Multiplication Algorithm Procedure

Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Teacher: Meg Clayton Class: 5^th Grade Math Date: July 2011 Writing genre: Procedure

CENTRAL IDEAS Content: Math: Students will understand and use several different multiplication algorithms for solving multi-digit multiplication problems. Reading: Re-reading and paraphrasing help build deep understanding of text. Writing: Students will be able to explain one multiplication algorithm by using logical steps and clear diagrams.

FOCUSING QUESTION	FOCUS(answer to question)
How do you multiply multi-digit numbers?	You use an algorithm such as: · lattice method · partial products method · traditional method

BUILDING CONTENT KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING OF WRITER’S CRAFT

· vocabulary · guided reading · text mapping · paraphrasing · summarizing · visualizing · imaging · dramatizing · oral processing/ guided conversation/ think-pair-share · experience · debating · taking notes (graphic organizers, T-charts, two column notes, etc.) · craft lessons (intro, transitions, conclusions, etc.)

· create math lexicon (algorithm, lattice, array, row, column, factor, product, digit, diagonal, horizontal, vertical, carry over) · use Frayer Model for math terminology · paired reading aloud from Student Reference Book, Dynamath Magazine · model math procedures using manipulatives · role play “teacher” for younger students · play games (Multiplication Wrestling, Multiplication Bull’s Eye, Number Top-It, Baseball Multiplication, Beat the Calculator, Fastest Draw in the West) · work in Student Journals · 5 minute white board math activities · benchmark ordering activity in groups of 4 · class benchmark discussion · creation of class procedure check list · acting out several benchmark procedures to see if they work · using Microsoft Works “Track Changes” feature for peer conferencing

STRUCTURES How will students know how to organize their ideas and construct the piece of writing?
· graphic organizers · teacher-written models · various types of templates or frames (ex. Painted Essay)	· procedural writing frame · teacher-written model · class composed model · look at a variety of real world procedures for examples (game instructions, recipes, operation manuals, EDM Student Reference Book, Student Planner reference section) · “Track Changes” review views (original, original with mark-up, final, final with mark-up)

WRITING / REVISING How will students draft/revise so that their final writing is clearly focused, organized, and developed to show understanding of the central ideas?

· group write, fully or in part · write section at a time · write full piece independently · revise/share full group · revise/share partners · proofread w/tubaloos

· Group write the traditional multiplication algorithm on SMART Board. · Revise as a class using “Track Changes” · Independently choose another multiplication algorithm to explain to classmates or parents. · Share with a classmate who struggles with that algorithm. Classmate adds revision/editing suggestions via “Track Changes” on Word. · Students revise/edit and share procedures in class “How to Multiply” Manual · Students use one another’s procedure pieces to assist in understanding different algorithms

LESSON SEQUENCE What steps will I follow so that students are able to effectively show their understanding in writing?

Math Content Sequence: · individual K-W-L charts for Multi-digit Multiplication · class word splash of math terms that apply to multi-digit multiplication · ongoing games to practice place value and multiplication skills · students fill out survey on comfort/skill levels with various multi-digit multiplication methods · students check work by solving at least one different way · students work in partnerships to correct one another’s work

Procedural Writing Sequence: Prewriting: · collect samples of math procedures · highlight procedure text features/formatting in models (introduction, materials list, bulleted/numbered steps, hints, sequential ordering, glossaries, diagrams, audience needs, conclusion) · in groups of 4, rank order the procedure benchmarks · group consensus on order is shared with class · class generates a checklist of effective procedure writing techniques based on benchmark discussion Class Model on SMART Board: · class reviews mentor text examples of procedure introductions · highlighting of intro. features · class composes group introduction for traditional multi-digit multiplication algorithm procedure piece · class composes body of procedure piece · class concludes piece · class model is shared with the 6th graders for feedback via “Track Changes” · class revises/edits based on 6th grade feedback. Independent writing: · students choose an algorithm with which they are very comfortable. · Based on class survey information, students select a classmate for whom that method is difficult · Students write directions for their classmate to follow and understand · Classmates read and attempt to follow one another’s procedures giving feedback through”Track Changes” · After revising and editing, student pieces are published in a class algorithm manual which becomes part of the math library

ASSESSMENT How are students doing? What are my next steps as a teacher?

