dTPA Indirect Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Environmental
Change
______________________________________________________________________
Big Idea: The big idea in this lesson will be changes that take place in different animals
environments and what the pros and cons are of these environmental changes.
Grade Level: 4th Grade
NC Essential Standard(s): 4.L.1.1 Give examples of changes in an organisms environment
that are beneficial to it and some that are harmful.

Next Generation Science Standard(s): 3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a
particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot
survive at all. [

Four Strands of Science Learning: Which of the Four Strands are emphasized in your lesson?
List each applicable Strand and provide an example of where it is present in the lesson.
Strand 1: Students throughout the lesson are defining what environmental change is, and they
are working to understand what this means, through reading about examples during the explore
phase, discussing examples verbally during the explain phase, and in writing during the elaborate
phase.

Strand 2: Students take the research that they are given and act as scientists by reading,
examining, and discussing it with their group. They generate their scientific evidence and
examples of environmental change.

Strand 3: Students make connections with this concept and the real world. This whole lesson has
strand 3 embedded in it because students are seeing examples of environmental change in the
real world, especially since the articles they read and discuss are current events.
Strand 4: Students share with the class their findings in their group, and the whole class has a
whole class discussion and share of their topics during the explain phase.

21st Century Skills:

Communication: Throughout this lesson there is a lot of student communication. During the
explore phase, students are working in groups, and they are discussing their topic. During the
explain phase, the entire class comes together for discussion and sharing. Students share what
they learned about their topic with the rest of the class. Then during the elaborate phase, students
communicate in writing about what they learned and to possibly inform somebody else about
environmental change who is unfamiliar with it.
Collaboration: There certainly is lots of collaboration in the explore part of this lesson. Students
read and examine their groups pictures together, and they discuss together about their topic, so
they are ready to share with the rest of the class.

Informational Literacy: Students explore their groups assigned topic by reading informational
text, as well as examining photographs that relate to their topic.
Creativity: Students are given a little bit of creativity, as they are able to be creative in their
writing during the elaborate phase of the lesson. Students can be creative in their text, as well as
in their drawing.

Academic Language Demand

Language Function: In the table below highlight the one most important language
function for your lesson. Explain why you chose this.
Analyze
Interpret

Argue
Predict

Categorize
Question

Compare/contrast Describe
Retell
Summarize

Explain

Explain is one of the major academic language demands in this lesson because students are
taking the information they have learned about environmental changes in different environments,
and they have to explain really what are the good things that come from environment changes,
and what is the harm that comes as a result of these changes.
Scientific Vocabulary: What are the key scientific terms that your students will learn
through this lesson? Environmental change
Instructional Objective: After reading, exploring, and discussing environmental current events,
students will be able to give examples of changes in an organisms environment and explain the
benefits and harm from these changes accurately.

Prior Knowledge (student): Students will have prior knowledge from material previously
covered in this unit of study, including the topics of biomes, ecosystems, and animal adaptations.

Content Knowledge (teacher): One of the things that comes up in the news sometimes is
environmental change. Lots of the times this type of news is negative. We hear about global
warming and how the ice is melting; we hear about animals becoming endangered or even
extinct because humans are overhunting animals in a particular environment. Changes to animals
and the environments around us are always happening. Change is a never ending process in life.
Environmental change is where an environment undergoes a change, including possibly how it
looks, what the temperature is, possibly how big it is, what animals live there, and possibly how
well things grow there. These are all things that can be used to describe how an environment can
change. Of course environmental changes happen as the result of something. It could be
something humans are doing; it can be because of something animals are doing; it can be
happening because of a combination of both; it can also be because of an unknown reason. One
thing is clear; environmental changes happen all the time, and these changes effect animals; they
also can effect humans and plants, as well as the land in an environment. Environmental change
can be good and bring about good changes, but environmental changes can also bring about
undesirable things and harmful effects.
One environmental change that is happening right now as we speak around the world is
the environmental changes going on in and around coral reefs. Right now it is estimated that
more than half of the worlds coral reefs are going to disappear in the next 25 years. The
environmental change that is causing this is the rising temperatures throughout the world. Rising
temperature is a threat to the reefs, and coral reefs are not only important because of their beauty
but also because they are home to dozens of species of animals. The rising temperatures today
are really playing a big part in the survival of these reefs. Global warming plays a big part in the
reason why the temperatures are rising. On a side note, one weather factor that destroys some
coral reefs are cyclones. These deadly ocean storms can rip through and do lots of damage to
reefs.
Another environmental change happening across the world currently is Artic biomes are
breaking apart because ice is melting. Places like Antarctica are breaking apart, resulting in a
balance being thrown off in this areas ecosystem. Many animals live on ice. Also plants and
shrimplike crustaceans called krill grow on ice, so if the ice melts and breaks apart, these
organisms wont have an environment to live in. Penguins also live on ice, and scientists are
predicting that some species may not survive and will become extinct because of this situation.
The Adelie penguin is one of these examples. Ice chunks are breaking apart and falling into the
ocean every day. Ice melting is at its worst during the summer time, when temperatures are a bit
higher. This melting is taking place in areas in Alaska too. Emperor penguins are said to be at
risk because of the ice melting as well. Scientists have claimed that they believe the Antarctic
Peninsula is warming 5 times faster than the average rate of global warming.
Finally another environment that doesnt get much attention that is undergoing environmental
change is grasslands. One of the changes that is impacting this environment is urbanization. The
population in grassland areas have increased over the years, and a lot of open areas have become

