LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

The following information should be included in the header of the lesson plan:
 Micaela Powers
 Mrs. Sites, 1st grade, Riverheads Elementary
 Wednesday September 11th, 2019

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Whole Group: Retelling Train, Beginning, Middle, and End.

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
This will be the students first introduction to retelling stories using beginning, middle, and end. This
lesson is coming at an appropriate time for the students because they are currently working on writing
a story with me. Part of this lesson involves including the parts of a story: characters, setting, problem,
and solution. Retelling a story using beginning, middle, and end, mostly involved grouping those parts
of the story into a sequence. The students are ready for this because they understand that a story must
be told in a certain way, with certain elements in an order, for it to make sense. I know this because I
have been doing the writing lesson with them. They are able to create a story on their own so I know
they are ready to learn how to retell a story in the correct sequence. I also know they are ready for this
lesson because we have read stories together as a class and have had the students identify each part of
the story on their own. Because of this, I know the students are able to pick out certain parts of a story
after listening to it. They are ready to learn what each part means and where it belongs sequentially.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand – what are the broad Know – what are the facts, rules, Do – what are the specific thinking
generalizations the students should specific data the students will gain behaviors students will be able to do
begin to develop? (These are through this lesson? (These “knows” through this lesson? (These will also
typically difficult to assess in one must be assessed in your lesson.) be assessed in your lesson.)
lesson.)
I understand that in order to retell I know how to retell a story. I will (can) use beginning, middle,
a story I must know the beginning and end trains during retelling a
middle, and end. I know what part of the story is the story in the correct place to show I
beginning. understand what part of the story
I understand which parts of the I know what part of the story is the is the beginning, middle, and end.
story are the beginning, middle, middle.
and the end. I know what part of the story is the
end. (How: I will know I have it when I
(Why: So I can retell a story) can use the beginning, middle,
(What: I can sequence stories by ends trains during retelling in the
characters, setting, beginning, correct place. )
middle, and end)

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
To assess the daily learning of my students during this lesson we will be retelling the story Tops and
Bottoms multiple times. This will allow them to fully understand the story and what parts of the story
go into making the beginning, middle, and end. First we will do this as a class on the board using
angynzy.com slide. Then to assess their individual learning ‘I Can’ goal of “I know I have it when I
can use the beginning, middle, and end trains during retelling in the correct place”, I will say the parts
of the story (in an unknown order) and the students will hold up their trains to show me which part of
 the story it is. This will allow me to informally and individually assess each student in a way that will
allow me to see where each student is after one day of learning. It will also allow me to see how I
might need to adjust and differentiate future plans for each student.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL STANDARDS if required)

LA.1.2. b Tell and retell stories and events in sequential order.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
Book: Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens – provided by CT
Anchor Chart – made my myself
BME trains – made by myself printed and copied at school
Gynzy.com slide – created by myself (If technology is not working I will have a copy of it so I know
write it on the board and use that instead)

G. PROCEDURE
 Before I show the video I will ask students to keep the words “Beginning, Middle, and End”
on their minds and to pay attention to the order they are said in the video and what words are
associated with them.

 I will show the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnoJwfnzmqA

o Beginning: “opening lines”, “waking up”, “Seymour”, “out of bed” – character and start of
Seymour’s day.

o Middle: “get to the meat (of the story)”, “somebody is up to something (problem)”, “Seymour
rides his pterodactyl”

o End: “how it all worked out”, “What it’s all about”, “Seymour travels back into time”, “He
runs an ice cream stand” – how Seymour is different

 I ask students to come quietly to the rug.

 I will have an anchor chart up with BME on it.

 We will quickly review what character & settings are in a story. (We know this already
because of our writing lesson).

 We will talk about what stood out to us during beginning, middle, and end parts of the
video and use that to explain our anchor chart.

 I will explain that the beginning can often have the character and setting in it. The
middle is what happens next in the story this COULD be the problem. The end is the
finish the story, this is sometimes the solution.

 Then I will read Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. Before I will ask them to think
about what they think is the B, M, and E while I read.

 I will use a gynzy.com slide with BME TRAINS on them. This will show them they
can use the trains to help them identify the B, M, E and we will go over the B M and E
of Tops and bottoms.
o Students will be asked to quietly go back to their seats where they will find their own trains to
use to identify B, M, and E.

 Each student will be given a B, M, and E train they can use to hold up during the
respective parts of the story.

 I will retell the Tops and Bottoms story while they use their trains so that I can see if
they understand.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
I be able to differentiate this lesson in a few ways. Because it is whole group I will be using assigned
spots on the carpet which I created to place students in spots that allow for the best learning for
themselves and those around them. I am able to move students back to their seats who get distracted
on the carpet and can focus better with less people around them as well. I am also able to see the
students in one spot and quickly assess their understanding. This will allow me to be mindful with the
students who I call on for answers. This way I can call on students who may give me different answers
and explanations that can better help other students to understand. Another way I will differentiate is
by providing students multiple representations to see what I am explaining to them. I will be using a
video with a song for a verbal representation, an anchor chart with a visual representation of a train
progressing through the stages of beginning, middle, and end, and definitions with examples of what is
in the B, M and E of a story for students who like to hear and read. This anchor chart will stay up
throughout the two-week long unit plan for students to look back on. Another representation I will be
using is the train manipulative. This is for students who need to be tactile and visual when making
strides within their learning. They will be able to see the trains with the words Beginning, Middle, and
End on them and hold them up or acknowledge them. The trains color will also match the
corresponding train on my anchor chart so students that struggle to read can look at the trains location
on my chart, see that the first is the beginning, and match the color with their train to help them
determine which train is which (for example, all beginning trains are green, all middle trains are
orange, and all end trains are blue). This will also help them learn the words so they can eventually
read them.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Things that could go wrong with this lesson is that technology does not work. In this case, I will skip
the song, it is not 100% necessary for the lesson, it just allows for another representation so the
students are being exposed to the vocabulary. It can be shown another time with technology does
work. Instead, I can tell a short story about my morning (like the song does) and use the same wording
the song does to introduce beginning, middle, and end. I have written in this plan, the key words and
phrases I find important from the song and can incorporate them into my story. For my gynzy.com
slide, I will have a copy of it and can write it and draw it on the board instead of using the slide.
Another thing that could go wrong is that the students are unable to identify grasp the beginning,
middle, and end concepts and how they relate the problem and solution. In this case I would use an
example where the story is very short and the problem is very obviously the middle and the solution is
very obviously the end to lead them into this understanding. I could also have a lot of students who
need to use the restroom during this time because it is a little after lunch. In this case, I will let
students go who raise their hand and do not interrupt go one at a time. I will make this clear to the
students if they continue to ask multiple times. I have seen this happen before during whole group
lessons so it is something I am prepared to have to do. Asking them to wait for the pass to be back in
the room then raise their hand will make it so interruptions stay at a minimum but I also know this is a
time where a lot of students do have to use the restroom and are not just trying to get out of a lesson so
I want to provide them with the opportunity to do this. Overall, my CT is always telling me and
showing me how to go with the flow during lessons, especially with first graders so I will be ready to
make changes as I see fit to work best with the students and how they are learning because I want to
provide them with the best possible environment and lesson to learn and master this concept.
***Students will come to the board and move the correct part of the story to the corresponding train.
***I will read the parts of the story to them.