Mini Lesson Plan Template

Methods of Intermediate Literacy Instruction 376

Adapted from Colorado Mountain College Lesson Plan Template
Teacher Candidate: Faith Calvo

Title of Lesson: Vocabulary Building

Content Area(s): Literacy Grade Level:5th Date:

Planning the Lesson:

Lesson Preparation
Standards (CAS or CCSS) b. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (CCSS:
What content standards are
aligned with this lesson? L.5.4)

ii. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the
meaning of a word

c. Read and identify the meaning of words with sophisticated prefixes and suffixes

d. Apply knowledge of derivational suffixes that change the part of speech of the base word
(such as active, activity)

Pre-Assessment: Morphological Assessment

What does pre assessment data The students often questioned what a root word was. Not only that, but they showed that
indicate. How did you identify
they could change the meaning, however they didn’t understand WHY they were doing this.
the specific learning target for
the mini-lesson? They know the pattern, but they could not really tell me what the suffixes meant or how they
decided to place the affixes.

Learning Target(s): What are

the learning targets for the
lesson? I will be able to recognize a root word and understand that the meaning of the word can change
with a prefix and a suffix.

Differentiation for language Indicate the language levels of your students & how this affects your planning of the lesson.
learners:
My students are very strong in the English Language. The only way in which there emerging bilingual
What CAN your language language structure affects my planning is that if they don’t get a word, I will ask them to say it in
learners do and what do they Spanish to see if that triggers anything. I will also be using more Latin origin .
struggle with?

What language supports will Language Supports:

students need to access the
lesson? Sentence frames, graphic organizer.

Language Targets:
How will students be able to
I will be able to identify root words and I will show that the word can change its meaning with a prefix
express their new learning?
or suffix using sentence starters.
Key Vocabulary: Root Word
What vocabulary is essential to Prefix
student learning for this lesson
and how will students learn Suffix
that vocabulary?

Resources & Materials:

What will you need to White board, markers, graphic organizer, cards with meanings, prefixes and suffixes
implement your mini-lesson?

Transfer: Be specific: What Be able to look at a word and break it down in its parts to get their full meaning. Their fluency
do you expect students to be should increase therefore allowing their comprehension skills to increase. They should be able
able to apply from this lesson
to take this skill into Science, Social Studies, Math, or Literacy when they come across a new
to other areas? What will
students be able to word.
independently do as a result of
this lesson?

Teaching the Lesson:

Lesson Sequence and Activities
Planned Activities Student Response (unplanned)
In this column, record all teacher plans for the In this column, record how students responded to
lesson. Include questioning, instructional instruction. Included student names if necessary.
strategies, grouping, student tasks, and Be sure to include questions asked by students, key
differentiation techniques. student responses to questions and how they talk to
If applicable, be sure to include when/how each other, motivation level, participation level, results
key vocabulary will be taught and how/when of task. Attach work samples. BE HONEST WITH
resources and materials will be used. YOURSELF.
Activating Prior Knowledge Introducing Root Words After I went through this part, the students went
and Connecting to Previous in very different direction. The lesson ended up
Learning: -I will explain that a root word is a single being more of practice. But we ended up doing
What will you do to connect word that cannot be broken into smaller
this lesson to prior knowledge this together, then we explored how different
words or word parts. I will list the
and/or prior lessons? affixes effected root words.
following words on the whiteboard.
Communicating Learning  Correct
Targets:
How will students know what  Incorrect
they will be learning in this  Corrected
lesson?  Correction
 Correctly J: “Oh, the root word means it can’t be broken
 Incorrectly down into anything else, but it’s still a word!”
-Teacher explains that the word correct is
a single word that cannot be broken into
smaller parts, it is a root word.

-T- What is the common root word in

each of these words?

LT: I will be able to recognize a root word

and understand that with a prefix and a
suffix can change the meaning of the
word.
Instructional: I will explain and show them how to form
big words by adding words parts, such as
How will new learning be prefixes and suffixes, to the same root
instructed? What will be
word.
modeled? What will students
do?

