Saint Marys College of California

P.O. Box 4350, Moraga, CA 945754350

tel. 925.631.4700 fax

LESSON PLAN #__8__

Learning Segment Focus or Big Idea: Reviewing the Unit
Grade: 4

Content Area: Science

Time Allotted: 45 minutes

Classroom organization: Small groups of 5, whole class.

Resources and materials: Review graphic organizer, smart board, interactive jeopardy board.
Content Standard(s): NGSS - ESS3.A: Natural Resources - Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from natural
sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways, Some resources are renewable over time, and others are
not.
Specific Academic Learning Objectives:
What do you want students to learn in this lesson? Students will learn: Over the past unit, students have been
presented with a lot of terms and ideas in regards to the current drought in California. In this lesson, students will
have a review of the major points and terms that have been covered.
What should students be able to do after the lesson? Students will be able to: After the lesson, students will be
reminded of everything that has been covered since we started the unit. They will also feel more comfortable and
familiar with these terms and ideas before creating a project in lesson 9.
Prerequisites:
What skills, knowledge and prior experience do students need for this lesson? Students have all had 7 lessons on
the California drought including a field trip to a nearby watershed.
How will you determine whether students have these? I will determine whether students have these by first, giving
them an opportunity to review all of the terms together in their table groups. Then, we will review as a whole
class.
How will you connect to students' interests, backgrounds, strengths and needs, including their
cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic differences? I will connect to students backgrounds by not introducing any
new information. Students, together, will review what they have learned throughout the unit. They will review in
small groups and together as a whole class.
Key ELD Standard(s):
Academic language demands:
What academic language is used in the lesson? (Vocabulary, language structure and conventions,
genres, symbols, etc.) The academic language used in the lesson include the terms: drought, climate,
groundwater, freshwater, saltwater, condensation, evaporation, infiltration, precipitation, and runoff.
What are the language demands of the task? Please address receptive (listening, reading) and productive
(speaking, writing) skills. The language demands of the task include listening to their peers, reflecting
over the past unit, expressing their own ideas about what they have learned, and writing those ideas
down.

Accommodations (to ensure all students have access to the curriculum):

How will you make the academic language accessible to all students? There will be no new information and no
new terms introduced. In order for students to access the academic language they will be able to use any notes
they have and rely on their table groups to remember the definitions of terms we have covered and answers to
questions.
How will address the specific needs of your English learners? Students will be able to use notes and work in a
small group.
How will you address the specific needs of your students with special needs? Students will be able to use notes
and work in a small group.
Assessment:
What evidence of student learning will you collect? I will collect the review graphic organizers that students create
together and make notes while we are playing jeopardy as a whole class.
How will you use this evidence? I will use this evidence to determine how much information students have
retained from the past unit. I will decide if students have enough information to create their own projects in the
following lesson or if they need more time to review.
What criteria will you use to interpret the evidence? I will refer back to the standards and the unit plan guidelines.
How will the evidence affect your next steps in teaching? This evidence will help me decide if students are ready
to create a final project or if they need more time to review.
Instructional Sequence:
Time

Set or introduction:
How will you begin the lesson? How will you engage and motivate learners, connect to prior experience,
activate prior knowledge and/or share learning outcomes?
1. To begin the lesson, I will tell remind students that we have covered a lot of material over the past few
weeks. I will also tell students I am very proud of them for working hard, questioning the drought, and
figuring out how much water they use.
2. Then, I will tell students that today is a day for review. Together, we will review all of the terms and main
ideas that have been covered in this unit.
3. First, in their table group, students can use any notes that they have to fill out a graphic organizer about the
drought. This graphic organizer will be their cheat sheet during jeopardy. Students have 15 minutes to work
together and create notes to use during jeopardy.
4. Then, students need to put everything away on their desks except the graphic organizers they have filled out
in their table groups.
Developing Content/Body of Lesson: What instructional strategies and learning tasks will you use in the main
part of the lesson?
1. After students have cleared their desks, I will explain the rules of jeopardy.
2. I have created an interactive jeopardy game that is compatible with our SMARTboard. When students decide
on a category and point value, they click on it and it flips to ask them the question. In this version of
jeopardy, all groups have the opportunity to answer a question. When a question is asked, students have to
write their answer on one white board per group of 5. Then, when they finish they hold up their whiteboard
with their answer already written. All groups of students whos answers are correct get the points. In one
round, all groups of 5 could each get 100 points. In this version, all students are paying attention and have
the opportunity to get points.
3. There will be 4 categories for jeopardy: Drought, Water Cycle, Freshwater, Miscellaneous.
4. The questions include: define the term drought, define the term climate, what is groundwater?, how is
groundwater used? how much freshwater is in the world? How much saltwater is in the world? Where is
most of the freshwater in the world? List the times you use water every day. Where does our water come
from? What is condensation? What is evaporation? What is infiltration? What is precipitation? What is
runoff? What are ways to save water? What are ways to educate the public about the drought?
5. We will go through all of these questions in a jeopardy format.

Checks for Understanding / On-going informal assessment:

How will you know what students are understanding? (questioning and observing throughout the lesson)
1. Throughout the lesson, I will be checking for students understanding. In this review it will be easy to see what
students remember and what we need to clarify.
Closure:
How will learners summarize or reflect on what they learned (for example, share work, share a strategy, share a
process, discuss what they learned, raise a new question)?
1. At the end of the lesson, I will have students meet me in a circle on the carpet to talk about the lesson. I will
ask students how the unit has been and for them to share what they have taken away throughout this unit.
2. I will ask students and discuss, Should students learn about the drought in school?.
3. We will reflect over the unit and what has been important and what has been helpful in raising our awareness
about the drought.
Extending the Lesson/Homework (optional):
Reflection, Next Steps: