Brittany Granquist

Literacy based lesson plan

CI 451 – C4
4 November 2010
All Around the Lakes, Ponds, and Saltwater Marshes

Date: 3 November 2010

Grade Level/Subject: 4th-5th grade/ Science/ Language Arts/ Reading/ Literature

Prerequisite Knowledge: Students must be able to read short stories independently or with
another student. Students must be able to write full sentences, incorporating a complete thought,
capital letters when needed, and punctuation marks. Students must be able to exhibit
collaborative skills that include: listening, sharing, encouraging, etc. Students must have
experience creating poems individually.

Approximate Time: 4 lessons (see below for varying times)

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

 Students will be able to identify and describe the life cycle of a Leopard Frog utilizing the
SMART Board to help them visualize the transformation.
 Students will be able to write a 3-sentence story of the life cycle of a Leopard Frog,
utilizing the Mobius strip to illustrate the cyclicality of life.
 Students will be able to apply the names of paint chips into poetry that tells of various
photographs from lake, pond, and saltwater scenes.
 Students will be able to personify the basic photosynthesis procedure in cartoon format
using knowledge gained from reading – in pairs – children’s literature about this process
in nature.
 Students will be able to orally share individual cartoons with partners and compare and
contrast the aspects of their comics: characters, drawings, color, detail, etc.
 Students will be able to sort animals of lakes, ponds, and saltwater marshes into
categories based upon their own reasoning and thought processes, and communicate
orally to others why they made their decisions.

Content Standards:
State goal 1: Read with understanding and fluency.
B. Apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency.
1d. Read age-appropriate material aloud with fluency and accuracy.
State goal 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.
B. Read and interpret a variety of literary works.
1a. Respond to literary materials by connecting them to their own experience and
communicate those responses to others.
State Goal 12: Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life,
physical and earth/space sciences.
 A. Know and apply concepts that explain how living things function, adapt and change.
2a. Describe simple life cycles of plants and animals and the
similarities and differences in their offspring.
B. Know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and
with their environment.
2a. Describe relationships among various organisms in their environments (e.g.,
predator/prey, parasite/host, food chains, food webs).
C. Know and apply concepts that describe properties of matter and energy and the interactions
between them.
2a. Describe and compare types of energy including light, heat, sound, electrical and
mechanical.

Materials/Resources/Technology (for a class of 20):

 http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?
id=0244bf08fc3827026cb2a716eeec6638cf5f46ab4d479595527a701120634702
 20 strips of paper (1 inch wide, 1 foot long)
 Scotch tape
 Paint chips (5 sets)
 5 photographs of lakes, ponds, saltwater marshes
 20 pieces of large, white construction paper
 Coloring utensils
 10 articles from National Geographic for Kids (depends on availability)
 10 books about photosynthesis. Suggestions:
1. Changing Sunlight into Food by Bobbie Kalman (2)
2. Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang (2)
3. Photosynthesis by Alvin Silverstein (2)
4. The Magic School Bus Gets Planted: A Book about Photosynthesis by Lenore
Notkin (2)
5. Understanding Photosynthesis with Max Axiom by Liam O’Donnell (2)

Implementation:

Time
Opening of lesson:

1. In order to introduce the wee-long literary focus on lakes, ponds, and

saltwater marshes, I will draw students back to the mural we created in
our first activity having to do with research and modeling. I will tell
students that we will play a quick game of I Spy, and that they will need
to take what they learned and their memory of their classmates’
presentations to spot the Leopard Frog on the mural, and to raise their
 hands when they do so.
2. We will discuss what we know about the Leopard Frog: things that
students remember, things that the student who presented on that animal
remembers, etc.
3. I will then tell students that we will review the life cycle changes this frog
goes through. I will ask students: Who can tell me what a life cycle is?
Who can explain to me something that is cyclic?

