Plants
Student’s Name
May 15, 2 - May 26, 2
A unit for first graders
Fourth Term
Table of Contents
Section 1
Setting--state, district, school, classroom
Section 2
Unit outcomes and rationale--instructional objectives
Section 3
Lesson plan #1 (What is a seed?)
Lesson plan #2 (Seeds and spores)
Lesson plan #3 (How seeds and spores travel)
Lesson plan #4 (Planting a seed)
Lesson plan #5 (Monster seed)
-Copy of story
-Examples of student work
Lesson plan #6 (From a seed to a flower)
Lesson plan #7 (Plant parts)
Lesson plan #8 (Flowers and leaves)
Lesson plan #9 (What does a plant need?)
Lesson plan #10 (Field experience with parts of a plant)
Lesson plan #11 (The importance of plants
Section 4
Test construction
Pretest
Writing scoring guide
Posttest
Tables of specifications
Section 5
Learning data
Pretest and posttest
Writing skills scoring guide
Interpretations of results
Science
Attitudes
Writing skills
Section 6
Reflective essay
Section 7
Bibliography
Appendix
Setting
The State
Oregon’s public schools serve 928 local elementary and secondary school districts and 21 education service districts. In addition, the Oregon Department of Education also manages the Oregon School for the Blind, the Oregon School for the Deaf, and the juvenile corrections education program.
As of October 1, 2 the total students enrolled in the public schools was 545, 033. Of that total 446,434 were white, 51,543 were Hispanic, 20,607 were Asian/Pacific Islander, 15,061 were black, and 11,388 were American Indian. Of the total students enrolled, 34.4% of public school children receive free lunch. Most Oregon students are concentrated in the urban centers of Portland, Eugene, Medford and Salem. Oregon teachers are currently ranked 13th in the nation in pay, averaging $42, 833.
Salem-Keizer School District
The Salem-Keizer School District staff makes a continuous effort to “provide an equal educational opportunity for students and to eliminate those conditions which may cause discrimination”. The district mission is:
In partnership with the community, we ensure that each student will have the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes to be a lifelong learner, a contributing citizen and a productive worker in a changing and increasingly diverse world.
The focus of the district's goals is on helping each child develop the necessary knowledge and experience to:
•Read and communicate effectively.
•Think critically and solve problems.
•Develop a positive self-concept, respect for others, and healthy behavior patterns.
•Work effectively in groups as well as individually.
•Develop creativity and show appreciation for the arts.
•Demonstrate civic, global, and environmental responsibility.
•Recognize and value diversity among people.
•Exhibit technological literacy.
The Salem-Keizer School District intends to achieve those goals by being an effective learning organization, through teamwork and trust, and by involving people in making decisions that affect them. The District also promises to celebrate diversity, seek input from the community, and to have an open door for parents and citizens. Through all those actions, the district hopes to meet, or even exceed, the goals it holds for students and for itself.
The District also has a stern zero tolerance policy toward weapons, drugs, and threats. Zero tolerance means no weapons, including “look-alikes” or knives will be tolerated. The same applies for alcohol and drugs, including look-alike drugs and drug paraphernalia. No threats to persons or property will be tolerated including those which were intended to be jokes. Another policy has been implemented by the District called the daytime curfew ordinance. This curfew prohibits minors between the ages of 7-18 years old from being in public places during regular school hours.
Small Elementary School
Small Elementary was built in 1974. It was the first school built in the district using the open classroom model, which means no walls separated the classrooms. As the student population increased, walls, however, were constructed.
Small has 489 students in grades K-5. On graduation the students go on to Crossler Middle, then Sprague High. Small is recognized for its strong programs in math, art, music, technology, peer mediation, and literacy.
The students are primarily middle and upper class white children. Five kids are Indian/Alaskan, 14 Hispanic, 7 Asian/Pacific Islander, 3 multi-racial, and 431 white. The number of TAG students at Small seems fairly high with 33 while 46 children are on IEPs. The economic status is very high with only 17% of the students on free or reduced lunches.
In January, 2 Oregon issued school report cards rating the effectiveness of the state’s schools. Small received an overall score of “good”, based on student performance, student behavior, and school characteristics. The students’ average attendance rate is 94.2% and the percent of students who took the last state benchmark test was 100%.
Mrs. Teacher’s Classroom
My mentor teacher is Trina Teacher. She has been at Small for 12 years and currently teaches the 1st grade. My class consists of 29 students. Overall the class has little diversity. Two Mexican/American, one Japanese, and two boys on behavioral contracts are included in the class. One of those two boys is in a foster home. All of the children are fluent in English. The reading skills are very high. Four children are considered low readers while the rest are average to high ability. Six students are considered very high ability readers. (I discuss the students’ performance on the pretest in the next section.)
Five mothers, who are helpers, come to help with reading groups and monitor lunches. One mother comes every day for a minimum of two hours. There is also a paid teacher’s aide who comes each day for four hours to help, mainly with reading.
Mrs. Teacher has developed a very loving climate and she uses lots of positive reinforcement. When a student is off task she simply asks if the student is helping or hurting the class. At that point students know they are off task and need to change their behavior. Mrs. Teacher has also implemented a plan called Apple Valley School Rule. The class has a pioneer theme and Apple Valley is their “pretend” school the students are attending. Each of the children wants to “graduate” from the school but they must have a certain amount of points to do so. The class wrote 12 rules for Apple valley and assigned points to each rule. For example, being honest and courteous to one’s neighbor each accrues points. If a rule is broken the child can lose points. Graduating seems to be of utmost importance to the children. Mrs. Teacher has created a very organized setting for the class. She has few behavior problems.
