Lesson Plans
Introduction

Lesson plans ought to be designed as per the level of the targeted learner's skills and capabilities. Also, a lesson plan must seek to achieve the standards and goals set but the school, the state, or federal authorities. For a lesson plan to be not just successful but also effective, it must be designed to suit the resources available. Alternatively, a lesson plan should not be designed to utilize resources that are not or cannot be availed. In this paper, therefore, is a review of a curriculum guide - Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5 by Lauren Davis, and afterward, two lesson plans that are designed based on the reviewed curriculum guide.

Part I: A Review of Curriculum

Review of \"Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5\"

The Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5 by Lauren Davis, is the curriculum guide that is reviewed and used in this paper. This guide is meant for learners from K to grade 5 (K-5) levels in the education system. The guide is meant for teachers, curriculum leaders, and literacy coaches to empower them to address better the educational needs of learners in the grades covered in the guide. This book provides the user with a variety of engaging lesson plans that are easy to implement based on the standards. The guide is divided into four sections, referred to as parts in the guide: these include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. Each part includes examples of lesson plans, in total 35, and extensive activities, tips on differentiation, and assessment. Moreover, each of the four parts includes a checklist for lesson planning to help educators when creating their lesson plans.

Part one on reading covers requirements for teaching literacy, in addition to the Common Core State Standards that exist. According to the Common Core State Standards, in teaching literacy, teachers/schools are required to use more-complex texts. In addition to these more-complex texts, Davis (2013) suggests that educators should be able to inject fun readings and other activities that engage the learners in the learning activity. In reading, several instructional activities are suggested among them; questioning, activating, monitoring-clarifying, inferring, searching-selecting, play-based instruction, and visual-organizing. The organization of the lesson plan in this section follows the Herbartian approach (Ramakrishna & Sawhney, 2012), which includes an Introduction, Foundation, Brain Activity, Body of New Information, Clarification, Practice and Review, Independent Practice, and Closure. However, the lesson plans included in this section do not religiously adhere to this organization structure as outlined; nevertheless, the general organization in these lesson plans includes an introduction, Brain Activity, Body of the Content, practice, and review, then closure. The section has been backed up with research findings from various authors. These are mainly in the tips that are available in the book. These tips are founded on research findings by independent researchers. In this section, the scope and sequence by Davis (2013) is the injection of fun and creativity into the Common Core State Standards that have recommended for reading literacy, with a specific focus on the more complex text. Lauren (2013) advocates for the more informal context in the reading lesson, about 50% of the total content.

The second section is writing, which covers common Core State Standards for writing. The section emphasizes the applicability of writing nonfiction context for students as well as writing arguments. The section uses a variety of instructional activities for writing, including handouts, tapping into prior knowledge, talking time, and visual aids. The organization of the lesson plan in this section follows the Herbartian approach (Ramakrishna & Sawhney, 2012), which includes an Introduction, Foundation, Brain Activity, Body of New Information, Clarification, Practice and Review, Independent Practice, and Closure. The research included in the book is covered in the tips provided in the section. The scope and sequence in the section are all about the injection of personality in the writing sections, e.g., fun and games into the formal content required for the Common Core...…guide students as required.

Direct instruction

Using a digital tool, e.g., the App Popplet, the educator will model how to create a mind map. Using one of the student's names as an example, place the student's name at the center then add bubbles to help develop ideas for the story. In the process of developing the mind map, the educator will encourage students to think about the topic to match with their minds. The mind map is to be referred to throughout the writing process to keep track of the thought process and the purpose of the writing activity.

Guided practice

After modeling, learners will now begin working to develop ideas of their writing pieces. The modeled mind map will be in display for learners to refer to when needed. Educators will encourage learners to create ideas that are not included in the modeled mind map. As students continue with the event, the teacher is to walk around and help students as required.

When students are done, they are pair again and share their mind maps. In case new ideas are generated in the sharing events, students will be open to add them into their mind maps

Independent practice

Students will be required to add others, at least three, ideas on their mind maps to encourage them to continue brainstorming for their story. Also, students will be required to watch the writing process, e.g., \"The Writing Process\" Brain Pop available on the Brain Pop App. After watching, students will complete the Quiz and get a score from the App.

Wrap-up

After learners have completed the Popplet, they will save the image on their device and import it to the Interactive whiteboard. Students will then record on their devices, why they think the writing activity, and their mind map models are important. Students will then be selected randomly to share with the class their work. Students will be reminded that the mind map will be helpful when learning on the writing topic for the generation of…