Strategies
Throughout this unit students will engage with the content in a variety of ways. Lessons in this unit will follow the Emery Unified School District's four-part delivery model for instruction. The districts four-part model for instruction consists of a warm-up (5 minutes), mini-lesson (10 - 15 minutes), small group or independent practice (35 minutes) and summary (5 minutes). The warm up or transitions are intended to be short activities that quickly engage students in the subject matter for the period. Initially, we will record and reflect on our breakfast, snack and lunch for the first few days by writing a description or drawing a diagram.
The mini-lessons for this unit will activate and focus prior knowledge through the use of key questions, partner discussions and whole group sharing. The objectives and key questions will be posted for each lesson. The following are examples of questions that will be used throughout the unit. What did you eat? How do/did you feel after eating? Why do we eat food? What happens on the inside of your body after you eat your food? What does the inside of your body look like? Presenting students with an objective and key question helps to focus their prior knowledge toward new information.
Using an inquiry chart the students and I will compile two lists related to the topic. The two headings will be "What do we know?" and "What do we want to know?" Observations charts will also be used to introduce students to real images of body systems, organs, professionals and tools used by these professionals. As students move through different stations, I will monitor and record questions and observations students make from these charts. These opening activities and discussions will give me a clear picture of current knowledge, misconceptions, and burning questions students have about this topic before presenting new information.
During other lessons in this unit I will model on an input chart the structure of the central nervous system and digestive system while discussing their functions. An input chart is an enlarged image lightly sketched on butcher paper. In front of the class the teacher uses colors to bring the image alive before the students. Careful attention is given to the colors used as it supports the organization of the information presented. Posters are posted and revisited throughout the unit as a resource. As additional content is presented it is added to the poster. Later in the unit these input charts will be used to identify the foods and vitamins that support each system.
In small collaborative groups or independently, students will work on specific task related to each lesson. Working in small groups increases student participation, encourages use of language as well as provides an opportunity for students to practice new vocabulary and concepts. To provide opportunities for building and solidifying new knowledge certain task will be repeated. For example models of the two systems will be created with the class, in small groups and independently. Finally, the same format will be used for assessing students. Using a processing grid as a class we will chart new information to support organization of new vocabulary and terms. All students will select an area of the unit in which they would like to be an expert. Working with a partner or in a small group, students will select text from the provided library of leveled and early chapter books to gather more information on their selected topic. While students are working on task I will work with a small group of students to review or pre-teach concepts and vocabulary. I will also use this time to check in with "expert" groups to review new information they have come across in their independent reading.
At the close of each lesson I will lead students in summarizing activities to see how effectively we answered questions and met posted objectives. I will carefully listen and note how well students are able to articulate their understanding of the two systems in the body, tell the story of how humans get nutrients from the foods we eat or vitamins we take. During this portion of the lesson I will prompt students to look back at our initial inquiry chart to post new understandings, new questions, and clarify misconceptions. It is important to model for students at this age how new knowledge can be acquired by integrating it with prior knowledge. Utilizing exit tickets is a useful strategy for a quick informal assessment of how students understand the information presented in the lesson. The exit ticket strategy is an interactive question and feedback system teachers can use to assess student understanding. This can be done in a variety of ways verbally, on paper or electronically. Asking students to name two specific structures and tell their function in their own words is immediate feedback that I will use to make adjustments in pacing and reengagement throughout this unit.
At the end of the unit students will again record breakfast, snack and lunch choices and reflect on how this has changed or remained the same. Students will also demonstrate their understanding through classroom presentations of their expert topics, individual task posters or models of the two systems of the body properly labeled.
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