Noun Lesson & Reflection
Name: Britany Lynch
Lesson Title: Common & Proper Nouns (Daily 5-Word Work)
Grade level(s)/Course: 2nd Grade
Date taught: Nov. 12-16th (Each student will complete throughout the week.)
GENERAL CONTEXT
District, school or cooperating teacher requirement or expectations that might influence your planning or delivery of instruction.
My cooperating teacher gave me the task of coming up with a word work activity for the Daily 5. Her only instructions were that I had to base the activity off of a concept already taught that year.
Amount of time devoted each day or week in your classroom to the content or topic of your instruction.
Students spend approximately an hour a day working on the Daily 5 activities.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE LESSON
Content Strand – found within the Wisconsin Academic Content Standards
2.L.1-Demonstrate command of the conventions of standards English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Enduring Understanding and/or Essential Question
What is the difference between common nouns and proper nouns?
Outcome(s)
Students will know the difference between common nouns and proper nouns.
Academic Language related to the lesson
Common Noun
Capitalization
Proper Noun
Prior Learning/Prior Thinking
Students in the class have already learned about common and proper nouns as a whole group. This Daily 5 activity will be a review for students.
LESSON IMPLEMENTATION
Anticipatory Set/Elicit Prior Knowledge
Students will be asked if they remember what common and proper nouns are. The teacher will then ask the students if they can give an example of a common noun and an example of a proper noun.
Focus/Purpose Statement
The purpose of this lesson is to review what common and proper nouns are and the differences between them.
Procedures
1. Students will sort their cards into two categories.
a. Common
b. Proper
2. Students will then write the nouns into the graphic organizer.
3. Students will the match common nouns to proper nouns, and then students will cut out common nouns and place them over the corresponding proper noun.
4. Students will then be asked to read their words in their graphic organizer to show that they understood the common nouns.
Differentiation
This lesson is a review for students, so there won’t be any differentiation.
Closure
To close the lesson students will be asked to read their graphic organizer to the teacher, and to give their definition of common and proper nouns.
Materials and Resources
Common & proper noun cards
Copies of the graphic organizers and activities
Classroom Management/Democratic Practices
To promote a democratic community the students will be working hands on. Students will also be able to choose part of the order of the activity. Students must complete the graphic organizer on the front page but they can choose which page to do next.
ASSESSMENT
Before the lesson
Teacher observation during previous lessons found that common and proper nouns was something that students may need to review.
During the lesson
During the lesson, students will be observed to make sure they understand what they are doing. Students will also be questioned during the activity. Ex: Why did you put that one under common noun? After separating the cards, students will write their answers on a graphic organizer, common nouns on one side and proper nouns on the other.
At the end of the lesson
At the end of the lesson students will match common and proper nouns that weren’t in the cards. They will also cut out common nouns and match them to the proper nouns in sentences and glue them in the correct place. This shows that students know that common nouns can be replaced with proper nouns and vice versa.
Lesson Reflection
When the teacher asked me to prepare an activity for the Daily 5 Word Work station I was a little scared. Preparing an activity was different than planning a regular lesson. With my other lessons, the teacher along with previous assessments guided what I was going to teach. With the Daily 5 the teacher just told me it had to focus on something that the students had already learned that year.
I set out looking for fun hands on activities that would fit with the teacher’s instructions. I found an activity based on common and proper nouns that I thought would fit perfectly with the class instruction. When I showed the teacher, she loved it. She even kept a copy for herself for future reference.
I was more nervous about what the students would think. The Daily 5 is their favorite part of the day. Each day they ask the teacher many times if it is time for the Daily 5, even though their schedule is posted. Turns out I hadnothing to worry about. Once I had finished explaining the directions to the students and asked if they had any questions I heard one student say, “It looks so fun” another replied “Yeah, I want to do that one”. I was so excited that they were actually excited about something I had planned.
I walked around and observed as student’s completed the activity, and they really seemed to enjoy it. The one thing I would change is some of the nouns on the matching cards. The cards were already designed with names on them, but some of them the students didn’t know. For example one card said Nicki Minaj and some of the students hadn’t heard of her before so they couldn’t match her to the common noun of singer. If I taught this lesson again I would create my own cards so that the proper nouns were ones that the students would know.
This activity can also be used as a Go Fish game. Students ask for the common or proper noun that matches the one that is in their hand. If the person they ask doesn’t have it they say go fish and the student chooses a new card from the extra pile. This activity involves more than one person, and I think that this would be a good next lesson for the students.
Overall, I think this lesson was the one that the students enjoyed the most. It was something simple, but involved a matching game and hands on activity. I think being hands on was the part the students enjoyed the most. This is a lesson that I would definitely use again.