Literacy Lesson Day 3

8/3/2019 Literacy Lesson Day 3

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Lesson Plan: Rocks

Approximate Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Subject Areas: Science and Language Arts

Approximate Time Frame: 90 minutes

Pre/Post Knowledge/Skills

This lesson is designed to encourage students to think about geologyand familiarize them with how geology affects the world around them.The goal is to get them to start thinking about how geologic processesshaped the world and to make observations to do so. To do this, theywill examine rocks in an attempt to determine how the rock was made,where it came from, how it got to where it is now, what it is made of,and other important features of rocks. The students will have alreadybeen introduced to different types of rocks and have learned about therock cycle as well as important rock properties. The students havealready gone on a field trip and collected several different types ofrocks as well as documented their observations on these rocks. Thestudents are very familiar with the rock cycle and have anunderstanding of how rocks are formed and where different types ofrocks are. The students already know how to write completesentences using main ideas, details, and conclusions to writeparagraphs. After this lesson, the students will have learned how tothink critically about something they observe and write their findingsand thoughts in story form.

Student Objectives

Students will examine rocks in an attempt to determine how they wereformed using their prerequisite knowledge of the rock cycle andspecific types of rocks.

Students will use their observations and facts about rocks to writethem into a creative story about how the rock was formed and how itgot to where the rock ended up.

Students will determine which parts of their story could be true basedoff scientific reasoning and which parts are creative and made up.

ELL Modifications

All students will be given a list of the words we learned about duringour prior rock cycle lesson. All students will need this list with thedefinition of that word. This will be useful for all students, but


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especially English language learners. All students will be encouragedto use these words in their stories.

During the discussion about rock properties, I will write them on theboard as I am talking about each property so the students have a wordbank to use while writing.

Students will be encouraged to use their list of temporal words andmeanings in their native language that they have made in LanguageArts class.

English language learners can:

-Create original ideas or detailed responses.

-Apply information to new contexts.

-Find details that support main ideas.

Illinois State Standards

11A. Know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of scientific inquiry

11.A.1f: Compare observations of individual and group results

11.A.2b: Collect data for investigations using scientific process skills including

observing, estimating and measuring

CC.3.W.8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Recall information from

experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on

sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

CC.3.W.3.c Text Types and Purposes: Use temporal words and phrases to signal event

order.

Materials

-all student collected rocks

-rock collection provided by curriculum (from different regions withdifferent features)

-paper for each student

-white board

Lesson Implementation

Opening:


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Begin by asking students, "Close your eyes and picture 'a rock'. Didyou picture a boring, grey stone?" Tell the students to open their eyesand pass around a few sample rocks to your class. Include studentsamples that were collected as well as your own samples. Your ownsamples should include: metamorphic rock sample, sedimentary rock

sample, and igneous rock sample. The students can examine picturesof these different types of rocks or real examples.

Procedures:

Tell students that these are examples of a few rocks. Tell the studentsto turn to each other and describe features of the rocks to theirpartner. Write some of their responses on the board. Tell students,"Not all rocks look the same, and the things that make rocks look alittle different from one another give clues about each rock's 'story'. Bymaking careful observations of a rock, geologists can tell where a rockcame from and what has happened to it. Since every rock has a

slightly different story, it's important to notice the differences in therocks." Using their own observations on the board, you can transitioninto a general discussion of important rock properties and how theytranslate on the rocks themselves. Remind them of the rock propertiesthat they learned about and ask students to point some of those out onthe rocks. When they mention a specific characteristic of a rock,model the idea by giving the students an idea of how that rock mighthave gotten that characteristic. For example, if a rock has dirt on it,you can give the examples of its story by telling the students that it ispossible that the rock traveled down a stream and collected debris onits way.

Tell the students to think about the sequence of events that may havehappened to form the features they notice on a rock of their choice outof the collection. Tell the students to be creative and use theirknowledge of the rock cycle, rock properties, and different types ofrocks to write a story about the rocks life. They are to give their rocka name and tell a story of how he or she was formed and how he orshe got to where he or she was found. The students will use theirgraphic organizer that they created in a previous lesson to help them

write their story. The students are to be creative but back the eventsin their stories up with ideas they have learned in science class. Intheir creativity, they should use facts to back up their creative storyideas. Tell them to use the temporal words and phrases we have beenlearning about in language arts in their story to tell about the eventsorder. They should draw a picture after writing the story. Give them40 minutes to write their story and draw their picture.


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Closing:

Call the students to the carpet. The children should sit in a circle.Start with a volunteer to read his or her rock story. Allow students to

share their stories if they want to. After a student reads his or herstory, the class will discuss which aspects of the story are scientificfacts and which aspects are creative and made up. The author of thestory will specify which parts he or she made up and which parts arebased off of his or her facts and observations from the rock. Model thisby telling the students to say something such as, I decided to makemy rock fall into a stream and be washed all the way down a streamand into the persons boat because I saw the dirt on the rock and knewthat it must have collected debris in some way. I was creative with thestream idea part of the story but I knew that it collected debris in someway so that is why I used a stream. The students will share their

stories and we will have class discussions after each one to talk aboutwhich parts were fact and which were creative. This way, the studentswill not be misled by some of the science stories. Close by telling thestudents that there are many things that happen that affect our worldand how rocks came to be is just one of the geologic processes thattake place and change our world.

Student Assessment:

Grade students papers using grading rubric:

file://localhost/Users/Kara/Desktop/CI 451/rockstory rubric.xlsx

Resource:

http://education.usgs.gov/lessons/schoolyard/CoolGeologyActivity.html

How is this lesson literacy?

In this lesson, the students are using their literacy skills and skills thatthey have learned in language arts to write a story about a rock. Theyare using their knowledge from the science unit in combination withtheir writing skills to write a creative story based on facts about therock cycle and properties of rocks. They are using the writing processby brainstorming prior to writing their story. The students are alsosharing their stories which incorporates reading, another important
http://users/Kara/Desktop/CI%20451/rockstory%20rubric.xlsxhttp://education.usgs.gov/lessons/schoolyard/CoolGeologyActivity.htmlhttp://users/Kara/Desktop/CI%20451/rockstory%20rubric.xlsxhttp://education.usgs.gov/lessons/schoolyard/CoolGeologyActivity.html


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aspect of literacy.

Documents

Literacy Lesson Day 3