Gwynedd Mercy University

School of Education
Lesson Plan
Your Name: Jen Lundy
School: GMU grade school

Date: 3/28/16
Grade/Topic: 3rd grade- The Busy Brain

STANDARD: PDE 10.1 Concepts of Health

PERFORMANCE EXPECTATION:
The students will be able to understand how the nervous system works and how the brain
receives and sends signals to the body by creating their own nervous system diagram and
explaining how the brain interacts with another part of the body when something
happens.
I.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION:

1.

Briefly describe the students in your class, including those with special
needs, explain how you will meet the needs of all learners.
This is a Third Grade class of 24 students. There are 14 boys and 10 girls
in the class. There is one student who wears hearing aids, and four other
students with Individualized Education Plans. I plan to accommodate by
wearing a microphone when I demonstrate the lesson for the student with
the hearing aids and by using the goals of the IEP for the other students.
A variety of strategies will help to meet the needs of all learners in the
classroom.

2.

What are your expectations for this lesson? What do you want students to
learn and be able to do with the knowledge?
Students will be able to understand that the nervous system is a very
important part of the body, which is how the body communicates with the
brain. Students will demonstrate their understanding by creating their
own nervous system diagram and writing an explanation on how the brain
interacts with another part of the body when something happens.

3.

Why are these expectations suitable for this group of students?

Within this group, in addition to the students with the IEPs, and the
student with the hearing aids, there are a variety of different learning
styles and intelligences. By using visuals, cooperative learning, and
classroom discussion, all of these various differences will be addressed
and all of the students will gain something from the lesson.

4.

How do these expectations support the school districts curriculum, state

standards, and content standards?
These expectations are consistent with the PA Academic Standards for
Health, Safety and Physical Education. PDE 10.1 Concepts of Health
Performance Expectation 10.1.3.B: Identify and know the location and
function of the major body organs and systems. This is part of the
benchmarks for grade 3.

5.

Explain the psychological principles/theories you used in constructing this

lesson.
This lesson is designed around the Constructivist Theory by Jean Piaget.
This theory suggests that learners construct knowledge out of their
experiences, and it promotes learning by doing. The students creating
their own nervous system allows them to physically see what parts of the
body make up the nervous system, and the video helps to explain what
each part of the system does. While this isnt a theory, there are also
elements of Cooperative Learning, which is an integral part of the
learning process. This is done with the grouping of the students, and the
KWL chart. Students will work together while learning from one another.

II. CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT:

6.

Describe the effective classroom routines and procedures resulting in little

or no loss of instructional time.
Materials and handouts will be prepared ahead of time and placed on the
students desk while they are at lunch. Upon returning from lunch, the
students will be instructed to find their seats, and will be told that we are
going to do an activity in small groups. The students desks are already
placed in small groups of four, so these will be their cooperative learning
groups for the activity. The person sitting next to them will be their
partner for the first activity, which is the Interactive Stroop Effect
Experiment. While the students are completing the various activities, I will
be walking around the classroom to keep students on task or to answer
any questions that students may have.

7.

Identify what you will do to set clear standards of conduct and behavior
management of student behavior.
Using the Assertive Discipline model from Lee Canter, classroom rules,
rewards, and consequences will have been developed earlier in the school
year. Each student and parent/guardian will have signed and received

their own copy. A copy of the classroom rules will also be posted at the
front of the room and referred to/ reviewed as needed.
8.

Identify what you will do to establish expectations for student

achievement.
Students will be encouraged each day to do their best. In addition, I will
walk around to check for understanding, to keep students on task, and to
ask thinking questions that might help them explain how the brain
communicates with the rest of the body. The students will be reminded that
this is a group activity, therefore, everyone should have a part. The
students will also be reminded that each group will be sharing their
explanations and diagrams with the class.

III.

INSTRUCTION:
9.

10.

What will you do to motivate students?

I will ask the students to locate their Interactive Stroop Effect

Experiment sheet on their desks, then will write the word Red in
blue dry erase marker on the board.

I will ask a student what color this is, then will ask; If you were to
look at a list of words written in different colors, do you think it
would be easy or difficult to tell me the color of the word, but not
read the color that is written?

I will explain that we are going to do The Interactive Stroop Effect

Experiment with the person that we are sitting next to, and will be
determining if it takes more time and thought to read the words or
to say the color that the word is written in.

Following the experiment, I will explain that the interference

between the different information that the brain is receiving causes
a problem, which makes it take longer to say the color of the word
vs. just simply reading the word.

I will explain that this activity showed us that the brain sends
messages to different parts of our body in order for us to do
something.

What will you do to activate prior knowledge?

I will conduct a KWL chart with the students to find out what they know
about the nervous system, what they want to know, and what they have
learned. We will fill out the first two categories before completing our
3

11.

diagrams. The levels of Blooms used are: Level 1- Remembering, Level 2Understanding, and Level 3- Applying. For level 1, the students will have
to recall information that they already know about the nervous system.
For level 2, the students will have to comprehend the information that they
learn from the discussions, and from the video, and for level 3, the
students will have to apply the information that they learned to explain
how the brain interacts with another part of the body when something
happens, which will also help them fill out the L section of our KWL
chart.
How do you plan to engage students in the content? What will you do?
What will students do?
The materials that will be needed for this activity will be the Interactive
Stroop Effect Experiment sheet (2 each group), white board, dry erase
markers, KWL chart, Pain and Why It Hurts article, video from Kids
Health on the Brain and nervous system, diagram of the body with
nervous system parts (one for each group), scissors, glue, colored pencils,
and pencils.
As the students return from lunch the teacher and students will do the
following:

Teacher will instruct the students to sit at their seats and will
explain that we will be doing an activity in small groups, which
will be the person sitting next to them.