Guided Practice: -I will introduce the root word. The root T: “Ok but what if I did this with a word?”
word is nation. I will add prefixes and
How will students practice suffixes to the word nation to form bigger J: That changes the meaning. That made the word
new learning? What is the
words and as a group we will discuss the into an opposite.
student task?
meanings of these new words.
Cooperative learning N: That’s called an antonym.
structure? Hands-on activity? -Forming New Words with the same
Root words After this discussion I let them play with the
How will students be grouped words and the affixes to show me how the words
AND WHY? (language  National change. They came up with definitions based on
proficiency, gender, ability,  Nationality the word. I allowed them to use Spanish to
interest, random, etc)
 International explain.
To what blooms level will  Multinational
your pre-planned questions  Multination
target?

Creating-6
-We will discuss that these words all have
Evaluating-5 the same root word but the meanings are
slightly different.
Analyzing-4
-We will add these new words to the
Applying-3 appropriate sentences.
Understanding-2

Remembering-1

Independent practice, -Students will be given 5 sentence frames The students became extremely engaged as I let
informal and Formative and five notecards with the new words them loose on these words, ready to explain to
Assessment: mentioned above. Students will work me why those words worked.
together to fit these words to the
Independent practice activities
appropriate sentence for it to make sense. T: Noehmi, what’s your root word?
How will you know if students
successfully learned what the I will be able to hear them use the N: trustful
lesson was intended to teach? sentence frames, and create new words
using the graphic organizer. I will also be T: That’s your root word?
presenting a “new” word that has familiar
affixes so they should be able to at least N:… oh, TRUST!
guess what the word is.
This showed that N needs to pay a little more
attention, but at least she showed me that she
knows what the root word is. Granted she used
the graphic organizer to refer back to, but she
had something there!

T: Ok what does that mean? (trust) Remember

you can explain it in Spanish

N: Gives an example to show her knowledge

T: What does ful mean?

 N: That you’re full?

T: So what does trustful mean?

N: That you’re full of trust!

T: Is that an adjective or a noun?

J: That’s an adjective

Teacher asked each what part of speech was

their chosen word. I focused more on Joselin and
Noehmi because they seemed to be struggling
way more than Richard.

Reflecting on the Lesson:

Learning and planning future lessons (7-10 sentences per section)
How am I feeling about this I was really surprised. I feel like they need more practice with this within context rather than
lesson? How did students just exclusively taking the words apart. They did amazing and we really just explored the
respond to the instruction?
different words, and explained why some words made sense while others did not. I was really
surprised because they understood what to do right after I explained what a root word was.
This was not what they showed me during their morphological assessment.

Did students meet the learning I do believe that my students met the learning target. They were able to sort the root words,
target? How do I know? What suffixes and prefixes. They were also able to create these words and explained their
is the evidence?
meanings. Now I need to see how well they can do it in their own context and apply it in their
own writing to ENSURE that the learning target continues to follow them.

What is the next step in My lesson turned into a practice and I really didn’t do anything that I planned, which was
instruction for these students? amazing to see. Now I know that their next step is to place these skills in context. Tomorrow
What is the plan for
we would go over these words within a story. Then we would look at brand new story with
tomorrow? What am I basing
these decisions on? higher level words and be asked to write their definition based on their background
knowledge.

If I were to teach this lesson If I were to teach this lesson again, I think that I would have back up leveled words. I will also
again, what would I do try to set up high expectations for my students while we are in small group. They need to be
differently? What do I need to
able to get ready to sit and prepare themselves to work, and learn quickly and practice. I also
learn/practice/refine in order to
improve my craft as a teacher? need to work on accountability of my students; I focused on my girls more than my boy, but
How will I get the he seemed to get it way quicker and was ready for the next big lesson.
learning/practice/refinement I
need?