Lesson Plan Template

Teacher Candidate: Kelly Willinger

Grade level: 3rd Grade

School: Promise Academy

Room Number: 221

Planning
Need for this lesson:
This math lesson appears towards the beginning of our 3rd Grade Measurement and Data Unit,
Liquid Volume and Mass. This particular lesson is crucial for setting students up for success
within the larger unit by familiarizing students with terms such as liters and milliliters. This
lesson also reacquaints students with the concepts of estimation and problem solving, both of
which spiral throughout the year and are practiced continuously across all units.
Lesson content:
Unit:
Topic 15: Liquid Volume and Mass
Focus/Topic within the unit:
In this lesson, students will learn two metric units of capacity, the liter and the milliliter. Students
will learn how much liquid that they each hold, make informed estimations about liters and
milliliters, and solve word problems involving metric capacity.
Teaching Point/Goal/Central Focus: What will students know, and be able to do, as a result of
this lesson?
Objectives:

Students will be able to define and identify the metric units of capacity, specifically liters
and milliliters.

Students will be able to make reasonable estimates using liters and milliliters.

Students will be able to solve one-step word problems involving metric capacity,
specifically liters and milliliters.

Connection to Previous Learning/Prior Knowledge: Considering the teaching point/central

focus of this lesson, what prior academic learning and requisite skills will students require?
In order to be successful in this lesson and unit, students will need to activate their background
knowledge from other math lessons throughout the year, particularly around estimation and
problem solving.

This lesson will revisit and build upon skills and strategies that students learned in the lesson the
day before. On the day before this lesson students will have studied customary units of capacity,
including cups, pints, quarts and gallons. The goal is that students will bring with them an
understanding of what capacity is the volume of a container measured in liquid units, as well as
the ability to make reasonable estimates using customary units of capacity and the ability to
solve problems using these units.
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to be demonstrated:
Instructional Strategies:
1. Use of academic vocabulary
2. Accountable talk
3. Conferring
4. Cooperative learning
5. Direct instruction/modeling
6. Learning centers
7. Student self-assessment
8. Targeted feedback
Learning Tasks:
1. Choosing the best unit (liters or milliliters) to measure the capacity of given containers.
2. Selecting the better estimation of capacity from given possibilities.
3. Solving one-step word problems involving metric units of capacity.
What language skill/function/grammar vocabulary do I want my students to develop and use in this
lesson?

Unit and lesson specific vocabulary will be introduced at the beginning of the lesson with verbal
definitions, pictures, and/or props. Students will be encouraged to recognize these terms when
they come across them throughout the lesson.
Term
capacity (noun)

Picture

Definition
The volume of a container
measured in liquid units.

liter (noun)

A unit of metric capacity

equivalent to about the size of
a water bottle.

milliliter (noun)

A unit of metric capacity

equivalent to about 20 drops
from an eyedropper.

estimation (noun)

The process of giving an

approximate number or
answer.

Link To Standards: What competencies from the NYC/NYS Common Core Standards are
addressed in this lesson?
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.A.2

Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams
(g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l).1 Add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve one-step word
problems involving masses or volumes that are given in the same units, e.g., by using
drawings (such as a beaker with a measurement scale) to represent the problem. 2

Instruction
Lesson Implementation:
Describe the learning environment:
School:
K-12 urban charter school
Approximately 100 students per grade
7:30 am 4:00 pm school day
11 month school year
On-site health center, family services, and after school programming

2 staff members per classroom, plus special education teachers for students with IEPs
90 minutes of mathematics instruction per day including the following elements:
o Do-Now
o Minilesson
o Guided Practice
o Independent Practice/Station Work
o Exit Ticket
Curriculum: Eureka! and enVision Math
Classroom:
24 students: 13 girls, 11 boys
12 students are on or above grade level in reading (levels M-T)
1 student is approaching grade level in reading (level L)
9 students are 1 or more level behind in reading (levels F-K)
0 students with IEPs
4 students with social-emotional needs
3 English Language Learners
Table groups and small group instruction are based on assessment data
Teacher materials required:

Powerpoint presentation including:

o Do-Now
o Minilesson Questions
o Guided Practice Questions
o Independent Practice Instructions
o Exit Ticket
Props for capacity
o Eyedropper (milliliters)
o Water bottle (liters)
Independent practice materials
o Capacity Video and Note-taking Chart
o Metric Capacity Sorting Game
o Metric Capacity Worksheet of Word Problems

Student materials required:

Math notebooks
Pencils

What is the timeframe for this lesson?

The lesson will last approximately 45 minutes and follow the structure outlined below.

Mini-lesson: Do Now, Model, Guided Practice

o 10 15 minutes
Independent Work Time: Stations, Independent Practice
o 20 25 minutes
Share/Closure: Exit Ticket
o 5 minutes

Framing Questions: The questions that teacher and students will consider throughout the
lesson.

What is capacity? How do we measure capacity?

What is the best unit of capacity to use to find the volume of a given container? Liters or
milliliters?
What is the best estimate of capacity for a given container?

Connection/Motivation: How will you engage the learners?

The lesson will start with a story about the time I was doing a science experiment and the
directions stated that I needed to combine 2 liters of water and 20 milliliters of food coloring.
Through this story I would convey the importance of understanding capacity, particularly liters
and milliliters, in order to set the stage for todays lesson.
Next, explicitly name todays teaching points for students:
Objectives:

Students will be able to define and identify the metric units of capacity, specifically liters
and milliliters.

Students will be able to make reasonable estimates using liters and milliliters.

Students will be able to solve one-step word problems involving metric capacity,
specifically liters and milliliters.

Lesson Development: The steps you will take to teach the lesson and the student participation
you will foster.
Model/Demonstrate (I try):
The following learning tasks will be demonstrated/modeled via think aloud and on the
whiteboard.
1. Choosing the best unit (liters or milliliters) to measure the capacity of given containers.

A can of soup

A bottle of cough medicine

A gasoline tank in a car

2. Selecting the better estimation of capacity from given possibilities.

3. Solving one-step word problems involving metric units of capacity.

Sammy purchased 18 liters of bottled water to prepare for the hurricane. Steve bought 3
times as many liters of water as Sammy. How many liters did Steve purchase? Make
sure to show your work and explain your thinking.
Active Involvement-Guided Practice (We try):
The following learning tasks will be practiced via turn and talk with a partner.
1. Choosing the best unit (liters or milliliters) to measure the capacity of given containers.

A bathtub full of water

A small jar of hot sauce
A juice box

2. Selecting the better estimation of capacity from given possibilities.

3. Solving one-step word problems involving metric units of capacity.

Keenan bought 15 bottles of Pepsi for his birthday party. Each bottle was 2 liters in
capacity. How many liters of Pepsi did he buy in total? Make sure to show your work
and explain your thinking.
Independent/partner activity/group activity/learning tasks (You try):
Students will rotate through stations where they complete the activities listed below. Teachers
will move around the room to meet with small groups and confer with individuals.
Group

Task

#1

Metric Capacity Sorting Game

Materials

#2

Capacity Video and Note-Taking

Chart

Link: Metric Capacity Video!

#3

Metric Capacity
Worksheet/Word Problems

Share/Closure:
Interrupt students to have them stop their station work for today.

put your pencil down

clean up the materials at your table
proceed to the exit slip

For the culminating activity today, students will be required to complete an exit ticket where they
are required to:
1. Choose the best unit (liters or milliliters) to measure the capacity of given containers.