areas for farming. This development has resulted in animals being driven out of their habitats and
the conditions in the environment have changed as well. Farming has decreased food source for
many different animals in the area. Hunting in grasslands has also effected things. Poachers for
example have tried to hunt rhinoceros for their tusks and elephants for their ivory, which may
benefit humans because they can make money by selling these, but this has had a negative
impact because this reduces the animal population. Another environmental change in the
grasslands is wildfires, which come as a result of the dry land, and because of these fires land
gets burned and destroyed.

Connections to Students Lives: The topic of environmental change is relevant to students

lives because the changes that take place in different environments affects conditions of our
planet, and of course planet earth is our students home as well as everyone elses home.
Environmental change might also be happening close to home in Charlotte. There are different
animals in NC and in other states that are becoming extinct because of environmental changes.

Accommodations for Students with Special Needs

Struggling Readers/ EC: For this lesson, each group is heterogeneously grouped; each group
has high, middle, and low students, so each group will be able to help one another out. Higher
students can read the articles out loud for the group. This lesson is also accessible to all students
because although this particular student cant read, they can use the pictures to grasp concepts.
AIG/ advanced: These students can be challenged by asking them higher level questions during
the whole class discussion, such as application questions like what would you do to make the
environment better . These students can also have their elaborate assignment extended; they
can their piece of writing on 2 or 3 topics, instead of just 1, or they could do 2 or 3 pieces of
writing.

Materials and Technology Requirements: Smart Board, Teacher PowerPoint (COPY OF THIS
ON WIKI) AND the following informational current event articles on environmental change, as
well as picture handouts. The class will be split into 4 groups of 4; each group will be assigned 1

of the 4 topics of environmental change, so each group will get 2 copies of their particular article
and pictures.

AFRICAN GRASSLAND ARTICLE

http://classroom.synonym.com/impacts-humans-grassland-biomes-2594.html

PENGUINS ARTICLE
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748563

1882

2005

1917

2005

Same place in Alaska

ANTARTICA ARTICLE
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749276

1917

2005

Same place in Alaska

1882

2005

CORAL REEF ARTICLE

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7854

before and after a cyclone

before and after due to temperature change.

Total Estimated Time: How long do you expect your lesson will take? Four 30 minute class
sessions
Source of Inspiration for the Lesson: This idea of this lesson was completely my original idea.
I just pulled the articles off line, as well as the pictures by doing my own research on different
environments in the world and how they are changing.

Safety Considerations: None really need to be taken for this lesson, as its very simple and safe.
Content and Strategies (Procedure)
Engage:
Note for this lesson, the class of 16 is split into 4 groups of 4, and they are already seated in
quads. In this lesson students will remain in their quads. To begin the lesson, pull up on the smart
board the teacher PowerPoint. Start off by asking students what environment do we live in. (You
will get answers like the city, the USA, NC, Charlotte etc) Go to slide 3 and click on the link.
This website will show students pictures of the city of Charlotte today. Go through and have
students take a look at these pictures. Ask them what they notice, and how would they describe
our environment that we are in today. Next, go to slide 4. Click on the link that will take students
to pictures of what Charlotte looked like in the 1800s and 1900s. Go through and show students
these pictures of what Charlotte used to look like. Ask students to describe what they are seeing
and what their thoughts are.

