Jessica Chitwood To be presented: February 26, 2014, 1:00-1:30 pm and 2:50-3:30 pm Submitted to cooperating teacher February 19, 2014

LESSON PLAN: The Lorax JMU Elementary Education Program

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON Read Aloud: The Lorax By: Dr. Seuss B. CONTEXT OF LESSON I have observed the first grade class I will be teaching the lesson with for two days. The students complete a variety of activities on a daily basis, but they are especially engaged during read-alouds. The students have been working to improve their comprehension skills and an extension activity that allows them to summarize or recall details from a book will help to reinforce their learning of this skill. The students also work extensively on writing complete sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization. By asking the students to write about the read-aloud, they will have additional opportunity to practice these skills. The students show special interest in quality picture books that are above their reading level. Reading The Lorax will allow the students to engage with a book that they could not read on their own. It is appropriate to read The Lorax at this time because the students are studying natural resources and this book reinforces the idea that resources are limited. I will be completing this activity during the scheduled writing(1:00-1:30) and content(2:50-3:30) times. The students will learn about natural resources as well as practice their writing and reading comprehension skills. Most of the students in the class are beginning readers; they are working on decoding and often read simple books. The students benefit greatly from read-alouds during this stage of their development because read-alouds that are above their reading level give them a glimpse of what reading can be. This book is also appropriate because it connects well to their curriculum while encouraging them to think on deeper levels through open ended questions concerning the book. C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand what are the broad generalizations the students should begin to develop? (These are typically difficult to assess in one lesson.) UNDERSTAND: The students will increase their knowledge concerning natural resources. KNOW: The students will learn that resources are limited. The students will understand connections between the make believe resources in the book and the resources of our world. DO: The students will respond to a writing prompt that promotes reading comprehension and understanding of natural resources. The students will write about the resources in the book and share their ideas verbally with the whole group. Know what are the facts, rules, specific data the students will gain through this lesson? (These knows must be assessed in your lesson.) Do what are the specific thinking behaviors students will be able to do through this lesson? (These will also be assessed in your lesson.)

D. ASSESSING LEARNING: To assess that the objectives are met I will use a variety of whole group and individual assessment. Understand: Collectively, the means of assessment explained below will indicate the degree to which students increased their knowledge concerning natural resources.

Know: To assess whether the students know that resources are limited, I will ask questions throughout the book to guide their thinking and call on different students for their input. This sort of informal assessment completed throughout the read-aloud will display what level of understanding the students have about resources. Their responses will be my cue to reinforce the idea that resources are limited or to challenge the students with more difficult questions. The writing activity also requires students to incorporate knowledge of resources in written form. To assess the students ability to make connections between the imaginary world of The Lorax and our world, I will construct a Venn-Diagram with the class about resources we observed in the book and corresponding resources in the real world. Constructing the Venn-Diagram will require students to think about and verbalize their knowledge of resources that function similarly in the book and the real world as well as the idea that resources are limited in both settings.

Do: Student responses to the writing prompt will provide me with knowledge about their comprehension of the book and understanding of natural resources. This form of assessment serves the purpose of displaying whether the students can recall information from different parts of the book, suggesting they comprehend the book. Furthermore, this form of assessment provides an opportunity for students to incorporate knowledge of natural resources into their writing. As the students share their writing prompts and their pictures, I will have an indication of the level of knowledge they control concerning natural resources. Some students in the class convey knowledge more effectively through verbal language. Therefore, I can get a more dynamic sense of the students understanding of the idea that natural resources are limited as some of them express their ideas most fully through verbalization.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING: 1. Science Standards of Learning: 1.8 The student will investigate and understand that natural resources are limited. 2. English Standards of Learning: 1.9 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts. 3. English Standards of Learning: 1.13 The student will write to communicate ideas for a variety of purposes.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED The Lorax: book provided by me Writing Prompt Paper: provided by me Pencils and Coloring Utensils: provided by Mrs. Harvey Large Chart Paper: provided by Mrs. Harvey

G. PROCEDURE BEFORE: Before beginning the read-aloud, I will review what natural resources are with the students through questioning. What is a natural resource? What are some natural resources that you know of? How can we care for our resources?