Lesson 1: Procedures:
45 mins
4. We will utilize the SMART Board activity to organize the phases of the
life cycle, and how the final stage ultimately connects back to the
beginning stage.
5. I will then tell students to write a three-sentence story explaining the life
cycle of the Leopard frog, connecting the story in a cyclic manner.
6. I will pass out to each student several strips of paper, explaining the
functionality and interrelation of a Mobius strip: a strip of paper that
when linked and twisted around only has one surface and never comes to
an end. I will ask students: What similarities do you see between the
Mobius strip and the life cycle of a frog?
7. Students will then insert their stories onto their Mobius strips, and share
with a partner their work.
______________________________________________________________
Lesson 2: 8. The following class period will be spent utilizing the unique names of
35 mins paint chips to create poetry regarding animals, landforms, etc. in
photograph form of our environment.
9. To connect students to prior knowledge, I will first show a picture of a
Leopard Frog, and model how to make a poem using the paint chips. I
will show students my thought processes for selecting colors and write
my poem on an overhead, so to show them the informality of the lesson
and how I would just like ideas to flow in a free flowing manner. I will
then group students by five, and pass out a photograph and a link of paint
chips to each table. I will give them time to work independently on a
poem for about 5-6 minutes, and then open up the class to group work
and then entire class share.
10. We will then discuss the reasoning behind their selection of colors and
how they chose which name over other names. I will then ask students
what they learned about poetry from having done this and how this
experience varies from or is the same as their prior experience with
poetry.
11. The next class period will incorporate partner reading and think, pair,
Lesson 3: share to foster comprehension, and then utilize knowledge about
2 classes, photosynthesis to create a personified cartoon to describe the process to
30-40 mins. readers.
 12. To begin this part of the lesson, I will assign students partners by giving
half of the students the book they will be reading, with a post-it note of
their partner on the inside of the front cover. I will instruct students the
importance of accepting their partner, whether it be a friend or not, so to
not hurt anyone else’s feelings. I will instruct students to seek out their
partner, and find a seat in the room with them.
13. I will explain to students the basic process of photosynthesis utilizing the
SMART Board to bring forth pictures and write down key vocabulary
terms.
14. I will then tell students that they will read the book assigned with their
partner, alternating page by page, think about the book, and then discuss
the book with their partner in order to figure out the meaning of
photosynthesis.
15. I will then tell them that they will be using large pieces of white
construction paper to create a cartoon that explains the process of
photosynthesis. I will ask students if they know what personification is.
16. If students are having trouble describing personification, I will tell them
that it is a technique authors, poets, etc. use to give human traits to
inanimate objects. We will then define the word inanimate as a class,
categorizing objects in the classroom as animate v. inanimate on the
SMART Board. As a class, we will then give person traits to the
inanimate objects. I will tell students that comics rely on dialogue,
discussion. I will show an example of a comic to show the dialogue
bubbles that help progress the story from beginning to end.
17. I will tell them that they will have to choose characters, that are important
in the process of photosynthesis, and give them human traits and the
ability to talk in order to explain the process.
18. In order to scaffold, we will write on the board some key characters, and
the general, basic process of photosynthesis.
19. I will then give students time to work on their cartoons. (20-30 minutes)
20. The next class period will be spent finishing cartoons and sharing of
cartoons by students whom elect to do so.
Lesson 4: 21. The final activity to conclude the literary focus will involve the study of
2 lessons various articles on National Geographic magazine regarding lakes, ponds,
1. 45-50 mins. or saltwater marshes, (depending on availability).
2. 30 mins. 22. Students will work in pairs and read an article about the environment.
They will then be given poster boards and be instructed to summarize the
information learned in the article on a poster board, so to share with their
classmates, who have all read different articles, the information gained,
and the most important information they must know so to have a solid
understanding of the article without having actually read it.
23. To build up to group work, the teacher should discuss reading the article
in pairs. Each partner group will read the article, independently, then
together, alternating paragraphs, and then discuss the article, taking brief
 notes highlighting the most important parts. The teacher will then model
how decide between what is significant information and what is
insignificant. The teacher will read a brief scientific paragraph, writing
down two sentences on the board. The class will have to decide which
point is crucial to help in understanding, and which one could be left out
without sacrificing understanding of the general point.
24. The students will then create a poster to help them present to their
classmates their article.
20 mins. Summary/Closing:

1. To summarize the unit, I want to draw in the ideas and see which
activities resonated with students most, and why so to assess my
instruction and their own individual learning. I will have students write
freely for 20 minutes, taking breaks when necessary, about their learning
over the past week. Which activities lessons they most enjoyed and why,
which activities they least enjoyed and why, and anything else they
choose to include.
2. In order for the students to see that their work is valued, I will laminate
their posters, and their cartoons, and bind each of them. The poster book
will be a giant book we will at times refer back to during the unit, and the
cartoon book will be featured in our class library. In addition, poems that
I deem to be especially well written and well thought out, I will feature
on the walls in the room or in the halls.

Student Assessment:

Students will be assessed individually for their participation and completion

of each of the four lessons. Since each of the lessons require the completion
of a product, they will be graded formally on their completion of the product,
its quality, its inclusion of the required elements, etc.

In addition, I will informally assess students collaborative skills,

participation, and attitudes throughout the unit.

If I see that students are struggling with reading at any point, I may ask them
to partner up with myself so that I can guarantee that they are comprehending
the literature/articles before I ask them to utilize comprehension to create a
product.
Rationale:

The whole class stations utilized in this week long lesson plan gave me the opportunity to ensure

that many different areas of literacy are incorporated into scientific thinking including: listening,

speaking, writing, and reading (various texts). The first two lessons I loved so much that I had to

include into my stations. I love that they are hands on, and enable students to feel capable and

confident in poetry. My last two lessons incorporate several means of literacy. The

photosynthesis lesson allows students to read, discuss, and respond by creating their own comics

that will allow them to utilize personification and solidify meaning of photosynthesis, but will

also enable me to see if they understand the basic process of photosynthesis. I also included that

they will share their comics with others in the class, as they will vary slightly according to the

book assigned to them. Finally, I wanted to expose students to another source for finding out

information about science: magazines. I want the students to again read, but also practice

speaking and sharing information while incorporating skills to help them decide which

information is significant and what is not.