This Is a Plant Sciences Lesson for First Grade
This is a plant sciences lesson for first grade.
Power Standard
Colorado Model Content Standard 3: Students know and understand the characteristics of living things, the diversity of life, and how living things interact.
Know/Do
Students must know or do: Describe the characteristics of plants, identify what plants need to survive, know how plants help other organisms and people, and how people and organisms help plants.
Context/Scenario
The students will be portraying actors who are making a TV show to help the other first grade classes understand how we interact with plants.
Tasks
Students read and role-play three short stories to identify how people help plants. Students draw pictures to represent how plants help people. Students sort pictures and objects to show the source of plant resources.
Complementary Standards
Colorado Model Content Standards:
Reading and Writing Standard One: Students read and understand a variety of material. Students use a full range of strategies to comprehend materials such as directions, nonfiction material, rhymes and poems, and stories.
Reading and Writing Standard Two: students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Designing the Learning Experience
For this lesson I incorporated Gardner's multiple intelligences regarding different types of information that different students prefer to work with. With this in mind, I selected activities that allow for differences in learning preferences.The sorting activity would be a good activity for intrapersonal learners while the role-playing activities would be better for interpersonal learners. I also feel the activities lend themselves to verbal linguistic learners as well as bodily kinesthetic learners.
Initially I had planned for the students to act out three short stories on human interaction with plants but I realized the lesson would be more effective if we planned on filming the activity as a project we could share with another 2nd grade class.
Lesson: What Plants Need.
SIOP®LESSON PLAN: What Plants Need.
Date: ______Grade/Class/Subject: ____2ndgrade____
Unit/Theme: ___Plants______Teacher:Jon Fisher
3. Life Science: Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of living things, the processes of life, and how living things interact with each other and their environment.
Content Objective(s): _____Students will explain what a plant needs to survive. Students will demonstrate how people help plants. ______
Language Objective(s): ____Students will read short stories about people helping plants, discuss their understanding of the stories, label and draw things that plants need, and present a role playing scenario.
Key Vocabulary
Air, water, light, space, nutrients, Survive
Supplementary Materials
Coloring paper, crayons, LCD projector, cardboard props, video camera.
SIOP Features
PreparationScaffoldingGrouping Options
__ Lesson Sequence
__ Adaptation of Content _x_ Modeling _ _ Whole class
_x_ Links to Background ___ Guided practice _x_ Small groups
_x_ Links to Past Learning _x_ Independent practice _x_ Partners
_x_ Strategies incorporated _x_ Comprehensible input _x_ Independent
Integration of ProcessesApplicationAssessment
_x_ Reading _x_ Hands-on _x_ Individual
_x_ Writing _x_ Meaningful _x__ Group
_x_ Speaking _x_ Linked to objectives _ _ Written
_x_ Listening _x_ Promotes engagement _x_ Oral
Background
Students have already learned that people have things they need to live. English Language Proficiency: Limited English Proficient and Non English Proficient students. After the anticipatory set, probe students for knowledge about plants.
Preparation
See above supplementary materials.
MotivationAnticipatory set.
Connection to self: Ask students if they have ever seen a dead plant. Ask why they think it is that it died.
Presentation
Explain to students that just like people, plants have things they need in order to live.
Have students form their small heterogeneous groups and write the following on their dry erase boards: Show the visual examples on the Smartboard. Explain the vocabulary and have the students practice saying and writing the words. Sentence Frame: One thing that plants need to survive is ______.
Survive
Nutrients
Air
Sun
Water
Space
Show a short United Streaming video clip on what plants need to survive.
ACCOMMODATION/MODIFICATION
Scaffold the vocabulary with visual examples. Build background with United Streaming video. While students are moving between centers, reteach the concept. Use preferential seating. Allow the ability to clarify the concepts in Spanish.
Activity/Practice
Students will divide into two groups. One group will draw pictures and label them to represent what plants need to survive. The next group will read short stories about how we help plants and practice acting the stories out.
The groups will switch activities.
Strategies:
Category: Non-linguistic representation.
Strategies: Drawing pictures, role playing/kinesthetic representation)
Why I chose these strategies: According to Marzano, non-linguistic representations can help students to show what they know and can be a useful step in summarizing their knowledge. Additionally, it is important to consider the diverse interests and learning styles of students. I refer toGardner’s multiple intelligences in defining intelligence as the kind of information a student’s mind prefers to work with. I feel these strategies can interest a variety of learners. I chose role playing as an engaging scenario and I am choosing to video tape the students to share with another class to give the assessment real life applicability.
Review/Assessment
As an embedded assessment students will complete a short selected response. Students draw a line from the vocabulary word to the picture for the word.
Why I chose this assessment option: this assessment is quick and accurate for measuring content knowledge. Many first graders also struggle with writing and I want to quickly measure their knowledge not their writing.
To close, the groups will demonstrate on video their understanding of what plants need to survive and how people help plants by role-playing the characters in the short stories for a short film for other first grade classes. They will also show their pictures of what plants need and explain what their graphic representations mean.
Why I chose this assessment option: Role playing and performance assessments allow students to demonstrate their mastery of concepts. It addresses multiple intelligences and allows them to show more than they would be able to show on a written assessment.