Lesson Plan: "My Animal"

Content Area:

2nd-5th grade English/Art

Objectives:

Content Objective

      • At the end of this lesson the students will determine which animal best represents them and have five written reasons why using at least five descriptive adjectives.

Language Objective

      • At the end of this assignment the students will share their picture and five adjective-sentences in a small group setting.

Pre-Lesson Preparation:

    • All students will be given an example sheet; an outline of what they will need to have.
    • Limited English Proficient (LEP) students will be given a list of 50 animals and the animals picture to get ideas from.
    • LEP students will also be given a list of descriptive adjectives and some sample sentences to view as review.

Materials:

    • Paper for drawing
    • Crayons, markers, and colored pencils
    • Pen or pencil

Classroom Organization:

    • For the first half of the project the students will work individually. The teacher will walk around and answer any questions. The teacher will not use her/his desk, but will use a student desk to be in the middle of things. For the second half the teacher will place the students in five small groups, spacing the LEP students among the different groups. This way LEP students can work with other students instead of depending upon one another.

Review of prior Knowledge:

    • The teacher will now review what the students have been learning all week, about descriptive adjectives. The teacher will write a few sentences on the board and then read them aloud as well, pointing out where the adjectives are. Ex. The red dog jumped in the snow. (Reading aloud and writing on the board can be helpful for LEP students to comprehend the material as well as other students.)

Presentation:

    • The teacher will tell the students the assignment as she illustrates it on the board. "Today we are going to choose an animal that we think is most like us, in other words if we could be any animal what would we be."(Saying the same thing in different words can help the information come across clear for LEP students.) Then tell the students that they are going to draw a picture of this animal and then write five sentences using descriptive adjectives to explain why they chose the animal they did. The LEP students will be allowed to use their adjective sheets to come up with sentence ideas.

While presenting this information to the class the teacher will model correct English and will write examples on the board. The students should follow along on their handout outline they were given which is as sample of what their final product should look like. The teacher should also do an example on the board of his/her own animal and five sentences. (The more explanation and hands-on examples the better.)

Class work:

    • Individually students will draw the animal that they feel represents them on the piece of paper. Next they will write their five sentences, using at least one adjective in each, explaining how the animal represents them. During the project the teacher will walk around and answer any questions.
    • The students will be separated into five groups (LEP students spread around, not all in the same group) where they will each show their picture and share their five sentences with each other. Everyone will have a turn to share and will be treated with respect. Some peer editing will take place if necessary.
    • After the group presentation the students will have about five minutes to correct any errors they have made and then the papers will be collected. After they are recorded into the teacher's book they will displayed around the room.

Follow-up and Assessment:

The students will be graded on: (1) the effort they put into their artwork (20 pts.), (2) their five sentences, each needs to have at least one adjective and they must be complete sentences (30 pts.), (3) participating in the small groups by reading their sentences aloud (20 pts.), (4) correcting mistakes individually (15), and (5) participation throughout the lesson (15).

      • 100 - 92 = A
      • 91 - 82 = B
      • 81 - 72 = C
      • 71 - 62 = D

Preview of next day's lesson:

    • The teacher will discuss the lesson for the next day giving information to prepare the students for the lesson.

Source: http://iteslj.org