Instructional Lesson Plan

English Language Arts

Unit Title: Teamwork

Grade: 1
Text: Swimmy by Leo Lioni
Lesson Overview
In this lesson, students will continue to broaden their understanding of the concept of working as a team. They will gain deeper
understanding of text by participating in a shared close reading of the text Swimmy and recount the events in the story.
Teacher Planning and Preparation
The model lessons in this unit feature best practices to address Common Core State Standards. The lesson plans were designed
for heterogeneous classes. When teachers implement these plans, they should consider the skills and special needs of their
students and make adjustments accordingly.
Apply appropriate elements of UDL:
Options for Perception: 1.1 Customize the display of information, 1.2 Provide alternatives for auditory information, 1.3 Provide
alternatives for visual information

Options for Expression: 5.1 Allow choices of media for communication, 5.2 Provide appropriate tools for composition and
problem solving, 5.3 Provide ways to scaffold practice and performance

Options for Comprehension: 3.1 Provide or activate background knowledge , 3.2 Highlight critical features, big ideas, and
relationships, 3.3 Guide information processing, 3.4 Support memory and transfer

Options for Sustaining Effort: 8.3 Foster collaboration and communication

The following websites provide alternate strategies and information for differentiation of lesson.
English Language Learners
http://www.wida.us/standards/CAN_DOs/
Gifted Children
National Association for Gifted Children
http://www.nagc.org/
Consider the need for Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) when selecting texts, and captioned/described video when
selecting video or other media for this lesson.
Special Education and 504 LD Online
http://www.ldonline.org/educators
http://marylandlearninglinks.org
**Prepare for small group/guided reading instruction by selecting appropriate text and materials. Make connections to the
concept of Teamwork wherever possible.
Focus Question
How are we better together?
Unit Standards Applicable to This Lesson
RL1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
RL1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
W1.3 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what
happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
SL1.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small
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and larger groups.
SL1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or presented orally or through other media.

Student Outcomes
Students will retell the story focusing on the key details from the text.
Students will work in teams to sequence the events in a story.
Students will illustrate the main events from the story.
Text/Resources:
Copy of Swimmy by Leo Lioni
Copies of sentence stems for writing activity
Copy of sentence stems for sequencing activity
YouTube video of Swimmy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FoPGMYseg&feature=related
Text Complexity Considerations:
Quantitative Measure (Readability measures and other scores of text complexity): Lexile: 640L
Qualitative Measure (Levels of meaning, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands): Filled with
sophisticated language and technical terminology, like medusa, makes this a challenging selection for first grade students. Those
who have seen movies, like Nemo, will readily understand the beauty and the dangers of the undersea world where a little black fish
named Swimmy lives among a school of red fish. The story line is simple and entails teamwork to escape from danger.
Reader and Task Considerations (Reader variables (such as motivation, knowledge, and experiences) and task variables (such as
purpose and the complexity generated by the task assigned and the questions posed): First grade students can listen closely and
readily understand this underwater tale. As groups of students sequence events to retell the story, they will see that teamwork
provided the solution to the school of fish's problems.
Pre-Assessment:
Have students review the What is a team? chart from the first lesson. Discuss the characteristics and elicit additional ideas from
the group to add to the chart.
Lesson Procedure

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1. Using a document camera, show the cover of the book and introduce the story. Have the students discuss with a talking
partner using the following I Wonder questions?
I wonder which fish is Swimmy?
I wonder how big Swimmy will get?
I wonder what Swimmy eats?
2. Tell students that they should listen closely to be able to sequence the events of the story. When we sequence we think about
the order the events occur in the story. Read the story to students or play the video.
3. During the story, model thinking strategies by asking/answering text dependent questions that require them to think about the
order in which events take place in the story.
4. Divide the students into groups of 4. Have students sequence the story using the following sentences. (provide pictures from
the text for students who need a differentiated assignment)
The red fish swam together. Swimmy was the eye. They scared the big fish.
Swimmy saw a jellyfish, a lobster, and an eel.
A happy school of red fish and 1 black fish lived in the sea.
Swimmy taught the fish to swim together.
A big tuna ate all the red fish except for Swimmy.
Swimmy met a school a fish that was too afraid to swim and play.

5.

After the story, invite students to discuss the story by posing the following text dependent questions.

How did Swimmy feel when he escaped from the tuna and swam alone in the deep sea?
What helped Swimmy feel happy again?
Why didn't the new school of fish want to swim and play and see things?
What did Swimmy do to help the fish solve their problem?
Why do you think Swimmy offered to be the eye of the fish?
6. Discuss how Swimmy and the little red fish solved the problem in the story. Lead students to the conclusion, that Swimmy and
the little red fish worked as a team to solve their problem.
Differentiation/Extension:
Enter story events on into a multimedia program with a screen reading feature. Have each student in the group use the screen
reader to read the assigned story detail and electronically illustrate it. Assist students in each group in merging illustrated story
details into a single multimedia presentation. Make the multimedia book available to students who would like to reread it.
http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/onTour/leoLionni/Leo_Lionni_SG/swimmy.htm
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/wonder-lionni-increasing-comprehension-968.html
Lesson Closure

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Divide the class into groups. Assign student groups different events from the story. Each group works together (teamwork) to
illustrate the event from the story. Instruct students to include important details from the scene (other fish, plant life, objects found in
the ocean). Put this book in the reading corner.
Assessment:
Teacher observation of the following:
participation in class discussions
contributions during sequencing activity
quality responses to questions
participation in cooperative learning activities
Evaluate students' contributions to the classroom book

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The red fish swam together. Swimmy

was the eye. They scared the big fish.
Swimmy saw a jellyfish, a lobster, and
an eel.
A happy school of red fish and 1 black
fish lived in the sea.
Swimmy taught the fish to swim
together.
A big tuna ate all the red fish except for
Swimmy.
Swimmy met a school a fish that was too
afraid to swim and play.
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