Adelina's Whales and The Big 6 research process
Created By:
Jessica Gascard
Title/Role:
Teacher Librarian
Organization/School Name:
Mote Elementary School
Location:
Delaware
Grade Level:
4 Type of Lesson:
Lesson in a unit Type of Schedule:
Fixed Collaboration Continuum:
Moderate Content Area:
Educational technology, Language Arts Content Topic:
Gray Whale conservation (Big 6 research process) Scenario:
Fourth grade students have been learning the Big6 research process (Eisenberg, Michael B. Home. Michael B. Eisenberg, n.d. Web. 30 June 2013. <http://big6.com/>.)by engaging in each of the steps via the reading and science curriculum. The Teacher Librarian (TL) has been working in collaboration with the classroom teacher on Steps 1-4 of the Big6 research process. Students have read, then participated in a Close Reading of “Adelina’s Whales” from their Scott Foresman Reading Curriculum series. It is a nonfiction selection about a girl named Adelina Mayoral, who lives near the San Ignacio Laguna on the Baja, California peninsula. She, her father, Jesus, and grandfather, Pachico, share a passion for preserving the gray whales' habitat. Students have, with the TL, explored the Mayoral family’s website: pachicosecotours.com. The site describes Adelina’s grandfather and father’s whale watching ecotours. During the exploration, students used the “Trash-n-Treasure” note-taking technique (Jansen, Barbara A. "The Trash-n-Treasure Method of Teaching Note-Taking." School Library Media Activities Monthly 12 (1996): 29-32. Print.)on a website note-taking template. Students answered the Essential Question (EQ): How is the Mayoral family helping to preserve the gray whales’ habitat at San Laguna Ignacio? Students will view a PBS video to further explore the note-taking technique. Overview:
Students will record relevant ("treasure")information from the PBS video: Saving the Ocean: Destination Baja, on their video note-taking template (Step 4- Use of Information). They will then synthesize their notes from the video and the website to answer the Essential Question: How is the Mayoral family helping to preserve the gray whales’ habitat at San Laguna Ignacio? (Step 5- Synthesis)on the Essential Question template. Final Product:
The students will utilize their background knowledge in conjunction with their partner conversations to synthesize their website and video notes to answer the Essential Question on their Essential Question template. Library Lesson:
The students will learn to gather meaning from a variety of media, to collaborate with others in an exchange of ideas and to develop new understandings, to use interaction with and feedback from peers and teachers to answer the Essential Question, and to demonstrate that a pattern of evidence leads to a conclusion. Estimated Lesson Time:
45 minutes Have you taught this lesson before:
No Strategies for differentiation:
Students will work with a partner and have the opportunity to view the video more than once.