· students self-assess using the class generated checklist/scoring guide · teacher assess using class scoring guide and state procedure rubric · continued math skill and vocabulary instruction · transferring procedure writing skill by using as part of regular assessment with other math content (Students who can explain how to do a math procedure have internalized it.)

NEXT STEPS Gradual release of responsibility

· 2nd and 5th grade buddies traditionally make holiday ornaments together. It would be great if the 5th graders could write procedure pieces for their 2nd grade buddies to follow. · Students can choose to participate in the Caledonian Record Recipe Contest by contributing original recipes which demonstrate procedural writing skills

Steve Crimmin WU plan

Writing & the Common Core Assignment

Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Teacher: Steve Crimmin Class: Language Arts Date 7-19-11 Writing genre Opinion/Response

Topic / Subject / Text

CENTRAL IDEAS

Content: (W.4.1) Write an opinion piece about the main character in a book, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. (In this case, about the character Nick Allen in the book Frindle by Andrew Clements.)

Reading: (RL.4.3) Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

Writing: Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer's purpose. Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.

Focusing Question

Focus (answer to focusing question)

What is your opinion of Nick Allen, based on his thoughts, words, and actions? Is Nick a troublemaker, or is he something else?

Nick can be a mischievous student, but his creativity and intelligence make him much more then a troublemaker.

Test Drive

Nick Is Creative and Intelligent

In the beginning of Andrew Clements's book Frindle, Nick Allen, the hero, appears to be a mischievous troublemaker who enjoys pushing limits in the classroom. But when he takes an idea from his fifth-grade teacher and decides to invent his own word for pen, it quickly becomes apparent that he is a creative and intelligent student.

In the first chapter, Nick shows his ability to make mischief by taking advantage of his inexperienced third-grade teacher to turn the classroom into a tropical island. He gets the other students to make small palm trees out of construction paper and tape them to their desks. He then has all the girls wear flowers in their hair and all the boys wear sunglasses and beach hats. He goes too far on the third day, when he turns the room temperature up to about 90 degrees and spreads fine white sand on the floor. When the custodian complains to the principal about the sand being tracked into the hallway, this episode comes to a sudden end. Although his antics are disruptive, they also show creativity and intelligence.

Nick also demonstrates creativity and intelligence when he turns an idea he gets from television into a means of annoying his fourth-grade teacher. After learning that a bird making a high-pitched peep is impossible for predators to locate because of the way sound travels, Nick begins to peep in his classroom. He and another student continue to peep off and on throughout the school year without ever getting caught.

In coining the word "frindle" as a substitute for pen, Nick shows even greater creativity and intelligence. What begins as a class-stalling technique becomes much more when Mrs. Granger explains to Nick that people determine that "dog means dog." She continues by saying, "But if all of us decided to call that creature something else, and if everyone else did, too, then that's what it would be called, and one day it would be written in the dictionary that way. We decide what goes in that book."

When a friend finds a pen while walking home with Nick, the discovery and Mrs. Granger's words combine to give Nick an idea that he quickly develops into a plan: to make the word frindle mean pen. He starts by going into a store and asking for a frindle, pointing to the ballpoint pens when the clerk looks puzzled. On each of the next five days, he has a different friend go to the same store and ask for a frindle. By the sixth day, the clerk reaches right for the pens and asks, "Blue or black?" The next stage is getting students in the school to use the word frindle instead of pen. The battle that ensues between the students and Mrs. Granger eventually leads to the word being used across the nation.

Although Nick's creative ideas often lead to disruption in classroom routines, they show remarkable intelligence and ingenuity. Mrs. Granger herself recognizes this by secretly encouraging Nick's frindle campaign, even as she seems to battle against it. In junior high school, Nick leads a student boycott of the lousy lunches served by the cafeteria staff that results in getting the school cafeterias to serve delicious food. This shows that Nick also was capable of using creativity and intelligence to improve his life and the lives of others. In the end, while Nick is in college, his creativity and intelligence are rewarded when the word frindle makes it into the dictionary.

Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Teacher: Steve Crimmin Class: 4^th Grade Date 6-30-11 Writing genre: Reports

Topic / Subject / Text

CENTRAL IDEAS

Content: European exploration and settlement of the Americas produced costs and benefits for Europeans and native people.

Reading: (RI.4.3) Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

Writing: W.4.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (A focus must be supported with evidence and reasons.)

Focusing Question

Focus (answer to focusing question)

What are the costs and benefits of exploration?

A European explorer's discovery resulted in costs and benefits for the explorers and for the native people.

Test Drive:

Columbus, Spain, and New World Natives

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west from Spain. He thought that he would find a shorter route to Asia. Instead, he landed in the Bahamas. His voyages led to the discovery of North and South America. Columbus’s discovery resulted in costs and benefits for the explorers and native people.

There were costs for the Spanish explorers. For example, Columbus left crew members from his first voyage to build a village called La Navidad on an island in the Bahamas. When he came back, Columbus found that the native Taino Indians had killed the crew and destroyed the settlement. But the costs were even higher for the natives. Millions died because of forced labor, starvation, or diseases brought by the Spanish. By the end of the 1500s, the Taino people were extinct.

The discovery of the New World also brought benefits for the explorers, Spain, and the natives. After Columbus, Spanish conquerors came and took control of the lands and people there. They found gold and silver that made Spain a rich and powerful country. The Spanish also learned about important foods, like corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, lima beans, peanuts, and cacao. The natives also got some benefits. The Spanish explorers brought new foods and animals to the New World. These included wheat, rice, coffee, bananas, and olives, as well as horses, cows, pigs, and chickens.

Columbus’s discovery of the New World brought costs and benefits to the native people and the Europeans who followed him. The Spanish and other Europeans gained new sources of wealth, useful crops, and new lands to settle in. The natives really got few benefits, but lost their freedom, their land, and often their lives.

Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Teacher: Steve Crimmin Class: 4^th Grade Language Arts Date: 7-19-11Writing genre: Opinion

Topic / Subject / Text

CENTRAL IDEAS

Content: (W.4.1) Write an opinion piece about the main character in a book, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. (In this case, the short story "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes. A boy tries to snatch a woman's purse to get money to buy a pair of blue suede shoes. She stops him, drags him to her home, feeds him, and in the end gives him the money for the shoes. To answer the focus question, students must infer from what the woman tells the boy about her life.)

Reading: RL.4.1. Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Writing: Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details for a constructed respone. W.4.1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

Focusing Question

Focus (answer to focusing question)

Why does Mrs. Jones give Roger money for the blue suede shoes?

Mrs. Jones gives Roger $10 to buy the shoes because she feels sorry for him and because she can remember what it was like to be young and want things beyond her reach.

Test Drive

Why does Mrs. Jones give Roger money for the blue suede shoes?

Even though Roger tried to steal her purse, Mrs. Jones gives him money to buy the blue suede shoes he desired because she feels sorry that he lacks parents who care for him and because she remembers that she was far from perfect when she was young.

Mrs. Jones quickly learns that the boy lacks caring parents. Shortly after preventing him from stealing her purse, Mrs. Jones tells the boy, "Your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain't you got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?

"No'm," said the boy.

When she gets Roger to her house, Mrs. Jones tells him that she was just on the way home to cook herself a bite to eat. "Maybe you ain't been to your supper either, late as it be. Have you?"

"There's nobody home at my house," said the boy.

Mrs. Jones shows sympathy for the boy by allowing him to wash his face and by offering to share her supper with him.

When Roger has finished washing and drying his face, Mrs. Jones surprises him by talking about her own past. "After a while she said, 'I were young once and I wanted things I could not get." This statement is followed by a long pause, during which Roger seems surprised.

