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Grade Level: First (1)

Content Area: Social Studies

Topics:

Sustainability

Humans and culture

Humans and the environment

Why This Standard: I chose this standard because I saw a lot of connections between its goals and our course textbook. I saw this as an opportunity to use culture as a way to establish students' connection to our local environment.

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SS.1.G.2 With guidance and support, describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or regions

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Unpacking the Standards Graphic Organizer

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How do our actions change how other humans, plants, and animals live around us?

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Ecological Knowledge Building & Identity Development

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Ecological Knowledge Building & Identity Development

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Anchoring Theme: Relationality

Due to the area in which inquiry is directed through the essential questions, students are prompted to think about their relation to other humans and the natural world. This dynamic is clearly stated as relationality. In the unit plan, we will develop this theme through making observations about how human actions changed the local region.

Ecological Identity Goal: Students will begin to develop the idea of their importance and critical role in making good choices to support the environment.

(a) Through following the essential question and understanding how humans' choices affect the environment positively and negatively, students will see how the are in a relationship with the environment.

(b) Students need to learn about this topic because it works towards a major goal in literacy - developing learners who are active members of society. It inspires learners to understand their relation to the environment and the important role they play.

(c) Many elementary students are naturally drawn to caring for the world around them. Students are natural inquirers and empaths. This plan becomes relevant to them through targeted and channeling these attitudes as well as increases the relevancy through connecting it to their local environment.

(d) One relevant topic that connects this plan to the real world is the pollution of the Illinois River. There are many forms of pollution such as littering that are human actions and have negative impacts on other humans using the river as a resource, plants growing around the river, and animals living in the river.

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Formative Assessment for "Know":

Finger Check

Students will be assessed on their knowledge of the environment and wildlife survival as well as the environment and culture with a finger check. This check asks students to show the teacher how they feel about the topic using their fingers. One finger means that the student feels lost; five fingers means that the student feels like they could teach the subject. This will follow direct instruction about these topics that are used as a foundation for what the unit continues to build off of. This data will allow the teacher to understand the students comfortability with the content.

Formative Assessment for "Understand":

Think-Pair-Share

In this activity, students will be prompted to think about a question that captures the essential ideas of the two learning objectives. Students will initially think to themselves about question, pair up with a partner to talk about what they thought, and share with the class about their conversation. This will happen previous to instruction on these learning objectives. Listening to student responses will help the teacher gauge the level of understanding amongst students as well as what may be more common strengths in the class.

Formative Assessment for "Do":

Creating a Comic Strip

Before students learn about the negative impacts of some human actions on the environment and other humans, the students will fill in a blank comic strip to show a series of events that includes an environment, a change made by humans, and the effect. By using the completed comic strips as data, teachers will be able to see how the students understand the relationship between humans and the environment.

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Author: Jess French

Published: 2019

Description Structure

This book teaches students about how human actions contribute to different causes of climate change such as: air pollution, plastic pollution, greenhouse gases, and the limited nature of our Earth's resources. It helps build off of the essential question in the fact that it describes how human actions contribute to these factors that put our Earth in danger.

The main limitation is the complexity of the text. With first graders, this text will take many scaffolds and intentional instructional decisions to use processes like think-alouds when drawing connections between the information in the text and how it applies to the essential question. This text also unfortunately does not contain direct information about the linkage to the cultural aspect of climate change.

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What a Waste by Jess French: 9781465481412 | Brightly Shop

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In this informative book on recycling for children, you will find everything you need to know about our environment. The good, the bad and the incredibly innovative. From pollution and litter to renewable…

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Author: Barry Wittenstein

Published: 2023

Sequence Structure

This book teaches students directly about a time in history where our society polluted a river. It demonstrates how this hurt wildlife and the people that live in the city around it, which directly connects to the essential question. The text gives a historical perspective through storytelling on environmentalism to students.

