Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

By: Kristen Baker

Grade Level/Subject: 3rd Grade
Central Focus: Visualizing to increase comprehension.
Literacy
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1: Read closely to determine
what the text says explicitly and to make logical
inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when
Date submitted:
writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from
Date taught: 10/28/15
the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy 3.RF.4a: Read grade-level text with
purpose and understanding.
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will visualize as they read to increase comprehension.
They are expected to earn at least 4 out of five points (80%) on their visualization
drawings.
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand
Life and Career Skills- Students are learning
(Language Function and Vocabulary):
understand what they read, this will help them
Students will interpret the text they
in the future.
read and create a mental visual.
Learning and Innovation Skills- The students are
thinking complexly to create an image while
reading.
Prior Knowledge: Students will need to be able to read independently and possibly have
some experience with visualizing.
Activity

1. Focus and
Review

Description of Activities and Setting

Good morning boys and girls. Today's read aloud is
Have You Seen Bugs? By Joanne Oppenheim. This book
describes many kinds of bugs. Today as we read we are
going to work on visualizing. Visualizing is when you
create a mental picture in your head. We are going to
practice visualizing. Everyone close your eyes and
picture a bug you have seen. Think about the size and
shape of the bug. Think about the color of the bug. Think
about where you saw the bug. Open your eyes and turn
and talk with a partner about the bug you pictured."
Allow the students to discuss for a couple of minutes.
Then a have a few of them share to the class. "Great job
everyone, what we did here is visualized what we read."

Time

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student

3. Teacher Input

4. Guided Practice

5. Independent
Practice

6. Assessment
Methods of all
objectives/skills:

7. Closure

Today we are going to learn how to visualize (make a

mental picture) as we read. Doing this will help us to
understand what we are reading.
"I am going to show you how I visualize. I am going to
read part of the book without showing the illustrations
(pictures). This will give us the chance to make pictures
in our mind (visualize). To visualize I read and make a
picture in my head. "Read page 1 and 2 twice. Share
with the students what you visualized as you read. Be
sure to include details and when you explain the visual
to the students remember to share what part of the book
made you visualize a certain thing.
"Now we are going to practice visualizing together.
Everyone close your eyes and visualize as I read." Read
page 10 twice. Allow the students to think. Open your
eyes and turn and talk with a partner about what you
pictured." Allow the students to discuss for a couple of
minutes. Then a have a few of them share to the class.
Be sure to have include them include details and when
they explain the visual to the students remember to
have them share what part of the book made them
visualize a certain thing. Repeat the same practice for
page 26.
"Now you are going to practice visualizing by yourself.
Everyone go back to your seats and visualize as you
read. After you have read for 20 minutes, you will be
given a piece of paper to draw out something that you
visualized. In your pictures you will have to label at least
5 details. Begin reading."
Students will be given a piece of paper to complete the
assessment on. On the piece of paper they are expected to draw
out something that they visualized when they were reading
independently. In their pictures they need to label at least 5
details. Students are to work independently to complete the
assessment. The assessment is the same as the independent
practice, except they are drawing. Students must have at least 4
labeled details out of 5 to meet todays lesson objective.
The teacher will ask students what they learned in class
today and ask the students what they thought about
visualizing and if they thought it was helpful in

understanding what they read. The teacher will get the

opinions of many students. Read the whole book to the
students and allow them to see the pictures.
Objective Not Met - 4 students
8. Assessment
0%-40% - 1 student
Results of
60% - 3 students
all
Objective Met - 17 students
objectives/skills:
80% - 6 students
100% - 11 students
Targeted Students
Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:
Modifications/Accommodations:
For students who are struggling with
During and after independent practice any
visualizing I will re-explain the concept.
students who are struggling will be part of a
For students who struggle reading, the
small group mini-lesson to help them
teacher can orally read to the students
understand how to use the cloze strategy.
and allow them to practice visualizing.
Materials/Technology:
One copy of Have You Seen Bugs?, paper, pencils, colored pencils, and each student
needs an independent book to read.
References: The lesson came from Making Meaning Curriculum
Reflection on lesson:
The lesson went really well. The students were really excited that we were going to read
a book about bugs. My teacher wanted me to teach this lesson to class, but I had a
difficult time attaching the lesson to a Common Core State Standard. I eventually
decided to choose "Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make
logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to
support conclusions drawn from the text." I chose this standard because the students are
reading carefully, paying attention to detail, in order to create a visual. Creating and
explaining the visual has them cite specific textual evidence to support their mental
picture. I had thought that this lesson would take no more than one hour, but after I
began the lesson, I realized that it was going t take much longer. I actually did not end
up reading the whole book to the students until the next day. The students were so
happy to be able to see the pictures. Overall, I really enjoyed teaching this lesson to
students. If I teach this lesson again, I will find a different assessment. I found it to be
very difficult to grade a picture based off of the number of details they labeled from the
book. I am not sure what I will use as the assessment, but I will try something different.
The most beneficial advice that I learned from teaching this lesson is time adjustments.
In the future I will now that lessons seem to take longer than I expect.