Natasha Towns

ELED 3221
Date 10/31/17

INDIRECT INSTRUCTION (STRUCTURED DISCOVERY) LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Moon Phases
Elementary Science
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Big Idea: Earth in the Universe

Grade Level: 1st

Rationale: I am teaching this content so students understand that when they look up at moon and
see only a portion of it, they will know that the moon is still whole and there, but they are only
able to the part of the moon that is reflecting the suns light. This information is important for
students to know in order for them to better understand how our solar system operates.

NC Essential Standard(s): 1.E.1.2: Recognize patterns of observable changes in the Moons

appearance from day to day.

Next Generation Science Standard(s): ESS1.A: The Universe and its stars patterns of the motion of
the sun, moon, and stars in the sky can be observed, described, and predicted.

Instructional Objective: Students will be able to draw and label the phases of the moon.
Students will work independently to complete a moon phase diagram on a paper plate. Students
will show mastery of lesson by showing me a complete diagram with all 8 phases of the moon,
correctly drawn and labeled.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills: Student should have already be knowledgeable about the
moon phases due to prior science lessons. Prior to teaching this lesson I should be
knowledgeable of the moon phases and why the moon has phases, so that I can answer any
question students might have.

Materials/Resources: 20 paper plates, Popsicle sticks, family pack of Oreos, whiteboard,

erasers, pencil, marker, Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXe0yxzYkjo.

Source of your lesson: https://www.kcedventures.com/blog/hands-on-science-phases-of-the-

moon-activities-for-kids

Estimated Time: 35-40 min

Accommodation for Special Needs/different learning styles: Considering my classroom is LI

(learning intensive, meaning on track to be AG students) the only accommodation I can think of
is to make my lesson more challenging. Instead of drawing the phases of the moon ahead of time
and simply allowing students to label the phase, I will have the students draw and label
themselves.
Safety considerations: After students finish watching YouTube video on the mat, I will call
them row by row to return to their desks in order to limit the amount of bodies moving between
mat and desk.

Natasha Towns
ELED 3221
Date 10/31/2017
______________________________________________________________________________

Content and Strategies (Procedure)

In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 Es. Your procedure should be
detailed enough for a colleague to follow. Additionally, I expect you to include possible
questions and anticipated student responses to your questions for each section.

Engage: (10 minutes)

On mat, speak to students about what they have been learning in science class prior to today. So the last
science class we learned all about the planets and the sun. What planet do we live on? Allow student to
answer. (Earth) And how many moons revolve or orbit around the Earth? Allow student to answer.
(One) How many of you all have ever looked up at the moon? Does it always look the same? Allow
students time to talk about the moon and what it looks like in the sky (No, sometimes its big and
sometimes its smaller) Today we are going to learn more about the moon and why it looks like it is
always changing. I am going to show you a Youtube video, and I want you to place close attention
because I will be asking you all questions afterwards. Show students YouTube video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXe0yxzYkjo.

Explore: (15-20 minutes)

So from the video we learned that the moon goes through phases. How many phases does our moon go
through? Allow student to answer. (8) Who can name a phase for me? Allow 8 students to give me a
phase and/or help students recall names of phases. (New Moon, Crescent, 1st Quarter, Gibbous, Full
Moon, Gibbous, 3rd Quarter, Crescent) Okay so what we are going to do right now is draw a diagram of
the moon phases. At your desks I have placed I paper plate. Using a marker, I want you to draw in the
center of your plate the Earth. Why do I want you to draw Earth in the center? (Because the moon orbits
the Earth) Allow students to respond. Then around the moon, I want you to draw the 8 phases of the
moon. On the white board write the names of the phases to help kids with their spelling of the phases.
Send students back to their seats by rows and have them work on the assignment. I will walk around the
class room, ensuring that every student is working on the task at hand and doing so correctly. This is my
formative assessment, so I am checking to make sure students comprehended the video and the discussion
we had in class prior to me sending them back to their desks.
-Questions I might ask students as they walk around: Why did you draw a sun on your diagram? Why is
the sun important to the phases of the moon?

-Questions students might ask me: Am I allowed to color my picture? (Only once you completely finish
your diagram) Does the drawing have to look exactly like the ones from the video? (No, just draw to the
best of your ability) Can you help me figure out what phase goes after this one? (Of course)

*Responses to their questions are in parenthesis

Explanation: (5-10 minutes)

After students have all completed their moon phase diagram, call them back to the carpet by
table color. Okay class, so we just finished drawing the phases of the moon and I walked around
to each of your desks to see how your diagrams were going. What I am going to do now is have
several of you show your diagrams to the class and explain to us what order you put your phases
in and why. For this part of the lesson I will call on only 2 students, 1 boy and 1 girl. I will
choose students who I noticed did a great job during their explore phase. After students are done
sharing, I will reiterate to class what they learned today. So class today we learned the phases of
the moon. Again, how many phases are there? Allow students to answer. What are the name of
those phases? Call on 8 students to share. And why is the sun involved with the moon phases?
Call on 1 child to answer. Correct, the sun is what causes us to see the moonlight and depending
on our moons location in relation to the sun, we are only allowed to see a different portion lit up
every night. Now that we have completed our diagram, I have one more fun, quick activity for
you all to complete at your desks. Call them by their rows to return to their desks.

Elaborate: At their desks, each student will be given 4 Oreos and a Popsicle stick. They are to
show me, using the Oreos and Popsicle stick the 8 phases of the moon. I will offer no guidance
in this portion of the assignment other than letting students know that the crme represents the
part of the moon we can see. This activity will cause students to apply what they have learned in
the Engage and Explore sections of this lesson. Once students have completed their Oreo moon
phase, they are to stick up their thumbs in the air so that I can come over to their desk and see
what they created. If they are successful in their completion of the Oreo moon phase they will
then be allowed to eat the cookies if they want to.

Evaluate: Since these students rarely get taught Science, I will only have a formative assessment
of their moon diagram that they drew on the plate. I expect them to have spelling errors or for
their drawings to be horrible since they are 1st graders, however as long as they have the phases
in the correct order they show mastery of this lesson. I will continuously walk around students
desks during the engage to gather my assessment. However, if I see students struggling I will
help them. Due to the limited amount of time in Science these students are given all students will
more than likely have mastery of this lesson, because again I will help students who need help

Closure: Once all students have all raised their thumbs and showed me their Oreos, I will talk
close out the lesson while they are eating. So today we learned all about the phases of the moon
and you all were able to create these phases twice. The first one you all created by drawing a
diagram on a paper plate. The second one, which is already in most of your bellies, we used
Oreos to show the moons phases. After todays lesson I am pretty sure we all have a better
understanding of why we see the moon differently every night. I want you all to keep your paper
plate diagrams and take them home with you. If you are able to see the moon tonight, see if you
know what phases the moon is in and if you have need help use your diagram because that is
what its for. I am pretty sure that your parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, whoever
you see tonight would love to hear all about how you know what phase the moon is in and how
you know. Now I will turn things over to Miss Khun for instructions on what you all are doing
next. Thank you all for listening and working hard during Science today.

Reflection

1. What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned?
Why did that happen?
-I already wrote my indirect lesson plan to be more direct because I noticed thats how my CE
taught. However, when it came time to teach I found myself making my lesson completely
direct. I ended up drawing a diagram on the board with the students before they went back to
their desks and drew on their paper plates. This ended up happening because the students were
showing me that they were a bit confused as to how I wanted them to draw the diagram.
-Another part of my lesson that did not go as planned was the Oreo section. My lesson ended up
being interrupted because my teacher forgot that the students had to meet with another teacher
that day during the time I was teaching. After they met with the other teacher, they had lunch and
then Math. However, my teacher and I modified the Oreo lesson and gave them only 1 Oreo and
had them show us a New Moon and a Full Moon right before she taught math.
2. If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would
you do differently? Why? What would you do the same? Why?
-After listening and reading my teachers feedback, I would definitely implement what she said. I
would already draw the phases prior to the lesson and simply have the students label them or
have them do some sort of matching activity, where they match the moon phase to the correct
drawing. This way students wont spend much of their time drawing, because that did last a tad
longer than I wanted. Other than that, I would do everything the same because students
responded to the lesson well.
3. What surprised you in your lesson?
-What surprised me was how knowledgeable my students were about the moon phases. When I
asked them questions that I figured I would end up answering, they responded correctly.
However, my teacher informed me that prior to my appearance in her class, her students had
watched a video that had information about the moon phases. Nonetheless, the fact that they
were able to recall that information from at least 2-3 weeks ago shocked me and actually helped
the parts of the lesson flow smoothly.
4. What connections can you make to your lesson today from your coursework, the
literature, and any previous lessons or experiences?
-The one connection that I made to the coursework is that no lesson is perfect and very rarely do
lessons go according to plan. Even though my lesson became a direct instruction lesson, I still
feel it was a very effective lesson. The Explore section became more of a WE DO section and
the Elaborate became more of a YOU DO. However, the fact that I was able to make these
changes quickly without interrupting the flow of the lesson made me happy and made me
consider this lesson an overall success.
Analysis
Overall, I believe my lesson was effective mainly because they had direct instruction. The
Engage section went as planned and I was able to access their prior knowledge of the subject.
They responded well to the questions I asked after the video and correctly gave me all 8 phases.
My lesson became direct because my students were confused as to how to draw their diagrams
based off of my verbal instruction, and so to offer clarity we worked together at the board before
they went to their desks. Therefore, their diagrams looked like 1st grade work and was correct.
During the Elaborate phase my students showed to me that they all knew what a New Moon and
a Full Moon looked like without any help, so I ended up using this section as my formative
assessment and was very impressed at how quickly they were able to figure out what I wanted
from them. So, even though my lesson did not go as planned, my students were still able to prove
to me that they understood the knowledge I was hoping to bestow upon them.