Spring 2014

Sem I-ECED372

LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program
Rebecca Pazzanese
Michelle Hunt
Feb. 23, 2016 @2:30 pm
Due March 1, 2016
Initial:

TITLE OF LESSON Introduction to symbols

CONTEXT OF LESSON

We have just finished up learning about what a map is and what it is used for. Learning what symbols
are will help them in being prepared for first grade map lessons.
My children really liked maps and doing activities that go along with maps which is why I chose this
activity.
This fits in the curriculum sequence because we are still talking about maps and testing on maps is
coming up. This will help prepare them for a test through helping them to further their understanding in
maps.
OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT
Developmental Objectives
Identify two specific developmental skills
the activity will support.

Assessment
How will you assess student performance on each objective? Specifically
identify the behaviors and language that will inform your assessment. Be
clear on how and when you will collect this data.

Objectives should be simple, measurable

statements of observable behavior,
beginning with The students will and
followed by an action verb. DO NOT use
words such as know, recognize, and
understand; these are not observable
behaviors.
1. The students will learn that pictures can
be used to express ideas.

2. The students will describe the different

pictures and explain what they can be
used to represent

Student will use the word symbol when pointing to a picture that
represents something. They will be able to place a post it with a symbol
on it with the correct idea. (I.E when asked if they can place a symbol to
mark where Harrisonburg is they will be able to place the symbol of
where Harrisonburg is.)
Students will be able to accurately be able to name pictures and say what
they mean. (i.e*shows picture of airplane* what is this a picture of?
Its an airplane. what could the airplane be a symbol for? An airport)
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RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (K & 1) OR FOUNDATION BLOCKS (Preschool)

K.6- Students will demonstrate an understanding that print makes sense by identifying common signs and
logos
MATERIALS NEEDED
Post its- Becca
A pointer, In the class already.
World and country map- in class already.
PROCEDURE

Preparation of learning environment

We will start by giving them their passports and placing a sticker on one

spot for the designated station they are at.

Pull map down

Have stickies drawn and ready to be placed.
Have finger pointer ready for students to use.
Engagement and introduction of the lesson
Explain what a map is used for and that it is a model or a representation of the
united states and that it cant be real life size because its too big.
Then ask about what signs they know and where they encounter them.
Take their knowledge of signs and apply it to symbols for a map.
Implementation of the lesson
I will have a picture of a stop sign, a no smoking sign and a mr. yuck sign.
o I will ask students to raise their hands and tell me what each
symbol/sign stands for or means.
o I will then have students take the stickies with symbols that could be
found on a map and have them place the symbol with the one it matches
on the map.
o I will ask students questions like What could an airplane be a symbol
for? Or what could a bus be a symbol for?
Closure
I will say that symbols are used to express ideas like pictures and that along
with words they can be used to communicate. I will then connect it to their
journals.
Clean-up
There is no clean up needed for this station. I will take the stickies off and the
station will be reset.
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At the end I will roll the map up, put the finger pointer away, and place the
stickes in the recycling bin.

DIFFERENTIATION
For the more complex students I will ask harder questions like instead of showing them the symbol and
asking what it represents I will ask them what could represent a place such as a hospital, or airport.
For the lower children I will say what the picture is of and ask what it could represent and maybe spend
more time on talking about signs they know and what they stand for before jumping into symbols on maps and
what they stand for.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Kids can easily get distracted and become uninterested. I will prevent this trough keeping their interest
with the reward of coming up and using the pointer finger or placing a stickie. Kids may also try and be funny
through saying inappropriate symbols to try and make their class mates and observers laugh. I will take this in
stride and diffuse the situation through my classroom management skills that I have worked on. Like, ignoring
comments, saying the students name pausing and moving on, and if it comes to it moving their clip.

Lesson Plan Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, reflect on the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to
guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

A. How did your actual lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes you made & explain why you
made them. Be thorough & specific in your description. (3 pts)
o My actual lesson differed in that instead of drawing symbols on the post-it notes, we used
different colors to point out symbols area on the map, such as the symbol for a river, or the
capitol, or mountain ranges. The lesson was a little more complex than I had originally thought
it would be. It was hard for them to connect street symbols to map symbols. In the future I could
use a simpler map and use things located in a park.

B. Evaluate the impact of the lesson based on your plan for assessing learning and the individual data you
collected on each objective. Cite multiple examples of student behavior & language that document your
conclusions. (8 pts)
I feel like this lesson was semi- impactful. I think it was a little difficult for them to comprehend at first
but once took examples from everyday life I believe they began to grasp the concept. I fell if I

had more than 10 minutes to teach them. For example, all the students met objective one of
being able to identify symbols that are seen in every day life, but not everyone could identify a
symbol on the map. A lot of students needed help identifying symbols, like, Joshua was able to
identify a lake with help from the class and teacher, but in the end he knew that blue symbolized
water. I feel like they also had trouble understanding the word symbol. Maybe if I had used the
word picture and explained that it represents something else, then explained that the word that
we use for that is symbol it would have been understood more. Again I think this was due to the
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time constraint. My students that are above grade level grasped it quickly. Landon and Isaac
both understood what a symbol was quickly and met both objectives with no help at all.
Overall, I believe it was a successful lesson given the time we had to teach it. I feel if I had
more time I could have made it more impactful.

C. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or
more thorough way if you were to present this lesson again. (2 pts)
o I could make the students color in their own map symbol and make a key for what they placed
on their map. I think since I tried to just teach symbols and not symbols and keys together it was
a bit confusing.

D. If you were the teacher in this classroom, what follow-up experiences would you plan? (Develop your
answer based on the data that was collected and your observations during the lesson.) (2 pts)
o I would plan to have students do a scavenger hunt using a key and symbols on a map of the
school.

E1. Share something you learned about young children as a result of planning and conducting the activity.
Relate this new knowledge to principles of child development or appropriate curriculum from your ELED
308 and ECED 372 courses. (2 pts)
o I learned that when children are interested they really like to learn. They also like to be right and
be acknowledged when they do something right. Instead of focusing on bad behavior I picked
out good behavior and my kids wanted to be noticed so they would often follow the actions of
the child I had praised. I also noticed that they were very receptive to participating and showing
what they knew. They were proud of them selves. They were eager to participate, they showed
this through calling out and interrupting but they also showed it through asking questions and
when asked to act the right way they would get very quiet and stretch to raise their hand as high
as possible to be called on.

E2. Share something you learned about teaching as a result of planning and conducting this activity.
Describe how you will apply this new knowledge to upcoming opportunities for developing learning
experiences for children. (6 pts)
o I learned that keeping childrens attention is much harder than anticipated. It takes a lot of work.
Questions need to spark their interest. I also found it difficult to appeal to all the students
interests. I will apply this knew knowledge to my future teaching opportunities for having more
than2 plans. I will set up many different sets of questions to ask and things to point out that can
appeal to many interests. I also found adding more inflection to my voice helped get my students
attention. When I find that students seem to be staring into space of not paying attention I will
add inflection to my voice in order to spark their interest again.

E3. Share something you learned about yourself as a result of planning & conducting this activity? (2 pts)
o After this lesson I learned that time is of the essence, and when teaching young minds repetition
and simple explanations are necessary. I learned that I am not afraid to correct bad behavior and
I also do well at acknowledging good behavior. I feel like I just need to work on planning for all
the outcomes better. While planning this I didnt really know what to expect in the sense of
things that could go wrong. Now I feel like I am more prepared and will be able to plan better
lessons with more back up plans for when students get distracted or uninterested.
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