This video is an excellent BEFORE READING STRATEGY when attached to the following lesson plan. It will introduce your students to the vocabulary and concepts of this lesson, putting the written information into a visually appealing format, while the vocabulary is narrated for them, allowing for proper pronunciation to be learned. This will help students to understand the vocabulary and concepts in an entertaining way, while also helping your ELL students with content, context and pronuniciation through a multisensory input experience. The use of cognates is also part of this lesson.

 

This could be used to facilitate individual learning for those students who are better with visual learning, who prefer to learn at their own pace, or who prefer online learning. Much like the Khan Academy has done with its self-paced and self-learning model, these kinds of digital lessons can be a successful tool in educating learners in an alternative and stimulating way. This lesson could easily be adapted for an online lesson with the use of Powerpoint and online learning software.

 

I would be happy to share these lesson plans with anyone in the my content area. Please feel free to take these lesson plans (you can alter them as you need), and the video (which is accessible on Youtube) and use them in your classroom. You will note that I have underlined and emboldened reading strategies, as well as highlighted the areas that pertain to reading skills, ELL's, as well as the area that pertains to using a Graphic Organizer for independent practice as homework. This can be found on the Graphic Organizers page of this website.

Happy Learning!

 

 

Environmental Awareness: How are Humans Impacting the Environment & What Can We Do to Help?

 

http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewResource/Preview/34942

Subject(s): NGSSS: Social Studies, CCSS: English Language Arts

Standard(s): SS.912.G.5.4

Students will analyze various documents and medium to evaluate how humans impact the diversity and productivity of ecosystems and use the evidence presented to propose a way to solve the issues in an informative essay.

Grade Level(s): 9, 10, 11, 12

Instructional Time: 110 minutes (two days- 55 minute block)

Vocabulary Keywords: environment, ecosystem (cognate: ecosistema), ocean, pollution, oil spill, litter, recycling (cognate: reciclar)

Objectives:Students will analyze the various ways that humans are negatively impacting the environment, particularly marine ecosystems, and will use this evidence to find solutions to the various problems.

Students will write an informative essay with evidence supporting their thesis with information from articles studied in the lesson to explain how humans are harming ecosystems and what impact it has on those ecosystems, as well as offer solutions to the future.

 

Introduction:

DAY ONE

How many of you have ever thrown a bottle or wrapper down on the ground? Have you ever dumped anything in the ocean while at the beach? Do you think such small things really have THAT much of an impact on the environment? If every person on the planet said no, and every person littered or polluted the ocean, just a little bit, how bad do you think it would get then? Today and tomorrow we are going to explore those issues and find out just how we impact the environment in negative ways, but also, how we can positively effect change on it too.

Modeled:

Teacher will read aloud the vocabulary that is being presented via overhead projection for the students to write in their journals. (BEFORE READING STRATEGY)Teacher will introduce the word recycle last. Teacher will ask the students if they know the root of the word RECYCLE. RECYCLE comes from the Greek root word cycl which means “circle.” The Greeks came to the root word cycl, because of the wheel, which is a “circle,” was one of the greatest inventions of all time. RECYCLE means to repeat the cycle or circle. Therefore RE (short for repeat) combines with CYCLE (circle). Does it sound similar to a word in any other language? RECICLAR is the Spanish word that translates to RECYCLE. To repeat the cycle or CICLO (or pattern) in Spanish. Two words, two languages but they have the same root word and meaning. Teacher will offer students extra credit if they can find any other cognates in the vocabulary list and bring the word and its cognates and the roots of the words to the next day’s class.

 

Students will watch the Digital Video Story by Tracey Thaden (Youtube video at the top of the webpage) If you cannot see it, then you may find it at the following link:( Vocabulary Digital Story ) to become more familiar with the vocabulary and topic.

 

Following the video, students will conduct a short class discussion led by the teacher to allow students to discuss their responses to the following five questions and debate the issues presented in the video.

 

Questions the teacher will ask to facilitate the discussion are:

1. What is an environment?

2. How can the environment be negatively impacted by humans?

3. What indifferences or actions have humans shown that can lead to issues with preserving the environment?

4. What efforts can be made to alter the negative impact on the environment?

5. What efforts can you make in your daily life to help the environment?

 

Before students move on to the guided learning portion of the lesson, the teacher will break the classroom into groups of 4-5 and will pass out copies of the articles that they will be reading. The teacher will begin reading the first article aloud and show a few examples text coding and explain its usage, what they might text code and why on the overhead projector.

 

TEXT CODING·

Students could use W for what happened, where, and when.·

Students could underline, circle, or highlight examples of how the ecosystem in Honolulu Harbor has been impacted or they could code these examples with an I.·

Students could code examples/details of an oil spill with an O.

Examples/details of a molasses spill and how it differs with an M.