Students will put away their belongings and find their seats.

Teacher will instruct students to get their Interactive Stroop Effect

Experiment sheet. (each group of two will have one sheet) Teacher
will write the word Red in blue dry erase marker on the white
board.

Teacher will ask a student what color this is. After student
response, teacher will ask; If you were to look at a list of words
written in different colors, do you think it would be easy or difficult
to tell me the color of the word, but not read the color that is
written?

Students will respond with their thoughts, which will prompt the
teacher to explain that we will be doing the Interactive Stroop
Effect Experiment with the person sitting next to them.

Students will be instructed to determine whether or not it takes

more time to read the words, or to say the color that the word is
written in.
4

Students will conduct the experiment with their partner and

determine which method was quicker/easier.

Teacher will explain that the interference between the different

information that the brain is receiving causes a problem, which
makes it take longer to say the color of the word vs. just simply
reading the word. Teacher will them explain that the brain, which
is part of the nervous system, sends messages to different parts of
our body in order for us to do something.

Teacher will explain that we will be learning all about how the
nervous system works and how the brain receives and sends
signals to the body.

Following the Stroop Effect Experiment, the teacher will ask a few
questions to get the students thinking before conducting the KWL
chart. Teacher will ask; When you read the words aloud in the
activity, how do you think your mouth knew how to say them?
When you did the activity, what signals do you think your brain
was getting? How do you think the signals were getting to your
brain?

Students will respond to the questions asked.

Teacher will use student responses to write some things in the K

section of the KWL chart.

Teacher will conduct a KWL chart with the students to find out
further what they already know about the nervous system and what
they want to know about it.

Students will respond with information about what they know

about the nervous system and what they want to know about it as
the teacher writes responses on the board.

Students will be instructed to read along as the teacher reads the

article Pain and Why It Hurts aloud. Following the read aloud,
teacher will discuss that we use our five senses to send signals to
our brain just as we did with the first activity.

Teacher will ask which sense we used to send signals to the brain
in the first activity.

Students will respond by saying sight. Teacher will then ask for
the other four senses used to send signals to the brain.

Students will respond with naming the other four senses.

Teacher will ask students thinking questions such as; What

would happen if you couldnt feel pain? How does smell help you
protect yourself? What about taste? What does your brain do with
the information that it gets?

Students will respond to the questions and participate in class

discussion to further understanding.

Teacher will ask students to locate the diagram of the nervous

system and work together as a group to put the nervous system
together in the body, labeling each of the three areas of the
nervous system. Students will then be asked to explain how the
brain interacts with another part of the body when something
happens such as burning your hand on a hot stove.

Students will be instructed to write the explanation at the bottom

of their nervous system diagram, then use the colored pencils to
illustrate the path that the signal takes when communicating with
the brain.

Students will work together in their small group of four, to

complete the diagram of the nervous system and explain how the
brain interacts with that part of the body.

Once each group is finished, they will share what they wrote.

Teacher will show a video of the brain and nervous system from
Kids Health what will help to recap what was learned in the lesson
and will offer some further information to students that could be
used to fill in the KWL chart.

Students will be instructed to listen to the video carefully as they

watch so they can hear any information that might be new to them.

Following the video, teacher will ask each student group for one
new thing that they learned about the nervous system from the
lesson or from the video to fill in the L section of the KWL
chart. This will be the students ticket out the door.

12.

Describe the use of questioning and discussion strategies that will

encourage students to participate in class.

A KWL chart will be used to activate prior knowledge, which asks

the student what they know about the nervous system, what they
want to know, and what they learned.

To stimulate class discussion and thinking, teacher asks questions

following the Stroop Effect Experiment and again following the
discussion about Pain and Why It Hurts.

Students are placed into cooperative learning groups to complete

the Stroop Effect Experiment, as well as during the completion of
the nervous system diagram and explanation.

When their nervous system diagram and explanations are

completed, each group will share what they wrote as well as the
parts of the body that had to interact to send the signal.

The levels of Blooms Taxonomies that are used are:

13.

Level 1- Remembering. The students had to recall the information

that they already know about the nervous system, as well as
information that they are interested in knowing and what they
learned from the video.

Level 2- Understanding. The students will have to understand the

information that learn about the nervous system in order to
successfully complete their nervous system diagrams and
explanation.

Level 3- Applying. The students will have to apply what they

learned in the lesson and video to explain how the parts of the
body interact when something happens.

What difficulties do students typically experience in this area, and how do

you plan to adapt/modify to meet their needs?

The difficulties that the students could experience might be talking

instead of completing their nervous system diagram and
explanation, which may result in an incomplete diagram. I will
walk around the class as the groups are completing their diagrams
to ensure that the students stay on task.

14.

Identify what informal and/or formal assessments you will use to monitor
student learning.
Informal Assessments:

Student responses during class discussions

Group responses during the L portion of the KWL chart

Formal Assessment:

15.

Completed nervous system diagram with explanation on how the

brain interacts with another part of the body when something
happens.

What will you do to bring closure to the lesson?

The teacher will show the video on the Kids Health website of the Brian
and the nervous system. The video recaps what was learned and
discussed
in the lesson, and offers new information that will be helpful in
filling out the L portion of our KWL chart. Following the
video, the
teacher will ask each of the groups to think of one thing
they learned
about the nervous system. Group responses will be used as
their exit ticket
as well as a way to complete the L portion of the KWL
chart as a class.