Michael Page: 001163990

Lesson Plan
Grade/Subject: Grade 5 ELA/Social Studies

Unit: Story Writing

Lesson Duration: 60 min

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General Learning Outcomes:
From ELA: Grade 5
General Outcome 5
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support and collaborate with others.
From Social Studies: Grade 5
5.2: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the people and the stories of Canada and their ways of
life over time, and appreciate the diversity of Canadas heritage.

Specific Learning Outcomes:

From ELA: Grade 5, 5.1 Respect Others and Strengthen Community
Appreciate diversity
Students will discuss personal understanding of the lives of people or characters in various communities,
cultural traditions, places and times portrayed in oral, print and other media texts.
From Social Studies: Grade 5
5.2.2 Students will: Examine, critically, the ways of life of Aboriginal peoples in Canada by exploring and
reflecting upon the following questions and issues:
What do the stories of First Nations, Mtis and Inuit peoples tell us about their beliefs regarding the
relationship between people and the land?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Create 3 posters together as a class which reflect their collective opinion of what the main components of The Boy
Who Lived With The Bears were.
2. Define key terms relating to key components of Democracy
3. Begin a creation story of their own that incorporates what they have learned regarding the topic.

ASSESSMENTS
Key Questions:

Observations:

Participation in group and class

discussion
Engagement in the writing of their own
short story

What are some of the key elements of Aboriginal

creation stories?
How is the culture and language of First Nations
people unique and different from your own?

Progression from prior knowledge to

understanding of material

Written/Performance Assessments:
Formative: Posters that are produced by Learning Activity1, mind map on aspects of Aboriginal creation
stories that is produced by Learning Activity 2.
Summative: Creation story produced by the student.

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Resource #1: The Boy who Lived With the Bears, Joseph Bruchac
Resource #2: MindMeister: http://www.mindmeister.com/
Resource #3: Alberta Program of Studies

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

15 blank pieces of paper

3 sheets of poster paper
Coloured Markers
Portable Laptop cart with at least 16 laptops

PROCEDURE
1

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Introduction (10 min.):

Hook/Attention Grabber:
Introduction of self and topic: Ask students to think about what they lied and disliked about The Boy Who

Lived With the Bears. Followed by brief discussion where the class comes to a general consensus regarding
the book.

Assessment of Prior Knowledge:

Ask students to write a number from one to five on a provided sheet of paper to indicate how much

knowledge they have about the key aspects of First Nations Creation Stories. 1 being the lowest and 5 being
the highest.
While students fill out the first part of their lesson plan, write the lesson agenda on the whiteboard.

Expectations for Learning and Behaviour:

Students will build upon their basic knowledge gained from having read the book The Boy Who Lived
With The Bears and develop it into a greater understanding of what the key aspects of an Aboriginal
creation story are.
Students will work cooperatively to brainstorm what these key aspects are.
Students will write a creation story of their own.

Advance Organizer/Agenda:
Quickly go over agenda written on white board, giving a brief explanation of the upcoming activities.
Transition to Body:
Have students split into three equal groups to prepare for the first learning activity. Intervene if necessary
to ensure that groups are chosen appropriately.

Body (45 min.):

Learning Activity #1: Group Posters Activity
Have the class split up into 3 equal groups. There will be three posters posted on walls at different areas of
the classroom and each group will choose a poster to begin at. The posters will all relate to important
elements of the story The Boy Who Lived With The Bears. The headings on the posters will be beliefs,
unique way of life and relationship to the environment. At each poster the students will be asked to record
on the poster with the provided markers parts of the storys plot or specific lines from the story that show
how the heading was incorporated into the story. Each group will spend five minutes at each poster coming
up with as many applicable ideas as they can.
Assessments/Differentiation:
Observe each students involvement in group discussion and intervene to encourage involvement from the entire
group. Also ensure to inform students that the posters are to be used as a reference and learning guide for future
activities in this lesson and others. If necessary write key ideas that were missed on the posters and indicate the reason
for their importance to the students.

Learning Activity #2: Mind Map Brainstorm: Elements of Aboriginal Creation Stories
First, ask students to get a laptop from the portable laptop cart. Once each student has a laptop, introduce
students to mind mapping activity using MindMeister which is a comprehensive online mind map builder.
Once theyve gained fluency with MindMeister, create a mind map with the central idea being Key
Aspects of Democracy and give the students time to add their ideas to help create a class mind map.
Remember to keep the mind map available and quickly able to display throughout the lesson to give
students a quick reference for ideas. The most important element to identify is the teaching of morals and
how things came to be. This will be used to direct students in the creation of their short stories.
Assessments/Differentiation:
Evaluate the quality of the created product and make alterations if key points are missed to ensure an
effective mind map to guide student learning is created.

Learning Activity #3: Write a Creation style short story

Now that students have gained an understanding of the main elements of a short story, have them create a
brief one of their own! Students will use previously gained information upon story writing, such as reading
The Boy Who Lived With The Bears, and apply to writing a story of their own. Students will also use the
understanding they have gained from the first two learning activities and the products created to aid them.
Their story should express a personal moral of their own, or possibly tell how something thats important to
them originally came to be. The story will be assessed based upon how effectively this connection is made.

Michael Page: 001163990

Assessments/Differentiation:
Collect the students short stories at the end of the class period and formatively assess them, giving
feedback regarding how the story could be improved. The students can utilize this feedback in the next
lesson when they continue to work on their creation stories.

Closure (5 min.):
Consolidation/Assessment of Learning:
Have students on their provided piece of paper once again give a number from 1 to 5 to indicate how
much knowledge they have about the key aspects of democracy after this lesson.

Feedback From Students:

Also have students write on their provided piece of paper what they found was their favorite part of the
lesson and why? Also have students write any questions that they may have regarding their stories and how
to better write them for next class.

Feedback To Students:
Based on observation of posters, class discussion and the starts of their creation stories, give feedback on
their work and ideas that includes both kudos and areas that could use improvement.

Transition To Next Lesson:

Explain to Students that they will continue to work on their short stories in the next lesson.
Inform students that a copy of the class mind map will be printed off and given to them for use in the next
class to help wrap up their stories and the posters will remain posted in the classroom for future use as well.

Reflection
The strongest component of the above lesson plan is the fact that the learning activities develop
students understanding of Native creation stories in a gradual, logical and effective way which
provides material for the students to refer back to later in the lesson. The biggest strength is the fact
that students engage in first hand learning by writing a creation story of their own. I think both of these
are important because I believe that the best way to learn something is to actually do it and engage in
it. The ability for reference and building of understanding is important to enable the process to take
place in the most effective way possible.