Lesson 7: The People of the Rain Forest
(This lesson plan fits into proficiency #1 Content Knowledge and Pedagogy, proficiency #3 Diversity, and proficiency #6 Literacy Development and Communication. It was designed with an ESOL template which emphasizes the use of literacy and taught to a group of 2nd graders)
Name: Eliane Gonçalves Agra
Date: 10.30.08
Grade level: 2nd
Title of lesson: The People of the Rain Forest
GOAL #1
Content Area: English Language Arts
Common Curriculum Goal (CCG): Develop an interpretation of grade-level informational text across the subject areas.
Benchmark: EL.02.RE.30 Connect the information in text to life experiences, text, and world.
GOAL #2
Content Area: The Arts
Common Curriculum Goal (CCG): Create, present and perform works of art.
Benchmark: AR.03.CP.01 Use experiences, imagination, essential elements and organizational principles to achieve a desired effect when creating, presenting and/or performing works or art.
ESOL Language Goals (Function): Contrasting
OBJECTIVES
Content: Students will . . .
1.1 After reading a handout on the indigenous people of the rain forest, students will compare and contrast features of the indigenous people and themselves by using a Venn diagram and write a minimum of two sentences expressing the similarities and differences.
2.2 After making a Venn diagram comparing indigenous people and themselves, students will draw and color a face of the indigenous people using a variety of colors and symbols and a picture of themselves in their rain forest workbooks.
(My goals and objectives for my lesson meet the proficiency #2 guidelines, Human Development and Learning as they were taken and based on the Oregon Standards)
ESOL Language Objectives (Forms):
I: The indigenous people and I are alike because ____________. The indigenous people and I are different because ____________.
EA: The __________ and ___________ are alike because ___________.
The ___________ and __________ are different because ____________.
A: The __________ and __________ are similar because ____________.
The __________ and __________ are different because ____________.
Targeted Language Skills:
§ Reading: Students will read the indigenous people handout
Writing: Students will a minimum of two different complete sentences; one stating how they are similar to the indigenous people and the other of how they differ
² Listening: Students will listen to each other as they share their pictures they colored of themselves and the indigenous people
Speaking: Students will speak to each other as they share their pictures they colored of themselves and the indigenous people
Learning Strategy(ies): ¥ Visual Scaffolding: Providing Language Support Through Visual Images
MATERIALS
· Plant life cycle diagram
· Plant seeds
· Dirt
· Water
· Containers to hold plant, dirt, and water
· Pencil
· Crayons
· Rain forest workbooks
PROCEDURE (40 minutes)
Anticipatory Set: (5 minutes)
a. Students will get to plant their own seed once the students complete their plant cycle drawing and labeling
b. Once all the students have completed planting their seed the teacher will do a quick recap of the plant cycle and have students put their plants in the corner of the room to watch it grow and go through the different steps (this is an extension from the previous lesson and will be looked at throughout the lessons)
Teaching: (10 minutes)
a. Teacher with introduce a venn diagram through the comparison and differences between frogs and toads
b. Teacher will have the student of the day pass out the rain forest workbook to each student
c. Students will read along with the teacher a handout about the indigenous rain forest people in their rain forest workbook
d. Each student will have their own copy and following along; Teacher may call on students to read parts of the handout as well
e. Teacher will list and write down different facts about the indigenous
Guided Practice: (10 minutes)
a. Teacher and students will complete together a venn diagram that compares and contrast the different life styles and appearances of the indigenous people of the rain forest and the students in the class
b. Students will then be required to write a minimum of two different complete sentences; one stating how they are different from the indigenous people and how they are similar
Independent Application: (10 minutes)
a. Students will refer to the following page in their rain forest workbooks to draw and color a picture of the face of an indigenous person and draw and color a picture of themselves
b. Students will use different colors and symbols to represent the different tribes when they are drawing the indigenous people’s faces
Closure: (5 minutes)
a. Teacher will randomly call on different students to share their pictures they colored with the class
ASSESSMENT
Informal: Teacher will walk around the room and check to see if students are on tasks, if they need any help, and observe their process.
Plans for formal: Teacher will collect students work and review it. Students will be graded on the completion of the assignment and if they met the requirements. Students will need to have correctly copied down the venn diagram information about the indigenous people and themselves from the board. Students will also need to make sure their drawing of the indigenous person has symbols and a painted face.
(The instruction and assessment part of my lesson plan fits with proficiency #4, Assessment and Instruction because after teaching my students the material I then informally and formally assessed them)
MEETING VARYING NEEDS
IEP Students: My IEP students will get extra assistance within their table group by their peers and adults in the room on the reading and writing parts within the assignment. Students will also have sentence structure help
(Proficiency # 5 Classroom Climate Conducive to Learning, fits into my lesson plan because I demonstrated that I can adapt to different students needs, such as my students on IEPS)
REFLECTION
After this lesson was over and I got to think about how it all went, I found out that I learned that the more I use another subject or topic to help my students understand a new concept, such as the venn diagram, the better they understand it. Instead of me just describing a venn diagram to them and telling them how it worked, I showed them through an example of a frog and toad which we touched on while reviewing the frog life cycle. I then guided them through a venn diagram of the indigenous people that we did as a class.
My students met the objective I set for them which was for them to be able to use and interpret a venn diagram, as well as creating an art piece of themselves and an indigenous person. What helped the students to meet this objective is that I made sure to incorporate an art piece because they love drawing.
Based on some lessons I taught last year I learned that a fun activity that you plan for a lesson is a good motivator. This is why instead of planting a seed from the previous lesson in the beginning I moved it to the end of the lesson. I did this so I could hold the students accountable for their behavior. This motivation task worked really well even though there were some of my students who lost their privilege of planting a seed because they couldn’t keep their behavior under control, which these students have trouble with in the first place.
The part I would change about this lesson is to add the technology piece that I had in my original lesson plan before I actually taught it. I wanted to use a projector to show my students a slide show of what different indigenous people and tribes look like that live in the rain forest. By using a projector I could have a lot more pictures then if I were to print them off in color. A reason this didn’t work is because there is one projector that the whole school shares and it was already being used by the time I needed it.
The results of this lesson impact the next lesson because this lesson builds on the previous lesson, I will be teaching my students about the second layer of the rain forest and some of the animals and plants that live there.
(Proficiency #8 Philosophy, Best Practice, and Reflection is shown through my reflections where I look back at what, why, and how I taught my lesson and think of how successful or unsuccessful it was and what could I have done differently.)
For lesson 8, 9, and 10
a. Teacher will begin to randomly hold up different animals and plants that live in the understory of the rain forest
b. Students will pair share what category they think that animal falls into and why based upon a previous classifying lesson
c. Teacher will then call on a different student each time to answer the question and place the picture on the butcher paper layers