Sarsawati Chhetri

Dr. Bob
TLS 322
1st Lesson Plan
12th October 2016
Element of Writing; Character
Lesson Focus/Objective/Standard?
Lesson Focus: Element of the story; Character
Trait of writing: Word Choice (to define and describe the character; red hair, tall/short)
Objective: The students will be able to identify and describe characters in the story
Standard: (ELA) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.8 With guidance and support from adults,
recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a
question.
(Writing) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, focus
on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing
as needed.
- When I was given this classroom, it was said that this is ELA, therefore, I wrote standards for
both. My focus for the lesson was to make them familiar with the word character and teach
them what it is and what it means on the story. For 6 traits, I chose word choice because for their
writing part since they are 1st grade and some are ELLs, I could not ask them to just write story
on their own because my mentor teacher said they will not be able to so he asked if I can do fill
in the blanks. I created some sentences based on what we talked about and gave them the list of
words that they can choose from to complete the given sentences. I read both of them aloud

while the students were working on them. I have posted the image of what I wrote on the board
together with images of students works below on this document.
Grade Level and Grouping?
The grade level that I taught this lesson to was 1st and I taught it to the whole class where
there were 20 number of students. The class has few English Language Learners (around 6 as
told by my mentor teacher), some reclassified and some regular. For all those ELLs, I made
many accommodations such as talking slowly and clearly, writing everything the students and I
say on the board, having them draw picture of their idea, giving wait times when asked question
or have them complete the task, read everything aloud, and repeating answers students say and
also repeating myself.
Materials Utilized?
The book that I used to introduce and explain what does the character mean was
Spiderman. This was the perfect book to use to explain that there are characters and main
character. I also had them draw the character we created together so for that I used white paper.
I also had them copy and complete the fill in the blanks sentences about the character we created
and for that I used line paper.
Planned Lesson Progression?
Will you be asking questions? Yes, I will be asking questions and some that I have planned on
asking are:
what do we want the character to be; a boy or a girl? What is the name of the character?
How old is the character? What is the eye color of the character? What is the hair color of the
character? Is the character tall or short? Where was the character born? Where does the character

live now? Does a character have any pet, if yes what is it? What kind of house does the character
live at?
I will also be asking questions and also provide positive feedbacks as I walk around while
students are working on their task;
I really like how you drew her blue eyes. I appreciate you staying on track and quietly
completing your work. I love that drawing. I see how much details your drawing has, great job. I
like how you are saying the words using its sounding to see if it goes to that sentence. Please try
sounding out loud to see if you can figure out the word by yourself, if not no worries, we can
sound out together.
what color eyes did we give our character? How can you say that word using sounding out?
Will you gather their work?
I wanted to collect their work but they said they want to finish their drawing during the fall break
and they will bring them back when they come back so I let them.
What are you planning on doing? What are the steps/procedures you will be using? Break down
the lesson to its component parts.
1st step: Write down my lesson focus and the objective on the board
2nd step: explain to the students my lesson, objective and what I expect them to be doing
3rd step: create the characters together as a class, write the words the students say on the board
4th step: have students draw the character on the white paper that will already be placed on their
table beforehand
5th step: walk around to see if students understood or if they need help and also to ask questions
and provide positive feedbacks

6th step: bring back students attention to the lesson (end the drawing part) and have them copy
and complete the fill in the blanks sentences
7th step: read the sentences and the words aloud, do one of the sentences together to guide the
students
8th step: end the lesson with exit ticket question (who is the character?) and have little circle
discussion about how the lesson went through students eyes.
Share what you will be expecting the students to be doing.
-

I will be expecting students to draw the character using the characteristics and color them
to match the colors we have given to certain body parts. I will be expecting them to use
sounding out to say the words by themselves before asking me for help.

Anticipatory Set (How will you get their attention to focus the lesson?)
-

I am planning on saying that if they will have so much noise and I will be interrupted
many times then we will not get to draw. To get their attention, I will use class, class
where they have to look at me and say yes, yes

Demonstration/Think aloud (What will you do and say to demonstrate what is expected?)
-

I will do one of the sentence together with them to show what I want them to do with the
sentences and the words given. I will also try drawing the character really quick to show
what I meant by drawing a character using the characteristics we created.

Guided Practice/Feedback (What will you do along with them to guide them?)
-

I will be creating the character together with them. I will be writing the words they say on
the board. I will be writing the sentences with blanks on them where they will have to fill
the blanks with the given words from word box which I will be creating. I will also read

the sentences and the words aloud to them to guide them in choosing the correct word
that goes on the blank.

Independent Practice/ Feedback (What will they be doing on their own?)

-

They will be individually drawing the character based on the characteristics we created
together. They will also be individually choosing the words from word box to fill in the
blanks to complete the sentences I will be writing on the board.

Assessment (How will you know if they get it? and how will you keep track?
-

I will make sure to observe their work and also ask them if they are confused with
anything. I will make sure I do this with each student so no one is left not being helped
and confused. I will have exit ticket question about the main idea of the lesson to check if
they got what I was trying to teach.

Will you be working your way around the room to check?

-

Yes, this is my favorite part because this allows me to not only see if my students are
doing their task but also if they understood my instructions. For all my lessons, I always
create positive feedbacks to provide and possible questions to ask and I did that for this
one also. So yes I will be working my way around the room to check on my students
understanding and also to see if I need to provide any sorts of support.

Will you be recording your observations?

-

Yes, I have planned on writing down my observations on my fieldwork classroom

notebook and also do audio recording.

What Actually Happened?

I had everyone come to the carpet and when they were settled on the carpet with no voice, I
explained why I called them there (what I am planning on doing, what I expect them to do, why

we are doing what we are doing). I told them that we are learning about the character. Then I
asked them if they know what a character in the story means. Few of the responses were;
character is who wrote the bookit is a little person in the bookit is the person on book
coverit is who drew the pictures. Among 20 students, only one said that it is the person in the
book but he also did not quite have an idea of what character really is. After having discussion
about it for roughly 2-3 minutes, I explained what it is and supported my explanation by reading
the book Spiderman that they had in their classroom. After I read few pages, I asked, so what
and who was the book about? Then they said it was about Spiderman and I said Spiderman
was our main character in the book, that was whom the author (person who wrote the book)
talked about a lot in the story, there were also other characters that the author talked about a little
here and there and they were the general character while Spiderman was the main character. We
looked at the picture provided to talk about the Spiderman (what it looked like, what it has; hair
color, custom, height, eyes) and explained that now we will be creating our own character.
Questions that I asked the students to create a character were; what do we want the character to
be; a boy or a girl? What is the name of the character? How old is the character? What is the eye
color of the character? What is the hair color of the character? Is the character tall or short?
Where was the character born? Where does the character live now? Does a character have any
pet, if yes what is it? What kind of house does the character live at?
Surprises:
Interruptions: there were not as many interruptions because I think what I did in the beginning
helped them to stay on track and not interrupt. In the beginning when I was explaining the lesson
and what I expect them to do, I had said I will make a tally marks every time I hear a noise or I
will have to pause the lesson to ask you to be quite and if we have more than 5 then we will not

get to draw and that I will feel bad about teaching the lesson again. The students in my
classroom love to draw so I think when I told them that I will take away the drawing part of the
lesson if they interrupt, there were no interruptions. I only had to draw one tally mark and it was
when a student told answer in place of the student who was asked and the whole class pointed
finger at the student who was not called to answer. Then I said, thank you for helping but can
we please let the one who was asked to answer, answer the question, I promise I will call on you
next.
What kids did: After we were done creating the character together as a class, the students were
asked to draw the character based on the information we had collected. After giving them
instruction about drawing, I sent them back to their regular seating and the white paper was
already on their table that I put before beginning the lesson. I gave them 15 minutes for drawing
and coloring. Then I asked for their attention and explained what we will be doing for our
writing part which is to copy and complete the fill in the blank sentences that I wrote on the
board while they were doing their drawings. I allowed some students to come to the carpet if
they need to for copying the sentences. While everyone was settled and understood what they
were supposed to be doing, I read the sentences and the words aloud. I also continued reading
every time a students asked me to.
Your Reflections?
What went well?
-

I think the lesson in overall went really well because the children were happy to be
drawing and they also learned some new words (character, main character). I always hug
and tell the students to have a wonderful weekend on Thursday before they leave and this
time I asked them about the lesson and everyone cheerfully said they loved it.

What didnt go as planned? Why not?

-

Few students did not get to complete all the sentences because it was time to leave at the
end of the day. So I have the sentences written on the board which I am planning on
continuing. For exit ticket question, I planned on writing it on the board but due to
limited time I only got to say it aloud and discuss for only about 2 minutes.

What might you have done differently?

-

I would have given them little less time in drawing and asked them to complete it at
home so that I would have enough time for those students who did not get to complete
the sentences.

Did you get the responses you expected?

-

Well, not really because I thought all the students would know what the character is and
this would be good review for them. However, when I asked who the character is in the
story, only one student gave something close to what I was expecting to hear.

Did they learn what you were trying to teach? How do you know? (Tie to the lesson focus and
the assessment sections.)
-

Yes, I wanted them to learn to identify the characters (main and just characters) from the
story and after the lesson I asked them the question, who is the character in the story?
the question that I asked before the lesson. This time all the students answered; the
characters are the people in the story and main character is the person that author talks
about a lot and other characters are people that come and go in the story. So I knew that
the lesson I was trying to teach was taught.

What might you do next? Why?

I am also planning on talking about it briefly to see if they learnt clearly to remember
after the break. I might create a bell-work question to check on their understanding about
the lesson I taught.

Any Wonderings?
I wonder what would have happened if I showed them a cartoon videos that talk about
characters. I truly believe in learning through videos or visuals so I wonder if it would have been
a good idea to do this.