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Planning For All Learners Lesson Title: What can we do minimize our impact on climate? Grade Level: Grade 5 Subject: Science, Social Studies, and English Language Arts Unit: Global climate and global culture Abstract:
This unit plan is designed to develop students understanding of the relationships between weather phenomenon and human activity. This unit plan will make cross-curricular connections between Science, Math, Social Studies, Art, and English Language Arts. This unit plan is based on the over arching question: How is climate related to human activity? Students will look at this question over a six week time period. Each week the students will look at a smaller aspect of the question that will in turn aid them in answering the bigger question.
PRE PLANNING
Big Ideas
How is climate related to human activity? Explore this question through the perspectives of different cultures, different people and through student identity.
Essential Questions:
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday What characterizes weather patterns and climate? How are weather patterns in your cultural homeland similar/different to Canada? How is the natural environment viewed in different cultures? How do natural resources affect different cultures? How does human activity affect climate? What can we do minimize our impact on climate?
Objectives:
1. 2. 3. 4. Students will have an understanding of the suns energy on climate. Students will have awareness of human activity on climate. Students will have an understanding of predicting weather and how to describe climate. Students will have an understanding how their routines and activities affect the environment.
Rubric for Summative project Graphic novel. Domain: Composition the degree to which the designer uses previous lesson material, the manner in which they convey the information, the clearness of ideas conveyed, composition of the final product, and how effective use of the story arc present. Components: Ideas/Focus Ideas Convey orally, verbally or visually. Research Creativity Story Arc
LESSON OPENING:
Describe the opening activity. It should establish a purpose, be engaging and activate prior knowledge. Include a plan for explicitly sharing learning objectives, summative assessment and learning outcome expectations.
Exploration:
DAY 1
ACTIVITIES A PROVINCIAL SCALE Exploring renewable resources in different countries- how many kinds are there? (Students will research renewable resources in region they tracked temperature in) What percentage of the total energy sources are renewable? -Students will compile information into a pie chart (students can label diagram in their home language) -As a class, we will compare these pie charts to the pie chart of energy consumption for Alberta http://www.energy.alberta.ca/
For all articles used students have access to the article prior to the class. Teacher has hi-lighted key words that all students need to translate and define. Words will be added to the word wall. Multilingual dictionaries & picture dictionaries available in the classroom. However, expecting students to look up every word is unrealistic and an ineffective use of time. All students are taught strategies to define words: context clues, picture clues, look for cognates and peer support. (Celic & Seltzer, 2013) Students will compile information into a pie chart. Information is complied in either home language and presenting in classroom language Students can label diagram in their home language and classroom language Work in groups that support peer tutoring in home or classroom language
Summative Project:
Student will choose one of the regions they researched in the previous weeks Reflecting on the previous weeks activities and Implementing key vocabulary and aspects of previous learning (weather patterns, climate comparisons, Survey Monkey results) students will be asked to create a short graphic novel around one environmental issue in the region they chose Using elements of design, perspective, depiction, and representation, students will create an illustrated short story Two formats are available to students - Paper and pencil or ToonTastic, an iPad app
Use a story arc Create a script Use home and classroom language Allows for students to develop handwriting skills in both home and classroom languages Appropriate representations of script through imagery Identity text
Toontastic Format
An excellent resource for EBLs to work within an established story arc format Allows for voice-overs Students create a script of their online comic (before or after) Use of home language is encouraged during the process Also translation form home language into classroom language for presentation to the class Access to visuals and also ability to draw on to the page. Identity text Students will be given time every day during week six in order to review course material and revise their graphic novel. Summative project goal: chose topic, work on story arc and develop characters.
We have explored what we can do as a province to reduce our environmental impact, but what can we do as a school? Last week we did a school-wide survey using Survey Monkey to collect data on the ways we impact the environment in the school Looking at our results, what are some ways we can explore how to change our habits as a school? Do we have measures implemented to reduce our energy consumption?
