Lesson Plan: Writing Lesson Plan

Your Name: Spencer Wonder Date: 11/3/2017

Grade Level: 7th Grade Subject: Life Science

Objectives and Goals:

Standards (CCSS/NGSS/California Content
Standards): MS-LS2-4: Construct an argument
supported by empirical evidence that changes to
physical or biological components of an
ecosystem affect populations.

Content Objective: Students will be able to

explain how changes to an environment effect
species.

Language Objective: Students will read and

summarize an article related to the topic of
environmental change and students will then
construct an un-sent letter to a scientist discussing
the article.

Required Materials and Equipment:

“The Comeback” Article and
Comprehension Questions

RAFT Graphic Organizer and Prompt

Summary Graphic Organizer (#1 in

“Sampler”)

Guiding Question(s):
What is environmental change?
What can be done to restore species that have
been displaced?

Vocabulary necessary for instruction:

Conservation, Zooplankton, Transplant, Fledged
Objective as stated to students before lesson:
In the last week or so we have been discussing the
environment and the ecosystems that make it up.
Today we are going to look at an example of how
one environment changed dramatically and how a
determined scientist was able to restore that
environment to its previous state.
Anticipatory Set: Rationale:
Start a class discussion about By engaging the class in an open discussion
extinction/endangered species. Ask students if about extinction prior knowledge about the topic
they can name any animals that are
endangered. What about extinct? Why do you
think species go extinct?
Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and
Bridging
Students will pair with a partner (ELLs with Non-
ELL) for a think pair share on the discussion
questions before the class discussion.
Direct Instruction/Modeling/Guided Practice:
Students will break into predetermined CSR
groups. The article and summarizing graphic
organizer will be given to the students and the
CSR strategy will be introduced. The first
paragraph will be read aloud by the teacher
and each role contained within CSR will be
modeled for that passage by the teacher. At
this point the students will be instructed to use
the CSR strategies within their groups as the
materials for the CSR are distributed. Students
pick roles randomly from the cue cards and
proceed to use the strategy in a guided practice
setting. After reading the students will be
directed to refer to the summary graphic
organizer to complete a short summary of the
article read. Students will then share their
summaries within their groups.
Students will then be removed from groups
and the RAFT graphic organizer and prompt
will be distributed. Students will be asked to
complete the Un-Sent letter described in the
prompt independently to be graded.
Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and
Bridging
Students will be grouped heterogeneously to ensure
that there is a mix of proficiency levels in each
group.
The CSR reading will be chunked into smaller
passages.
is activated. This also serves to level the playing
field so to speak. If students had never heard of
endangered species etc. then by having a class
discussion that topic is introduced to prepare for
the reading and remainder of the lesson.
Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging
ELL students are more likely to engage in the class
discussion after having the opportunity to share with
a partner and become more comfortable with the
topic.
Rationale:
By using predetermined CSR groups the
teacher is able to better control the group
dynamic and ensure that the groups are well
balanced and able to complete the task at hand.
By modeling the CSR roles and strategies for
the class the learning curve for the new activity
is shortened. The teacher also is able to explain
the benefits and helps to encourage active
participation by the students. This also serves as
a read-aloud session to help with comprehension
and set the tone for the reading activity.
Students will use the CSR strategies as a group
to work through potential vocabulary and
comprehension issues and tease apart the
meaning of the article in groups. By working in
groups students are able to ask each other
questions and improve understanding by using
reciprocal teaching elements to help each other
work through the reading as they encounter
clunks and assess the article for the gist. This
group activity also serves to help develop
communication skills and reading aloud helps to
bolster confidence in their literacy and speaking
abilities.
By providing the summary graphic organizer
students are given a platform from which to
begin writing potentially diminishing the
difficulty often associated with beginning
writing. The word count limit set by the
organizer gives students an idea of how much
they are supposed to write to meet the
requirements of the assignment. By writing their
summaries individually but then sharing them
with the group students are able to hear their
writing spoken aloud as well as that of their
peers which often flushes out composition errors
and enables students to revise their work before
turning it in. Feedback from the group can also
 bolster confidence and provide a more
comprehensive learning and writing experience
than teacher critique alone. This summary
exercise serves as a warm-up for the larger
RAFT assignment.
The independent RAFT assignment and
supplied graphic organizer gives students the
opportunity to practice writing independently.
The Un-Sent letter format is a way of making
the assignment interesting and helping students
write about topics in a more thoughtful way and
to add variety to their writing assignments. The
supplied graphic organizer helps to get students
started and remain on the right track when it
comes to composing the letter.

Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and

Bridging

By grouping students strategically into

heterogeneous groups the instructor can be
certain that no group is made up of mostly ELL
students. With a mix of proficiency levels
students can work together to get through the
reading. This can ease anxiety as well as create
an inclusive learning environment.