Then Mrs. Jones said, "Um-hum! You thought I was going to say, but, didn't you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn't snatch people's pocketbooks. Well, I wasn't going to say that."

After another silent pause, Mrs. Jones lets Roger know that she was not perfect and that she can understand his mistake. "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son – neither tell God, if he didn't already know. Everybody's got something in common."

So in the end, Mrs. Jones gives Roger the money for the shoes because she feels sorry for him and because she understands how he feels. I think she also believed that she had taught him a lesson he would remember for a long time.

Writing for Understanding Instruction
Teacher Plan
Teacher: Patsy Belknap Class:4th grade Date: mid-year Writing genre: Response to Literature
Topic / Subject / Text

CENTRAL IDEAS
Content: Most stories and informational texts have a theme, message, or a big idea that can be inferred from the text. Authors write with an idea in mind that they want readers to think about or learn from their books (author's message). The message that the author wants to give drives the writing, giving the reader a deeper understanding.
Reading: Good readers make inferences as they read about story elements such as character and the underlying message that the author is trying to convey.
Writing: Every piece of writing has a focus and writers support their focus with evidence from the text. Students will write a response to text based on the idea of an author's message. Students will use the idea of an author's message to help with their planning for a narrative piece.

Focusing Question:
What message do you think the author wants the reader to understand at the end of the book?
(Book titles may vary depending on their quality and availability.)

Focus (answer to focusing question):
The author's message may be different for different texts.
Example: in Wilma Unlimited the author wants readers to understand that you have to have perseverance in order to achieve success.
(Scaffolded pieces along the way will have a chosen author's message and students will have input into deciding what the author's message is and how to word it.)

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft:
- Vocabulary development of author's messages (may be specific to the text)
- using picture books, introduce whole class to the idea of elements of a story (build/review knowledge of elements from previous grades)
- knowledge about the elements of a narrative specifically knowledge about author's themes and how they work
- guided reading instruction from read aloud to whole class reading to small group reading
- making independent book choices (teacher-directed)
- oral rehearsal of theme/focus/supporting evidence (pair-share, class discussion, guided conversations)
- introduce assessment tools and benchmark pieces (I will begin collecting these)
- understanding and use of a reading response journal and/or writer's notebook (this will be an ongoing process begun the first week of school)
- dramatizing short plays/Reader's Theater that teach a message (oral rehearsal)
- two-column note format

Structures:
How will students know how to organize their ideas
and construct the piece of writing?

- graphic organizers for elements of a narrative both whole class and individual ones
- whole class charts of several elements with information filled in from several picture book texts that the whole class will share earlier in the year
- Frayer model for perseverance using Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull as an anchor text
- model think-aloud and two-column note-taking using the book Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull (public notes)
- review Painted Essay structure (modeled and created by students earlier in the school year) and use it to color a teacher model of the response to text based on an author's message (I will create this for Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco)
- remind students of the “hamburger model” of paragraph construction for a response to literature
- model a teacher-and-class written response using Wilma Unlimited

Writing / Revising:
How will students draft / revise so that their final writing is clearly focused,
organized, and developed to show understanding of the central ideas?

- Group plan using two-column chart to gather evidence from the text
- Group write on Wilma Unlimited using graphic organizers to plan writing
- write in response journals after discussion
- share/revise in partners
- focus on writing a conclusion using the idea of author's message
- revise/share full group
- orally plan their idea for a written response on small group guided reading book
- write response on author's message about their group book
- share/revise these paragraph writes in their small group
- write in chunks by paragraph, check with peer and give to teacher to review and note before going on
- independent final draft of author's theme writing based on these models and already written paragraphs
- share/revise in writing partners and with teacher
- edit for GUM/proofread

Lesson Sequence:
What steps will I follow so that students are able to effectively
show their understanding in writing?

