ECH Lesson Plan Format
Becky Chopp
1. Math Connections from Literature
a. Story used: Good bye-Curtis, by Kevin Henkes; from the Harcourt Trophies
student edition literature book.
 3/16/10
 Mathematics taken from Literature
 Second Grade
 24 students
 30-45 minutes
2. Purpose/Rationale
The students have will have read the story Good-bye, Curtis, where Curtis is a mail
carrier and it is his last day. The story states that Curtis has been a mail carrier for fortytwo years, but does not state how old he is or how old he was when he started as the mail
carrier. Students already know how to do double-digit subtraction without regrouping and
with regrouping. They also know how to check their subtraction with addition. I will be
having the students practice subtraction with and without regrouping and then have them
check their answers with addition as a review, using information based on the story.
Students have not been working on triple digit subtraction yet, so I will be introducing a
few larger numbers into the review to introduce them to larger numbers. Students will
have to pay attention to the words and pictures in the story because we need the
information from the story to do our math problems. These following literacy standards
will be meet: Grade Level 2, Strand I. Reading and Literature, Sub-Strand B. Vocabulary
Expansion (they will be learning new vocabulary words in the story but will also learn new
words related to math), C. Comprehension; Grade Level 2, Strand II. Writing, Sub-Strand B.
Elements of composition.
The main purpose of this lesson is to cover The Number and Operation Standard for
Grades Pre-K-2, by understanding the meanings of operations and how they relate to one
another. Students will further understand various meanings of addition and subtraction of
whole numbers and the relationship between the two operations. This lesson will also
cover the Connections Standard for Grades Pre-K-2, by helping students recognize and apply
mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics as well as recognizing the use of
connections among mathematical ideas. Another purpose of this lesson is to have students
review their knowledge of subtraction with and without regrouping and checking their
answers with addition. It will help introduce a few new concepts as well as helping
students explore their literature in a mathematical way and understand the uses of
mathematics in the real world to solve problems.
3. Objectives/Outcomes and how they will be assessed
Objectives/Outcomes:
Students will indentify how long Curtis has
been a mail carrier.
Students will understand how to find out
how old Curtis is based upon the additional
information I give them.
Students will work effectively in partners to
find the menu in their book (There is a
picture of a menu in a cafe), proceed to find
the proper information, and answer the
questions by setting up the equations and
solving them together.
How Assessed?
Student will use their resources (the book)
to find the information, I will visually be
looking for this.
Student will set up a subtraction problem
and solve the problem, and then recheck
their answer using addition. I will be
walking around the classroom with the class
clipboard to assess who has set up the
problem and the accuracy of the problem.
Student will work with partner and find the
proper information. The student will then
have set up the equation with an idea of how
to set up an equation using decimals
(money). Student will attempt to complete
the equation (whether the answer is right or
wrong they will attempt to complete it, since
this concept is a newly introduced concept).
I will be using the classroom clipboard to
document as well as collecting their papers
at the end of the lesson.
4. Skills to be learned:
Comprehension, listening, vocabulary, writing, recognizing the relationships
between addition and subtraction, understanding math connections as they relate to
their world, use strategies for whole-number computations, develop fluency with
basic number combinations for addition and subtraction, build mathematical
knowledge through problem solving, solve problems that arise in other contexts,
monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving.
5. Resources/Materials
The resource that was used was the, Teacher Edition of Harcourt Trophies, Literature
book. Two worksheets with questions need to be made. The first worksheet will
have questions referring to how old Curtis the mail carrier could have possibly been
when he started as a mail carrier. The second worksheet will be a scavenger hunt
that encourages students look through the story to find another math connection
within the pictures and solve some problems based on the numbers in the picture.
6. Procedure
 Transition into the lesson—The students will already be at their desks and
I will ask them to get out their reading books and open to page 180.

Introduction to and motivation for the lesson—I will first ask the students
if they think there is anything in this story that is related to math. I will
rephrase this a few different ways to help students understand what I am
asking. I will also give some examples of some things that could be related to
math, such as stamps. I will then tell students we are going to work on some
math based on the information from our story, and that we will get to do a
fun quick little scavenger hunt for math in our story later.

