Topic: Science-Weather Conditions and Phenomena
Grade Level: 4th grade
SOL :
READING 4.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading.
a) Use context to clarify meanings of unfamiliar words.
READING 4.6 The student will read and demonstrate
comprehension of nonfiction texts.
a) Use text structures, such as type, headings, and
graphics, to predict and categorize information in both print and digital
texts.
SCIENCE 4.6 The student will investigate and understand how
weather conditions and phenomena occur and can be predicted. Key concepts
include
a) weather phenomena
Objectives:
- Know the difference between a cold front and a warm front and how they impact each other
- explain what causes precipitation
- explain what causes extreme weather, like tornadoes and hurricanes
- understand the process of convention currents and how wind is generated
- Be able to define and understand the following vocabulary
terms:
- temperature
- front
- atmospheric conditions
- global winds
- local winds
- convention currents
- air masses
- Be able to use the context of the material to clarify the meaning of words
- Extract content-related words that are perceived to be important words for understanding the text (use of Self-Collection Strategy)
- Use context clues to determine the text structure (chronological order) of a paragraph
- Reconstruct a selection of text to represent the information visually
- Communicate new ideas to others by presenting the selection of text to the class and explaining the visual representation
- Participate in and contribute to discussions in science content area
Written purpose: The students
will explore how weather conditions and phenomena occur by examining the
sequence of a text and working collaboratively with students on a variety of activities to understand the material
Strategies/Activities: Prep
Strategy, K-W-L, Mystery Clue Game, Graphic Organizer, Cooperative Learning
activity, Learning Log, Reflection Guide, Repeated Readings, Self-Collection
Strategy
Preparation:
1. Prep Strategy
As a whole class, we will apply the Prep Strategy to what we already know about
weather. On the board, weather will be circled bolding. Students will provide
words that they associate with the main topic weather. The teacher will
ask why they associate each given word or concept with the main topic. After
the class has completed and the Prep Strategy, the students will come up with
three categories that most, if not all, the words they brainstormed could be
classified under. In the example provided, three categories might be: types
of weather, causes of wind, and products of weather.
Justification: As stated on page 75, "PreP helps ascertain
prior knowledge and also builds background." It also encourages listening
carefully to other opinions and thoughts. I think this strategy is a great way
to open up the lesson on weather phenomena because it gets the class talking
and factstorming about their associations with weather. It's a good way to gauge
what the students already know about the topic, as well as a great way for the
teacher to guide the class into thinking about words or concepts related to the
reading they will be doing. The teacher could even help guide the students into
choosing categories that relate directly to each subtitle or subject of the
paragraphs they will be working with. On a side note, if a student has an
incorrect association with any on the words or concepts, the teacher could help
guide them into adjusting their schema on the subject.
2. K-W-L
Individually, the students will draw a K-W-L chart in their learning log. The
teacher will provide statements, concepts and words that the reading will
describe. The students will reflect on what they know about such statements,
concepts and words; what they would like to know about...; and later, after the
reading and activities have been completed, they will reflect on what they have
learned.
Justification: This strategy helps both the teacher and the student
tap into their prior knowledge. It also lets the teacher know what the student
is predicting about learning, and where they might like the learning to go. It
also establishes a point of reflection for the student to return to after
they've completed the reading. As the authors state on page 64, "this
activity not only helps the teacher and students determine prior knowledge, but
it also models an appropriate reflection strategy for after the reading has
occurred." Basically, I think it's a good strategy to just get the
students thinking and tapping into their schema about the topic, while letting
them anticipate the rest of the lesson.
Assistance:
1. Mystery Clue Game
Students will be divided into groups of four. Each student will be given at
least one strip of paper containing a sentence taken from a paragraph of text.
Students will then read their selection of text silently and begin to predict
where it might fall within paragraph. Next, each group member will read their
selection of text aloud to their group. The group will then decide how
sentences should be arranged to form the most plausible sequence of events.