The book is limiting in its specificity. Although this does have some benefits, it takes a narrow perspective on one form of human actions hurting, and then helping, our environment. That being said, it may be unclear to students as to how this can be related to other forms of actions that change our climate.

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Assessing the Text Complexity of the Shared Core Text

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Assessing the Text Complexity of the Shared Core Text

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Affordances:

1. This text has many beautiful and engaging graphics and charts. These can provide students a great way to be introduced or work with new forms of structured information. The variation in these across the text provide many unique opportunities.

2. The sectioning of information based on different types of waste allows for easily chunked instruction. Because this text will be instructed on over the course of an extended period of time, not all in one day, this helps develop a flow of instruction.

Obstacles:

1. This text has a rather high lexile for lower elementary and will therefore require many scaffolds. It may not be the best choice in introducing the ideas about waste and their negative impacts.

2. Although the variation in how information is presented opens up opportunities to work with this structure, it could also be overwhelming to students who have no prior experience with such layout.

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GATES Text Complexity Checklist-2 (2).pdf

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1. Community Observation Walk

The specific place of this walk is dependent on the school the students are in. But for example, I envision the elementary school that I attended. (linked above) During this walk, students would meander around the playgrounds, parking lots, and field at the back of the school. They would bring their Nature Notebooks along to make observations. They may also draw pictures of what they see in different areas. The teacher would prompt the students to consider ideas about how the green spaces serve the local community.

2. The Illinois River Walk

Continuing with the theme of the elementary school I attended, it is a few minutes away from the Illinois River. Students would be asked to bring their nature notebooks here as well, to jot down observations about the color of the water, the things they see along the bank, and questions they may have as they walk alongside the edge of the river.

3. Virtual Landfill Tour

Students will probably notice that the river and surrounding areas of the school grounds have trash and litter. They may wonder what that does to our environment, and what happens to waste anyways? Tying this back to our shared core text one, students will be able to see firsthand what happens at a landfill through this virtual tour.

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Author: Nanette Heffernan

Published: 2020

Problem-Solution Structure

This book is highly connected to the essential question in the way that it demonstrates to early learners what energy is, how we use it, how that can be a problem, and a proposed solution (Lights-Out events). It allows students to see how their everyday actions, those that are indirect, are making changes to our Earth.

The book does not encompass all the aspects that the students will have to consider to gain a thorough understanding of energy and it's connection to the Earth and light pollution. It is extremely surface level, which is helpful because it feels less overbearing for first graders, but it is limited in how much information it actually conveys. The teacher would need to find areas to strengthen the text and vocabulary.

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How the Text Addresses a Complexity in Shared Core Text #1

I noted while completing the GATES Text Complexity Checklist in the Shared Core Text #1 that the text had a rather high Lexile. This was the result of having moderately high language demands. Because the language of the text often incorporated Tier II and Tier III vocabulary words about pollution, waste, and littering, I found that this video would be highly beneficial and supportive to students' learning about this topic in general through taking a first-grade friendly approach.

What This Text Teaches Students About The Topic

As I began to mention previously, this text takes an approach to teaching students about littering in a much more supportive way that is conducive to being developmentally appropriate for first graders. It teaches students what it means to litter, where our litter goes, and why this can become a problem. It also transitions into teaching students about actions they can take independently. This supports not only the information covered in Shared Core Text #1, but also the overarching essential question. It addresses the idea that our action of littering can negatively impact the environment, or more specifically bodies of water. It also addresses the opposing side to this, that we can pick up litter and recycle our garbage to help our environment thrive.

Limitations With Using This Text

The significant limitations with using this text is that is it very narrow. It is a small step in the direction in talking about pollution and waste as a whole, which is a small step in addressing how our actions effect the environment as a whole. While the simplicity of the text could be seen as a positive, it also limits what a student can connect with and engage with when interacting with this text. The students would not get to experience how littering can effect other parts of our Earth, how littering connects to those negative impacts, and how littering is a small piece of a larger societal issue. It also fails to regard any cultural components to the issue. Which, again, can also be seen collectively as a positive in this scenario because this results in the text not being as complex and easily engaged with independently at a first-grade level.