Explore: For the explore part of this lesson, students will work in quads. Each quad will be
assigned a particular topic/environmental change. Although students wont be told the topic by
environmental change names. The groups will be as followed, Plight of the Penguins, Coral
Reefs, Grasslands, and Antarctica. Each group will be given 2 copies of an article on their topic,
as well as 2 copies of pictures that support the article and topic they are assigned. For example,
one group will be given the article about coral reefs; they will get 2 copies of the article. Also
they will get 2 copies of the supporting pictures that show examples of environmental changes in
coral reefs. Before passing out the articles and research, let students know they will be acting like
scientists. Good scientists do research, and they also go over their research and discuss it with
others to learn things. Your research has already been done, so it is your job as scientists to look

over it and talk about it with your group, and discuss what you are discovering in the research.
What are you learning and finding? Turn to slide 5 in the PowerPoint. Let students know that in
their group what they will be doing, which is again each group will be getting research on a
particular environment. As a group they are to read over the research and take a look at the
pictures they are given, and then they are to talk as a group about it, and what they are learning.
Let students know that after they have had time to look over the research, they will be expected
to share their findings with the class. On slide 5 are questions each group should be able to share
when the whole class comes back together. Have students answer these questions on paper in
their science journals prior the whole class/ explain part of this lesson.

Explain: Turn to the Power Point slide 6; please note the slide that says group 2 Polar Bears can
be disregarded, as there will not be a group 2, since there were only 16 students in this class.
There is a slide dedicated to each group. Display the appropriate slide for each group when each
group shares. For the explain portion of the lesson, come back together as a class. Go around and
have each group share what their group discovered in their research. Use open ended questions to
facilitate discussion; when appropriate, students in other groups may chime in to add their
thoughts, connections, etc to the discussion. Open ended discussion questions include what topic
did your group read about? What did you think about your topic? What changes did you see
happening in your groups environment? What were some of the positive and good things about
these changes? What were some of the bad things about all these changes? How have these
changes affected animals that live there? What can you tell the class about the pictures that were
a part of your research? Is there anything else youd like to share that your group learned about
your topic. Continue to go through and allow each group to share. Continue asking students the
open ended question to facilitate discussion. Use the pictures up on the smart board slides in the
discussion, and use them to help students talk about their topic and about the pictures
themselves. Where appropriate during the discussion, introduce to students the term
environmental change. At the end summarize the discussion by adding in that there are many
different environments in the world. Some are changing now; some have changed in the past,
and some are continuing to change now, as well as some will change in the future. Some of these
changes bring about good things, while others bring about bad things. Sometimes the animals
that live there benefit, and sometimes they suffer. It just depends on what the change is, and what
environment they are in.

Elaborate: For the elaborate portion of this lesson, students will take what they have learned
during the explain and explore phase, and they will pick one of the 4 environmental change
topics to write about. Students will take their topic that they have chosen, and they will write
either a letter to inform somebody else unfamiliar with the topic about the particular
environmental change, or students will write a newspaper article to inform others unfamiliar with

the topic about the particular environmental change. Students must make sure their piece of
writing meets the basic requirements. The basic requirements for their piece of writing are as
follows: the writing has a title; the writing names the environment; the writing gives information
about changes going on in this environment; the writing discusses the positive things about these
changes; the writing discusses negative things about these changes; the writing includes
information about the animals that live in the environment and how these changes affect them,
and there is a picture that goes along with the writing.

Evaluate: For this lesson, there will not be a separate evaluation portion of the lesson. In fact,
students will be evaluated informally throughout the entire lesson, during the explore phase, the
explain phase, and during the extend phase. During the explore phase and the explain phase, the
teacher will ask students questions to check for understanding of the concept of environmental
change. Questions include but are not limited to, what is environmental change, how can an
environment change, is it always bad, can it be good, what are some examples of these changes
being good or bad? The students work during the elaborate part of the lesson will also be
evaluated based on the specified basic writing requirements as specified above: the writing has a
title; the writing names the environment; the writing gives information about changes going on in
this environment; the writing discusses the positive things about these changes; the writing
discusses negative things about these changes; the writing includes information about the
animals that live in the environment and how these changes affect them, and there is a picture
that goes along with the writing. The quality of student writing will be informally evaluated and
to see if they have an understanding of what environmental change is, and if the students can
really explain it.