1) Make a whole class chart of the elements of a narrative [character, setting, motivation, problem(or conflict/challenge), solution/resolution and big idea (lesson/author's message)]. This will be done earlier in the year before writing their first narrative based on a series of Cinderella stories.
2) Refer to this chart as you begin a discussion of the big idea or author's message and come up with a message for at least two picture book previously shared with the whole class. (Some suggestions: Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen or Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting)
3) Discuss vocabulary specific to the idea of an author's message or theme (may want to use a Frayer model on the word theme: it may be stated or implied/inferred, there may be more than one message in a story, usually it relates to a truth or comment about human nature or society, may have a moral or an inspirational lesson) or at least the synonyms of theme: moral, message, lesson or big idea should be reviewed with students.
4) Using Reader's Theater from text, read-aloud/act out short plays that teach a message in small groups (a couple class sessions – students are familiar with Reader's Theater from some buddy work done at the beginning of the year).
5) Read Aloud the book Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krall asking the students to think about the author's message. Pair-share thoughts about the author's message.
6) Write the message as a whole class: Wilma had to have perseverance to overcome many obstacles and be successful. Make a Frayer model for the word perseverance.
7) Take apart the book (copy pages) and have students write captions that tell what the author and illustrator want you to see/notice/think about/learn from each page.
8) Make a two-column chart showing evidence from the text and what it means: example/page from text (problems) in first column and what were the consequences for Wilma in the second column (inferences based on those problems).
9) Together come up with a focus statement related to the author's message such as: Wilma had many obstacles in her life that she had to overcome in order to be successful.
10) Write introductory paragraph together, write paragraph into either writer's notebook or response journal and share it with a partner.
11) Review Painted Essay format for response to literature done earlier in the year by each student. Color code the teacher model of a response to Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco.
12) Continue with the rest of the response to text, one paragraph at a time until this model is completed.
13) In small guided reading groups, students will share a different text that has a strong message. They will read, discuss, and write about the author's message as they share books together using the same process and structures as they used with Wilma Unlimited (I am not sure which books I will choose here and it may change from year to year. I will review specific vocabulary and content knowledge so they will have a clear understanding of their text as each group works together. Some possible texts: Big Al by Andrew Clements, Monty by James Stevenson, The Mountain That Loved a Bird by Eric Carle, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, The Trees of the Dancing Goats , Mr. Lincoln's Way, and Thunder Cake all by Patricia Polacco – I may end up doing an author study of Patricia Polacco's books.)
14) Students will write a response to their guided reading book with all the structures given above and discussion with their reading group as well as whole class discussions before they work on their own response. 15) Finishing their responses by publishing with a cover and sharing with parents and perhaps a buddy classroom within the school.

Assessment:

How are students doing? What are my next steps as a teacher?

- On-going formative assessments by listening to student discussion, reviewing graphic organizers and other short response writing in their journals.
- Self-assessment using response to literature class rubric (will create as a class)
- Rubric that assesses response to literature (may use state rubric for now)
Next steps:
- use the idea of an author's message to help students frame their next narrative writing piece which will be written like a native American legend (add it to the structures needed in planning their narrative)
- try to incorporate these ideas into the Avi author study the 4th graders will be doing – they can write about his message in their reading response journals as part of that unit

Next Steps: Gradual Release of Responsibility:
In 4th grade, they will not be writing another response to literature but hopefully they will use these structures to help them write more independently as they move up the grades. They will use the same structures like the Painted Essay to plan other writing that they will complete in fourth grade. Each time they should be ready to write with a little less scaffolding and intentional structures or framing if they have achieved some level of transfer.

Response to Literature - Test Drive - Whole-class model:

Wilma Rudolph was once the world's fastest woman runner, winning Olympic gold medals for the United States. No one would have expected that to happen when she was a little girl! The book Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull tells her story from when she was born to the amazing achievements she had later in her life. Without perseverance, Wilma would not have been able to overcome the obstacles that she faced in her life.

When Wilma was born, she was a sickly child and no one expected her to live to her first birthday. If someone in her family had a cold, Wilma got “double-pneumonia.” When she was young, she had polio and her left leg twisted inward so doctors said she would never walk again. Because she couldn't walk, she also could not attend school. Wilma had all of these obstacles that she needed to overcome before she could be an athlete: her sickness, not being able to walk, and not being able to attend school.