Inflatable swimming pool

A packet of coffee creamer
A bottle of contact solution

2. Select the better estimation of capacity from given possibilities.

4 L or 40 ML?

5 L or 50 L?

3. Solving one-step word problems involving metric units of capacity.

Joes glass was filled with 42 milliliters of juice. Kevins glass was filled with 63
milliliters of juice. How much juice did they have altogether? Make sure to show your
work and explain your thinking.
Students will also answer one or more of the following self-assessment questions:
o What worked well for you? (Sentence starter: One thing that worked well for me
was)
o What was difficult? (Sentence starter: One thing that was hard for me was)
Once students complete their exit tickets and self-reflection, they will close their notebook and
prepare for the next class. If time permits, the teacher will find an exemplar student exit slip to
display under the document camera and conduct a classroom discussion.
Plan for Differentiated Instruction/Activity: What modifications will you make to meet the
needs of all students?
What special needs of students in the class should be addressed in this lesson?
First of all, the various learning styles of different students need to be leveraged. This includes:

visual learners
auditory learners
kinesthetic learners
creative problem solvers

Specifically, how will you address those needs? Content, Process, Product, Assessment
Extra Support
Content

Process

During the introduction to new

material and vocabulary
introduction, visual aids will be
provided in the form of pictures,
props and anchor charts to
support visual learners.

Students who need extra

reminders will be provided with a
mini anchor chart with key terms
(capacity, liter, milliliter,
estimation) that can assist them at
each station.

Challenge
Rigorous follow up questions will be
used throughout the lesson, including:

Why?

How do you know?

Explain your thinking.

Students who are fast-finishers will be

given leadership opportunities to coach
their peers who are still working and
need support. They can also visit the
fast-finisher folder in the back of the
classroom for spiral review/challenge

activities.
Product

Students will have the chance to

practice todays objective in
multiple methods:

Assessment

Video and Worksheet

Metric Capacity Sorting
Game
Metric Capacity
Worksheet/Word
Problems

Struggling readers and writers

will be given sentence starters for
the self-assessment portion

Students who need a challenge will be

encouraged to explain their thinking for
the word problems

Why?

How do you know?

Conferring questions will be scaffolded

for different students. More rigorous
questioning will be used with students
who need a challenge. Examples:

Why?

How do you know?

Explain your thinking.

Assessment
Formative/Summative
Students will be assessed both informally and formally during this lesson using the following
methods:

During the teacher model and guided practice, turn and talks and verbal questioning will
be used to assess student readiness for independent practice and stations.
An additional form of informal assessment will occur during the independent practice
when the teacher circulates the room to confer with individuals and groups, recording
conference notes.
At the end of the lesson, students will complete a written exit ticket where they are
asked to complete questions aligned to todays objective as well as a self-assessment.

Assessment of Objectives: How do you plan to assess what the students have learned in this
lesson? In this unit?
The framing questions will be used to assess students throughout this lesson. This will be in the
form of discussion, turn and talks, their independent practice, and ultimately an exit slip and selfassessment.

What is capacity? How do we measure capacity?

What is the best unit of capacity to use to find the volume of a given container? Liters or
milliliters?
What is the best estimate of capacity for a given container?

Note: Within the unit, students are assessed via a formal pre-assessment and post-assessment.
How will independent work be assessed? What artifacts/evidence will be examined?

The do-now will be used to assess readiness for todays lesson.

Student station work will be collected and reviewed.
o Video Worksheet
o Metric Capacity Sorting Activity
o Metric Capacity Worksheet/Word Problems
The exit slip and self-assessment will be collected and reviewed to plan for tomorrows
groups.

How will your assessment of this lesson inform your plan for re-engagement?
Observations from independent practice, the exit slip, and conferences will help plan for small
group instruction during the coming days. Any students who have not shown mastery in this
area will be pulled to a small group during future math periods to revisit the skill in a smaller
setting and with immediate feedback.
Homework/Lesson Extension:
For homework students will complete a worksheet where they determine whether or not liters or
milliliters are the most reasonable unit of metric capacity to use to measure the contents of given
containers.