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Kids Go Green: Litter and Our Oceans | PBS LearningMedia

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In this video animation from WNET, follow Al the aluminum can on a journey into the ocean after he is tossed away as litter. Students learn about the impact of litter on bodies of water and discover ways to reduce litter. In the accompanying activity, students attempt to clean a simulated polluted lake using various techniques and materials. Additional support materials are available, including discussion questions and teaching tips on using this video to help students consider ways to help the environment.
For more environmental education resources, visit the Human Impact on the Environment collection.

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Planning for Instruction With the Shared Core Text

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Planning for Instruction With the Shared Core Text

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The students will read this text by ...

the teacher's facilitation of an interactive read-aloud! An interactive read-aloud is a suitable choice for this text specifically due to its high level of varying complexities. In order for this to be used at a developmentally appropriate level with first-graders, there will be many scaffolds and supports such as with the complex vocabulary. This warrants the usage of an interactive read-aloud to integrate vocabulary instruction within the actual listening to and comprehension of the text.

Comprehension Strategies:

Before the interactive read-aloud, students will ...

use the "See, Think, Wonder" strategy to make predictions about the text based on what they are noticing and observing. Because this book warrants students to think critically about climate change - in specific pollution - using this strategy as an introduction will be a great start to set the pace of the way of higher-order thinking that will occur throughout the interactive read-aloud.

During the interactive read-aloud, students will ...

listen as the teacher implements a "Think-Aloud" strategy. By verbalizing my thoughts throughout the interactive read-aloud, it will hopefully invite students to join me in thinking critically about the content. This will help increase engagement and provide support for first-graders to meaningfully interact with this text specifically.

After the interactive read-aloud, students will ...

use the "Surprising, Interesting, Troubling" strategy to identify specific moments in the text that are worthy of reflection. This can work as a guide to fostering a highly structured discussion, which is important when thinking about speaking and listening standards that are utilized in a first-grade setting.

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Vocabulary Word List:

1. Waste

2. Pollution

3. Resources

4. Environment

5. Recycle

Vocabulary Strategies:

Before the interactive read-aloud, students will ...

complete a "Vocabulary Knowledge Rating Scale" in which they will rank how they feel about what they know about the five vocabulary words. This can also inform the teacher by quickly taking a poll about where each student is at in terms of understanding each word. This also prepares the students to look for and notice those words in the reading.

During the interactive read-aloud, students will ...

be engaging with the "List-Group-Label" vocabulary strategy. This strategy can happen throughout an interactive read-aloud and focuses on students' bringing their prior knowledge to help organize their thoughts about new vocabulary words. Students can generate words that are related to the vocabulary - bringing in what they know about those words and the topic.

After the interactive read-aloud, students will ...

create a piece of graffiti art by using the "Graffiti Vocabulary" strategy. Creating visuals represents a higher-order of thinking and is an engaging task for students. It helps develop a definition of a word to be more than the textbook definition. It is also engaging for first-graders as they may still be developing writing skills - and drawing a definition is a more feasible opportunity for them to explain their thoughts about a vocabulary word's meaning.

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How the Text Addresses a Complexity in Shared Core Text #1

While the Shared Core Text #1 may feel like an overwhelming amount of information about all types of pollution and waste, this text allows students to interact with those ideas at a much less complex level. Students are introduced to how their actions can help save the Earth - through reducing pollution. Rather than learning about many types of pollution and their complexity, like in What A Waste, this text takes a more simpler approach to types that are relevant to students.

What This Text Teaches Students About the Topic

This text teaches students about the causes of global warming - specifically how deforestation, emissions from vehicles, and littering are impacting our Earth. It introduces the idea of how these also are creating issues of severe weather. This text describes each of these pollutants, their impacts on the environment, and how we can make choices or take actions that prevent them from continuing to harm our Earth. From a general perspective, this text teaches students that their choices can help protect our Earth from global warming and climate change.

Limitations Of Using This Text

This text still includes some vocabulary words that may need definitions or support for students to productively interact with independently. Words such as "reduce" and "gas-free" came up multiple times throughout the text with regard to actions the audience can take. While "reduce" is a vocabulary word that I could find potential in becoming a set part of the unit's vocabulary, gas-free is a phrase I would most likely substitute in the moment. Because this is an independent activity, this is less feasible.

I also have slight concerns about how students may interpret the text. Because the text is a "game" it may seem like it is not discussing a real-world issue. Students may not be making these connections. On the flip side, the text may warrant students to be increasingly worried or anxious about climate change through its visuals of the character in a flood or next to fires. Although this is a concerning issue, I want the students to feel inspired to rise to the challenge, and not worried about their safety.

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Climate Detectives: Saving Planet Earth! Join Detective Hope and journey to explore the mysteries of global warming and discover how we can make a difference for our planet. |

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Writing Sequence Lessons - Writing About Climate Change

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Writing Sequence Lessons - Writing About Climate Change

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Students can also each be given a seed or set of seeds that has been germinated by the teacher. They can have the job of taking care of their own plant, thinking about its food, water, and sunlight needs.

To incorporate inquiry, students can test different ways of caring for a plant. For example, one student could test if sunlight helps/hurts their plant by putting one in the window and their other plant in a closet.

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How to Start a Classroom Garden With Minimal Resources - Project Learning Tree

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Spring has sprung, and now is the perfect time to start a classroom garden! Learn how to start one with minimal resources and fun, hands-on learning.

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Many teachers think about class "pets" as a way to teach students about responsibility and caring for others, but a classroom simply isn't a suitable home for an animal. Children can undoubtedly benefit from learning to care for animals, but that should take place in a way that allows everyone, including the animals, to thrive, which is impossible in a busy classroom. Leave animals out of the classroom -try adding a plant to your students' learning environment instead!

Plants don't have a nervous system, so unlike class "pets," if they're neglected or not well taken care of, no one suffers, and lessons can still be learned.

https://www.tiktok.com/@teachkindteachers/video/7224266781207137578
Ready for a class plant? Follow these four simple steps:
1. Choose an interesting-looking and hardy plant that can thrive in your classroom, keeping in mind sunlight and temperature requirements along with the effects of heating and air conditioning.

2. Introduce the plant to your students and find a special place for it. Choose a name for it together.

3. Make caring for the plant a class activity. Each week, designate a different student as the plant's caretaker-meaning that they will be responsible for watering/misting it, slightly rotating it each day so that it gets even sunlight, giving it a trim, refilling low soil, and any other required maintenance as needed. You'll likely find this role to be one of the most coveted classroom jobs!

4. Snap a picture each week of your students with their class plant. You could archive the photos so that everyone can look back on its-and their-growth and changes over the course of the school year.

Your students will be thrilled with the opportunity to care for a class plant, and you can even allow them the opportunity to take it home for the weekend, assuming full responsibility for its care.
What are some ideal plants for a classroom?

Spider plants have long, thin green leaves and produce "spiderettes" that can be given to students to take home and care for at the end of the school year. What a great end-of-year tradition!

@freethinkingteacher
Teacher Tip: my favorite third grade tradition ✨ teachertips teachergifts studentgifts newteacher futureteacher classroom classroomfamily teacherjoy happyteacher teachersoftiktok

♬ original sound - FreeThinkingTeacher

Jade plants have thick, rubbery leaves that retain water, so they'll be fine left alone over the weekends-or if you occasionally forget to water them. Nobody's perfect!

Pothos plants can likely be found at your local superstore or home improvement store. They are fast-growing and can thrive without direct sunlight.

Aloe plants produce small "pups" that students can learn to separate and repot to learn more about how plants grow.

Air plants are sure to excite your students, as they don't require any soil. They're easy to care for, and when it's time to water them, just soak their roots for 15 minutes.

Children should never be misled into thinking that animals exist to be used by humans in any way, including as class "pets." And class plants are cheaper and easier to care for, plus they don't suffer if they're neglected.

Looking for ways to teach about animals and responsibility without using class "pets"? Try livestreaming videos of your students' favorite animals, symbolically adopting an animal at a sanctuary, or developing activities involving a plush toy, like Ratty! For more ideas and support, visit our website and sign up for our e-mail list to stay up-to-date on humane classroom activities, lesson plans, contests, and more!

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Looking for a low-maintenance class "pet"? Try a class PLANT instead! | TeachKind

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Teach compassion by helping students care for a class plant.

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Roles

Green Team:

Recycler - makes sure people are recycling correct materials and monitors what is thrown out

Energy Saver - turns off unnecessary lights/energy using sources in the classroom when asked to do so

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Eco-Friendly Learning: Sustainable Practices in the Classroom | Take Care of Texas

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In today’s world, where environmental concerns are at the forefront, it is crucial to instill eco-consciousness in our future generations. One of the best places to start is in the classroom. By promoting sustainable practices, we not only help save the environment but also teach students valuable life lessons about responsibility, conservation, and the impact of their actions. We will explore some practical and innovative ways to integrate sustainable practices in the classroom for a greener and more sustainable future.

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How This Text Supports the Shared Core Text

1. This text addresses and supports students in their general knowledge about waste and pollution, which is a primary topic in What A Waste. As mentioned in the GATES Checklist, this text requires moderately high knowledge demands, and the information that is discussed in the video provides a great foundation to engage with some of the information in the shared core text.

2. Additionally, one drawback of What A Waste is its variety in displays of information in a way that may feel overwhelming to students. The style of this text in video format feels much less overwhelming to students and presents similar information in a much more consumable and first-grade friendly format.

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How Will Students "Read" The Text?

Because this video is formatted to where students may not have as many barriers as a book would to engaging with, I see this text being watched independently. Because there may be less opportunities to have students do independent work within the heavy knowledge and language demands, this would be a great place to integrate independent work.

Comprehension Strategies

Before: Anticipation Guide

Students may be naturally intruiged by the graphics of this video, but forget the purpose of watching to gain information. Therefore, an anticipation guide will set the intention of seeking and exploring new information to support a prediction.

During: Listicles

Incorporating listicles will be beneficial to allowing the students to take a puase in the middle of the video and create a short summary of what they have seen so far. This will help students refocus and chunk up the responsibilities while watching.

After: Sketch to Stretch

At the end of the video, students will again be prompted to create a drawing of what they were able to visualize. Because the information was visually presented, this could be adapted to visualize what may happen next - or a part that made them feel a certain emotion.

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Tier 2/Tier 3 Vocabulary Words:

Litter

Aluminum

Ocean

River

Trash

These five words stood out to me as warranting instruction because they are essential in being understood in order to make meaning of the text. They also build off of many vocabulary words discussed within the shared core text.

Vocabulary Strategies:

Before: First Word Last Word

Before the students engage with the video, they can use this strategy to get themselves thinking about a common concept throughout the video. This also gives the teacher insight into what background knowledge students may have.

During: Vocabulary Self-Collection

Because students will be watching independently, this provides an opportunity for students to "collect" unfamiliar words while reading. These can then potentially be discussed afterwards - if they already are not in the following activity.

After: Concept Attainment Cards

After the students have been exposed to these words, they can begin to try and apply them to examples. If the students are still struggling to do so successfully, it may be helpful to watch the video again and circle back.

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How This Text Supports the Shared Core Text

1. The shared core text discusses a wide variety of examples of waste - and while it is highly complex - lacks specificity of examples. This text provides a clear example of one instance in history where waste became an issue to the land and culture of an area.

