Lesson Plan
Student Teacher: Tammy Preskitt
Date of Lesson: 2.15.12
Lesson Title/Description: Map Keys and Titles
Lesson # 2
of 3
Time Allotted for this Lesson: 60 min
Goals:
Goal 2
Students will understand the purpose of
maps and their components.
(SS.03.GE.02)
Objectives:
Objective 2.1
After a demonstration and presentation of keys
and symbols of various maps from “Mapping
Penny’s World,” each student will create a map
with a title and key of their choice.
Objective 3.1
After reading “Mapping Penny’s World.” Students
will identify mapping terms and present their
maps to the class by explaining them orally.
Goal 3 (Literacy)
Students will understand, learn, and
orally use new vocabulary that is
introduced in a story. (EL.03.RE.12)
Pre-Requisite Knowledge and/or Skills:
1. Possess an understanding of a map’s drawn perspective from previous lesson.
2. Be able to write the sounds they hear in words.
3. Be able to draw what they are imagining.
Materials/Equipment/Supplies/Technology/Preparation:
1. Large paper, pencils, crayons for each student.
2. Book: Mapping Penny’s World.
3. Oregon and Salem maps.
Procedure: Teacher Does……….
Procedure: Students Do……..
Time Motivation/Hook:
10
1. Read “Mapping Penny’s World.”
min
Motivation/Hook:
1. Students listen and imagine.
15
min
Teaching:
2. Open Salem map and draw
attention to its key. Explain that
mapmakers use symbols to
represent some objects or features.
Ex.: In this map of your city,
mapmakers don’t draw a separate
picture of every school. Instead,
they draw a square with a flag on top
as a symbol of a school. All schools
in Salem are marked with this
symbol.
3. Colored symbols are used to mark
features. Features are symbolized
with the color they are associated
with.
WOU Division of Teacher Ed
Fall 2012
Teaching:
2. Listening and looking for connections.
1
Ex.: Rivers and lakes are blue. Why?
3. Answer: Water is blue.
Vegetation such as trees, bushes, and Answer: green. Connect to map key.
grass are what color?
Building and streets are black or
grey.
Point to the map key noticing the
Students notice.
symbol and words beside it.
Explain that when we look at a map,
we may be unsure what the symbol
represents. The words beside the
symbol identify its meaning.
Group Application:
Group Application:
4. In ‘Mapping Penny’s World’ use
4. Students identify symbols and locations of
Penny’s Bedroom Map to identify
symbols on the map.
what information the key shows
them. Go over each symbol and have
students find it on the map.
5. Using ‘Mapping Penny’s World’
5. Notice titles, help read titles, can relate title
notice the titles of each map. Ask
to the map, make list.
how the titles and maps relate.
Make a list of titles on board or
chart.
Independent Application:
Independent Application:
6. Instruct students to draw a map of 6. Students pass out paper for maps. Each
their bedroom with a title that
student draws a map of their choice with a title
relates to the map and a key with
and key.
symbols and words.
Closure:
Closure:
7. Ask students to voluntarily share
7. Volunteers share their maps orally. Those
their map by explaining it orally.
not sharing are listening and thinking of
Hang all maps on wall for a mapconnections or questions to ask. Lay maps in a
walk.
stack to be hung. Go on a map-walk.
Meeting Varying Needs of Students:
This lesson meets varying need of students by having them listen, imagine, make
connections, identify symbols, create a map, and orally share it with the group. This lesson
offers ELL students a visually rich atmosphere to understand the symbols and titles of maps.
Assessment
1. Evidence collected from this lesson: through discussion, modeling, observations, and
creating a map with a title that relates and a key with identified symbols.
2. Dates of formative assessment:
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Fall 2012
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Reflection:
1. How did the students do re: the objectives, and how do you know?
‘Mapping Penny’s World’ grabbed the students’ attention from the beginning. We examined each
map noticing their keys including the symbols and their meanings. We connected the title of each
map with helping to tell the reader what the map is about. I demonstrated drawing a map by
thinking out loud about my map and the targeted components. Each student drew a map of their
bedroom. Out of the 26 students who drew a map, 26 of them used an overhead view, 23 had a title,
14 had a key, 12 used symbols, 13 gave meaning of the symbols, and 16 used labels. This means half
or more of the students had all the elements we learned. But that also means that half of the
students were missing elements introduced to them. One reason for this was pointed out by my
mentor teacher as being too much information at once. Breaking it into two lessons with more
practice would allow more students to grasp each element.
