LESSON

PLAN OUTLINE
JMU Elementary Education Program
Science


A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON: Classifying Animals

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON AND UNWRAPPING OF THE STANDARD
What pre-assessment did you do that tells you the students’ readiness, interests, and/or learning
preferences?
I conducted a Science Talk to gauge the students’ background information about classification,
animals, and grouping in general. I determined that they are ready for a lesson on classification
because they were not sure exactly what the term means, but they understood how to group into
different categories. They had a decent understanding of animals through their experiences, and I
know which animals to introduce that they may not be familiar with.

Why is this is an appropriate activity for these students at this time?
Classifying is an important skill that has cross-curricular applications. They have been working on
sorting in word study as well as Virginia Studies, so this lesson provides a way for them to fine tune
this skill in a different content area.

How does this lesson fit in the curriculum sequence?
This lesson provides background the following standard:
Standard 4.5:
The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals in an ecosystem interact with
one another and the nonliving environment. Key concepts include:
a) behavioral and structural adaptations

How does this lesson fit with what you know about child development?
This lesson allows students to group animals in their own way, as well as group based on
instruction. Once they group the animals, they must verbalize their thinking and explain why they
decided to group in the way that they did. This oral language is helpful for development in the
elementary grades. Students in 4th grade should be in Piaget’s concrete operational stage of cognitive
development. During this stage, they are able to demonstrate “logical and systematic manipulation
of symbols, which are related to concrete objects” (Wood, Smith, & Grossniklaus, 2001).


C. UNWRAPPING THE VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING and the NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE
STANDARDS (NATIONAL STANDARDS)

Virginia Standard of Learning:
Standard 4.1:
The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific reasoning, logic, and the nature of science
by planning and conducting investigations in which:
b) objects or events are classified and arranged according to characteristics or properties

Standard 4.8:
The student will investigate and understand important Virginia natural resources. Key concepts include:
b) animals and plants

 Unwrapped Concept Unwrapped Skill Taxonomy Level
(nouns) (verb) (Bloom’s, SOLO, DOK)

Set of 20 or fewer objects, Analyze Bloom’s 4: Analyzing
measures, or pictures


(the objects) into basic Classify Bloom’s 4: Analyzing
categories to organize the
data (descriptive or
numeral)

Bar graphs and line graphs
depicting the distribution of Construct Bloom’s 3: Applying
those data

Natural and man-made Compare and contrast Bloom’s 2: Understanding
resources

Rivers, lakes, and bays Distinguish Bloom’s 1 and 2:

Characteristics of each Describe Remembering,
Example of each in VA Name Understanding

Model of a watershed Create and interpret Bloom’s 5 and 6: Evaluating

and Creating

Watershed addresses Identify Bloom’s 3: Applying

Virginia’s mineral Recognize Bloom’s 3: Applying

resources, including coal,
limestone, granite, sand,
and gravel
Importance of natural and Appraise Bloom’s 5: Evaluating
cultivated forests in Virginia
 Variety of soil and land uses Describe Bloom’s 2: Understanding
important in Virginia





Next Generation Science Standard:

2-PS1-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials
by their observable properties.


D. LEARNING INTENTIONS and SUCCESS CRITERIA
Understand – what are the broad Know – what are the facts, rules, Do – what are the specific success
generalizations the students should specific data the students will gain criteria for the lesson? Each
begin to develop? These are through this lesson? These success criteria will be assessed in
typically difficult to assess in one “knows” must be assessed in your your lesson. These should be
lesson. These should be written in lesson. These should be written in written in the form of “I can”
the form of “I understand” the form of “I know that” statements.
statements. statements.
I understand the concept of I know how to classify animals into I can brainstorm different
classification and that it can be groups of vertebrates and categories of animals.
done with many different things. invertebrates.
I can distinguish between
I understand that animals can be I know how to classify animals into vertebrates and invertebrates and
classified into different groups groups of mammals, reptiles, explain the main difference
based on their traits and amphibians, fish, insects, and between then.
characteristics. spiders.
I can put animals into groups of
mammals, reptiles, amphibians,
fish, insects, and spiders.

E. ASSESSING LEARNING
What will your students do and say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your
objectives? Remember – every objective must be assessed for every student!

Learning Intention and
Opportunities to Respond Evidence
Success Criteria
Students will brainstorm • In their small groups, Verbal evidence
different categories of animals. students will physically • Students will explain
group animal pictures their groupings, and I
based on characteristics. will determine whether
• They will explain their their reasoning makes
reasoning for the logical sense. Sentence
different groupings they frames will be provided.
made.