As students share what they know about natural resources, I will elaborate on their comments to reinforce the essential knowledge students should keep in mind as we read the book. This is also the time I will use to highlight some essential vocabulary. These words include: natural resource, limited, pollution, and conservation. I am limiting the amount of vocabulary as it is not a key focus of the objectives. After we have established what natural resources are, I will alert the students that they should be on the lookout for natural resources in the book as we read. DURING: While reading the book there are several places I want to pause to ask open ended and comprehension questions that will guide the students understanding that natural resources are limited. These questions will also serve to engage the students in the read-aloud instead of limiting their input during the story. On page 12 we travel back in time with the Once-ler to a time when the Truffula forest thrived. Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet, and the clouds were still clean and the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in spaceone morning, I came to this glorious place. What types of natural resources do you see on this page? Do those natural resources look healthy? Are there lots of natural resources or only a few? On page 25, we have been introduced to the Lorax who, speaks for the trees. He interrogates the Once-ler about why he chopped down a Truffula Tree. Why does the Lorax care about cutting down the Truffulas? Is just one tree a big deal? What do you think will happen next? On page 31, the Thneed factory is in full operation. All the Onceler relatives have arrived, we were all knitting Thneeds just as busy as bees, to the sound of the chopping of Truffula Trees. How many stumps do you see? Maybe one tree did not make a big difference, but what about all of these? On page 35, the Bar-ba-loots are sent away. Why dont the Bar-ba-loots have enough food? What will happen to the other animals? On page 47, The Humming-Fish leave, there are lots of stumps, muddy water, smoggy air, and sick Truffulas. What natural resources do you see? Do those resources look healthy? Are there just as many Truffula Tress here as there were at the beginning of the book?

On page 51, the last Truffula Tree of all is chopped down. How did they go through all those trees? Why cant they just get more trees? Here, I am probing for a comment that suggests there are a finite number of trees. Therein, resources are limited.

AFTER: I plan to use large chart paper to compare/contrast the resources in The Lorax and the resources in our world through the construction of a Venn-Diagram. Resources in The Lorax Truffula forest Barbaloots, Humming-Fish, Swommee Swans Both Air Water Resources in our world Rainforest Bears, fish and birds

Discussion Question: Do you think that the resources in our world can be polluted and destroyed like the resources in The Lorax? Extension Activity: On the hand out, write two sentences. The first sentence should be about what the natural resources looked like before the Once-ler built the Thneed factory. The second sentence should be about what the resources were like after the Once-ler built the Thneed factory. Then, draw a before and after picture on your sheet to illustrate your sentences. We will share our work with our classmates. H. DIFFERENTIATION The class I will be working with for this lesson has a variety of needs and ability levels. Some of the students will make connections that other students may not be capable of yet. These high achieving students still deserve to be challenged, so throughout the read-aloud I will pause to listen to and add on to what they have to share. The writing extension activity also allows the high achieving students to be more creative and include more detail in their sentences and drawings. Some of the students in the class are behind their peers in their academic abilities. These students will benefit from some of the more basic questions, but also from the adaptability of the writing activity. The writing activity could allow these students to incorporate more basic comprehension knowledge into their writing if that is appropriate for them. It is important for all of the students to have opportunities to share with the group and ask questions. As first graders, The Lorax is going to challenge their attention spans as it is a lengthy book. I plan to ask questions, incorporate discussion, and design a writing activity to keep them engaged. A couple students have a particularly difficult time sitting and listening, allowing these students to stand up when they are sharing with the group or to come up and point out things in the book may help them stay focused on the read-aloud and what we are learning. One student sometimes refuses to participate. He would prefer to go to a different part of the room or separate himself from group activities. My cooperating teacher and I have discussed that this behavior is most likely attention driven. If he feels the need to separate himself from the group I will not encourage him to stay with us on the circle rug. Instead, I will ask him to remain close enough to hear and see the book without reinforcing his negative behavior by rewarding him with lots of attention.