Justification: Because the text I chose was so dry and dense with information, I
thought the first thing I need to do was make it more fun to read. I rewrote
the text so that each sentence of every paragraph would form into a
chronological sequence of events, and I used context clues to make sure the
paragraph could be pieced back together. Also, I thought that if I broke the
text into smaller portions, it would be much more manageable to read and
therefore the students would be able to comprehend it better. By making it into
a game, where the students are basically piecing the sentences together like a
puzzle, it would be more stimulating and they would be much more motivated to
try and understand what each sentence was saying, so that, if nothing else,
they could figure out where it went. Working in a cooperative setting would
also stimulate a good learning environment for comprehending the reading, and
it would also promote the oral language as the students are reading their
sentences to the group, and trying to make sense of the text.
2. Graphic Organizer
After the group has decided on a plausible sequence, the group will brainstorm
on ways to graphically represent a picture of their group's reading by creating
images to explain complex ideas and concepts. They will be teaching the class
about their section of the text. During the brainstorming stage, students
should be reviewing the reading multiple times to determine the main ideas,
deciding how the information could be displayed graphically and gathering what
information needs to be included from the reading. They may use simplified words
or text if they don't want to use an illustration. They may also have a
representation for each sentence or one big representation for the whole
paragraph if the information is better suited for that. The whole idea is for
each group to visually or graphically organize and display the meaning of their
reading to the class for the benefit of the class. They are now the teachers.
When the groups are ready, each group member will read their sentence/s to the
class and explain how the graphic representation displays the meaning of the
text.
Justification: This strategy wasn't in the Assistance Phase of the textbook, but I
think it would work best for this particular lesson and content, and it's the
best way in my opinion to aid comprehension. Graphic organizers are an easy way
to show relationships within the text, especially when the text is
information-rich. I especially chose this strategy to match with the selection
of text because I think the text lends itself perfectly to be depicted in
visual form. This strategy helps simplify the information and by presenting it
to the class, it will help both auditory and visual learners comprehend the
reading as well.
Reflection:
1.
Repeated Reading
Students
will silently read the whole, original text (before broken into paragraphs and
spliced by sentence).
Justification: First, I think this is
really important because the students have only read their group's paragraph.
They need to go back and read the whole text, now that it has been broken down
and the meaning has been extracted. I thought the text was very dry and
information-rich. I had trouble getting through it the first time, and
comprehended little because of that. By breaking the text into manageable parts
during the Assistance phase, and having the students share their reading and
graphic illustration to the class, the students should be able to handle to
complete text at this point. And because they have already heard the text read
orally, and seen it displayed pictorially, they should have no trouble getting
through the passages.
2.
Reflection Guide
The
teacher will provide a Reflection Guide to the students who will at first, work
independently. The guide will present a number of true or false statements that
can be inferred from the reading. Students will then discuss and analyze their
choices with classmates at their table.
Justification: This strategy aids
reflection because, as stated by the authors on page 126, "the reflection
guide provides students a chance to work in groups, analyze and make decisions
about the reading they just completed." And since the statements on the
guide don't come directly from the reading, but may be phrased to mean the same
thing it helps students and the teacher know if they've learned and retained
the information. Also, some statements should go beyond what was written to
help jump start discussions from the students and help make connections.
Vocabulary Strategy:
Self-Collection Strategy
The students and teacher, as
a whole class, will share words from the reading that they think are important
to the understanding the text and content area. The class will also share words
they were uncertain about or that they know they'll have trouble remembering.
Together, the class will look for context clues in the text to define the
vocabulary they think are most important. They will also help devise ways or
strategies students might be able to remember words and their definitions, for
those who are struggling
Justification: I think this is a really effective strategy because it places the
responsibility on the student. Since the students are choosing terms that are
important for vocabulary building (with the help of teacher guidance of course)
they are making themselves accountable. I think they will feel more motivated
to learn and retain the words. I thought this was a useful strategy as well
because it occurs during the reflection phase of the lesson plan. By this
point, the students have already been exposed to the words several times and
should feel at least acquainted with them. At this point, students will be
better equipped to understand the word in its context and retain it.
