Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher
Date

Grade ____4th___

Miss DeGroot
Wed. Sept. 28, 2016

Subject/ Topic/ Theme Geography Lesson #3- Landforms

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
This is the third lesson of the unit. The unit is the geography of the United States. This lesson connect to
the unit because it helps students understand that the United States has varying types of land geography,
called landforms
Learners will be able to:

identify different types of landforms using pictures when given a list of the landforms
state the difference between an island and an archipelago
state the difference between a river and a delta
state the difference between a valley and a canyon
state the difference between a plain and plateau
work collaboratively in a group to act out assigned landforms

Standards: 4 G1.0.4 Use geographic tools and technologies, stories, songs, and pictures to answer
geographic questions about the United States.

II. Before you start

Identify prerequisite
knowledge and skills.

Students should be able to describe to a partner a time when they visited a

place that looked different than where they live.

Outline assessment
activities

Pre-assessment (for learning): What is a landform? Can you name an example?

Formative (for learning): +
Sketch each landform and write its name

Formative (as learning): +

Verbal assessments
Summative (of learning): +
10 landform sketches with names labeled.
Acting out landforms/guess which one is being acted out

What barriers
might this lesson
present?

Provide Multiple Means

of Representation

Provide Multiple
Means of Action and
Expression

Provide Multiple
Means of
Engagement

Provide options for

perception- making
information perceptible

Provide options for

physical actionincrease options for
interaction

Provide options for

recruiting interestchoice, relevance,
value, authenticity,
minimize threats

Powerpoint
Act out assigned
landforms
Provide options for
language, mathematical
expressions, and symbolsclarify & connect language

Provide options for

expression and
communicationincrease medium of
expression

Writing and drawing

Verbal
written
Provide options for
comprehension- activate,
apply & highlight
Sketch landforms
Create landforms on map
using multiple materials

Provide options for

executive functionscoordinate short & long
term goals, monitor
progress, and modify
strategies

Provide options for

sustaining effort and
persistenceoptimize challenge,
collaboration,
mastery-oriented
feedback

Provide options for

self-regulationexpectations,
personal skills and
strategies,
self-assessment &
reflection

Materials

Landform Powerpoint
Preassessment half sheet
10 landforms chart
pencils/colored pencils

How will your classroom

be set up for this
lesson?

Students will be sitting at their desks facing the front whiteboard

III. The Plan

Component
s

Describe teacher activities

AND
s
tudent activities
for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order
thinking questions and/or prompts.

Time
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)

Hand out the preassessment and ask students

to answer the questions individually and quietly.
Remind them that this is not a test or quiz, but
simply a way to see what they already know and
what still needs to be taught.

7min
After glancing at their answer when collecting
their paper- pick one or two students to tell the
class what they think a landform is.
After several students share tell the students
that a landform is natural features of the earths
surface.

5min

Developme
nt
(the largest
component
or main body
of the
lesson)

Hand out the 10 landforms chart to each

student. As you hand them out, explain that we
are going to look at 10 different landforms that
are found around the United States.
Take a minute with your partner and describe
where you live. As you talk, describe what the
land looks like where you live. If you have extra
time, think of a place you have traveled to that
looks different from where you live. For example,
First I would describe where I live to my partner,
then I would describe what the land looked like
when I visited my brother in Colorado.
I will show you a picture and you have to think
about what the name of the landform will be.
After we find out which landform it is, make a
sketch of it in the appropriate box and write the
name of the landform in the same box.

20mi
n

2 or 3 students share their

answers

After students are settled, begin the slideshow.

For each landform ask
What do you think this is/ what it is called?
(in some cases ask how the previous landform is
different from the current picture- island vs
archipelago, river vs delta, valley vs. canyon,
plain vs. plateau)

Students share with their

partners for about 5 minutes

After several students answer, give a clarifying

definition.

Students answer questions

asked and make sketches of
landforms shown on the
screen

Island- a piece of land completely surrounded by

water
Archipelago- a string of islands
Peninsula- piece of land surrounded with water
on 3 sides
River- stream of water that flows into a lake or
ocean
Delta- small streams that flow out of a river
Mountain- large piece of land with higher
elevation
Valley- low piece of land between two mountains
Canyon- deep narrow valley with steep sides
Plain- flat or gently rolling land
Plateau- flat land with higher elevation

Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)
15mi
n

After students have completed their worksheets,

divide them into groups of 4.
Assign each group 2 landforms.
Direct students to find a way to act out the
landforms that theyve been assigned.
Give them 5 minutes to come up with actions for
their landforms.
Have each group come to the front of the
classroom and act out their landforms- the rest
of the class should guess which landform is
being acted out.

Students work in groups to

find ways to act out
landforms

Students guess which

landform is being acted out

Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as
well as ideas for improvement for next time. (Write this after teaching the lesson, if you had a chance
to teach it. If you did not teach this lesson, focus on the process of preparing the lesson.)
This lesson went fairly well. We did the lesson at the end of the day so some students moved around in
their seats quite a bit, but overall they listened well! Based on my pre assessment it seemed that my
students didnt know very much about landforms, but when I showed them pictures of each landform, many
of them could name quite a few! By the end of the lesson I realized that though they couldnt give a
definition of landform, they had a lot of knowledge about different land features.
As we worked our way through the 10 different land features, about of my students were making
connections to their own lives at some point. They wanted to share stories about times when they visited
mountains, the great plains. Etc. They were excited to describe what they saw and how some landforms
may appear similar at first, but are actually quite different. We didnt end up having time to act out the
different landforms, but we did, as a class, come up with different motions for a few of the land forms. For
example, mountain- we raised our arms over our heads and put our hands together to form the tip of a
mountain. For plain we spread our arms out flat to show that the land is very flat. I allowed students to help

come up with ways to represent other landforms and they were very creative with it. It was a short but fun
activity to end the day. If I were to teach this lesson again, and if we had more time, I would have had them
do more partner/group discussion. Then each student would be able to share their personal connections on
a more intimate level, rather than just one or two students sharing with the whole class.