LESSON PLAN OUTLINE
JMU Elementary Education Program
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Alexandra DeFrance
Clymore Elementary School- Christina Swecker
Tuesday, October 8th 9:35 am
Submitted to practicum teacher: Tuesday, October 1st
A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Word study: Compound Words
B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
For this lesson, I will first be working with the entire class, and then with three
different groups of students as they rotate during their reading and writing time.
I will be working with each group for about twenty minutes. The students have
currently been working on building their vocabulary during reading and writing
centers. During the last activity I did with the students, they received their lists
of vocabulary words for each month throughout the school year. Learning about
compound words will help the students learn about new types of words that
they can use while reading and writing and will help them expand their
vocabulary even more. Since children learn best when relating information back
to their prior knowledge, this lesson will be appropriate for them because they
can use their knowledge of words that they already know to put these words
together to form new, compound words.
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand – what are the
Know – what are the facts,
broad generalizations the
rules, specific data the
students should begin to
students will gain through this
develop? (These are typically
lesson? (These “knows” must
difficult to assess in one
be assessed in your lesson.)
lesson.)
The students will understand
The students will know that a
the characteristics of
compound word is a word
compound words and how
composed of two separate
they are formed.
words that form one new
word together.
Do – what are the specific
thinking behaviors students
will be able to do through this
lesson? (These will also be
assessed in your lesson.)
The students will match two
words that form a compound
word by cutting and gluing
them together.
The students will name
examples of compound words
during group discussion.
D. ASSESSING LEARNING
As the students are completing the worksheet, I will be able to indicate that each
student has achieved the objectives as I view their work as they are completing
the assignment and also as we are going over the answers afterwards. I will take
note of which students got all or most of the answers correct on the worksheet.
The students will also indicate that they have achieved my objects as they give
examples of compound words. I will take note of which students were able to
come up with their own compound words and which students were not.
E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING
Oral Language
3.1 The student will use effective communication skills in group activities.
b) ask and respond to questions from teachers and other group members.
Reading
3.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading.
e) Discuss meanings of words and develop vocabulary by listening and reading to
a variety of texts.
F. MATERIALS NEEDED
- “If You Were A Compound Word” by Trisha Speed Shaskan (supplied by
Clymore Elementary School)
- Compound Words Word Book page (supplied by me)
- “Compound Word Practice” worksheet (supplied by me)
- scissors (supplied by students)
- glue (supplied by students)
- pencil (supplied by students)
G. PROCEDURE
 Preparation of the Learning Environment
For this first part of the lesson, the students will be working on the rug in
the back of the room. I will have the reading book already back there and
the students will bring their pencils. For the second part of the lesson,
the students will be working with me near the whiteboard in the front of
the room. I will be seated closest to the board and the students can bring
over pillows or chairs to sit near me, and bring with them their scissors,
glue, and pencil.
 Engage -Introduction of the Lesson
I will first ask the students if any of them know what compound words
are or if anyone has heard of them before. If any students know about
compound words, they can share with the group what they know or give
any examples of compound words that they have heard of. I will then
explain to the group that a compound word is a word that is made up of
two separate words that come together to form one new word.
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Implementation of the Lesson
The first part during this lesson will be to read the book “If You Were A
Compound Word” by Trisha Speed Shaskan. This book will get them
introduced to and thinking about compounds words. After I have read
the book, I will ask the students to tell me about any compound words
that they might have heard in the story. I will then pass out the
Compound Words Word Book page. On this worksheet, they will write
what a compound word is.
After this whole-group activity, the students will go into different centers.
One of the centers will be working with me near the front of the room. I
will give the “Compound Word Practice” worksheet to the students. I will
explain to the students that they need to cut out the words at the bottom
of the page, and glue words together to form compound words that
make sense. I will go over the example problem with the students and
then let the students complete the worksheet individually.
Closure
After the students have finished the worksheet, we will go over the
answers together as a group. I will review what a compound word is by
again asking the students what they learned and ask for any examples of
compounds words that students may have thought of while doing the
activity.
Clean-Up
The students will put away their glue, scissors, and pencil and I will collect
all the worksheets.
H. DIFFERENTIATION
If any students are struggling with the worksheet and can’t figure out what
words go together to form compound words, I will help them one-on-one. I will
help them put together different word combinations and read the combinations
to the student, until they realize which combinations make most sense. Since
the students will be working individually on their worksheets, it will be easy for
me to look at students’ work and sit next to any students who need help.
For the students that are not struggling and who finish the worksheet earlier
than the rest of the students, I can have them try to create their own compound
words on the back of the worksheet. They can try to see how many compound
words they can come up with. This will be appropriate for students with a
variety of interests and needs because they can think of any compound word
that they like, and can choose to write a short or longer word depending on their
writing abilities.
I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT
IT?
This lesson could take up different amounts of time depending on how easily the
students complete the cut and paste worksheet or how much the students have
to say about compound words at the beginning. If we are running out of time, I
will tell the students to only complete the first few problems and leave the last
ones blank. I could also even tell the students to simply write the answers on
the worksheet instead of having to cut and glue each of the words onto the
paper if that is causing added difficulty.
References
Shaskan, T.P. (2009). If you were a compound word. Mankato, MN: Picture Window Books.
