Lesson Plan Overview: What Is The Total Area Of My Name?

Grade Level: Third

Subject(s): Math and language

Topic of Study: Area

Time Allotment: 30 minutes

Standards: 3.MD.6. Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft., and improvised units).

Objectives: Students will be able to use basic counting of unit squares to calculate the area of various objects. 

Reflection: 
Assessing Prior Knowledge 

• What do the students need to know prior to the lesson?
  Students will need to know what perimeter is and how to calculate perimeter prior to this lesson about area. Students will have to have a basic understanding of why perimeter is important as well as the knowledge about shapes. They will need to have an understanding of what shapes are, what they look like and how they are represented in the real world. The students will need to know how to do spell their names for the final artifact. 
• How will prior knowledge and experience be assessed?
  The student's prior knowledge will be assessed through review and observations. The lesson will start off with a brief review and discussion about what perimeter is and what we can use to calculate the perimeter of familiar shapes. 
• How will you use this information in the planning process?

  This information will let me know how well the students understand the concept of perimeter. Based on the information that is gathered at this part in the lesson, I will decide whether the students have mastered perimeter enough to move on to a lesson about area. If the students show enough understanding then the lesson can move on as planned. However, if the students do not show enough mastery and understanding then the lesson on area will have to be pushed back until I feel like the students can answer questions about perimeter with accuracy. 

Planning Instruction: 

• Why should the content of this lesson be taught at this grade level?
  The content of area and perimeter should be taught at this grade level, because students at this age are beginning to build on knowledge that they have mastered. Prior to this lesson, students will have mastered math in forms of addition, subtraction, multiplication and simple division facts. Area and perimeter are focused on the mathematical operations like addition and multiplication (repeated addition). 
• How do the objectives that you have for the lesson align with the standards?
  The objective that I have for the students is a broad generalization of what the standard asks the students to be able to do by the end of third grade. By end of this lesson students should have an understanding of how to use unit squares (which can be found on graph paper) to calculate the area of usual and unusual shapes.
• When will the lesson be taught in the course of the school year? Why?

          This lesson will be taught towards the beginning of the second half of the school year following the end           of winter break. The reason that I have chosen to teach this lesson at this time in the school year is                 because the first two quarters of the new school year the third graders will be revisiting old concepts             to make sure that such concepts like addition, subtraction and multiplication have been covered to a               level of student mastery.