Unit Outcomes and Rationale
The unit I am teaching focuses on science. The topic will be about plants. More specifically, my lessons will focus on the following specific topics: the parts of plants; what seeds need to grow; how plants germinate; and, how plants are important to us. Under each of those goals I will teach specific objectives across 11 lessons[1] . For example, during my lessons pertaining to parts of a plant, I will teach about the roots and root system as well as concepts such as plant, stems, leaves, and flowers. These lessons will lead into what plants need to grow and how they get their food.
Science is an important part of schooling; it fosters childrens’ inquisitive nature and critical thinking skills. I also address the state standards when planning the unit on plants. In the following table, I showed the content goals and third grade benchmarks I selected to structure my unit:
State Content Goal Corresponding State Third Grade Benchmark
Understand the characteristics, Classify organisms based on a variety of
structure and functions of organisms.[2] characteristics.[3]
Apply foundation concepts of change, Identify structures that serve different functions.[4]
cycle, cause and effect, energy and matter,
evolution, perception, and fundamental Identify examples of change over time.[5]
entities.[6]
I will do various experiments to help children explore those goals and benchmarks as they pertain to plants.
I will also incorporated a writing benchmark into my lessons. The benchmark was also drawn from the state curriculum guides. I used the indicators within the curriculum guide to construct a rubric, which appears later.
Demonstrate knowledge of spelling, Demonstrate developmentally appropriate
grammar, punctuation, capitalization, control of correct spelling, grammar, punctuation,
paragraphing, and documentation.[7] and capitalization[8] .
I wanted to include a set of attitudinal outcomes within my unit but Oregon’s content standards only provide guidance for cognitive outcomes. I made up two goals and objectives for student attitudes. The objectives were not assigned to a
specific class like my content outcomes were. Rather, my attitudinal objectives run
across my whole unit.
Attitudinal Goals Attitudinal Objectives
The student will express pleasure The student will state the science content from
in learning content. the unit was interesting.
The student will acquire confidence The child will state she/he is more confident
in self as a learner. in self as a learner of science.
When I gave the pretest, one person, Andrew, scored 100% on the cognitive items. The other scores indicated the group knew quite a bit about plants. Consequently, I adjusted my lessons and my posttest to include a bit more content. My pretest did not assess the writing benchmark. Rather, I assessed their writing skills from assignments I made early and then late in the unit. I will adjust my science posttest to account for my revised instructional plans. My postassessment analysis will also include a discussion of the writing results as well as the attitudinal gains.
The question arises, why teach about plants? My rationale is very straightforward. Plants are a very important part of life. Without plants there
would be no life on earth. It is important for children to know that plants produce the oxygen in the air. We also get food from plants and animals that eat plants. Plant life is a very important topic for children to learn.
I will be teaching these lessons in May when plants are growing and blooming. It is important for children to have an idea of what plants do for us and
how they are important in our lives. Around this time children may have questions about why plants grow. I will be able to focus on the actual things happening in their surroundings.
Lastly, this unit ties in a Service to Schools project where the school’s students will be planting flowers in front of the school. My class will participate and I feel this is a very nice hands-on approach as well as a wrap-up for the unit on plants.
I will integrate literacy by helping students work on writing sentences. The focus will be on punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. This will be done while creating a book about plants. I will also begin lessons by reading stories to the students pertaining to plants. I will also integrate math into this unit by working on graphing and measuring though it will not focus on developing new content for the children.
Overall, the students will have various hands-on tasks to foster critical thinking for all levels of learners. The students will be working cooperatively experimenting, observing, making predictions, and forming hypotheses as they gain a broad understanding of plants and their importance in our lives.
Instructional Objectives
In the following section, I have shown how my unit goals correspond to the state’s benchmarks and how those unit goals serve as a basis for my instructional objectives:
Students will be able to:
I. Benchmark: Classify organisms based on a variety of characteristics.
Unit Goal #1: Draw a plant, label its parts, and tell the function of its parts.
Unit Objectives:
1.1 After viewing the video, Magic School Bus Goes to Seed and discussing
some of the ideas in the film, the children will write at least two facts about the seeds or flowers presented.
1.2 After the lesson, the students will individually write two things they
learned about stems and draw pictures of both. They will write entries in their journals.
1.3 After the lesson on flowers and leaves, the students will draw a leaf
and a flower. They will write about the function of each and record their ideas in their journals.
1.4 After the lesson, students will label and identify the four main parts of a plant by picking the plant apart, identifying the parts, and then
naming them in their journal.
II. Benchmark: Identify structures that serve different functions.
Unit Goal #2: Draw or write things a plant needs to grow.
Unit Objectives:
2.1 The students will be able to individually draw and write four things
plants need to grow and will record them in their journals.
III. Benchmark: Identify structures that serve different functions.
Identify examples of change over time.
Unit Goal #3: Write facts about seeds or spores.
Instructional Objectives:
3.1 After the lesson on seeds, students will write in complete sentences, three important ideas they learned about seeds in their journals.
3.2 After the lesson on seeds and spores, students will individually write in their journals three things about flowering plants and nonflowering
plants, comparing and contrasting the two.
3.3 Students will write a short story in their journal about a fictitious seed including its travels and growth. The stories will include how the seed traveled and what it became once it flowered.
3.4 Students will write in their journals how seeds sprout indicating they
know that seeds grow into plants.
3.5 After listening to the story about the monster seeds and planting one of
their own, the students will record daily observations about changes noted their in their monster seed. They will write at least one sentence per day using proper spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
IV. Benchmark: Identify structures that serve different functions.
Unit Goal #4: Express why plants are important to life.
Instructional Objectives:
4.1 After the lesson, The Importance of Plants, the students will name on
the posttest at least four products that come from plants.
4.2 Students will write a letter thanking plants for at least one thing a
plant provides for human life.
V. Benchmark: Demonstrate knowledge of spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, and documentation.