Running Head: EARTHS STRUCTURE 1

Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure

Andrew Smith
EDU 382
Instructor Wall
September 24, 2014
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 2
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure
Introduction
This three-day lesson plan is designed for a sixth grade inclusion science class, which
means there are students with a range of abilities and intelligences, as well as students with
learning and other disabilities. In the classroom, it is important to create a positive learning
environment, where all the students will have their opinions and individual learning preferences
valued, and mistakes are viewed as stepping stones to successful learning. This will help to
create a safe place to learn because the students will feel included in the learning process, plus
they will be willing to take more risks in their learning if they are not afraid to make mistakes.
This lesson will appeal to all of the students because it will focus on various intelligences
and learning styles. The curriculum approach will involve choice centers and specialists.
Depending on how the centers are set up, there are many ways that the material can be
differentiated so that students will be able to use their preferred learning styles, as well as their
multiple intelligences. When students are able to use their preferred learning styles, they are
more likely to try harder and do their best. Plus, when they are taught through the multiple
intelligences, they can strengthen their weaker ones, while creating understanding through their
stronger ones.
Before the lesson begins, there will be multiple forms of pre-assessments to find what the
students know, what they understand, and what they need to learn next. Assessing student
knowledge prior to the learning experience helps the teacher find out a variety of things,
(Gregory & Chapman, 2013, P. 56, Par. 8) things that will help in the planning of the curriculum
and designing instruction. The types of pre-assessments used would involve different learning
styles and intelligences so that the students could really show what they know, because some
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 3
students may have a harder time expressing their knowledge through just one form. The pre-
assessments will show which students are at what level of mastery, which helps in determining
the differentiation used in the classroom to help all students learn to the best of their abilities.
With all the different types of learners, with their preferred learning styles, and their
multiple areas of intelligence, it is a good idea to prepare alternate assessment plans for the class.
There will be both, formative and summative assessments. This way, the instructor can see if the
students are learning and understanding the material, before moving on to another step in the
lesson. Formative assessments will show if, and where, students are confused about a topic, that
way the instructor can go back and reteach that aspect. This can be done for the total group,
small group, or one-on-one. There are many types of formative assessments, which include pre-
assessments and on-going assessments, and depending on the students and their strengths and
weaknesses in the classroom, would greatly determine which ones were used during the lesson.
Meta-cognitive time is also very important to the learning process. After students learn
something, they need time to digest and think about the information. Journaling is a good
method to do this, it allows the students to think about what they have learned, and it gives them
the chance to write it in their own words. This also increases the retention of the information in
their long-term memory, making recall easier. After learning new chunks of information,
students should do journaling activities, that way they would have meta-cognitive time after each
step in the learning process.
This lesson offers opportunities for projects, creativity, problem solving, and offers
different levels of challenges for students at various levels of mastery. Each day of the lesson the
students will work at a different center, that way the material is taught through multiple methods,
using different areas of intelligence and learning styles. The choice centers will have creative
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 4
projects, ask students real-world, open-ended questions to problems caused by the tectonic plates
(earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc), and will provide challenging work that will still be in
their zone of proximal development. Using specialists will enhance this lesson by offering
multiple resources, such as books, videos, pictures, models, etc., which will offer another level of
differentiation.
During this lesson, the student groupings will fluctuate, from total group, to small group,
and possibly independent. The introduction of the material will involve the total group, with the
teacher addressing the whole class. As the class dives into the work, the students will divide
smaller groups and start the different centers. There will be three centers around the room, one
devoted to computer research, another to multimedia research, and the last one using models of
the tectonic plates, as well as model volcanoes. Each of these centers will also target different
levels of mastery. Students will work in small groups to complete the objectives of the center
where they are working. The teacher and specialists will be available to offer assistance.
The different team members, or specialists, will contribute a great deal to this lesson.
The librarian will be able to provide titles of interesting and informational books about plate
tectonics, the media specialist can provide videos, audio recordings, pictures, etc., and the art
teach can help the student design fun and creative projects that will demonstrate what they have
learned. Utilizing these specialists will allow the teacher to successfully differentiate the material
so that all the students will be able to learn, and demonstrate what they have learned. When we
provide alternative resources to our lessons, as opposed to reading a boring textbook, it makes
the lesson more enjoyable, which is important to learning.
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 5
Core Standards:
Plate tectonics accounts for important features of Earth's surface and major geologic
events, (California Department of Education, 2009).
Assessment tools for data collection:
Pre-assessment will include student interest surveys, graffiti fact boards, and a written
pre-test. On-going assessment will use journals, observations, wraparounds, and exit cards
(grand finale comment). The formative assessment will be based on multiple areas, including
some of the pre-assessments, their journal entries, exit question cards, presentations, the model
they created in the art center, a short essay, a written test with various types of questions, based
