Sarah Breneman

Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018

A. TITLE OF LESSON (Writing Focus): Proper Use of Quotations

B. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

2.13 The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
b.) Use and punctuate declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND – The students will understand what the purpose and use of quotations are in
books and in personal writing.

KNOW –
 The students will know how to properly use quotation marks.
 The students will take quotes from a book and rewrite them down for a personal example.
 The students will know when to use quotation marks in their personal writing.

DO – The students will interview a fellow peer in the classroom and write the interview down with
the proper use of quotations.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
I will assess student learning through partner work after the mentor text is read to the whole class. This
partner work consists of the students working together with the book read to them, and taking phrases from
the book that they think are quotes. Then, the students will use pieces of elbow macaroni that will act like
quotation marks, and place them on the phrase they wrote down on the paper of where they think the quote
begins and end. This allows the work between students to not be permanent, so if the other partner does
not think macaroni placements are correct they could move around them themselves into the place they
think is correct. After the cooperating teacher and I walk around the classroom checking each set of
partners of whether or not their placements of quotes is correct the next assignment will be given. The
other source of assessing the students will be done through a partner interview. The students will interview
one another and write down the exact words that the partner says to them, and will use the quotation marks
to label what the quote is and where it begins and ends.

PART TWO: LESSON PLAN PROCEDURE

A. CONTEXT OF LESSON

I will being using Alexander was Rich Last Sunday, By Judith Viorst as the mentor text for this lesson. It will
be with the whole class on the carpet as a teacher centered read aloud. My CT has gone over what a
quotation is and what quotation marks look like, but she wants for me to point out quotations in the book.
Since they are reading this book as a whole class, they will know what the context of the story is about and
who the main character is that is mainly speaking in the book to use quotes from as examples.
Acknowledging the main characters will allow the students to listen in depth to the story to hear when
quotes from the characters are being used.
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
I will point out and reread the quotations at the beginning of the story. This will help them to recognize and
raise their hands throughout the read aloud for when they hear quotations from the characters being read in
the story as well.

Before the students get up from the carpet reading time to work with partners, I will review on the white
board what a quotation looks like using an example from the book we just read. Then, will ask the students
to identify altogether where the quotation marks go, and who said the quote from the story.

B. MATERIALS NEEDED
 Alexander was Rich Last Sunday, By Judith Viorst (provided by CT)
 Box of elbow macaroni (provided by me)
 Loose leaf paper for them to write on (provided by CT)
 White boards and dry erase markers to write on (Provided by CT)
 Pencil to write with (provided by the students)

C. PROCEDURE
Discuss how you will address the topics below. Provide specifics about what you plan to say, questions
you may ask, and strategies you will use to make the lesson a success.


CONNECT Once the whole class is seated on the carpet, say that
Students learn why today’s we are reading Alexander was Rich Last Sunday, By
instruction is important to them Judith Viorst for our lesson today. Explain that the
as writers and how the lesson lesson is to learn how to find quotations in a story, and
relates to their prior work (if hear the quotes being read aloud in the story.
applicable). The teaching point is
stated. First, I will ask the class to think about what the word
“quotation” means. This will allow me to see what their
initial knowledge of the topic is.

Responses could be:

“Quotation relates to money”

Before “Quotation is a punctuation mark”

After, I will have the class a whole come up with a class

definition of quotation which will be written on a poster
that will be easily accessible for the students to see
when completing the activity. Also, I will show the
students how to properly write down quotation marks,
and have them display with their hands the correct way
they face each other when writing it around a sentence.

Discuss why learning about quotations is important.

Ask students to provide their own thoughts of how they
think they would hear a quote in a story, and why it is
important for their writing.
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
TEACH
The teacher shows the students
how writers accomplish the
teaching point in the mentor text
During
ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
After we teach something,
students are given a chance to
practice what has just been
taught with new writing or
revising a prior piece. (May
assess during this time)
Responses would be like:
“You can hear quotes when there is a character’s name
at the end of the sentence.”
“Quotes help with our writing because it adds more
details.”
Acknowledge the responses the students give, and then
provide more detail of how they can hear quotations in a
story and how quotations will be involved with their
writing for the rest of their lives now.
Once we discuss what a quotation looks, sounds, and is
written like. We will talk about how to apply them. My
goal is to point out as many quotations in the beginning
of the book as possible, so the students will catch on
immediately about how the author incorporates quotes
into the story. We will also talk about how quotes can
come from any character in the story, there is not set
character that can be quoted. Students can accomplish
quotations by understanding that the quotation marks,
symbolizes that is where the character/individual is
directly speaking the words being written down.
After the book is read to the class I will pull quotes from
the book from different characters. Then, I will have the
class point out and tell me where to put the quotation
marks around the quote; and they have to acknowledge
which character spoke the quote.
For example:
“I was rich last Sunday,” said Alexander.
The students will be the ones identify the quotation
marks in that quote, along with the “said Alexander.”
To transition from teaching in the activity I will write
down specific quotes from the book onto the white
board and label the quotation marks with elbow
macaroni myself, which introduces the activity to them
of what they will be doing. When they see my use of the
elbow macaroni they will know what their task is with
their partner to complete. I will then explain to them that
I want them to work in partners at their desks with a
copy of the book, and have them write down what they
think a quote is directly from the book and place the
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
elbow macaroni on the white board of where the
quotation marks begin and end the quote. Once that is
completed, each set of partners must raise their hands
and be checked by either the CT or I to make sure they
completed the task correct.

Once each set of partners is checked with the white

After LINK
The teacher reiterates what has
just been taught and gives
students an opportunity to share
(May assess during this time)
board activity, is when the partner interview will take
place. I will explain to the class that each student will
ask one another a question, and to write down the
student’s answer to the question on a loose-leaf sheet
of paper with the proper use of quotation marks.
Have the students identify the quotation marks done on
each others loose-leaf sheets of paper from the
interviews done within the class. The students will share
for their peer that they thought did it correctly and read it
aloud with saying where the quotation marks are placed
on the paper. We can also look back at Alexander and
see if how our examples from the partner interviews
compare to how the author wrote quotations in the story.

D. DIFFERENTIATION

Since I will be working with the class as a whole, I will need to create partners ahead of time. These
partners will be based off of their literacy group levels. I will place the highest literacy group members with
the lowest literacy group members, to ensure that the lowest literacy group members fully understand the
context of the lesson. Since it is not small group work, this partner technique will also help me ensure that
each of the students in the class will gain knowledge of quotations in reading of a book, and through their
personal writing. There are no ELL students in the class or physical disability students, so differentiation is
stemmed from academic levels in the classroom. This is an interactive lesson, so it provides
accommodation to the students who need hands-on learning with the use of the macaroni, and for the
visual learners the read aloud and examples on the white board on the carpet will accommodate to them.

E. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Students may confuse the quotation marks as commas, so I will need to make sure to fully show and
explain that there are two quotation marks and that they go at the top of the word. Also, with the quotation
marks a lot of the students have a letter reversal problem, so some of the students could have trouble of
positioning the quotation marks in the right direction when it comes to completing their own work. After
reading the story and hearing the quotations within the story, students could get confused and assume that
anything is a quotation that has a character/individual’s name within the sentence. If this were to happen I
will explain that if it is a quotation there are words that ensure that it is a quote like; ‘said,’ ‘asked,’
‘questioned,’ or ‘yelled.’
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
Rubric:

Check List: Check Mark if Student Completed Correctly

Does the student use proper quotation marks?

Ex: ( “Hi, my name is Sarah.” )

Does the student use proper punctuation inside

the quotation marks to end the quote?

Does the student use direct words from the

student interviewed in order to write down the
quote?

Exit Ticket Interview Questions:

Ask your partner these three questions, and write down the answers directly on your sheet of paper. Use
the proper punctuation with quotations when writing down your partners answers.

1. What do you spend your allowance on?

2. What does your Grandmother/Grandfather bring you when they come to visit?

3. What is one thing you cannot live without?

Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
PART THREE: REFLECTION

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts
below to guide the writing of your 6- paragraph reflection (1 paragraph for each letter). Be thorough in your
reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

A. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and
explain why you made them. 


The lesson was well thought out and planned thoroughly with my cooperating teacher based on the
standards and curriculum the class has to be learning. When it came to actually teaching my lesson,
the carpet discussion went exactly as planned with defining a class definition of what a quotation is.
The differentiation in the lesson came with the elbow macaroni activity. I noticed in the class discussion
that a lot of the students were on different understandings about the quotation marks, so I decided the
elbow macaroni activity should be independent work to ensure that either the cooperating teacher or I
works hands on with the students who are struggling with the concept. Instead, I handed out a white
board to each of the students to have at their desk with four pieces of elbow macaroni at their desk. I
wrote a sentence on the board; for example, I like to eat popcorn, said Ms. Breneman. With that
sentence on the front white board I had each student copy it directly how it was written on the board,
and then place their elbow macaroni of where the quotation marks begin and end for the quote. Once,
they have their quotation marks placed they had to raise their hand and be check by either the
cooperating teacher or I. I found this change in my lesson to be more effective for each of the students
in the class, since there is a wide range of academic levels. Also, after this activity was completed
independently, it made the partner interview exit ticket easier to complete for each partner with a better
understanding of where to place quotation marks and why they are placed there.

B. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a
better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.

If I were to teach this lesson again I would incorporate the developmentally appropriate practice of what not
to do. I think this skill and visualization is imperative to students in the elementary grade levels, because
usually they what not to do examples are what the student’s in their minds are thinking. Physically writing
down two different examples of a correctly punctuated quote and an incorrectly punctuated quote would
show the students directly what they are being assessed for, and what they should not be doing. This will
also eliminate any questioning or confusion that the class could have in their minds of quotations having
more than one way to be written with quotation marks. With incorporating this practice it also explicitly
reveals to the students what the teacher wants from them, so they will not have to be distracted when they
are set off to do their independent work wasting time waiting to have their question answered from the
teacher of what is expected for their work to look like.
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
C. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student
learning? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?
Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the
classroom teacher? 
 