One student in the class has broken her right arm which she writes with. She has been writing with her arm that is in a cast, but it does take her a bit longer to complete activities. She has also mentioned a few times that her arm hurts. I will allow this student extra time to complete the assignment. I could also allow her to type her sentences on the computer if writing is hurting her hand. I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT? One thing I am particularly concerned about with this lesson is that the students will lose interest in the book because it is lengthy. I plan to engage students throughout the read-aloud by asking questions, listening to comments, and making connections to the resources in their everyday lives. If the students seriously lose attention, I will paraphrase pages to expedite finishing the book. I am also concerned that the students will write quick responses for the writing activity without really thinking or learning so they can finish the assignment and move on. I plan to allow the students to draw a picture to demonstrate what they wrote to engage them visually. I also plan to allow students to share their work with their peers to encourage taking pride in their writing. The students could take less time to complete the assignment than I anticipate. If this situation does arise, I will allow more students to share their writing with the class or perhaps have them share with a partner first. I could also continue a whole group discussion about natural resources allowing students to share and make comments to reinforce knowledge. I could also cut back on these aspects of the lesson if time is running short.

References Seuss, Dr. (1971). The Lorax. New York, NY: Random House.

Name:__________________ Write a sentence about the natural resources before the Once-ler factory was built.

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Write a sentence about the natural resources after the Once-ler factory was built.

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Assessment Data Collection Sheet: I chose to include the three students listed below in my assessment because they were representative of the various levels of engagement and understanding displayed by the class. The writing and drawing activity pages for these three students are included at the end of this document. Student T was highly engaged throughout the read aloud and wrote descriptive sentences that incorporated specific details from the book. Student A made comments during the read aloud and was engaged throughout, but wrote less descriptive sentences that were based mostly on what he could see in the pictures we used to write our sentences. Student X is representative of the students who listened to the book and made a couple comments, but were unable to form meaningful sentences that reflected comprehension of the book. Two to three students reflect the same characteristics as student X and three students reflect similar characteristics of student T, but most students in the class were engaged and productive on a similar level to that of student A. Explanation of Categories: Level of participation during read aloud: I determined this category by how many times each student commented on or participated in the read aloud. o High: raised hand for almost every question and was eager to share. o Moderate: commented several times, but not as much as students who were classified as high. o Low: commented only once or twice, only raised hand for very simple questions. Contributions to list of natural resources in the book: The substitute teacher wrote down the names and contributions of students as we compiled the list of natural resources and I listened and responded to their comments. Sentence text in writing activity: I spoke with these three students about what their sentences say and included proper capitalization and punctuation for the purposes of understanding their writing. Their work samples are attached to this document. Drawing description: After the students finished their writing, they shared what they drew with their neighbors and I asked some of them specifically to tell me about their drawings. These conversations are the basis for the description of the drawings according to the students. Student Code Level of Contributions to list Sentence text in Drawing Name participation during of natural resources writing activity description read aloud in the book Student T High Water, Bar-ba-loots, 1. I see tree. Birds. 1. There is Fruit, Air, Lake. It was a nice green grass, time. Untilit colorful trees, came. machinery, a 2. The lake was blue pond with mud. All of the fish and two animals went back. birds in the air. It was not a good 2. There are time. trees leaning over, black clouds, dark green grass,

Student A

Moderate

Wind(air), Fish, Bushes

1. I see a bunch of tree. They are healthy. 2. The fish cant survive in the mud.

Student X

Low

Trees

1. I like story. Trees. 2. Water is mud.

and a factory that is pouring goo into a brown pond. 1. There is a wagon being pulled by a donkey and one orange tree. 2. There is a factory behind a black lake. 1. There is a square like shape. 2. There is a long strip of black with a couple orange fish inside. On the back is a picture of the bad water taking over the blue water.