Wilma worked really hard to overcome these obstacles. She pushed herself to use her leg even when it was really painful. She kept practicing and exercising with her family so she was given a brace and could go to school. One day she decided she wasn't going to use the brace any more and she forced herself to walk without it. Because she worked so hard, she became good at basketball and a fast runner. She was given a scholarship and became the first person in her family to attend college. Due to her perseverance, Wilma overcame all the obstacles that were holding her back.

Wilma Rudolph worked so hard that she was able to overlook obstacles like the heat and a twisted ankle on the day that she won an Olympic gold medal. Kathleen Krull wants readers of Wilma Unlimited to understand that hard work and perseverance will help you overcome many obstacles and you can be successful. Wilma's story is an inspiration for people everywhere.

Interdependence within an ecosystem

Writing for Understanding

Teacher Plan

Teacher Jess Loeffler Class 5^th Grade Date July 2011 Writing genre Report

This unit is part of a yearlong focus on sustainability. The focusing question for this yearlong focus is “How do the decisions that we make impact the environment around us?” and “How is one organism in an ecosystem impacted by others?” Other environmental and social topics will feed into this yearlong focus including local foods, renewable energy, water cycle, waste management and recycling.

Interdependence within an Ecosystem

Content: One organism in an ecosystem is impacted by other organisms.

Reading: Students will read and reread texts and articles to make inferences, paraphrase, establish connections, and identify cause and effect relationship.

Writing: In report writing, students include details to support and develop their focus, draw conclusions, and make connections

to generalize their understanding of interdependence.

Focusing Question

How do habitat and other organisms impact the deer population in Vermont?

Focus (answer to focusing question)

Deer population in Vermont is impacted by the loss of habitat, hunters, natural prey, food sources and the weather.

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft

Establish background knowledge and connections of ecosystems

Frequent outside visits and observations

Reteach paragraph writing

Teach Painted Essay

Teach/Discuss Cause & Effect

Understanding cause and effect relationship in an ecosystem

Vocabulary: interdependence, organism, adaptation, sustainable, ecosystem, food chain, food web, adaptation, carrying capacity, limiting factor, cells, matter, consumer, producer, decomposer, predator, prey, population, habitat, herbivore, carnivore

Frayer Model interconnected, ecosystem, interdependence

Dramatizing- games including Food Chain, Predator Prey and “Oh Deer”

Writer's Craft- introduction, supporting details and conclusions

discussions, public notes, notes in writer's notebook, practice

constructed response models

report models

Texts- Sciencesaurus: A student handbook,

What are Food Chains and Webs? Bobbie Kalman and

Vermont Fish & Game articles and graphs

• teach how to use textbook (headings & subheadings, graphs, tables, maps, typographical features, contents, index, glossary, appendix

• 
  

Text mapping

• 
  

• • I notice, I wonder” interactions with text

Paraphrase and summarize text

• • 
    

• • Structures

• • 
    

• • Teacher-written model that includes context, evidence and from notes

    Teacher-and-student written model (class write)

    Writer's Craft lessons on introduction, using supporting details and conclusions

    Reminders to students about previous work they have done in writing responses

    Template- Painted Essay

    Framed model as needed

    
    

    Writing / Revising

    Students write introductions to focus question

    Students write in chunks and teacher responds with feedback

    Reteaching content happens as needed

    Students make revisions

    
    

    Lesson Sequence

    1. 1. Establish connections to local environment (discussions and journal prompts)

       2. Frequent outside visits and observations will occur throughout the lessons

          - students walk on nature trail and make observations in their science notebook

          - scavenger hunt on nature trail to trigger observations

       3. Kapok Tree

          - read aloud for enjoyment

          - read aloud second time thinking about impact of kapok tree

          - “I notice, I wonder” think/pair/share conversation and group debrief

       4. - introduce focus question “How is one organism in an ecosystem impacted by others?”

