Wayne State University College of Education

Lesson Planning Framework for Effective Instructional Design

Teaching Intern(s): Megan DeWyse (ST) Julie Cloke (Mentor) One teach, One assist
School in which the lesson is being taught: Walker-Winter Elementary
Grade level of students for whom the lesson was developed: 3rd
Subject/content area(s) for the lesson: Descriptive Writing
Title of the lesson: Guess My Candy
Time needed for lesson: 45 minutes

1. LEARNERS & LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

a) Engaging and Supporting Diverse Learners: Applying Principles of Universal Design for
Learning

In our classroom, there are 9 girls and 11 boys. We have a pretty diverse group, including
African American, Caucasian, Middle Eastern, and mixed ethnicities. The whole district is
on free and reduced lunch programs, and all children get free breakfast provided for them
by the government.

Academic Supports:
There are a few children that go to speech therapy. We also have a few students who are
on IEPs for ODD, ADHD, anxiety disorder and OCD. For the students who need extra help
in these areas, they go to the resource room for subjects such as reading intervention and
math. We also try to differentiate our instruction to achieve a Universal Design for
Learning. My mentor teacher and I achieve this by modifying worksheets, teaching in
stations to differentiate ability levels in math and ELA, and co-teaching with one teacher
doing the whole group lesson, while the other circulates the room to assist the students
who have questions or are not understanding. We also incorporate kinesthetic, visual,
auditory and sensory aspects into our lessons to reach all learners and learning styles.

Behavior Support:
For the few students with ODD/ADHD we try extremely hard to “catch them being good”
and positively reinforce good behavior. We focus on giving them positive attention, and
ignoring the attention-seeking maladaptive behaviors, unless it is harming themselves or
others.

For this lesson, I will be teaching whole group, while my mentor teacher circulates and
assists any students who need extra support.

b) Materials & Digital Tools Needed

Teacher: Elmo document camera, Smart Board, Anchor chart paper, markers,

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 candy, Guess My Candy worksheet
Students: Pencil & worksheet

2. OUTCOMES & ASSESSMENT

a) State Standards and Student Outcomes—Learning Goals

 Standards
 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3
 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event
sequences.
(In this lesson, we are mostly focusing on adding detail to our stories,
so this lesson helps students practice using descriptive words)
 Outcomes
Students will be able to use descriptive words when writing a narrative.
Students will be able to add details to their writing to make it more appealing
to the reader.

b) Assessment and Evaluation—Evidence of Student Learning

 Assessment
I will ask for thumbs up or down if they understand the directions as an
informal assessment.

I will also collect the writing pieces to look for evidence of meeting the
objectives I have set. I will specifically look for at least 4 descriptive adjectives
that the student used appropriately in their writing piece. This will help me to
know that the child understood the assignment, and full grasps the concept
of adding details to their writing. If the child has less than 4, I will know that
they did not add sufficient amounts of details/descriptive words to their
writing.

 Evaluation
I will evaluate the effectiveness of my lesson/teaching once I collect the
writing pieces to see if students added at least four details and descriptive
words to their writing.

3. INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE

a) Introduction—Engaging Students, Activating Prior Knowledge, Setting Lesson

Goals
To activate prior knowledge, I will ask the students, “Who remembers what an
adjective does?” We will talk about how an adjective describes words. I will also
ask, “Who can tell me what rules good writers remember to stick to?” We will
make an anchor chart of all the things we should remember to do when writing:
capitalization for pronouns and beginning of sentences, punctuation at the end,
neat handwriting, etc.

b) Instructional Procedures—Engaging Students in Actively Constructing Deep

Understanding
 We will all meet at the carpet in front of the smart board.

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  I will show the students the bag of mixed up candy and model me pulling a
candy out of the bag. I will then ask them to give me some ideas of ways I
could describe this candy.
 Note: if a student says “good,” “yummy” or other “boring” words, I will explain
to them that I want them to think of more interesting words so that if I didn’t
know what kind of candy you had, I could guess using only what you wrote.
 I will model my writing process for them as they give me ideas of what to write.
 I will then explain the rules of this writing assignment: At the end, when I
collect all the papers, I can read them to the class and they will be able to
guess which candy that anonymous person wrote about because they used
such descriptive words.
 I will then write examples of descriptive words under the Elmo so students
can reference these to use in their writing piece if they want. Examples of
descriptive words: crunchy, soft, hard, colorful, sweet, juicy, irresistible,
scrumptious, sensational, fruity, chocolatey, bite-sized, chocolate-coated,
drizzled, bursting with flavor, chewy, sour, sugary, sugar-coated, fluffy, crispy,
tangy, tart, heavenly, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth. I will also write flavors to
reference: lime, orange, lemon, watermelon, strawberry, honey, chocolate,
vanilla, blue raspberry, cherry, grape, etc.

c) Technology as a Tool for Effective Teaching & Learning

Smart Board & ELMO

d) Closure—Students Summarizing and Synthesizing Their Learning

To close the lesson, I will ask the student to put away their materials and get ready for
the next lesson of the day. I will let the students know we will read their writing pieces at
the end of the day, so we can guess who had which candy. I will let them know that they
did a great job of brainstorming descriptive words and worked hard on writing today. If
they are not done, they can finish it later on.

4. REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Guess My Candy worksheet, The Clever Classroom

Julie Cloke, Mentor Teacher
Common Core Standards, Writing Grade 3

5. PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: Teacher Reflection

After reading the writing pieces, there were only a few students who
did not successfully come up with at least four descriptive adjectives to describe
their candy. This tells me that those students need extra support the next time we
do a writing assignment and I will help them brainstorm how we can stretch a
sentence and create more details.
One thing I might have done differently looking back is that I would
have had a word wall already established and hanging in the classroom for the
students to reference while they were writing. I noticed while I was walking around
that a lot of the students were relying on sounding out the words they were trying
to spell. If they had a word wall, it would be very beneficial in their spelling and
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would help them remember how to spell certain tricky words.
Another thing I noticed after watching the video of myself teaching the
lesson was that the girl in the back was constantly goofing off, not paying attention
and looking at herself in the camera. I know that this student in particular has a
hard time focusing for long periods of time so I should have either kept my eyes
on her or had her sit near me where she wouldn’t be distracted.
One way I could extend this lesson is if I had the students use their
candy and descriptive details to write a narrative. I could teach a minilesson on
personification and have the students write a fictional story in which their candy
came to life. They would still have to use details and descriptive adjectives, but in
a fictional narrative. This would help strengthen their writing skills and teach them
about personification and fiction genre, while using adjectives and details. I also
could have the students write down interesting adjectives that they see in their
own books they are reading on a sticky note. While they are silent reading, they
can jot down details and descriptive adjectives that the author used to describe a
scene, person or place in the story. This would help expose them to authors’
styles and show them how creatively detailed stories can create images in your
head.