Students will be able to • After direct instruction Physical groupings
distinguish between on the difference • Students will physically
vertebrates and invertebrates between the two types, group their animals, and
 and explain the main difference students will re-group I will determine whether
between them. their animals into two they grouped correctly.
groups: vertebrates and
invertebrates. Verbal evidence
• They will be able to • Students will verbally
explain why they put explain the difference
each animal into each between vertebrates and
group. invertebrates. Sentence
frames will be provided.
Students will put animals into • After a discussion about Physical groupings
groups of mammals, reptiles, these different types of • Students will physically
amphibians, fish, insects, and animals, students will group their animal
spiders. group their animal pictures into the
pictures by category: aforementioned groups.
mammals, reptiles,
amphibians, fish, insects, Exit ticket
and spiders. • Students will write down
• They will be able to one thing they learned
explain the about classifying today.
characteristics for each
group.



Big Ideas
• Animals can be classified into different groups based on their characteristics.
• Vertebrates are different from invertebrates because they have a backbone.

Essential Questions
• What are some ways that animals can be classified?
• What is the main difference between vertebrates and invertebrates?
• What are the distinguishing characteristics of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects,
and spiders?

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
• Teacher notes to be projected on the Promethean board
• Set of animal cards for each small group (separated into Ziploc bags)
• Exit ticket printouts


G. MISCONCEPTIONS or ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS
Students may have preconceived notions about what they think mammals, reptiles, amphibians, etc. are.
They may have difficulty differentiating between amphibians and reptiles. I will be sure to make the
differences well known and ask guiding questions, such as, “Think about the reptiles that you know.
Where do they live? What about the amphibians that you know?” I will provide examples of each so that
they are able to understand that most reptiles live on land, while amphibians live on land or water.





H. PROCEDURE

Procedures and management

Step-by step procedures including questions and
Activity Students
main points – visualize what you are going to say
Element Describe what the students
to the students. It might be helpful to script out
& Time (in will be doing as a result of
what you are going to say, although during the
minutes) your instructions

lesson you do not need to use this language
verbatim.
Separate students into 2-3 groups. Ask who
remembers what was talked about in my
Students will think back to
Engage – Science Talk last week. Once memories are
the science talk from the
Introduction refreshed, give the students the task for the
week before and answer
(3 min.) lesson: “You all will be classifying animals
questions.
today. Can anyone remember what the word
classify means?”
Hand out bags of animals to each group. “In
front of you is a collection of animals. Working
with your group, you are going to classify them Students will physically
in any way that you want. Make sure you are classify the animals by
Event 1 able to explain the different categories / placing the pieces of
(5 min.) classifications that you made and why you cardstock with animals on
placed the animals in that category. Once you them into different
have done so, choose a spokesperson from your groups.
group to share.” Display directions on the
Promethean Board.
Ask for each spokesperson to share their
Students will verbally
classifications with the rest of the group.
share their classifications
Transition Provide sentence frames on the Promethean
and reasoning for that
(5 min.) Board. Once the spokespeople have finished,
classification for the rest
ask for other volunteers who want to share
of the group.
their thoughts.
You all have done a wonderful job with your
classifications. I am going to teach you a new
one that you might not have heard of before.
“Can anyone tell me what a vertebrate is?” Students will provide
Gauge student background information and answers to the questions,
Event 2
then display notes on the Promethean Board. if they are able. Otherwise,
(5 min.)
“Vertebrates have a backbone or spinal they will listen and learn
column.” Can anyone predict what is special the new information.
about an invertebrate?” Gauge student
knowledge, then display notes on the
Promethean Board.
“Now, please classify your animals into 2
Students will sort their
groups: vertebrates and invertebrates.” Choose
Transition animals into 2 groups:
a different spokesperson from your group to
(5 min.) vertebrates and
share with the rest of us when we come back
invertebrates.
together. Display directions on the Promethean
 Board. Think about the definitions you now
know about these different kinds of animals.”
Once students have classified their animals, ask

for the spokespeople to share. Provide sentence


frames.
“Lastly, we are going to learn how to classify
into more specific animal groups. First of all, I
want to know what you already know about
these different types of animal groups.” Display
headings of mammals, reptiles, amphibians,
fish, insects, and spiders. “Raise your hand and Students will provide
Event 3 tell me something you already know about their background
(5 min.) these types of animals.” Add student info to the information about these

board and teach other bits of information about different types of animals.

these animals that has not been covered. (If
there is time, read a few of the sections of the
book Animal School: What Class Are You? By
Michelle Lord to explain groups in further
detail.)
“This is your last classification for the day.
Please sort your animals into groups of Students will sort their
Transition
mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, animal cards into more
(5 min.)
and spiders. Pick someone who has not shared specific animal groups.
yet to be your spokesperson.”
“Thank you all for participating today! Please
Conclusion Students will fill out the
fill out this exit ticket so I can see what you
(3 min.) exit ticket.
learned today.”
I. DIFFERENTIATION
Describe how you have planned to meet the needs of all students in your classroom with varied interest
and learning readiness, English language proficiency, health, physical ability, etc. How will you extend
and enrich the learning of students who finish early? How will you support the learning of children
struggling with your objectives?