          - fill in web as a group that shows the interrelationships between the characters

       5. Take notes in science notebook

          - organism a living thing

          - ecosystem the interaction of all living and non living organisms living together

          - habitat the specific environment that meets an organisms needs

       6. Frayer Model- ecosystem (displayed in classroom)

       7. Identify cause and effect

          - relate to PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention System) and logical consequences

          - match cards with cause and effect

          - role play

          - graphic organizer/ thinking map

       8. Finding Home by Sandra Markle.

          - read aloud for enjoyment

          - read aloud second time thinking about what impacts the koala bears habitat?

          - model of constructed response

          - review parts of paragraph- introductions/supporting details/conclusion

          - group write on “How is the koala bear's habitat impacted by the fire?”

       9. Frayer Model- interconnected

       10. Flute's Journey

           - read aloud for enjoyment

           - read aloud second time thinking about “What organisms impacted Flute's journey?”

           - fill in web that shows the interrelationships between the characters

           - apply new understanding of cause and effect to Flute's journey in graphic organizer

           - constructed response “How did the loss of habitat impacted Flute?”

       11. Read Sciencesaurus (pgs 130-131, 133- 138)

           - teach how to use textbook (headings & subheadings, graphs, tables, maps, typographical features, contents, index, glossary, appendix)

           - Fill in graphic organizer

       12. Discuss and take notes on food chain and food web

       13. Create food web on board based on reading

       14. Do activity with strings in a circle to see how different organisms are connected

       15. Pond Food Web activity

           - identify producers & consumers

           - answer questions about food web

           - sort producers, consumers, and decomposers

           - create food chains with organisms

           - create food web

           - answer questions about one organism being removed from food web?

       16. Frayer Model- interdependence

       17. Play Food Chain Game

           - create web of game

           - discuss “How did you stay alive?” “What resources did you need to stay alive?”

       18. Reread The Great Kapok tree and assign each student a character from the book to create a web. The narrator stands in the center and hands out string to connect them all.

       19. What are Food Chains and Webs by Bobbie Kalman, pgs 6-21)

           these pages introduce the energy pyramid, herbivores, carnivores, producers, predators and prey.

           - complete graphic organizer to show how these are interrelated

       20. Play Predator-Prey game

           - discussion

           - create food web of predator-prey game to use as public notes

       21. Take notes in science notebook on limiting factor, carrying capacity

           - relate to cause and effectively

           - student discussion/ share examples

       22. Students are given a list of organisms and must create a food web connecting them. (including deer)

       23. Class discussion- What do organisms need to survive?

           - habitat

           - food

           - water

       24. Play “Oh Deer”

           - Review limiting factor and carrying capacity and discuss how it relates to deer

           - keep track of data while playing ( # of deer at beginning & end of round)

           - data becomes public notes

           - discussion about game

           - Get in small groups and answer/discuss following questions: What happened if you didn’t get your resources? What impact can a lack of resources have on a community of species ? What do animals need to survive? How do these components impact carrying capacity? What are some limiting factors that affect survival of animals? How do factors limiting carrying capacity affect the healthy, numbers and distribution of animals? How do these affect competition within a species? Why is good habitat important for animals? Are wildlife populations static or do they fluctuate?

           - chart answers as needed- public notes

           - students graph the data that was collected during game

           - in groups students discuss if this data could be accurate

           - Compare game data to Vermont Fish & Wildlife data

       25. Read articles on Vermont Fist & Wildlife website and discuss

       26. Pose question, What factors impact deer population in Vermont?

       27. Complete graphic organizer to help them determine which factors they are going to write about

       28. Reteach Painted Essay as needed (introduction, details, conclusion)

       29. Write report in chunks as teacher reads and responds

           
           

           Assessment

           District report rubric to assess final writing

           other assessments within unit will include:

           district constructed response rubric

           exit tickets

           vocabulary quiz

           notes in science notebook

           connections

           “I notice”, “I wonder” statements

           drama work

           
           

           Next Steps

           The rest of our unit on ecosystems will continue from this point. We will look at adaptations and classification of species.