 

Guided Practice:

Having shown the students how to text code, the students will now read the copies from the oil spill text, an article on a molasses spill in Honolulu Harbor from National Geographic, a short corresponding article from National Geographic that includes an interview with a diver who shot underwater footage to document the impact of this spill, and an article about the BP oil spill for students to read, along with a worksheet (one per group).

 

Students will read these articles in small groups. Student group with ELL’s will have strong readers take turns reading the articles aloud to model fluency, the rest of the groups may read aloud or silently. Students can text code the articles as they read to help them answer the comprehension questions afterward. The groups will then (DURING READING STRATEGY) write answers to the following questions on a group worksheet, with work divided equally among the group members. Members will initial their portion of the work. Teacher will remind students that this information will be part of their informative writing, so they will want to take good notes that they can refer to later.

 

Describe the type of major event these articles cover.

What happened, where did it happen, and when?

 

Using textual evidence from the article:

Describe the impact that this molasses spill has had on the ecosystem in Honolulu Harbor.

 

Utilizing evidence from the texts and articles:

How does a molasses spill differ from an oil spill?

In what ways might a molasses spill be less severe on the environment than an oil spill?

 

Have students use their text coding from the articles to help them answer the questions from the worksheet

 

When students are done answering the questions above, teacher will briefly go over the answers with students and allow them opportunities to share their responses and where they found the evidence in the article, as well as any text code examples on the articles the students share and show that coding on an overhead projector or document camera so that ELL's and those with questions can receive additional modeling.

 

Teacher will collect the worksheets to assess student understanding and class participation.

 

Homework:

Students will be assigned a Pyramid and Because Box GRAPHIC ORGANIZER homework assignment. WIth the fact pyramid, students will be asked to start at the base with the least detrimental things we do to pollute the environment, and progress up to the peak of the pyramid with the most damaging pollutants we add to the environment.They can then go on to higher level thinking by using the Because Box to explain how they chose their pollutants and the rank of their level of damage to the environment, concluding with what they believe the most damaging one is and why.

 

DAY TWO

Re-Introduction:

Teacher will briefly review with the students the information and activities of the previous days class and collect the Graphic Organizer homework assignment. Students will then retrieve their tablets for internet access, move back into their groups, and prepare for their independent learning activities.Independent Learning:

 

Tell students that they will now utilizing their tablets to access articles to help them learn about ways that they can help protect the environment and reduce negative impacts on ecosystems. Teacher will remind students that this information will be part of their informative writing, so they will want to take good notes that they can refer to later. (DURING READING STRATEGY) Students will divide the articles and read them, taking notes to share with the other members of their group.

Articles to give students include:·

An article on ways to help protect the ocean· An article on ways to help the environment through schools·

An article on cell phones and recycling·

An article on the importance of recycling electronic products (Note- there is an idea in the extensions section directly related to this article)

 

Give students time to read the article and take notes on it. They should work to determine the central idea of the article and the details that support that idea. Remind students that they want to provide enough detail to educate the other members of their group so their group members can take notes on the information they share to help them with the informative writing assignments. Students will share their notes for the article they each received. As one group member shares about their topic, the rest of the students in the group should take notes. The teacher will observe and take notes as students work. If the teacher hears misconceptions arise, they can intervene or wait and bring it up during whole group discussion.

 

Students will come back to the whole group and have a brief wrap up discussion on what students learned about in their articles.Students will be instructed to take out clean notebook paper and writing utensils to prepare for their informative writing assignment. The teacher will verbally instruct them as follows:

 

Imagine you are writing a letter to your great-grandchildren. This letter will be opened in the year 2080. Using the information you have learned in the various texts studied in this lesson, describe how humans in your generation are negatively impacting the environment. Explain to your great-grandchildren why this must be stopped and how it can be stopped. Lastly, tell your great-grandchildren what YOU plan to do to preserve the ecosystems for their generation.

 

(AFTER READING STRATEGY)  Students will independently write their letters.

 

Teacher will collect the letters to grade.

 

Closure:

After grading students' final drafts, the teacher will return their work to them so students can review the feedback and grade they received. Wrap up the lesson by having students share with the class some of the ideas they wrote about in their letters, particularly ways they think they can help prevent further damage to the environment.

 

Assessment:

Teachers will collect small group worksheets.

Teacher will gather information about student understanding on the topics being studied as they participate in small group reading and discussion of the articles, as well as through the notes that students complete while reading their assigned article.

Through the guided and independent practice activities, the teacher will be able to determine if students are ready for the informative writing assignments.

 Teacher will assess the Informative Essay for comprehension, content and structure.

 

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR ELL's:

Teachers will provide an outline or planning frame where parts are already filled in by the teacher to guide students with the organization for their essay.

Teacher will provide more scaffolding for students as they prepare to write their summative assessment essay.

Students could be allowed to revise their essay further if their final draft received low scores.

 

Resources:

Computer for Presenter, Graphic Organizer Worksheet, Tablets for Students, Internet Connection, LCD Projector, Overhead Projector, Speakers / Headphones