now then, movement is how we get from place
to place. An example could be car or a bus! We
moved all the time and we can describe places
we live by movement! Be sure to take notes,
geographers take notes in order to remember
what they saw! Ok our next stop is Region, hold
on its going to be bumpy! We are here!
Everybody write Region in their notebook.
When geographers talk about region, we talk
about the main differences between two places.
For example, the main difference between
Charlotte and Asheville is the mountain range.
We could also say the main difference between
Charlotte and Wilmington is the flat beach at
Wilmington. Gathered all your notes? Perfect
our third stop is Human and Environment
Interaction, everybody ready? Lets go! Human
Environment Interaction might seem
complicated but geographers know to keep
things simple! All we are talking about is the
world and humans get along. How do we
impact the Earth and how does the Earth impact
us? Make sure you write down the third title
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along with the example! On to our fourth

example geographers! It is Location, where we
are! Location can be as simple as our street
address at school! Ok geographers? Ready for
our fifth and final theme?? Its Place! Everybody
write down place. We use place when we
describe how somewhere is different from all
other places! Region and Place are similar but
do not get them confused! An example of place
would be the Appalachian Mountains in Boone
or the Colorado Rockies out west in Colorado.
Ok geographers, we covered all of our five
themes! Lets head back to the classroom to
discuss what we learned!

Guided Practice (scaffolded

practice with the content;
helps students make sense of
the content provided in
Teacher Input) (3)

What a wild and crazy trip we took! Who can

Group work
tell me one theme they wrote in their note?
Think-PairAllows for students to respond. Tel the students Share
that now we are going to play a review game
with the five themes. I will split the class into
five groups and give each group one of the
themes. It will be each groups task to make a
charade of the theme. The class has to guess
each theme. Allow the students to use props if
needed. Students will have 15 minutes to
construct their theme.
Walk around classroom and pass out the
document titled The Five Themes of
Geography
After the fifteen minutes are up, allow students
to come back together and have one group show
their display first. Have the students guess the
theme. One group member will read from the
handout the small paragraph that goes with their
theme. Repeat this for all remaining four
themes.

Independent Practice
(application activities to help
students use and demonstrate
what they have learned) (2)

Tell the students they are now going to make a foldable to help them
remember the five themes of geography. The teacher will give clear
instructions and walk the class through each step of the process. Each step
will be repeated twice then the students should raise their hand if they
have further questions. Once the class has made the foldable, tell the
students they must include at least 3 things on each page in order to
receive credit. They must put a title and their name on the front, on each
page following they must write the title of one theme at the top, give a
Revised for spring, 2012

definition and draw a picture or write an example in the book. As long as

the students have those items they can decorate the book however they
wish. Tell the students they may use the two sheets they have titled The
Five Themes of Geography to help fill in their book. The students may
also talk quietly in groups as they complete this work back at their desk.
Evaluation (How will you
assess students learning so
that you can determine if they
met the objective of the
lesson?) (2)

Formative: As the students work, the teacher will walk around to see how
the students are completing their book. If the students are doing it
successfully then they pass the formative assessment If the students are
struggling a little bit the teacher will offer assistance and clear up any
misconceptions.
Summative: After the lesson is over, the students answer questions at the
bottom of one of their worksheets that ask about the five themes. This will
let the teacher know if the students really understood the lesson.

Plans for Individual

Differences (differentiations
needed for students) (1)
Materials used in the lesson;
Resources used in developing
the lesson (1)
21st Century Skills (must be
in three lessons)

Global Awareness (must be in

two lessons)
Culturally Responsive
Teaching (must be in three
lessons)

Students who have trouble completing the book may cut up one of
the worksheets and glue it in their notebook instead. The student
would still be asked to draw a picture example. The student could
discuss their answer with the teacher first if the student is unsure
about the answer.
Cooperating Teacher, Dr. Goods lesson in ELED 3223, Common Core
State Standards.
In this lesson, students use 21st Century Skills such as
collaborating when they are asked to act out a theme with a group
of people. They are asked to think creatively when they make their
own five themes book. They are asked to use flexibility when the
students traveled through the world thinking about each of the five
themes their mind had to be flexible and imagine.
The students are asked to think like geographers and describe
different parts of the world using the five themes.
In this lesson, the students looked at different regions of the world
to use as examples for five themes. When the students talked about
Region, students who were of different culture shared their
thoughts about how America and their homeland were different.

Overall alignment in the lesson (2):

The behavioral objective must be aligned to the lesson objectives (NCES/CCSS).
The instructional activities must help students meet the behavioral objective and be successful on the
lesson assessment.
The lesson assessment must provide enough reliable and valid data so the teacher can determine if
each student has met the lesson objectives or not.
Add any instructional materials needed for the lesson here (worksheets, assessments, PowerPoints,
slides from SmartBoard programs, etc.) (2)
Pictures can be found of the worksheets and student work on my Weebly page.

Revised for spring, 2012