2. Students will also be evaluated
based on their performance during cooperative activities and group work. They
will be graded based on their performance communicating new ideas to others by
presenting the selection of text to the class and explaining the visual
representation and participating in and contributing to discussions in science
content area.
The Text:
Evaluation:
1. Students will be given a quiz
to evaluate their understanding of the reading and content. The quiz will be
multiple choice and matching and with be related to the content objective.
Possible questions will be:
- What is the difference between a cold front and a warm front?
- How do cold and warm front effect each other?
- Explain what causes precipitation
- Explain what causes extreme weather, like tornadoes and hurricanes
- Understand the process of convention currents and how wind is generated
Define the vocabulary terms:
temperature, front, atmospheric
conditions, global winds, local winds, convention currents and air masses
(Below is the text I would use for this lesson plan. Each paragraph is broken by line breaks, and each sentence is on its own line for the Mystery Game.)
Mountains absorb more heat during the day than the valleys do.
Warm air rises, so this causes the warm air of daytime to rise
off the mountainside.
Fronts form when air masses collide.
Local winds, like mountain breezes and valley breezes, stay in
a fairly small area.
But global winds cover larger
areas.
Uneven heating of certain parts of the planet results in these
global winds.
Another feature that defines these winds is that they form
long-lasting wind patterns that circle the globe in predictable patterns.
They curve to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the
left in the Southern Hemisphere.
Regardless of the hemisphere, they can form fast-moving
currents, called jet streams, and they can blow up to 149 miles per hour in the
atmosphere surrounding the Earth.
_______________________________________________________________________
In areas that are near the ocean, sea breezes blow from the
water toward the land during the day and from the land to the water at night.
Here's how it works.
During the day, the land heats up faster than the ocean.
Then when the warm air rises off the land, cool air from the
ocean rushes in to take its place.
Just as the air from the ocean took the place of the air on
land, now the warm air from the land rushes towards the ocean to replace the
air it lost.
This causes the ocean to warm up, and the ocean holds its
warmth longer than the land.
Then the whole thing reverses all over again; warm air from
the ocean rushes towards land, while cooler air from land rushes back to the
ocean.
This whole process is an example of convention current.
These are loops of moving air that transfer energy from one
location to another, and they cause wind.
_______________________________________________________________________
Then the cooler air from the valley rushes in to take its
place.
During the night, the mountains cool faster than the valleys,
so the whole process happens in reverse.
A cool night wind then blows down the mountains.
This whole process is due to convention currents: loops of
moving air that transfer energy from one location to another, and they result
in wind.
_______________________________________________________________________
In other words, when two air masses meet, it is called a
front.
When warm air displaces cold air on the ground, the front is
referred to as a warm front.
But when the reverse happens and cold air replaces warm air on
the ground, the front is referred to as a cold front.
_______________________________________________________________________
Air masses are bodies of air that are uniform in both
temperature and humidity, which is moisture content.
Cold air masses are denser and heavier than warm air masses.
Since these air masses don't mix unless they are similar in
both temperature and humidity, the cold air will push the warm air upward.
Temperature, by the way, is the measure of the amount of heat energy in the
atmosphere.
A front is formed when two different air masses meet.
When different fronts meet, they cause weather patterns to
change.
______________________________________________________________________
Extra Credit:
An atmospheric condition is the
temperature, wind, and type of precipitation that occurs around a region.
This can include more than one
air mass.
Extreme atmospheric conditions create various kinds of storms
such as thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
Different atmospheric conditions also create different types
of precipitation.
The main types of precipitation are rain, snow, sleet,
freezing rain and hail.
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