Loretta Cruz 3,4,5 Teacher Chelsea Public School
Genre: Report Unit: Desert Animals
Content: Where an animal lives (the desert) influences both its physical and behavioral adaptations it needs to survive in that environment.
Reading: When closely reading complex text, we reread, paraphrase and draw conclusions to gather and evaluate information.
Writing: In responding to a focusing question about a text, we should generate a clear and coherent focus statement, that is supported and explained by evidence. The end product should demonstrate an ability to think critically about the topic.
Focus Question
What physical and behavioral adaptations are needed for the ____________ to survive in the desert?
Focus
The _____________ of the _______________ desert has many adaptations which help it to survive the ___________ conditions.
Building Content Knowledge
- Vocabulary Activities
- Guided Readings
- Summarizing
- Note Taking
- Oral Presentations on their animals
- Discussions following movies, readings and internet clips.
Structures
- Painted Essay Model
- Graphic Organizers
- Teacher-Student written models
- Student models of polar animals or animals of Vermont report
Writing/Revising
Supported Writing
- Review teacher created model
- Write in parts, sharing sections aloud
- Edit and revise with teacher assistance
- Share with full group for critique and revision
Independent Writing
- Review models
- Write full piece independently
- Share and revise in partners
- Proofread in partners
- Conference with teacher
- Share with full group
- Map work identify deserts around the world
- Group discussion : What do we know about deserts? Conditions, plants, animals and the people that live there.
- Watch Planet Earth video on deserts. Use the I notice, I wonder worksheet and have small group discussions.
- Read National Geographic Explorer (NGE) March 2007 article Earth Extremes and complete the graphic organizer to learn about how the conditions of different habitats around the world effect the adaptations that animals need to survive in those conditions.
- Vocabulary work- Define key terms such as desert, adaptations, physical and behavioral adaptations, survival, nocturnal, mimicry, camouflage, migration, echolocation and autonomy. Use terminology graphic organizer with on going unit activities.
- Introduce terminology worksheet and model how to use with the word desert.
- Read NGE January/February 2008 article Lizards: Great Escape Artists. Key terms covered and to be put on terminology worksheet include adaptation, physical and behaviorial adaptation and autonomy.
- Read NGE September 2009 article Fooled You! Key terms to be covered and to be put on the terminology worksheet include mimicry.
- Read NGE October 2008 article Living Lights. Key terms to be covered and to be put on the the terminology worksheet include camouflage.
- Read NGE October 2004 article Night Shift. Key terms to be covered and to be put on the terminology worksheet include nocturnal and echolocation.
- Read NGE November/December 2010 article Great Migrations. Key terms to be covered to be put on terminology worksheet include migration.
*An archive of National Geographic Explorer magazines can be found online.
Writing
- Group students in supportive partnerships to select and research a desert animal. Follow up with sharing, group discussions and oral presentations.
- Break up into three groups based on the level of support needed by those students. Teacher with structure and support the students on an individual basis.
Assessment
- Student self assesses against a report rubric
- Teacher assesses looking for patterns. Then gives suggestions for improvement in G.U.M and rhetorical effectiveness.
Next Steps
Each year in a three year cycle students gain more responsibility and writing independence as they become more familiar with the process of gathering information and constructing a response specifically related to physical and behavioral adaptations that an animal needs to survive.
I use a lot of these articles too to teach the same concepts you are teaching. It was fun watching you organize all the magazines so you can use them so effectively. Thanks for the modeling for me! I wonder if it might help kids get ready for the thinking about the final writing task if you help the kids organize evidence during the reading into behavioral and physical adaptations so they will get used to sorting evidence into those two groups. These lists could come from a variety of animals, while their final project will only be for one animal. The differentiation you provide by dividing the kids into small based on needs will be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a great idea to use National Geographic Explorer Magazines to teach the background knowledge for your student's desert reports. You could have your students do power point presentations along with their oral presentations. I am going to try a similar lesson but have my students write polar animal reports. I also like Bonnie's idea of having the students organize evidence of behavioral and physical adaptations in a 2 column chart.
ReplyDeleteYou have a wonderful plan for building content knowledge. And I too love using National Geographic Explorer articles with my students, they are very informative and engaging. There was a great article about owl adaptations that came out a few years ago. It would go along well with this unit. I wonder if you could find it in the archives.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how you have a plan for your students to do their research in "supportive pairs," this is usually the step that takes a long time and can be extremely difficult and overwhelming for some students.
Hi Loretta: This is fantastic. I'm looking forward to using this unit to not only increase our students' content knowledge and critical thinking skills, but to enhance their ability to state and stick to their focus in a written report. In reflection, I think that when when the kids worked on Polar animal adaptions last year they/ we were focused more on the content than a balance between that and how you write a report and why. I think that using your planner as our backwards design tool will ensure that we make, "how to write a focused, clear report" an essential part of the unit. I look forward to working together again soon. Hope you are feeling great and enjoying the summer! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your feedback. I look forward to using this lesson with my collegues and students when I return to school. Like all units I'm sure after this first test run I will have changes to help make this a better lesson for all of our students.
ReplyDelete