Super Teacher Worksheets. (2013). Cut & Glue Compound Words Activity. Retrieved from
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/compound.html
Personal Reflection
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.
During the first whole-group part of my lesson, I made one change. After reading the
book to the students on the rug in the back of the room, I decided to have the students go back
to their seats to complete the Word Book Page, instead of staying on the rug to do this. I
decided to make this change because I noticed that the students seemed a bit distracted sitting
on the floor in the back of the room. I thought that if the students went back to their seats, I
would be able to better have their attention. Once the students went back to their seats, I was
able to much more easily maintain their focus and from there we completed the Word Book
Page.
During the second part of my lesson, I also made another change. While the students
were working on the worksheet, they seemed to be very interested in coming up with their
own compound words. I decided to make use of their interest to further the learning of
compound words and allow the students to write any additional compound words that they
thought of onto their worksheets. In my lesson plan, I planned to only offer this activity to
students who finished early, but it seemed like all the students were interested in doing this
and would benefit from participating in it. I am glad that I made this change because this kept
the students interested and engaged in the activity and also gave them more practice with the
concept.
Also, at the end of the lesson, instead of the students having two separate pages for the
Word Book Page and the worksheet, I decided to have them glue the two sheets together onto
a piece of notebook paper so that the two sheets would always stay together and remain
organized in their folders.
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.
I think my lesson definitely had the impact that I intended it to have. At the beginning
of the lesson, not all the students seemed sure about what compound words were, but by the
end of the lesson, all students were confident in forming their own compound words. When
we were discussing examples of compound words, one student explained how “watermelon”
was definitely a compound word because it had the word “water” and the word “melon” in it.
Another student told the group that “cheerleader” was a compound word because “cheer” and
“leader” are both separate words that were being brought together. All the students also
successfully completed the worksheet in which they cut and pasted words together to form
compound words. Every single student was able to match the correct two words together! I
watched as one student tried to find which word would come after the word “rain”. He
experimented by putting different words after this word and stopped when he had found the
word “coat” because he was able to conclude that “raincoat” was the only word combination
that made sense. In one case, a student mixed up the order of the words “day” and “birth”, but
as soon as I asked him to read me the word that he made, he quickly realized his mistake and
reversed the order of the words. The students achieved my goal and all worked independently
to form compound words that made sense.
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.
If I were to do this lesson again, I could incorporate developmentally appropriate
practice in a more through way by making the activity a little more challenging. I thought that
this lesson would be challenging enough for the students because my practicum teacher told
me that many of the students most likely did not know what compound words were. However,
even though many students did not know what compound words were, they were easily able to
catch on and completed the activity with ease. To be more developmentally appropriate, I
could have used compound words that were more challenging words that the students would
have to think more about to see if they formed words that made sense. I could have also made
the activity more challenging by incorporating more time for students to think of their own
compound words. As the students were briefly doing this, they struggled more when the word
choices weren’t written out in front of them. Using this type of more of an open-ended activity
would have been more appropriate for these students’ skills.
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.)
As a follow-up experience, I would plan an activity where students would have to
complete compound words when given the first part of the word but not the second. The
students would not have a word bank but would have to think of words on their own that could
be added to form a compound word. Having no word bank would force the students to use
more thinking skills during the activity. This would be a good follow-up experience because
during my lesson, some students were trying to look for a word that they had thought of in
their head, but that wasn’t necessarily one of the choices in the word bank. Therefore, this
activity would be a great follow-up activity and would involve the students to think a little
harder and take this concept to the next level.
I would also want to have the students incorporate compound words into their writing.
Now that they have learned what compound words are and learned how to form them, I think
that the next step would be to help students incorporate these words into their writing. By
learning how to incorporate compound words in their writing, students would better
understand why they are learning about compound words and how they can be applied to
situations other than the worksheet.
E. Share something you learned about children, teaching, and yourself as a result of planning
and conducting the activity. Relate this new knowledge to principles of literacy from your READ
436 course.
Something that I learned about children that I did not expect to learn was how capable
students are of quickly grasping new information. I was so surprised that the students were
able to perfectly complete the compound word worksheet after just being introduced to
compound words a few minutes earlier. This really showed me how smart and capable children
really are, as long as they are focused and are willing to put their attention and effort into their
learning. In READ 436, we have analyzed different levels of students’ reading and writing
abilities. Even though I had different levels of students in my lesson, I was proud that they were
all able to use their skills to complete the objectives as best as they could!
Something that I learned about teaching was how necessary it is for teachers to make
changes to their lessons on the spot, according to student responses and feedback. After I saw
how interested the students were in making their own compound words, I realized that I should
incorporate this into the activity to continue their learning in a way that they were excited
about. Without making this change and strictly sticking to my lesson plan, I would have missed
out on that teaching opportunity. In READ 436, we have talked about how important it is to
provide as many experiences as possible for children to read and write, and this quick change
allowed me to incorporate an additional learning experience into the lesson.
Related to this, something that I learned about myself as a result of this activity was that
I am more capable of teaching, and making on-the-spot changes while I am teaching, than I
once thought. I always get nervous before I teach lessons. However, this lesson gave me more
practice with teaching and therefore has made me more confident in my abilities. I was also
proud that I was able to make on-the-spot changes to the lesson to adapt to the interests of
students. Although it was a minor change, I think that allowing the students to form their own
compound words made the lesson so much more meaningful to them.