2. While the shared core text feels very text heavy and discipline-specific, this text supports it in feeling more comforting to students through its storytelling structure. Because this is often what first-graders are more familiar with, this may resonate more with them.

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How Will Students "Read" The Text?

Students will engage with this text through an interactive read-aloud. This format best supports the text and the developmental stage of first grade by naturally being more capable of integrating supports and in the process of drawing connections between the text and the essential question.

Comprehension Strategies

Before: A & D Statements

This strategy prompts students to discuss what their predictions may be about the text as well as activates their prior knowledge about what they assume it to be about based on the cover. This can be a great starting place before an interactive read aloud to allow the class to explore differences in opinion.

During: DRTA

Because this is happening during the reading, the teacher can target the "thinking" component and ask students to make connections to what they agreed and disagreed with before reading. The teacher can even prompt them to discuss if their opinion seems to be changing already or staying the same.

After: Life Road Map

Since this text is in the format of retelling a historical event, the students can create a life map of the area or history of the river to summarize the events that happened. This can allow the students to even have a resource to look back on to what the book taught them about.

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Tier 2/Tier 3 Vocabulary Words:

Caught

Sewage

Extinguished

Toxic

Indigenous

I chose these five words because I thought not only were they essential to comprehension, or used many times, they would be applicable and important to the essential question. For example, "caught" is used many times throughout and is an essential part in comprehending what happened to the river. "Indigenous" is not mentioned as much, but is critical in making the connection to the cultural piece of the essential question.

Vocabulary Strategies

Before: Anchored Word Learning

Because words like "caught" are used in the title and throughout the beginning of the book, it would be helpful to begin by decoding and answering questions (and giving student-friendly definitions) of words similar. This would allow the interactive read-aloud to be started with a good foundation of knowledge.

During: Interview A Word

When the student's come across the word "Indigenous" they may be completely unfamiliar with it. Because it is slightly more complex, it may be beneficial to do an interview of the word to gain a deeper understanding of what it means in a broader context.

After: Concept Sort

In order to see what students have learned about these vocabulary words with some support after reading the book, they will then get the opportunity to engage with them by sorting them into categories. This can assist their development of word knowledge as well as signify to the teacher what words may have been more successfully understood than others.

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Classroom Activities | Center for Science Education

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The UCAR Center for Science Education develops state-of-the-art educational experiences that connect NCAR|UCAR science including weather, climate, air quality, and the Sun-Earth connection, to diverse learners, creating pathways towards a scientifically literate society.

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Summative Assessment - Consequential Task

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Summative Assessment - Consequential Task

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As outlined in my lesson sequence, students will be engaging with the essential question by becoming an expert on a certain action that can be taken to protect the cultural and environmental characteristics of a place. Students will use what they know about their expert action to develop a way to spread the word. They will work with their expert team to create a text; a mini documentary, podcast, a mini-movie, or a blog post, to share what they learned with the world.

For example, the students who are working on describing how we can work against pollution by picking up garbage could create a podcast where they talk about where litter ends up. They would use what they know about how litter hurts the cultural and environmental characteristics of a region to convey with the podcast listeners why it is important for them to take action. Students would research, using the texts provided and independent research to develop ideas for how society can take action.

These artifacts of learning should be published - with the consent of parents and caregivers - in a place where the entire school community can engage with them. The purpose of this consequential task is to spread the word, so by spreading it within the local community, students can see how their research benefited those around them. These resources could even be shown to other classes in the school.

When students typically communicate their learning in schools, it is through writing an essay and sending it to one person - the teacher. This is not what professionals in the social science field do to share their information and findings, but rather they find a format to share their research with the world. These professionals use online platforms, documentaries, or podcasts as opportunities to communicate with a larger crowd. By giving this opportunity of communication to students, they are provided with an authentic experience to the field.