Data Interpretation: The following interpretation for each of the three students relates to the learning objectives in the lesson plan. Student T: The students will increase their knowledge concerning natural resources. Overall student T did increase her knowledge of natural resources. At the beginning of the readaloud when I asked the students to name natural resources, none of them could identify any. After I gave them a definition, student T and her peers were able to come up with many different types and specific examples of natural resources. She also displayed natural resources in her drawing and writing. The students will learn that resources are limited. Student T did come to an understanding that resources are limited. I came to this conclusion because her second sentence emphasizes that all the animals were gone and there are only a couple trees left. When I paused to ask why the characters could not just go get more trees during the read aloud after the last tree was chopped down, student T indicated that there arent any more left.

The students will understand connections between the make believe resources in the book and the resources of our world. Student T made contributions during the Venn-diagram activity to both the specific resources we talked about in the book and real resources in our world. When I asked the students whether they thought the resources in our world could be destroyed like the ones in the book, student T agreed with her classmates that our resources could also be destroyed. The students will respond to a writing prompt that promotes reading comprehension and understanding of natural resources. The sentences student T wrote and the pictures that she drew indicate that she was engaged with the book. Her comprehension of what the resources in the story were like before and after the Once-ler built his factory were accurately described. The students will write about the resources in the book and share their ideas verbally with the whole group. Student T was able to explain her writing and drawing to me in detail. The language she used clarified her comprehension of the book and knowledge of natural resources. I also observed that she shared her drawing with her neighbor which helped to reinforce her learning.

Student A The students will increase their knowledge concerning natural resources. Like many of his classmates, student A was not able to name any natural resources at the beginning of the lesson. After I gave a definition, he and his classmates came up with lots of types and specific examples of natural resources. He displayed natural resources such as trees and water in his drawing and writing. The students will learn that resources are limited. Student A did not make a verbal comment indicating his understanding that natural resources are limited during our discussion. He did however have good comprehension of the book and displayed in his writing/drawing that he saw a a bunch of trees for his first sentence and did not reference any trees in his second sentence. While student A did not explicitly indicate that he understood resources are limited, I think he is on his way to understanding this concept. The students will understand connections between the make believe resources in the book and the resources of our world. Student A made contributions to both the imaginary and real sides of the Venn-diagram during that part of the lesson. His ability to verbalize specific examples that are distinctive to each group indicates he understands the connection between the resources in the book and the resources in the real world. The students will respond to a writing prompt that promotes reading comprehension and understanding of natural resources. Student A wrote sentences that indicated his appropriate comprehension of the book. He did not recall specific details that were not on the pages we used to guide our writing, but he does describe natural resources and his observations of natural resources before and after the Once-ler built his factory. The students will write about the resources in the book and share their ideas verbally with the whole group.

Student A elaborated on his writing and drawing when I asked him to tell me about what he was working on. He indicated that the second picture was the mud water and the factory was behind it. He and his desk neighbors eagerly compared their drawings and talked about what they drew.

Student X The students will increase their knowledge concerning natural resources. Student X did increase his knowledge concerning resources to some degree. Like his classmates, he was unable to name any resources at the beginning of the lesson, but named one in our discussion. He referred to resources such as trees and water in his writing and drawing. The students will learn that resources are limited. I am not convinced that student X learned that resources are limited. When we were talking about the idea of resources being limited as a class, he made no comments. His writing and drawing also do not really suggest that he understands this concept. The students will understand connections between the make believe resources in the book and the resources of our world. I have no specific data to suggest that student X made connections between resources in the book and resources in our world. While we were making the Venn-diagram as a class, student X sat quietly and listened, but did not give any indication that he knew or understood what we were talking about. When I asked him about his writing and drawing, he explained what he had done, but did not allude to any understanding of the connections between the resources in the book and the resources in the real world. The students will respond to a writing prompt that promotes reading comprehension and understanding of natural resources. Student X did not respond to the writing prompt in complete sentences. One of his ideas/sentences was about him liking the story. He did however understand the idea that the pond had clean water before the factory and muddy water after. I conclude that student X had some comprehension of the book and limited knowledge of natural resources, but not a good enough understanding to recall specific knowledge and events from the book. The students will write about the resources in the book and share their ideas verbally with the whole group. Student X did share what he drew with me when I asked him to tell me about his work. He did not really talk about the sentences and was very soft-spoken and limited in his description. He kept asking if he was finished and did not share his work with his peers.