English Language
Content Process Product
Learners

I will provide a I will allow students to
I will provide a variety
variety of pictures of talk about their favorite
of animals in hope that
animals in hope that group, rather than all of
Interest at least some will appeal
at least some will them. They will be able
to the students’
appeal to the to use the sentence
interests.
students’ interests. stems.

The students will work
Students will work
with their group
The pictures, rather together with others to
members on identifying
than names, will be classify their animals. I
Readiness their animals. If they are
used for will provide sentence
not sure what one is,
classification. stems for talking about
they have their group to
the different groups.
help.

Students with a
Content Process Product
Learning Disability

I will provide a I will allow students to
I will provide a variety
variety of pictures of talk about their favorite
of animals in hope that
animals in hope that group, rather than all of
Interest at least some will appeal
at least some will them. They will be able
to the students’
appeal to the to use the sentence
interests.
students’ interests. stems.

I will provide
examples from the
The students will work
book and clear Students will work
with their group
information on the together with others to
members on identifying
differences between classify their animals. I
Readiness their animals. If they are
each type of animal will provide sentence
not sure what one is,
so that the stems for talking about
they have their group to
expectations for the different groups.
help.
classification are
more clear.

* For those students who finish early, I will ask them to think of more than one way to classify their animals.
This applies for the first round of classification. For the other two rounds, I will ask them to think about
concrete examples of why each animal belongs in each category.

J. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
• Students are off task and distracting during the main lesson and/or the classification.
I will tell the student that their behavior is unacceptable, and you must be on task to participate in the
lesson. I will also say that they are distracting other children from learning. I will warn the child that if
he or she remains a distraction, I will move them to the back of the room. If the problem persists, I will
move the child to the back of the room. This way, they are not deprived of learning the information, but
they are not able to participate in the classification
• Students are not able to classify into correct groups.
I will keep notes displayed on the board during classification and ask guiding questions to refer students
back to those notes. If a student answers incorrectly, I will ask if another person wants to “help him/her
out” in a respectful way.


Works Cited

Wood, K. C., Smith, H., Grossniklaus, D. (2001). Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development. In M. Orey
(Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved December 12,
2017, from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/


Lesson Implementation Reflection

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

My lesson started late due to an incident with my cooperating teacher. She formally observed me
for this lesson, so I needed her to be present in the room before beginning, but there was an issue
with report cards and she needed to leave the room for a few minutes. While she was gone, the
students began to become chaotic. When she returned, I frantically began my lesson and made up
for lost time. She was extremely apologetic and let me know that it was not my fault that the
students’ behavior was out of hand at the beginning. She said that I handled it well.
Over the course of the lesson, I had to alter the way I conducted some of the aspects of my
original plan. For example, I had two groups for 30 minutes each. For the first group, I went over the
information in the packet about the different kinds of animals – mammals, amphibians, reptiles,
spiders, insects, and fish – as a group using the Promethean Board. I found that this was ineffective
and changed my strategy for the second group. For the second group, I handed out a packet of
information to each small group and asked them to investigate on their own to learn the information
in the packet. They were much more engaged having to search for the information themselves rather
than trying to remember what I said.
Additionally, during my first time teaching the lesson, I allowed students to choose their own
small groups. For the second time, I purposefully chose the groups. This proved to be more effective
in students being on task. They were not able to choose who they sat with, so they were not with
their best friends.


II. Student Work Sample Analysis: Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about
your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence
can you offer that your conclusions are valid?

I created an exit ticket to assess student learning at the end of my lesson. Students
answered the following questions: 1) What does it mean to classify? 2) Think of one type of
classification that you did today. What were the different groups that you used? 3) Write a
sentence describing one new thing that you learned. I wanted students to learn not only the
concept of classifying but also different ways to classify animals. In other words, I wanted them
to learn the strategy and the content. After reviewing the exit tickets, I can conclude that the
majority of the students learned the different types of classifications that we conducted during
the lesson; however, only a few students were able to correctly state what it means to classify.
The last question on my exit ticket allowed me to see what “extra” information students gained
from the lesson. Students provided answers such as “A dolphin is a mammal,” “97% of animals
do not have a backbone,” and “I learned what an amphibian is.” The evidence I have to support
these conclusions are copies of the exit tickets that the students filled out.

