This lesson is recommended for grade level 4th -6th. The lesson is science and language arts. The lesson is called Sharks – What’s on the Menu?
In this lesson students will conduct research and learn different facts about sharks. They are given a scenario they are swimming along and come face to face with a shark they will need to convince the shark why they would not make a good meal ad offer the shark an alternate menu options. Students will need to find information about shark habits, normal diet, samples of items discovered from stomach of sharks, different types of sharks and anything they can find to help them understand the sharks better. They can even view live sharks through a shark camera. After students have researched all the information above they will write a short persuasive story and make sure to include literary elements such as settings, plot, ect. They will then convert their story into a podcast for other students to see and hear. They will have to show pictures that depict the story and how they convinced the shark that they were not a good option for dinner.
Technology that will be used for this lesson is a wiki page that is where the assignment and requirements for this lesson will be listed for students.
Students will also post their finished podcast to the wiki page. Other technology that will be used for this assignment will be Internet for research, word processing program to write their stories, cameras, recording device, webcam, microphone, headphones and a multimedia program to put together their podcast. Students will also use iTunes to upload their podcast.
Students will be evaluate first on the story some key things that will be evaluated are do students display knowledge of shark habitats, do they show knowledge of different types of sharks, can they distinguish between natural food for sharks & “mistakes”, is the story creative and well organized and does the story demonstrate literacy elements of fiction.
They will also be evaluated in the technology aspect of this lesson. Are the students able to create a Podcast? The podcast should include an appropriate introduction does the podcast tell the audience what to expect. Does the artwork that is used in the podcast match what the speaker is saying? Is the speech easily heard and does the music set the mood of the podcast.
This lesson will be approximately about two weeks. As a class we learn how to do proper Internet search for sharks. I will share with students the following links to show them where they can find some information about sharks.
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/tiger-shark.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001458/
http://library.thinkquest.org/4095/
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001597/kj.html?tqskip1=1
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/
http://www.sharklady.co.za/
We will also discuss what type of food they believe sharks eat before they actually do the research. I want to assess how much prior knowledge students have about sharks.
Students will have about three days to do research about the different types of sharks. We will then discuss as a class their findings. Once the research is done we will move on to the next part of the lesson, which is how to create a story. We will discuss as a class the literary elements that need to be included in their story. As a class we will create a story that includes all the literary elements so students have a better understanding of what is expected of them. This should take about one day. Students will then have one day to create their stories. After they have created their stories they will be expected to create a podcast of their stories. It will take about two days to teach students how to create a podcast, and they will have the rest of the week to work on their individual podcast.
Great detailed lesson on the sharks project for your class. It is nice how you included the ELAR inside of the lesson so that the students can get the best of both worlds. One thing of note, maybe you could make the project a two or three group project instead of an individual. Students will then have the opportunity to share information with each other, and assist each other. Teaching fifth grade, I know that there are some students who are more technological savvy than others, and their peers appreciate the assistance from each other, as opposed to me assisting them. I don't know what the composition of your class is, but this is just a little food for thought, and you are teaching to your students strengths.
ReplyDeleteIf I may also add, looking over the assignment the students must research the habits of sharks, and then create a story after three days. Would it be possible to give the students more time seeing that they have a vast amount of information to cover? I know that the students are going to really enjoy this assignment, and they want to impress you with their projects. I believe that adding more time to the research portion, students would appreciate it, and you will see a tremendous improvement in their assignments. One question that I have is how much time do you have allotted each day for the research assignments? Following along with the previous thought, if the students only have twenty or thirty minutes of research time, the extended assignment may help out tremendously. For grades 4-6 the research may take longer if the students get frustrated if they can not find the information they want. Again great lesson on the sharks, and I know that the students will have a blast. Thank you for listening to some of my suggestions, and good luck. Thanks!