Week 11 - Mini Lesson 1

Candidate’s Name: Shulamith Elias

Grade Level: 3rd

Title of the lesson: Water Pollution

Length of the lesson: 45 Minutes

Central focus ●     what do you want your students to learn? Students will learn about the effects that water pollution has on the environment. ●     what are the important understandings and core concepts you want students to develop within the learning segment? Students will develop skills required to decipher an expository text.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching ●     What do students know, what can they do, what are they learning to do? Students are fluent readers, but are new to expository texts. ●     What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests?  Students can read and write independently and work well in groups. There is a group of ELL students that are struggling somewhat in comparison to their peers.

Common Core State Standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) ●     Students will analyze the expository text ●     Students will discuss their understandings using content specific vocabulary ●     Students will rewrite their information into the corresponding graphs

Learning Objectives Students will analyze the expository text with help from the teacher Students will understand cause and effect as presented in the text Students will demonstrate their understandings using supporting materials.

Formal and informal assessment ●     Students will not be formally assessed at this early stage. They will however be informally assessed throughout the lesson, as I will check for participation and understanding.

Instructional procedure: I will introduce the topic by passing around various water bottles with dirty water inside. I will engage the students in a discussion regarding whether the water is “good” or “bad” – why or why not would they want to drink it? I will then explain that dirty water is actually a real problem facing the world today. Using the smartboard, I will load an article about Water Pollution from eschooltoday.com. We will read the article together, outloud. I will stop frequently to check for understanding. Once the reading is complete, I will introduce the students to the Cause and Effect graphic organized. We will do one sample together as a class. The remaining two samples will be done by the students in groups. Students will be required to reference the text when writing. Before dismissing the class, we will review the chart together. (ELLS will have the option of drawing their responses to demonstrate understanding instead of writing. ELL groups will also be able to make use of the teacher’s assistant to review the text an extra time, and ensure complete understanding.)

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning. Smartboard, http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/water-pollution/effects-of-water-pollution.html

Reflection ●     I believe that my instruction supported learning for the whole class including the students who need great support or challenge. ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? I would plan additional lessons that require similar skills, to further build on the concepts presented. ●     Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? I think this would help concretize the students’ knowledge, since practice is key to understanding and using new skills.