By chunking the reading the text can be made

more manageable in smaller pieces and easier to
comprehend in sections rather than an
overwhelming whole.

Independent Practice: Rationale:

Summary Independent work without input from the
RAFT Writing Letter teacher allows the teacher to assess individual
comprehension and see where the class is in in
Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and regards to understanding. It also gives the
Bridging teacher a chance to assess writing ability and, in
the case of the RAFT assignment,understanding
ELL Students will be given a graphic organizer of the writing conventions of science and
with sentence starters as well as a Vocabulary
scientific style.
Sheet.

Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging

ELL students will be provided a sentence starter

graphic organizer to help construct the necessary
sentence beginnings for the writing assignment. This
 can help alleviate some anxiety and get the student
started writing.

The vocabulary sheet included will include all the

vocabulary required for success. This will enable the
students to use scientific language in their writing
where they may have not been able to before. Using
these vocab and sentence tools students should be
able to complete the writing assignments without
additional supports.

Assessment and Follow-Up/Next Steps: Rationale:

1. Summary 1. Summary allows the teacher to assess
2. RAFT Writing Letter the level on information retained from the
reading and group work. Provides a written
Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and assignment that an be referred back to to
Bridging gain an understanding with regards to
progress on future writing assignments.
ELL Students will be given a graphic organizer 2. RAFT and the Un-Sent letter format
with sentence starters as well as a Vocabulary
allow the teacher to assess the level of
Sheet.
comprehension as well as the familiarity
with the conventions of writing in
scientific style. By reviewing the
students writing the teacher can
determine how much information was
actually retained by the students post-
reading and how well the students are
able to synthesis response to the prompt
based on the level of information
retention from the article.

Differentiation: Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging

ELL students will be provided a sentence starter

graphic organizer to help construct the necessary
sentence beginnings for the writing assignment. This
can help alleviate some anxiety and get the student
started writing.

The vocabulary sheet included will include all the

vocabulary required for success. This will enable the
students to use scientific language in their writing
where they may have not been able to before. Using
these vocab and sentence tools students should be
able to complete the writing assignments without
additional supports.

Transition to following topic: Rationale:

Students will next be learning about biological
systems and entire ecosystems including
 trophic levels and primary production. This
unit serves as an introduction to how
interconnected the environment is. What might
happen if instead of Puffins the animal
removed from the ecosystem was a large land
predator? What would happen to the system if
instead of a removal of a species there was a
new one added? How might the restoration
process look in the second scenario?
By applying what they have learned from the
reading exercise students are able to make
hypothesis and engage in active scientific
discussion about hypothetical situations. This
engages prior knowledge as well as applies
recently acquired knowledge to help build
anticipation for the following lesson.

Notes:

Anticipated Student Difficulties:

1. Summary: Students that are poor or out
of practice writers might struggle with the
independent nature of this assignment.
The graphic organizer and group support
provided by the lesson may help to
alleviate some of this.
2. CSR: This in-depth group reading
strategy might prove difficult for students
that are not great group workers. Reading
aloud may also serve difficult for some
students such as ELLs. By moving
through the class and offering to help
when needed some difficulty may be
alleviated.
3. RAFT: Students that have difficulties
imagining themselves in a role or may
have comprehension or composition
issues may find it difficult to complete
this task. By using the graphic organizer
provided some of this can be diminished,
however further supports such as
sentence starters may be needed.
RAFT Prompt:

You are a scientist attempting to restore the population of “Lesser Winklepeckers”, a

hypothetical type of seabird once native to your area. You are inspired by the success of
Kress' project and are writing a professional letter to your colleague Dr. Byrdsavr
describing how you plan to restore the Winklepecker population. Describe, in detail,
three tactics from the article that Kress used to restore the Puffin population and how you
might apply these methods to your project to save the “Lesser Winklepeckers”.

Vocabulary Sheet:

Conservation: the action of conserving something, in particular.

 preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment, natural
ecosystems, vegetation, and wildlife.
preservation, protection, safeguarding,
synonyms:
safekeeping;

Zooplankton: Small marine animals (plankton) consisting of small animals and the immature
stages of larger animals. ,

Transplant: move or transfer (something) to another place or situation, typically with some effort
or upheaval.

transfer, move, remove, shift, relocate, take

synonyms: "our headquarters will be transplanted to
Pennsylvania"

Fledged: (of a young bird) having wing feathers that are large enough for flight; able to fly.
 References:

IRIS: CSR A Reading Comprehension Strategy

https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/csr/#content

Readworks: The Comeback

blob:https://www.readworks.org/acc82767-9ed6-49fb-bd32-08a735cadf99

Summary Sampler
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Graphic-Organizers-for-Summarizing-
Text-1621588?aref=jbcd9g4d

Sentance Starters

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/7f/56/b6/7f56b66411f7ae5ef7c586c339576464--sentence-
writing-opinion-writing.jpg