off of Blooms Thinking Taxonomy, and will include real-world open-ended questions, and a
rubric that will reflect independent and group work (Instructional strategies that support
differentiated instruction, n.d.).
Essential Questions:
What causes the shift of the tectonic plates, and what are the results of these shifts? What
causes earthquakes? What causes a volcano to erupt? What causes tsunamis? What are the
layers of the Earth, and what are their characteristics?
Content:
Students will know: That the layers of the Earth are the lithosphere, the mantle, and the
core. That the lithospheric plates (tectonic plates) move very slowly, at the rate of a few
centimeters per year. The major geologic features of California, such as mountains like the
Sierra Nevada Mountains, faults like the San Andreas Fault, and volcanoes like Mount Shasta.
Students will understand: That volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are caused by the
movement of the tectonic plates. Students will be able to: Explain geologic events, like the
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 6
formation of mountains, canyons, and other geologic features, in terms of plate tectonics.
Determine the epicenter of an earthquake, and estimate what kind of effects it may have,
depending on the size of the earthquake and where it occurred (Gore, 2005).
Activate:
Pre-assessment will be conducted 2-3 weeks before the lesson begins. The results will
determine what aspects are chosen to study, based on student interest, where to start in the
instruction, based on what students already know, and the student groupings, based on their
levels of mastery. Students will conduct a personal interest survey on the topic of tectonic plates.
Next, the class will create a graffiti fact board with everything they already know about tectonic
plates. Then, the students will take a written pre-test. Multi-media presentation: Destruction
caused by tectonic plates (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes), ask students how these relate to the
tectonic plates. After the presentation, the students will do a journaling activity, writing their
thoughts about what they saw in the videos and pictures.
Acquire:
The results from the student interest survey will be used to ascertain what aspects of plate
tectonics they want to learn more about in-depth. Day 1, students, in small groups, will conduct
research on these areas through the use of the library, online resources, and video, audio, and
pictures provided by the resource specialists. The groups are determined by student interest,
each group will explore a different topic related to plate tectonics. Each student in the group will
use different resources to conduct the research, such as the library, internet, videos, audio,
pictures, maps, and diagrams. That way each student is responsible for a different aspect of the
work. Then the groups will do presentations to the class about what they have learned, while the
other students take notes and the teacher asks question. After presentations, the instructor will
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 7
use a brainstorm response, separate the students into small groups of 3, and share and compare
notes taken during the presentations. Afterwards, the instructor will do a question/answer
assessment to see what the students still need to learn about the topic of plate tectonics, and
design the choice centers. Before leaving, students will fill out exit cards, answering questions
about what they learned that day.
Grouping Decisions:
Day 2, the class will be arranged into the choice centers, determined by student interest
and what they need to learn next to meet the standard. Students will separate into choice centers,
which will be a computer center with access to multimedia resources, a resource center with a
wide variety of resources, maps, diagrams, models, and books, and an art media center to create
models of earthquakes, volcanoes, and Earths layers including the tectonic plates. In these
centers, they will form smaller groups of 3 to complete the project of their work center. Each
student will have two jobs, as listed in Figure 6.6 (Gregory & Chapman, 2013, P. 128, Fig. 6.6).
During the last 10-15 minutes of class, students will do another journaling activity, and fill out
another exit card, but with questions related to the topic they may not quite understand. Day 3,
after students have completed their center project, students will form new groups, with one
student from each center, so that they can share the things they learned.
Assess:
After the groups have discussed the things they learned, each group will fill out a
questionnaire and do a one-on-one presentation for the teacher. While one group is presenting to
the instructor, the others will be filling out their questionnaire. These will be the final formative
assessments before the summative assessment. The final assessment will be multi-faceted,
including a rubric, reflecting independent and group work, their journal entries, other work
Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 8
throughout the lesson, the presentations, an essay, and a quiz with questions addressing multiple
areas of Blooms Thinking Taxonomy. It is important to use multiple forms of assessment
because as the text states, [if] only a final test is given and graded, it may not be a true
indication of students knowledge and skill. They may have had a bad test day or been anxious
about the test, (Gregory & Chapman, 2013, P. 79, Par. 4).
Conclusion
In todays classrooms, with students with a wide range of learning preferences,
intelligences, previous knowledge, and experiences, differentiation is a must. There are many
methods an instructor can differentiate the material, from the types of assessments, activities, and
student groupings, to just name a few. If teachers are to successfully teach their students, they
must start with learning about their students. This can be done through observations, student
surveys, and pre-assessments. The results will give the instructor ideas about how they should
differentiate the material, what levels of mastery they need to target, how they may want to
group students (by interest, learning style, mastery level, etc.), and what the students will need to
learn next in order to meet state standards.


Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 9
References
California Department of Education. (2009, June 11). Science content standards.
Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/sciencestnd.pdf
Gore, P. (2005, March 9). Plate tectonics. Retrieved from
http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/GPS/platetect.html
Gregory, G. & Chapman, C. (2013). Differentiated instructional strategies: One size doesnt fit
all (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Ltd./Corwin Press.
Instructional strategies that support differentiated instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://extranet.das.pac.dodea.edu/principal/Professional%20Articles/Differentiation/
Differentiated%20activities.pdf