3rd-grade Lesson Plans

Lesson Title: Our Neighborhood
Created and Submitted by: Laura Contreras
School Name: Borchers Elementary School
District: United ISD
Role: Librarian

Grade Level: 2nd Grade

Lesson Plan Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, the learner will be able to:
1. Identify and sequence important events in a story.
2. Relate locations in a fictional story to places of significance in their own community.
3. Display information on maps.

ELA-R TEKS:
110.13
(2) Reading/Beginning Reading/Strategies. Students comprehend a variety of texts drawing on useful strategies as needed. Students are expected to:
(C) establish purpose for reading selected texts and monitor comprehension, making corrections and adjustments when that understanding breaks down (e.g., identifying clues, using background knowledge, generating questions, re-reading a portion aloud).

Other Standards: Social Studies
113.13(b)
(6) The student understands the location and characteristics of places and regions in the community. 

Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Indicators:
1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning.
1.1.9 Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding.
2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world.

Classroom Teacher – School Librarian(s) Collaboration: 
• The classroom teacher asks students to describe the neighborhood/community in which they live while the librarian records students’ responses on the white board.
• The librarian reads Franklin’s Neighborhood by Paulette Bourgeois.

Measurable Outcome or Final Product: After completing a sequencing story map, students will create a map with important parts of a neighborhood such as houses, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, airports, grocery stores, libraries, parks, retail stores, street signs, and a map key. The map key must include all items that will be illustrated on the map in a much smaller scale on the corner of map.

Assessment Tool: Mapping Rubric

Resources:
Franklin’s Neighborhood by Paulette Bourgeois (Kids Can Press 1999)
Sequencing Activity Handout
Story Map (PowerPoint Slide)
Mapping Rubric

Estimated Lesson Time: 2 hours

Implementation Steps:

Preparation:
• Students review the important parts of a community with their classroom teacher.
• The librarian gathers books, butcher paper, maps, markers, scissors, and handouts.

Motivation
1. To build excitement prior to the lesson, the educators show a PowerPoint with actual photographs of important places in their community. This helps students begin to visualize places where they live such as our local hospital, public library, grocery store, retail store, restaurants, fire station, and more.

Presentation
2. The librarian reads Franklin’s Neighborhood by Paulette Bourgeois to review story sequence and provide students with examples of neighborhoods in a fictional setting.
3. The classroom teacher explains that stories are written in a sequence of events.
4. Both educators ask students for examples of important places mentioned in the story and record students’ answers on the board.
5. In addition, a checklist that includes important parts of a community will be written on the board so that students may include major buildings in their projects.
6. Students complete a story map where they will place important events in a story map in the order in which they occurred.
7. Students illustrate a map of their neighborhood/community with streets and important buildings.

Guided Practice
8. Educators monitor the students’ sequencing and map making.

Closure
9. Students present their graphic organizer and maps to the class.
10. Educators remind students that a story is written in logical order and that a neighborhood or community is a place where people live, work, and play.  People along with buildings are an essential part of the function of a community.

Assessment
11. Educators use the Mapping Rubric to assess students’ maps for content, organization, and graphics/pictures.

Extensions
12. Students will be asked questions about the location of various places on the map and how to travel from place to place using orientation such as north, south, east, and west.
13. Students may also be given the opportunity to play a neighborhood board game found in the reproducible titled Teaching with Favorite Franklin Books in which students play something similar to Monopoly about Franklin’s neighborhood.

Lesson Plan Resources:

Sequencing Activity Handout - ELAR_3_2_C_Contreras_Franklin_Sequencing_Activity.docx
Story Map (PowerPoint Slide) - ELAR_3_2_C_Contreras_Story Map.ppt
Mapping Rubric - ELAR_3_2_C_Contreras_Mapping_Rubric.docx

ELAR_3_2_C_Contreras_TEKS_Alignment_Lesson_Plan - ELAR_3_2_C_Contreras_TEKS_Alignment_Lesson_Plan.pdf