Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Story Time!

Objectives:
Students will be able to… describe characters and their actions and compare the characters
experiences to others.
Students will be able to… not only identify the cause of the problem, but recognize the problem
and solution that was used.
State Standards:
13.1.SC: Engage in whole and small group reading with a purpose and understanding.
13.3.SC: Read and respond according to task and purpose to become self-directed, critical
readers and thinkers.

Context: In the lower level grades, especially Kindergarten, you start to develop a foundation of

reading towards the end of the year. After they learn how to start writing and reading words,

they will develop the understanding and how these words are used to form sentences. They will

start to realize how these sentences can turn into a story. This lesson will help the students

understand how a story is formed and what it consists of. This will help them form

communication skills that they can take with them. Reading these short stories will help prepare

them to start reading at a higher level and help them read lengthier books.

Data: In this lesson, groups will be formed based on their performance on the previous week’s

reading test. Students who had higher scores will be grouped with students of average and lower

scores. The goal is to help them work together in small groups and share ideas to make them

successful. I think this will be especially shown in the small group where they work together to

identify the cause, problem, and solution in the story. The student’s performance from this lesson
will be tested through the end of the day assignment. They will be tested to see how well each

student retained the information and test to see if they can identify independently, similar to the

independent activity.

Materials: List all materials used (i.e. websites, apps, pencils, iPads, computers, worksheets,

diagrams, textbooks, etc.)

For my time with the students, I will be using The Little Engine that Could

the short story that has a clear problem and Watty Piper

solution.

Worksheet and Book Students will work together to go over the

questions that have to do with the story

provided, similar to the one I read to them in

small groups.

Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak

Computers and headphones Pbskids.org/Daniel/stories

End of Class Homework Worksheet

Detailed paragraphs from here on down.

Procedures:
Introduction (5 minutes): I will start this lesson by discussing how words form stories and

how stories can have a problem and solution hidden in them. I will also refresh their memory on
words that are not quite in their vocabulary. I will discuss the meaning and examples of how they

are used so they can understand it in the reading activities. The purpose of me discussing this is

so they will be looking out for the specific things in small groups and the teacher directed

activity. I will them split them into their groups and direct them to the activity they will be

starting with and discuss the order it will be going in.

Teacher Directed (20 minutes): The group that I am leading will start by my reading the

book, “The Little Engine that Could”, by Watty Piper. I will read this book aloud at first and

have a copy for them so they can follow along. After I introduce the book and read the first page,

each student will take turns around the table reading each page. After we finish the book, I want

the students and I to have an open conversation on the problem of this book. I want them to

explain their reasoning and back it up with the text in the book. I also want them to identify the

solution and repeat the same evidence locating. After we do that and discuss how the problem

was solved, I want them to locate the cause or causes that started this. I think it is good for them

to practice that in this order to help them develop that skill. I want them to look back and recall

the whole purpose of the problem and solution. This activity is mostly discussion with the

purpose to get their minds turning.

Collaborative (20 minutes): In this collaborative roation, I want the students to sit closely

together and read the book, “Where the Wild Things Are”, together as group. I will have

worksheets laid out for them to complete when they are finished reading. The questions will be

defining the problem, solution, and cause. After they identify these, there will be a small part for
evidence where they will include the page number they found it on. Working together in a group

will help them understand each other’s reasoning behind their thoughts and share it together. At

the bottom of the page. On the back of one student’s paper, the group will work together to find

way that this problem could have been prevented. So in this case, Max could have had a better

attitude towards his parents so he would not be grounded.

Independent Digital (20 minutes): During the Independent Digital station, students will

go to their desk and pull out their laptops from the cart. They will go to the PBS kids leaning

website and pull up “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”. They will first pull up the story,

“Neighborhood Cleanup” itself and go along as it reads aloud to you. They should be able to

identify the problem and solution as the story goes along. After they finish reading the story, they

will go to the game section and hit “Classroom Helpers”. They will go through this game and

listen and select as the character tells them to do so in the game. The purpose of this activity is to

have them participate in the problem and find the solution on their own. After they finish the

game, they can wait silently or continue to play again.

Closure (10 minutes): The class will return to their seats and I will wrap up the lesson by

explaining how problems can be prevented. I want to connect how they identified the cause after

the problem and solution to show how they lead up to each other. If the Max would have just

respected his parents, he would have gotten dinner on time. I also want to discuss this in a real

life scenario as well as let the students share their own stories and how they could have
prevented a problem as well as define their own cause, problem, and solution. I will also assign

their homework that was similar to the group work.

Rationale:
(Both Readings): This media is used in the teacher directed station as well as the group
activity. I wanted the students to be engaged with each other to identify what was being
looked for. It supports the students learning by showing how this can happen in the real
world while providing morals that students should live by. I chose these readings because
they have a distinct problem and solution with a cause that was not as clear. I wanted
them to have to think back to the reading and understand what started it all.

(PBS Kids story and game.): This activity starts with a book that can be read aloud to
them or read on their own, depending how the reader learns best. The activity that goes
along challenges the students to make the best choice. They are put into the scenario and
make the decisions based on what they think will be best. They will identify the solution
and be able to see the consequences that come along with each choice. This will force
them to think critically and define the distinctive parts of the story. One example: If it has
not rained in a couple of weeks, the flowers start to die. The saw the cause of the problem
was the lack of rain and the problem is they are dying. The students have a choice to
water the flowers or leave them alone, hoping it will rain. Once the flowers die, they can
look back and see what they did wrong.