 


The assessment concluded that students have a strong foundational knowledge of quotations and
quotation marks. Each student completed the exit ticket interview questions with few questions for the
cooperating teacher or I to answer for confusion about quotation marks and where to place them. With
these few questions being revealed to me that the carpet discussion and independent white board work
was a success in order for the partner interview to be completed. The students learned from the
assessment how to write down their own quotations without any characters from a book as an example or
reference for them, which also taught them that quotations could be used at any point throughout their
writing process to add additional detail and information. Based on the assessment date, the next lesson I
would teach for the class is how to incorporate quotations into paragraph writing. The students are just now
becoming comfortable with paragraph writing, so I would implement a lesson that teaches them how to
imbed these quotations that have from their friends or from a book they have read into a paragraph they
are writing. This will also lead them to acknowledging how their paragraphs become stronger with the
quotation serving as additional detail and information to their topic they are writing about.

Evidence:
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
Check List: Check Mark if Student Completed Correctly

Does the student use proper quotation marks?

quotation marks were properly placed
Ex: ( “Hi, my name is Sarah.” )

Does the student use proper punctuation inside

the quotation marks to end the quote? comma used correctly to separate the
quotation from the speaker of the quote

Does the student use direct words from the

student interviewed in order to write down the used the words directly from the
quote? partners mouth for the interview
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
Check List: Check Mark if Student Completed Correctly

Does the student use proper quotation marks?

quotation marks were properly placed
Ex: ( “Hi, my name is Sarah.” )

Does the student use proper punctuation inside

the quotation marks to end the quote? comma used correctly to separate the
quotation from the speaker of the quote

Does the student use direct words from the

student interviewed in order to write down the used the words directly from the
quote? partners mouth for the interview
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
Check List: Check Mark if Student Completed Correctly

Does the student use proper quotation marks?

quotation marks were properly placed
Ex: ( “Hi, my name is Sarah.” )

Does the student use proper punctuation inside

the quotation marks to end the quote? comma used correctly to separate the
quotation from the speaker of the quote

Does the student use direct words from the

student interviewed in order to write down the used the words directly from the
quote? partners mouth for the interview
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018
Check List: Check Mark if Student Completed Correctly

Does the student use proper quotation marks?

quotation marks were properly placed
Ex: ( “Hi, my name is Sarah.” )

Does the student use proper punctuation inside Needs improvement on comma usage after the
the quotation marks to end the quote? quotation ends.

Does the student use direct words from the

student interviewed in order to write down the used the words directly from the
quote? partners mouth for the interview

D. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
children as learners? 


After teaching this lesson it reinforced that children learn in a variety of ways. Beginning with the carpet
discussion it revealed to me that each of the student’s thought in different ways of what the definition of a
quotation: ranging from being about money to using it as a signature for a person. These perspectives
displayed to me how many varieties there are to get through to student to fully grasp the information you
are teaching about. These children reminded me as they are learners how repetition is a strength to get
through to each of them with the variety of academic levels they are all at. Out of all the ways for students
to learn; like through visualization, listening, and hands-on activities, the key to it all is repeating the main
foundational concepts that is needed for them to know for curriculum standards.

E. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
teaching? 


Teaching is about adapting and accommodating to the needs of every student. This is what was reinforced
to me after planning and teaching this lesson. Teaching is not about abiding strictly to your written lesson
plan, but instead you have to be adaptable and assessing your students throughout the entire lesson to see
if something needs to be repeated or discussed in more detail. With elementary students, teaching this
lesson reinforced the importance of teacher student support and immediately correcting a student’s
mistake. When correcting a student’s mistake immediately it will decrease the possibility of the student to
repeat this mistake over and over again throughout the rest of the year and even into their future education
careers. It is up to the teacher to point out and correct a mistake early on to ensure that it does not become
a habit for the student. For example, in my second grade classroom my cooperating teacher and I are
constantly correcting the letter and number reversal issue that has been a continued habit among a couple
students in the class. The more we remind them of this issue and correct it with them, it will soon be muscle
memory for the student to self-correct the reversal if they were to write it again.

F. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
Sarah Breneman
Lesson will be taught on: Wednesday March 21, 2018

yourself? 


When writing and teaching this lesson I learned that I compare the students to myself of how I was in their
grade level. I noticed that I did that when I was writing this lesson, because while I was planning my lesson
I kept on asking myself if I were in this classroom would I like to learn from this lesson. After teaching this
lesson it reinforced to me about myself that why I became a teacher was to not be like the teacher’s from
my past that caused me to self-question or not like any specific subjects in school. I constantly ask myself
and put myself in their shoes of whether or not this lesson would be successful for them based on activities,
and if there is too much lecturing coming from the teacher. I compare myself as an elementary school
teacher to my past elementary teachers in order find a middle ground of what kind of teacher I want to be
like in my own future classroom. Especially after writing and teaching this lesson, these thoughts and
comparisons that I have been making in my mind were reinforced with different activities and discussion I
had planned for the students.