Reflection:
2. Describe any changes you made as you were teaching the lesson.
When reading “Mapping Penny’s World” I stopped on each page so students could interact with me
on what we were seeing in each map. I did this to help students see the required elements used on
various maps. This took more time than just reading the book, but it allowed students time to think,
connect, and imagine. We made it through Step 6 of the lesson, but ran out of time to do Step 7
which included volunteers sharing their map orally with the class, then hang maps and go on a Map
Walk. So, instead, I collected the finished maps and turned the students over to their teacher.
Reflection:
3. What would you change about this lesson plan? Pay attention to situations where students
either did not learn or already knew.
My mentor teacher suggested that this lesson be two. We did not finish the planned lesson and so I
would end the lesson there and start the new lesson with map sharing. We would post all the maps
and then go on a map walk with each student making a list of the things that caught their attention
on the map walk.
Reflection:
4. How did the results of this lesson influence the way that you will teach in the future?
I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the story with the students and seeing their attention so focused on
the story. Slowing down and noticing the details did not hinder the story, but enriched it. The
slower pace gave students time to think. I will remember this and use it again. I will adjust how
much information I pack into one lesson and keep it more simplified for my first grade students.
Learning and applying some knowledge and then using it again on another day to build on and
increase their knowledge and understanding is a way to ignite prior knowledge and scaffold onto
new territory, ever increasing their understanding of maps and their components and uses.
5. What did you learn about the students’ literacy that will inform future teaching?
I learned that one should introduce one or two terms to first grade students and then allow them to
work with the terms in a large group, again in a small group, again with a partner, and last as an
individual. This gives students several opportunities to truly understand the terms and have the
ability to use them accurately.
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Fall 2012
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Literacy at My School
The literacy lessons that I observed at Four Corners Elementary all took place in Mrs. Shelly
Jackson’s first grade classroom where I have been assigned. Literacy takes up most of each morning
after mat time where attendance is taken and the day is introduced. Students are instructed to begin
‘Stamina Time’ where they read in their large reading books for 30 minutes of sustained reading. The
book contains a title page, content pages, and around 15 stories. Students are to read every story
using reading strategies they have learned. When they finish, they simply start at the beginning and
read as far as they can a second time. The strategies they use are posted in the room to refer to. The
strategies include using pictures to give clues to the meaning of a word they are trying to sound out,
using the beginning and ending sounds of a word they are trying to figure out, blend sounds by
stretching and rereading, chunk letters and sounds together, and skip the word and then come back.
The next 30 minutes are spent doing their daily five that must be done every day. This includes
workbook, journal writing, reading books from tubs, finishing incomplete booklets and assignments,
and__________. They get to choose.
The last 30 minutes there are small groups lead by the teacher and by me on the days I am
there. I have the emerging readers. We read their leveled books together, do word family lists, work
on long vowel sound words, short vowel sound words, use organizers for word families, play a Starfall
game, and work on silent final e words, among other activities. The other group has been working on
identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. They have just finished their first
report on a sea creature. Each student chose a sea creature that interested them. They then did
research through the computer and books to find out specific information. They wrote about it, picked
out pictures and pasted all on poster board to hang in the hallway. The students did this with great
enthusiasm.
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Fall 2012
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The classroom is literacy rich, both on the walls and in the numerous tubs filled with books and
are placed around the room. On one wall the teacher has shelves from floor to ceiling filled with books
to use in her first grade classroom from many genres. The tubs are filled with ocean related books.
Each tub is labeled with dolphins, sharks, ect.
On the walls are alphabets and numbers, high frequency words, charts, poems, songs, posters,
goals, procedures, schedule, calendar, cardinal directions, and much more.
Fountas & Pinnell, a Leveled Literacy Intervention program is in the classroom. It is a
benchmark assessment system for grades k-2 with levels A-N. It provides all the resources a teacher
may need and so is user friendly.