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/solutions/actions/index.html As a class, we will look at the What you can do section of A students guide to global climate change. Students ask themselves if these a reasonable measures to put in place in
a school, or if they already use them. Do they see other people in the school doing these things? Is there information about them? Take-home question: Do I do any of these things at home? Does my family know about these methods of reducing energy consumption? What other ways are there? (Discuss with family in home language, sign on to voice thread and identify main words in home language-give class language translation) LAP AND TRANSLANGUAGING Use the websites in groups and consult Google translate, picture dictionaries as needed. For additional help students can access "Awesome Talkster" a program that reads online text aloud. http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Awesome_Talking_Library.html#loadversion2
Scaffold difficult content with continuous use of the Word Wall Engage families on classroom content with monthly newsletter of class activities For Google searches use the home language version of Google when necessary Omniglot is a great resource for students to use for research http://www.omniglot.com/
Place-mat activity students get into groups of 4 and discuss topicsHow can we use these methods at home, new ideas your family came up with Students can also represent their ideas with pictures; this can be a good priming activity for graphic novel design
Are these methods of being environmentally friendly difficult to implement? Why or why not? These are the words we associate with these ideas Review Voice Thread, get one or two students to present their Voice thread to class
LAP AND TRANSLANGUAGING Students can discuss in class language when possible, and write down ideas in home language, substituting words in language where possible Using voice thread students can record in home languages, use images or write in either home or classroom language
DAY 4 ACTIVITIES ON AN INDIVIDUAL SCALE: We have learned new ways of minimizing our impact on the environment. Now we have to spread the word! Scenario:
A new school is looking to implement environmentally friendly practices. What advice would you give to a student from that school? Write an email to that student offering them ideas!
You can choose to follow this format, although it allows for flexibility
To whom this may concern, I understand you are. Here are some ideas you could Good luck! Your Name, (signature) School name
LAP AND TRANSLANGUAGING Review salutations for letter in different languages. Write an email in classroom language - home language Use translanguaging skills to translate emails so they can be sent to multiple destinations
Adapted from: Planning Effective Instruction (Price , Nelson 2007)
DAY 5 ACTIVITIES Reflection: We now know ways we can all minimize our impact on the environment. Does every country promote these methods? Is environmental responsibility a priority for all countries? Why or why not? Draw on the topics weve discussed about resources, climate, and culture, to reflect on the reality of these ideas in Canada and the country you have researched. LAP AND TRANSLANGUAGING
Students can write reflection in home language, inserting classroom language when possible Students can write in classroom language, using home language for difficult words Allows for reflection on routines and habits in home country
Summative project goal: Students will present their graphic novels to the class on the final day. The paper graphic novels will be bound and kept in a prominent place within the classroom and in throughout the school. As well, families will have access to the online graphic novels and paper copies will be sent home too. Students can translate their graphic novels to make them accessible to other classes, family and classmates.
Explanation:
The activities in this lesson tend to centre on discussion and exploration. New topics will be discussed as a class and the corresponding vocabulary will be displayed on the Word Wall in the languages represented in the class. New findings related to climate and environmental issues will be collected and posted on the Bulletin Board, in whichever language they are found in. Websites and resources for multilingual sources relevant to the unit theme will be attached to the newsletter sent home monthly, so that parents can the opportunity to explore these with their children. Classroom discussion and display will be a method of focusing information and highlighting important topics. The teacher will also demonstrate activities and break them down into step-bystep processes that the students can follow. Words essential to certain activities and understandings will be highlighted so students know what to focus on. This can help students whose home language is not the classroom language, as it can give them time to prepare before class activities and group discussions. Students will also be asked to draw on personal experience and opinion for many of the activities and discussions. The teacher will help them understand how the topic relates to the daily lives. Students will be encouraged to brainstorm in their home language, substituting classroom language where possible, and discuss ideas with the whole class in classroom language. Students will also be encouraged to utilize drawing and depiction when they are trying to establish meaning.
Extended Practice:
Students will learn multiple ways of organizing data. They will learn how to do so manually and on the computer. Throughout this unit students will have the opportunity to explore their graph-making skills in Microsoft Excel. They will use Excel to create line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts. Throughout these exercises, students will gain a deeper understanding of what types of presentation are the most appropriate for certain data. Using resources on the Alberta Government website, students will be able to explore different presentations of information and compare them (Ex. Energy by the numbers). Students will also have sufficient practice in creating comics or graphic representations of stories. In this lesson plan they will have the option of utilizing ToonTastic to create a short graphic novel. Earlier in the unit they were asked to use Toondoo.com to create short comics. The summative graphic novel will be a demonstration of the skills they have learned in storytelling, graphic representation, and the multimedia technologies they have used.
Closing:
The main question of this unit centres on an exploration of climate as it relates to human activity. Throughout this unit, students will study their environments and characterize them based on research and observation. Students will then take these descriptions and compare environments, investigating the differences and how they have affected the cultures in that region. Students will explore relationships with land, and the different ways in which certain cultures view those relationships. These perspectives will then be applied to the natural resources present in regions, and the ways in which certain cultures have used them. The class will then investigate how the harvesting of these natural resources has affected the economy and society. Students will then explore human pollution and the ways in which the climate is changing. The main theme of this unit will conclude with students investigating the ways certain cultures view environmental responsibility and what that concept means to them as individuals.
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