Reflection: Description of the lesson and how it varied from the original lesson plan. I began my lesson by asking the students what natural resources are. They did not remember, but after prompting them with a definition, they were able to list all of the resources I wanted them to be aware of except air. I asked the students to be on the lookout for natural resources as we read the book and they were eager to share all the resources they saw. I asked them to hold their questions until we got to a certain page about 5 pages into the book. When I asked what resources they had seen so far they said that they saw, wind(and wind is air), water, Bar-ba-loots, fruit, grass, trees, bushes, and birds.

Throughout the book, they responded exceptionally well to my questions and were making the connections I wanted them to make. Several of the students had questions I had not anticipated or comments I did not originally plan to focus on. One student asked, Why dont we see his face? He was referring to the Once-ler who is depicted throughout the book as a pair of green hands and nothing else. I didnt really consider the importance of this, but it is a unique aspect of this book that alerted me that the students were really paying attention and wanted to understand. We discussed that Dr. Seuss may have wanted his face to be up to our imaginations. Other students thought we couldnt see his face because it was scary or he simply didnt have a face. One student also commented that she could tell this was a Dr. Seuss book, because it has a lot of silly words and he always uses silly words. I also didnt pay attention to the fact that it would be a big deal to the students that Dr. Seuss used the words shut up in the book. When I read these words the entire class gasped and we discussed that even though Dr. Seuss used the words in his book that those words are not ok to use with our friends. I was satisfied that the students understood that resources were limited by the end of the book from their comments and responses to my questions. Every student commented at least once during the read-aloud. The students explained that one tree was not a big deal because, there was enough to go around. As more and more trees were cut down throughout the book one student said that this was a big deal because they were messing up the land. We stopped at several points throughout the book and the students made predictions about what would happen next. It was clear that some of them read this book before or saw the movie because many of them made extremely accurate predictions. When we stopped on the page that we would use to highlight the resources after the factory destroyed the trees, they described that the water was mud and there was smoke in the sky, the trees are sick, and there are only four trees left. When we stopped to talk about the page on which the last tree was cut down, I asked the students why they couldnt just go get more trees. One student said, because the trees are gone another said They cut the last one you cant just go get more. Another student said, They are all used up. From the comments students gave, I was satisfied that they understood that natural resources like trees are limited. The students generally responded well to the Venn-diagram, they were able to list all the resources in the book and think of similar resources in our world. By this point some of the students had started to get distracted, and there were many bathroom and water requests. I covered this part of the lesson in the second block of time after the students got back from success block in which they go to other teachers classrooms and it was the last thirty minutes of the day. About 7 students contributed to naming resources and this part of the activity took longer than I anticipated because of all the interruptions to ask to go to the bathroom. My teacher had informed me that morning that she would be leaving at 12, and I really think that having her there to help direct the children to focus would have allowed me to stay more on track with time and also helped me engage more students in this part of the lesson because the students were in substitute mode. We were running short on time when we transitioned to the writing activity and when the students moved to their desks they were really done for the day and focused on wanting to pack up and leave. Many of the students had a hard time focusing on the writing activity even though there were still fifteen minutes left in the school day. At this point most of the students had written at least one sentence and