Lesson Body— My lesson is having he students review subtraction with and
without regrouping and checking their answers with addition. They will be
using worksheets with questions I have made up based on the story, Goodbye, Curtis, that they are currently reading. First I will start by asking the
students how many years has Curtis been a mail carrier. Then I will ask them
a serious of questions, about: Why do you think this is Curtis’ last day being a
mail carrier? How old do you think Curtis is? How old do you think he was
when he started being a mail carrier? Do we have the right information to
figure out how old he is or how old he was when he started as a mail carrier?
I will let students answer these questions and come up with ideas. I will then
inform them that we have one piece of valuable information and that is how
long Curtis has been a mail carrier but that there two variables. I will explain
what a variable means (information that can change, or that we don’t know) I
will then ask the students, “suppose that Curtis is 67. How old was he when
he started as a mail carrier? I will ask students how we would find out that
information and what we would need to do.
At this time I will pass out the papers so they can look at the
questions. I will have the same worksheet on the smart board so that we can
work through the first problem together as a class. (If the computers are not
working, which happens I will simply use the overhead projector to write
down the problems). After we have done the first one as a group I will have
the students read number two and set the problem up on their paper. Then
we will set the problem up on the board (to make sure everyone has it set up
correctly before we solve it). Then the student’s will solve the problem, and
then we will do it together as a class. Then they will set up their problem for
checking it with addition. This will continue through the problems. Then we
will go onto the “Bonus” section of the worksheet and we will talk about
another way we can find out how old Curtis is, but there are still variables.
So the first question asks what year the story takes place in (1995, there is a
stamp in the story with that year on it). Question number two then says
suppose that Curtis was born in the year 1932. How old is he? We will walk
through this entire problem as a class because this is very new to them.
I will then inform the students that there are many math connections
in this book and I am going to have them partner up to do a scavenger hunt
that involves math. I will also inform them that if their answers are not right
that is okay because we will go over it as a class, but it is just for fun. This
scavenger hunt will have them look through the story to find the picture of a
menu that lists prices of different food. I then have two questions that ask
how much certain things cost together and which group of food costs more
and how much more it costs. This is to introduce them to adding money, and
it is a fun little scavenger hunt with a partner. We will go over how everyone
got their answers as a class and if they thought it was fun or if it was hard.
After we have gone over the scavenger hunt together as a class I am going to
do a quick review of what we did for the first page of questions. The reason I
am going to do this is to remind students of what we did and how they were
worded as well as the scavenger hunt problems. I am then going to ask
students, still in their groups to flip over their scavenger hunt paper and
write one or two story problems on the back of their paper. They need to use
complete sentences (how every many that they will need).

Closure to the lesson—I will collect the papers at the end and see how the
students did and see if they were paying attention because all of the
problems we will have ended up going over together. I will also look to see
how their story problems came out and if they included all of the proper
information and used a complete sentence or more than one complete
sentence to do their story problem. I will also simply ask them some
questions if they realized that math was involved in books.
Accommodations for Diverse Learners
To accommodate different types of learners I will try to repeat what I am saying. I
will also try and use simple direction and questions, so it does not get to confusing. I
will also only try to introduce one new concept at a time so certain students can stay
focused without getting lost. I will also be using visual aids to help students instead of
just verbally giving directions.
7. Assessment


Pre-Assessment— I will make sure that the students understand what we
are doing by asking them questions and letting them respond with answers.
I will also ask the students how they got their answers so they can verify that
they understand what they are doing as well as having them recheck their
answers with addition. I will try to watch and look for the students who are
struggling with the concepts and try to clarify for them or give them
examples.
Evaluation of the objectives/outcomes— Students used the resources
very well and set up subtraction problems on their own based on the
information I had given them. In addition the students worked very
effectively in partners to do their scavenger hunt. Students set up equaiotns
after they found the information in their book by looking at the pictures in
their literacy books. Some students did have problems but I helped them as I
walked around the room. Some of the answers were wrong but I was
impressed with the effort the students showed in finding the information out
of their books and using their previous knowledge to formulate equations
based on the word problems.
8. Self Reflection on Lesson— I thought this was a really fun lesson. I was kind of
nervous because it was taking a math lesson from the literacy book, which is very
different than what they are used to. I actually think it went better because I had
their attention. Most of the students seemed to be very confused and excited with
the math lesson because it was based off of a story that they were reading during
the week. This story was fun and a great way to tie in math. I also thought it went
really well because students realized that math is involved in many more things
than just there “math” book. I was also impressed with how well everyone did on
the problems and how hard all of the groups tried to work together on the
scavenger hunt. I wanted to provide a challenge to the students but I was nervous
because they had never covered adding money. However, it worked out great and
the students had so much fun searching for the answers in their reading book.
Overall, I thought the lesson went great. The only thing that I would change would
be rewording some of the questions on the scavenger hunt page. At first I did not
think they were all that confusing but once I brought them into the room I realized
that for second graders they may be to advanced. The information that I was having
them look for was not to advanced but the wording I used to have them compare
some of the attributes were too confusing for them. Other than rewording some of
those questions, I do not think that I would change this lesson because I think it is
great that I could do a math lesson plan that was relevant to what they were
working on but came from their literacy books.
9. References:
Ada, Alma Flor, et al. Harcourt Trophies: Banner Days, Teacher’s Edition. Orlando,
Florida: Harcourt Inc., 2007
Name________________________________
1. How long has Curtis been a letter carrier?
2. Suppose Curtis is 67 years old. How old was he when he became a letter
carrier?
3. Suppose Curtis is 65 years old. How old was he when he became a letter
carrier?
4. Suppose Curtis is 61 years old. How old was he when he became a letter
carrier?
5. Suppose Curtis is 70 years old. How old was he when he became a letter
carrier?
*Bonus*
6. Look on page 180 in your reading book. What year does this story take place
in?
7. If Curtis was born in the year 1932, How old is he?
*Scavenger Hunt*
Name:__________________________________________________
Yum, Yum! I am really hungry, and I sure would like to eat something. I wonder what
is on the menu!
With a partner look in your book and find out how much the different foods listed below
cost in the story, Good-bye, Curtis.
1. How much do two chicken legs cost?
2. How much does 1 turkey breast and 1 chicken leg cost?
3. Which group costs more?
4. How much more does that group cost?
(They will flip this over to write at least one story problem down and if they want they can
write two down.)