Look at the assessment data and identify 2 students who appear to fall into these 3 categories: (1) Gets
it; (2) Has some good ideas, but there’s still room for learning and (3) Does not get it. Organize your
responses to the following questions in a chart/table form similar to the one below.


Gets it Has some good ideas, Does not get it
but…
Student A Student B Student C Student D Student E Student F
Understands… -Classifying -Classifying -Animals can -Animals can -Animals can Unsure based
means means to be classified be classified be classified on exit ticket
separating in sort using into groups, into groups, into groups, – no answers
 different describing such as: such as: fish, such as: given to first
groups. words. mammals, reptiles, mammals 2 questions
fish, mammals, and fish.
-One group -Different
amphibians, and
that can be ways to sort
and reptiles. amphibians.
used to animals
classify (reptile, fish,
animals: mammal,
mammals. insect).
Confused -Only listed N/A -What it -What it -What it -What it
about… one group means to means to means to means to
that can be classify classify classify classify
used to (answer (answer (answer
-Different
classify given: to given: to given: comp)
types of
animals confirm) describe
classifications
animals)
(This student told me
that she did not know the
answers to the first 2
questions and asked if
she could leave them
blank.)

Questions to What are What is an We classified We classified What did What were
ask to clarify some other example of the animals the animals you mean by we doing in
what I know groups that something in our in our comp? Based our science
we can use else we can science science on our activity? How
to classify, activity. activity. activity, do can you use
classify/sort aside from Think about Think about you know that to
animals? animals? what we what we what it answer these
were doing. were doing. means to two
What do you What do you classify? questions?
think it think it
means to means to
classify? classify?
Ideas to work Classifying Classifying Classifying Classifying Classifying Classifying
on next other objects other objects different different different objects to
objects to objects to objects to gain more
gain more gain more gain more practice (give
practice practice practice clearer
instructions
next time)

a. Where is each student’s learning within the framework of the SOLO Taxonomy? What evidence do
you have to support your answer? Please provide student work samples.

Student A: Multistructural
Student B: Multistructural
Student C: Multistructural
Student D: Multistructural
Student E: Unistructural
Student F: Prestructural







Student work samples/evidence:












































































b. What does each student appear to understand?

*See table above for answer to this question.

c. What does each student appear to be confused about?

*See table above for answer to this question.

d. What questions might you want to ask each student to clarify what you know about the student’s
understanding?

*See table above for answer to this question.

e. What ideas does each student need to work on next?
*See table above for answer to this question.

III. 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 could better incorporate developmentally appropriate
practice in a more thorough way by changing the way I display my directions. I gave directions
verbally, but I also displayed them on the Promethean Board. I wrote them in paragraph form, but
next time, I would display them in bullet form. This would make them easier to read which would
help all students but especially English Language Learners. Although most of the students are able to
read chapter books, some are not. Displaying the directions in this way will make them more
accessible to all learners in the class. Additionally, I would use easier vocabulary in order to make
this more developmentally appropriate. Instead of “abdomen,” I would use “stomach,” and I would
not introduce the words cold-blooded and warm-blooded.

 IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom
teacher?

If I were the classroom teacher, I would spend the next couple class periods reviewing
classification and providing more ways for students to engage with it. Many of the students
understand and retained the different groups that animals could be classified into, but a lot of
the students did not understand what classifying is. I would provide opportunities to classify
different kinds of objects.

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

As a result of planning and teaching lesson, it was reinforced to me that students respond well to
having a specific goal to achieve during a lesson. During this lesson, students were to group the
pictures into different categories based on 3 different criteria: choice, vertebrates/invertebrates,
and more specific animal categories: mammals, amphibians, reptiles, spiders, insects, and fish.
Students were not only able to group the animals into category, but they were also able to explain
their reasoning for doing so. Children respond much better to engaging activities rather than lecture.

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

As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, it was reinforced to me that teachers need a
specific behavior plan and attention call ready in order to be effective. My cooperating teacher does,
“Class class / yes yes,” which was more effective than my, “All eyes on me.” In the small group setting
that I had, there was another group working on a different activity in the same room. This caused my
group to become distracted. When teaching, there needs to be strict guidelines in place for what is
acceptable during group work and what is not. It is necessary for students to be able to work with
others and collaborate, but it is difficult to keep students focused and on task at the same time.

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

As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, it was reinforced to me that I need more practice
giving instructions for a task or assignment at an appropriate pace. Following the lesson, my
cooperating teacher provided constructive feedback for me, and one tip that she gave was to work
on speaking at a slower pace. When I am in front of a group, I tend to speak quickly. I have had a lot
of practice with public speaking in the past two years, and I have improved a lot, but there is still
more work to do. It is imperative that I speak at a steady pace to benefit all students in general but
especially English Language Learners.











Pictures: