Design for Learning

Instructor: Michelle Lawless

Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher:
st
1 grade/Bowen
Lesson Title: Ghost Hunt Words
Date:10/16/15
Curriculum Area: Language arts Vocabulary Estimated Time: 20
minutes
Standards Connection:
39.) Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning
words and phrases based on Grade 1 reading and content, choosing
flexibly from an array of strategies.
Learning Objective(s): When given a worksheet with a word box, students
will write 3 different sentences using each vocabulary word once with 100%
accuracy.
Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language:
You will be given a worksheet and must write 3 sentences using each
vocabulary word.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):
Students will be given a worksheet and must write three sentences using each
vocabulary word. There will be 3 sentences to complete. Students correctly write
all 3 sentences will be considered proficient. Students who write 2 sentences
correctly will be in the yellow range. Students who get 1 or less sentences correct
will be in the red range and in need of re teaching.
Engagement:
The teacher will bring in concrete representations of the vocabulary words
being taught. The teacher will bring in a picture of a swamp, a picture of
something creepy, and a picture the superhero Dash. The teacher will read
the book Were Going on a Ghost Hunt by Marcia Vaughan after She has
asked the students questions before and after the reading. Okay boys and
girls, I want everyones listening ears on and hands in their laps! Today, we
are going to learn new words from our book Were Going on a Ghost Hunt
by Marcia Vaughan. First, I want to show you a few items I brought in. The
teacher pulls out the picture of the swamp. This is a picture of a swamp!
Have any of you ever seen a swamp before? I havent either! Does this
water look like the water we drink? no! The teacher then pulls out a

picture of a creepy pumpkin(clipart). This is a picture of a creep pumpkin! I

dont like to look at it for too long or I get scared! Have you ever seen a
creepy pumpkin? The teacher then pulls out a picture of the superhero
dash. This is my favorite superhero! Dash! He is always in a dash! Have
you ever seen this superhero before? He is always running fast isnt he?
Well we are going to be reading a book that talks about all of these words I
just said! Lets look at the cover of this book, can anyone tell me what they
think this story could be about? - yes! it could be about that! - I love how
you looked at the pictures on the front of the book! Lets turn to the title
page and maybe it will give us more hints!! Great job! Well all of our words
we are learning today are in this book! The teacher will move into the
teaching portion.
Learning Design:
I.
Teaching: The teacher will explain the objective again to the
students. The teacher will have the student read the vocabulary list written
on the board together aloud. The teacher will then teach the students what
each word means by reading the book and pointing out the vocabulary
words. When she reaches a vocabulary word she will have it written on an
index card with the meaning on the back. Okay boys and girls we are going
to learn these new 3 vocabulary words. Can anyone tell me why its
important to learn new words? Yes! Those are all great answers. Does
learning new words also help you read? Yes! It does! So can we all read
these 3 words together? Great! The teacher and the student are going to
read the 3 words together Swamp, Creepy, Dash. Great job guys! I really
liked how I could hear all of your voices! Okay! I want everyone to pay
close attention to me as I read this book! The teacher will now read the
book. Whenever the teacher comes to a vocabulary word in the book she
will stop and use the notecard with the meaning to teach the new word. The
teacher begins to read the book and comes upon the first vocabulary word
Oh, dear. What do we have here? A swamp. I heard a vocabulary word!
Did you? The teacher pulls out the notecard that says Swamp Lets all say
Swamp together! - Swamp- Does anyone know what this word might
mean? - Well we will find out! A Swamp is an area of water where trees
grow in! It is kind of like a lake, but it has trees in it! Just like my picture I
showed you! In this story the children are going on a ghost hunt and on
their hunt they run into a swamp. Do you see the trees in the pictures and
the water below? Do you see how dirty the water is from the trees?- Yes its
very dirty! Lets keep on reading and maybe we will see even more

vocabulary words! The teacher reads until she comes across the next
word. The teacher reads What will we do? Well dash past! There it is! our
last word! Lets all say dash together - dash - what could this word mean? maybe you're right! Well dash means to go somewhere really fast! Have
you ever had to go somewhere really fast? me too! Okay! lets see if we
can find our last word! The teacher continues to read until she comes
across the next word. The teacher reads Oh, dear. What do we have
here? A creepy cave. The teacher pulls out the notecard that says creepy
Lets all say creepy together! - Creepy - Do any of you know what this word
means? Well lets see if youre right! Creepy means that something is
strange or scary! Lets all say this together - something that is strange or
scary- Great! Can you think of anything that is creepy?- Oh that is creepy!
In the book the children are above to go into a cave and they think its
creepy! Well now we know all our vocabulary words!
I now want everyone to look at the board! Does everyone see my
Vocabulary Menu? Has anyone ever used a vocabulary menu? Well a
vocabulary menu is just like a menu at a restaurant! You can choose
whatever you want to do! Look at all these fun things I can do with my
vocabulary words! Lets read them Create a song or rap, write a story, act
out our words, and draw a picture. Well I decided to choose write a story
using one of our vocabulary words. I chose to use the word Swamp. Can I
read my story to you? Thanks for being such good listeners! Now you are
going to get a chance to do things from my vocabulary menu using your
iPads!
II. Opportunity for Practice:
The students will use their iPads to scan QR codes on cubes that will tell
them something to do with their word. The students will choose the words
out of a bag and then do the activity with them.
Okay! Now its time to use our iPads to do some of these fun things with
our new words. So I can know how to best help you I want to go over a few
things. If you ever get stuck I want you to give me a thumbs down and if
you are ready to move on and understand I want you to give me a thumbs
up! Okay! I now want everyone to turn their iPads on and open the QR
scan app. Give me a thumbs up once you have done this! Great- On this
app anytime you put your iPad camera over a barcode like this one, it will
tell you to do something! Watch me so you will know how to do it! The
teacher will demonstrate for the students. First, you will roll the cube and

whatever is facing up once the cube has stopped rolling is what youll do.
Sometimes you might have to scan something and sometimes it might just
be words telling you what to do. So you will only scan the cube when you
land on a barcode. You will then choose a vocab word out of the bag and
then scan one barcode at a time on the cubes. When you scan the barcode
it will tell you something to do with your vocabulary word. Im going to pass
out each of you several sheets of paper folded into a journal. I want you to
all complete three different activities, but you have to pick a new word each
time. You will do one activity per page of your journal. There are crayons in
the middle of the table. One of the activities you may scan asks for you to
act out a word to your friend, you will act it out for me instead and ill try to
guess the word! If you understand what to do give me a thumbs up!
Thats great guys! Get to scanning! When you have finished please turn
your iPads off and set them face down on the desk. This will let me know
that you are ready to move on. I will also be collecting your different tasks
you completed.(The activities on the sides of the box are attached)

III. Assessment
Students will be given a worksheet and must write three sentences using each
vocabulary word. There will be 3 sentences to complete. Students correctly write
all 3 sentences will be considered proficient. Students who write 2 sentences
correctly will be in the yellow range. Students who get 1 or less sentences correct
will be in the red range and in need of re teaching.
Okay boys and girls, Im going to pass out these worksheets, when
everyone has one I will explain what to do. There is a word bank at the top
of the page with your words in them. These are the same vocabulary words
we have been looking at for the past while. So you should be very familiar
with them! I want you to write three sentences using each of the vocabulary
words. You will use one vocabulary word in each sentence and it has to be
a different word every time. So you will be using all 3. I will be checking
these when youre done to make sure you put in your best effort.

IV. Closure:
Okay! You all did so good today! I loved seeing all of the different things the
iPads asked you to do! Now Im going to give you another piece of paper
and I want you to write to a friend that wasnt here today and tell them what
you learned! When you are finished set your pencil down! We are going to
share! Who would like to share what they would tell their absent friend
about today? Yes! Your friend would love to hear about that! Who else?
Yes! We did learn that today! Great! Maybe next time we can learn even
more words!
Materials and Resources:
Vocabulary Menu
4 iPads
worksheet(attached)
pencils
crayons
blank paper
QR scan app
QR cubes
Vocabulary words in bag
Bag
Notecards
Were Going on a Ghost Hunt by Marcia Vaughan
My story(attached)
Differentiation Strategies:
Green: The teacher will provide students with more difficult vocabulary
words to use. They will scan a different cube with more difficult tasks on it.
Red: The teacher will give the student vocabulary words on the same level
as the previous words. Instead of scanning the cubes, the students will be
given a vocabulary menu and able to pick which tasks they would like to
do.
Data Analysis:
According to my data I collected from the students assessments,
student A successfully completed all three sentences using a different
vocabulary word in each sentence. This student falls in the Green range. I
feel that this student preformed this way because she stayed engaged and

she is on a higher reading level than the others. This student understood
the directions because she was listening and watching my directions, which
made it easier for her to successfully complete the assessment.
Student B completed one sentence of the three correctly. She did however
use all three words and did write three complete sentences, just not using
the vocabulary word correctly. I believe student B preformed this way
because she was distracted, unengaged, and misbehaving multiple times.
This student saw this time with me as a time out of class to play and that is
what she did. The student did understand the directions and was able to
complete all tasks throughout the lesson, but was unsuccessful on the
assessment.
Student C successfully completed 2 out of the 3 sentences required. He did
write three full sentences, but he didnt write one of them correctly. He also
used all three vocabulary words so that tells me he understood the
directions. I believe student C preformed this way because of the way I
explained the word swamp, which both Student B and C missed on their
assessment. It was a difficult word to teach first graders and I dont think he
understood what it was.
Reflection:
The main problem with this lesson I had was behavior problems. I
had never worked with these kids one on one and I didnt know they would
act up so much when they were together with me. I spent more time telling
the students what not to do than what to do. I taught the word dash using
a picture of a superhero. This made it hard for the students to understand
that Dash is a word and not just someones name. Next time, I will not be
using any characters to teach students vocabulary words. The students did
however enjoy the iPad practice portion of the lesson and wanted to
continue even after they completed all their activities. They also enjoyed
drawing pictures of their words as well because it was different than just
writing about their words. I thought the students would really enjoy acting
out their words for me, but they didnt like it at all because they were afraid
of what the others would think of them. I addressed this issue by telling
them that their friends were not watching them and then I had them act it
out behind their friends tables so they couldnt watch them. I plan to fix a
few of the behavioral issues by giving directions first before passing out
materials. These students could not focus with iPads and cubes in front of
them, so from now on I wont do that. If I were to teach another vocabulary

lesson, I would keep the idea of pictures at the beginning and using an app
for practice because it really hooked the students and then kept them
engaged. I did ask the students higher level questions when they were
scanning their codes on the cube. One of the questions asked them to
define a vocabulary word using their own words. This was a bit difficult for
the students because I should have explained what the word define
means. If I were to do this again I would change the activity on that part of
the cube to something they could understand better. We also did
predictions at the beginning of the lesson, which elicited higher level
thinking among the students. I didnt come across any misconceptions
throughout this lesson. The students understood the words to the best of
their ability and completed the assessment though not everyone was
successful. I do not feel like this lesson was as successful as my other
vocabulary lesson, but this is a time for trial and error and Im glad I now
know what not to do.
Samford University
Design for Learning

Name_______________________________
Directions: You are going to create three sentences.
Each sentence will only have one vocabulary word
in it. Please write your sentence on the lines given.

Swamp

Dash

Creepy

1.
_______________________________________
____

2.
_______________________________________
____

3.
_______________________________________
____

Vocabulary Menu story

Yesterday, I decided to go on a hike with my best friend.
There are a lot of woods around our house so we chose to go
there. We go on hikes a lot, but we decided we wanted to go
farther into the woods than we had ever gone before. We started
down our normal path and just kept going and going and going.
Eventually we came to a swamp! It was gross and smelly! There
were trees and plants in it, and even alligators! We turned around
and ran back when we saw the alligators! We made it home
safely! We decided that we are never going to go that far into the
woods again!

Michelle Lawless
Opportunity for Practice
QR codes activities

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Act out for your teacher

Write the definition using your own words.
Write a story using your word.
Write a song to help you remember your word.
Choose a new word.
Draw a picture of your word.