Term IV: Environmental Lesson

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to identify different environmental issues as related to the
community garden

STANDARDS:
Asking questions and defining problems
Constructing explanations and designing solutions
Crosscutting concept: Cause and effect
Crosscutting concept: Stability and change
Earth sciences

MATERIALS AND PREPARATION:

Smartboard
Save the bees, bats, birds! Pollinators are disappearing, report says. Associated Press
adapted by Newsela staff. Retrieved from
https://newsela.com/articles/pollinator-decline/id/15379/
Van Allsburg, C (2011, March 7). Just a Dream. HMH Books for Young Readers
What are climate and climate change? NASA.gov adapted by Newsela staff.
https://newsela.com/articles/lib-nasa-climate-and-climate-change/id/24135/

CLASSROOM ARRANGEMENT AND MANAGEMENT ISSUES

One potential issue that could occur is that it may be difficult to bring students back to the whole
class instruction when they are discussing in small groups for the Turn and Talk parts of the
lesson. I will use the strategy of saying Class class to get students attention, and wait until I
have the majority of students responding Yes yes so that I know that students are ready to
move on to the next part of the lesson. Another potential issue is that some students may become
distracted or begin talking during the lesson. In this case, I will simply ask them to come back to
the lesson. If they become too distracting to other students I may have to ask them to do the work
individually.

PLAN:
1. Introduction
a. Introduce the lesson by explaining to students that we are going to discuss some
issues in the environment, and how our actions can sometimes cause
environmental problems
b. First, we will read a book about a kid who does not care about the earth and does
not treat it very well. Then, we will read some informational texts about some
issues in our environment
2. Read Just a Dream
a. Provide brief summary of Just a Dream prior to reading
 b. Remind students to think about environmental implications of our actions
c. After reading, ask students what they thought about the main character and his
discovery
3. What are climate and climate change?
a. Read Newsela article together, pausing to reiterate important ideas
b. After reading, ask them some of the similarities and differences between the two
texts we read (i.e., fiction and nonfiction, both about environmental issues)
c. Ask students to explain what climate change and use evidence from the article to
support their answers.
d. Turn and talk - have students discuss the causes and effects of this environmental
issue
4. If time permits, read Save the bees, bats, birds! Pollinators are disappearing, report
says
a. How does what we are learning about now relate to our community garden?
b. Read the Save the bees article and discuss the negative effects of pesticides
5. Conclusion
a. Ask students if they think we should use pesticides in our garden and why

ASSESSMENT OF THE GOALS:

The assessment will be a simple formative assessment of observing the whole class and small
group discussions. I will listen to students discussions of the issue and ask them questions to
help further their understanding.

ANTICIPATING STUDENTS RESPONSES AND YOUR POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

Student Response Teacher Response

Students may not immediately understand the
connections between Just a Dream, our
informational texts, and our community
garden
I will try to explain the thread through each of
our texts to make the connections accessible
as we are reading each text. In addition, I will
repeat the connection through the texts after
we have read them all

Some students may have read Just a Dream
before and say they have already read that
book
In this case, I will ask one of them to give the
class a very brief summary to introduce the
book, and then tell them that they may have
forgotten some of story so try to identify the
pieces they forgot as we read the story
together

ACCOMMODATIONS:
For students who may have trouble reading the text on their own, I will read the story out
loud so that they can still understand what is happening in the story.
 While students are discussing the issues, check in with some of the students to see how
they are thinking and possibly provide some guiding questions and ideas
It may also be a good idea to group the new students in our class with students
who may work well with them and help them in the small group discussions
We can provide more support for students that do not understand the issues of climate
change. For example, help students by explaining the questions in simpler terms and ask
them prompting questions