Learner Description - First Grade and 1/2 Multiage

Overview -

What will be taught?

•Habitats

•Animal systems

•Physical characteristics of marine life 

What will students do and learn?

After researching marine life on earth the students will create appropriate life in a fictitious, newly found ocean. When the research is done we will pose the following question to the students: "What kind of life should be in this new habitat?"

Rationale - Purpose for the unit as a whole. The WHY questions.

Why would you teach this unit?

This project relates to the science curriculum.

Why would this this qualify as an Engaged Learning unit?

Children are actively involved in planning and implementing this project.

Why is technology an important component of this unit?

Children need to use technology to access information about ocean life and create their own marine animal.

Why is this project authentic/meaningful , and challenging for students?

Children feel ownership because they design and implement the project.

This is challenging because they have never been asked to do it before.

Goals - Content, Cognitive and Social - The WHAT questions

What new attributes (knowledge, skills, attitudes) do you expect students to gain?

• Characteristics of marine life

• The food chain

• Distinguishing physical features of ocean life

• Essay and paragraph writing

• Nonfiction reading

• Working cooperatively and collaboratively with peers

What school, district, state and national standards/benchmarks are addressed?

STATE GOAL 3 - Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and structure.

3.A.1 Construct complete sentences which demonstrate subject/verb agreement; appropriate capitalization and punctuation; correct spelling of appropriate, high-frequency words; and appropriate use of the eight parts of speech.

 Compose well-organized and coherent writing for specific purposes and audiences.

3.B.1a Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas (e.g., focus on one topic; organize writing to include a beginning, middle and end; use descriptive words when writing about people, places, things, events).

3.B.1b Demonstrate focus, organization, elaboration and integration in written compositions (e.g., short stories, letters, essays, reports).

Communicate ideas in writing to accomplish a variety of purposes.

3.C.1a Write for a variety of purposes including description, information, explanation, persuasion and narration.

3.C.1b Create media compositions or productions which convey meaning visually for a variety of purposes.

STATE GOAL 4 - Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

Listen effectively in formal and informal situations.

4.A.1a Listen attentively by facing the speaker, making eye contact and paraphrasing what is said.

4.A.1b Ask questions and respond to questions from the teacher and from group members to improve comprehension.

4.A.1c Follow oral instructions accurately.

4.A.1d Use visually oriented and auditory based media.

Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.

4.B.1a Present brief oral reports, using language and vocabulary appropriate to the message and audience (e.g., show and tell).

4.B.1b Participate in discussions around a common topic.

STATE GOAL 11 - Understand the processes of scientific inquiry and technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments and solve problems.

11.A.1b Develop questions on scientific topics.

11.A.1c Collect data for investigations using measuring instruments and technologies.

11.A.1d Record and store data using available technologies.

11.A.1e Arrange data into logical patterns and describe the patterns.

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

STATE GOAL 12 - Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences.

12.A.1a Identify and describe the component parts of living things (e.g., birds have feathers; people have bones, blood, hair, skin) and their major functions.

12.A.1b Categorize living organisms using a variety of observable features (e.g., size, color, shape, backbone).

B. Know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment. 12.B.1a Describe and compare characteristics of living things in relationship to their environments.

12.B.1b Describe how living things depend on one another for survival.

Learning Activities - The activities required to achieve the goals

December 2003

Students investigated the basic needs of all animal life, including habitats.

Students distinguished between the major animal groups. 

January 2004

Students attended the Shedd Aquarium to gain exposure to marine life.

Students brainstormed various types of marine life.

Students will be surveyed to see what type of prior knowledge they have about the topic.

Students will select a type of marine life they want to research.

February 2004

Students will finish and share their marine life research.

Students will create an assessment rubric for their new marine creation.

Students will create new marine life based information they have acquired.

The How questions.

Student Assessment- Enables student and teacher to measure student's attainment of goals.

What are my scoring characteristics? (What do I want to measure? What is an important outcome of this unit?)

Students will be scored on their ability to work cooperatively and complete their project while meeting the standards of the rubric.

What will indicate that students are novices, practitioners, or experts?

Student graded rubric.

How will I measure and communicate student progress on the goals?

Students will evaluate themselves related to their group and personal effort.

How can students be involved in establishing goals and criteria for the assessment?

Students will create a rubric to be used by their group.

How will the assessments be implemented to ensure that they are generative?

Student created evaluation.

Seamless and ongoing?

Progress on this project will be frequently monitored by teacher, individual, and group.

Equitable for all students?

All students will be given the same responsibility and the same evaluation.

An authentic task?

Students are invested in creating their marine life for the newly found ocean.

How will students demonstrate their knowledge and skills?

• research actual marine life and habitats

• wrote about specific marine life

• created a rubric to evaluate their effort and project

• heterogeneous groups were formed to create a new marine life form using notes and graphic organizers

• summarized information about their new life form in a graphic organizer on the computer

• made a three dimensional representation of the new marine life

• evaluated their effort and project with the rubric

Management

How will you manage student work individually and in groups?

Planning will be done in a large group. Research and marine related tasks will be done in small groups.

What resources will you need to do this unit?

• books

• videos

• digital cameras

• computers

• internet

• parents

• paper materials

• graphic organizers

• aquarium

• technology facilitator 

How will the room(s) be arranged?

Small group work will be done at tables and on the floor.

Where will equipment and materials be located to promote maximum use?

The computers, materials, and equipment will be with the teacher to whom the students have been assigned.

Where will students need to work and how can they be accommodated?

They will work between the three teachers' classrooms.

How will students with special needs be helped?

Students will receive peer, teacher, and parent help.

Unit Evaluation

What will I need to do, be aware of, and/or gather while teaching the unit in order to answer these questions:

What was effective?

• Working in heterogeneous groups between classrooms

• Giving students ownership in creating a new life form

• Graphic organizers

• Rubric being created early in the process with their input

• Collaborative planning between teachers

• Prior knowledge

What wasn't effective?

• Time constraints

• Faulty computer equipment

• Space to fit all three classes at once

What will I do differently next time?

• Additional parent help

• Shorten timeline

• Begin sooner