Starfall is another resource in the room. It is the program I use most with emerging reading
group. It has small booklets for each level. The colored copies are used in the classroom and the
current ones used are in the students’ book boxes. The black and white copies go home to practice
reading. Each level targets certain skills a reader needs. It may be CVC words, silent final E words,
short vowels or long vowels, blends, among many others. The colorful pictures give clues to the
meaning of words. Emerging students have five booklets attached to a ring. When they have mastered
the five they can go on to the next group of five.
My mentor teacher has been teaching for 18 years. She has been through the schools many
reading programs, so in her classroom in the cupboards she has these resources to use for students as
she sees fit. There are also available children dictionaries and encyclopedias for the students to use.
They are encouraged to do so. Globes and maps are found around the room.
Café is another literacy program used school wide. It is the resource that the goals are posted
from. The posting includes comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expand vocabulary items that
support reading.
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Fall 2012
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The interview with my mentor teacher about the pros and cons of the literacy program helped
me see that no one program has it all. Each has strengths and weaknesses. She has kept parts of
numerous reading/literacy programs because they did an excellent job on one or two aspects. Each
year when she is working with her students, she keeps in mind her resources and can match the need
of a student(s) with a particular resource to help him/her become a stronger reader. I thought that
was an excellent idea and way to match a students’ learning style and need with a particular resource
that would meet that need in a way that the student can identify with. I find that when I am working
with students, I, too, often draw on knowledge gained from other reading programs and experience to
help the student I am with.
Fountas & Pinnell uses a lot of reading repetition with their small books. Students get bored
reading and rereading the same books. But the repetition allows them to become familiar with and
readily identify the intricacies of reading proficiency. The pictures are varied and engaging. They
offer clues to help a student identify a word. It has a plan of 5 minutes of reading, 5 minutes of
phonemic awareness and phonics, 8 minutes reviewing a new book, 7 minutes writing about reading,
and 5 minutes of letter/word work which gives a routine to follow and students know what to expect.
Starfall also uses a lot of reading repetition with their small books. Students do get bored with
the repetitive reading, but learn the target item that is being highlighted in the booklets. The pictures
are varied and engaging while offering clues for a word. It provides a game with three levels of cards:
one for letters and the sounds they make, two for high frequency words, and three for blends. The
children like the variety of the game and it allows them to recognize words or work them out in a
setting not connected with context. Group work includes sight words written on cards for each
student, short vowel word sounding, long vowel, silent e, and double vowel words.
I see both the Fountas & Pinnell and the Starfall as being developed outside of the classroom,
lead by the teacher, but not scripted. It can be adapted to the students who are participating in it to
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Fall 2012
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address a weakness or area they are lacking. They are both a guided reading program with nothing
being developed by the student. I did not see anything that provided differentiated instruction for
students to meet their learning styles. But I do think a teacher could address this issue for the benefit
of the student. The short sentence structure in the booklets doesn’t foster much of an awareness of
the structure of language among emergent readers and writers. I would place both of these programs
in the middle of the continuum provided for us in class for the reasons pointed out above.
My goals as a literacy teacher include introducing students to books rich in content and creative
writing style. I would like students to see what published authors do in their writing and then do it in
their own writing. Mini-lessons lend themselves well to this strategy. The two programs used in the
classroom are not set up for this because of their dependence on the schedule, the booklets that target
certain items and the writing required in the work books. “Mapping Penny’s World” allowed me to
introduce students to noticing the words the authored used and then creating their own maps using
the words the author had used. The students were engaged without having to work so hard at it like
they do during stamina time. This was a start in the direction I would like to go.
The strengths of the programs included routine which children often crave, a thorough
covering of short and long vowel sounds, silent final e words, and other skills readers and writers
need. Repetition helps form pathways in readers’ minds as they are learning reading skills. High
frequency words which students recognize automatically, reading without decoding is needed practice
for emerging readers.
As stated earlier, all programs have strengths and weaknesses that we must work in and
around. Students have differing learning styles that these two programs can address. As a teacher,
being aware of the strengths and weaknesses of programs can provide one with rich resources.
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Fall 2012
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Fall 2012
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