some had begun to draw pictures. I explained the struggle we had with focusing on the activity to my teacher the next morning and she let me pass out the writing pages to the students to finish up for morning work. The students were much more focused and most of them wrote two sentences and drew pictures. Specific data evaluation is included on the assessment sheet. The students didnt use the term resource in their writing, but many of them did describe resources or what they saw in the two pictures used to guide their writing and drawing. Because the lesson was taking longer than I anticipated, the students shared their writing and drawings with their neighbors instead of sharing with the whole group which varied from my original plan/objective. I went around and listened to the conversations they were having so that I could get an idea of how they were expressing their understanding verbally. Strengths, weaknesses, and changes for the future Generally, I would conclude that my lesson went well; however, I did have to make some adjustments to my plan and the students were not performing at their best because of an altered learning environment. I think the major strength of my lesson was the read aloud. While I was reading the students were engaged, they had questions, and they demonstrated knowledge of natural resources. During this part of my lesson, I felt that I had their full attention because they were asking meaningful questions and making comments that showed they were trying to understand and learn from the book. I also think that the book was appropriately challenging for them. I have observed that my students long to read quality books that are above their reading level. They have a great desire to read and are very proud when they can decode words. I can really tell that they want to read interesting books unlike the leveled books that they read which are very basic and not very interesting to them. In the future I think it would be advantageous to challenge these students by doing as many of these types of read-alouds as possible because it really interests them and serves the double purpose of working as an incentive to learn how to read. A major weakness of my lesson was the timing of the writing activity. While I was trying to explain what my expectations were for the writing activity, I was bombarded with requests to go to the bathroom. The students were antsy and were asking if they could pack up. There were moans and complaints as we moved back to the desks to write. One student said, Ms. Chitwood, you know we leave at the 6 right? Because the time during which I completed my activity was the last thirty minutes of the day, the students were done. This time of the day is usually when they do easy activities or read. They pack up at 3:15 or so and are used to being on autopilot during this time. Furthermore, my cooperating teacher was not there to help me redirect the students and keep them focused, they were most definitely in substitute mode and ready to go home for the day. With all the interruptions and the unfocused students, some students did not have enough time to write two sentences and most did not have time to complete their drawings. The next morning when the students resumed their work, they were much more focused and even excited to share their sentences and drawings with me and their peers. Therefore, I do not think that the writing activity itself was a weakness, but the combination of completing the activity at the end of the day when my cooperating teacher wasnt there to help me keep the students focused was challenging. The students really varied in what they learned from the activity and their level of engagement. Some students like student T were very engaged, focused, and eager to work and learn. Other students like student X were engaged with some parts of the lesson, but not others. Most students were somewhere in between these two students, similar in their work and effort to student A. I think the key for engaging

the students more and helping them to understand further would be to do this activity at a time when they are ready to work and are focused. I also think I could have done a better job of redirecting the students energy as they became antsy and anxious to be done for the day. I should have prepared more and thought through scenarios of how to deal with interruptions. I was absolutely bombarded by their requests to go to the bathroom and even when I encouraged them only to ask if it was an emergency, I could barely get through a sentence without a bathroom, water, or tissue request. In the future, taking five minutes to attend to bathroom needs or implementing a system of making bathroom requests without being as disruptive would be helpful. I would not do a writing or very demanding activity during this time period again. I would do this read aloud in the future because I think the students really enjoyed the story and were able to learn valuable information about natural resources. I would spread the activity over two separate days, or do the writing activity early in the day when the students are fresh and ready to work. While dealing with the time challenge was a bit stressful and knowing that I was the main teacher in the classroom was a bit nerve-wracking, I absolutely loved teaching the lesson. I was delighted to hear the students comments and see the work that they did try to put forth despite an altered learning environment. I got a taste of what being the main teacher is like when I taught this lesson and it is a valuable learning experience for the future. I look forward to the future lessons I get to teach with the students and the experiences I will have in the classroom.

Student Writing and Drawing Samples: Student T

Student A

Student X