I am very pleased with the progress Martina and I are making on our Unit Plan. Martina is an excellent partner and she has kept me on track as I’ve had a very busy month with traveling for family responsibilities and working on my three other classes. Martina and I decided to create a unit on the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Martina teaches the first grade and I was very excited to develop a unit that she could use in her classroom. The unit may be science-based but has great potential for curriculum integration and for teaching information literacy.
We developed a set of driving questions that would encompass the unit plan subject matter.
1. Why is it important to stop, look, and observe clues in my world? (Characteristics of monarch Larva)
2. What are the characteristics of the monarch larva that help it grow and live?
3. What do monarch caterpillars eat?
4. What are the observable physical characterstics of the monarch pupa?
5. How many stages are there in the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly?
6. What is metamorphosis?
7. What is a chrysalis?
8. What are the observable physical characterstics of the Monarch Butterfly?
9. What functions do butterfly body parts serve?
We also created a set of driving questions to be addressed by the teacher and the media specialist:
Driving Questions for the SLMS
1. How do I teach students to locate information on a topic?
2. How do I use student time in the media center to further learning about life cycles?
3. How can I integrate technology resources?
4. Where do I find the best possible digital and print resources to assist teacher planning?
Driving Questions for the Teacher?
1. How can I get first grade students to understand the life cycle and metamorphosis of a butterfly?
2. How can I integrate Science and Literacy?
3. How can I assess student learning?
Martina created a list of roles and responsibilities for our unit plan. It is becoming evident that these roles will be changed and recreated as we comment and collaborate on each other’s work.
We are currently examining lesson plans Martina created for a similar unit in the past, adding new assessment strategies and goals from the AASL Standards. I am also attempting to add resources and adaptations for diverse learners, as this is one of my responsibilities in the collaboration.
I have no experience in creating wikis but I am beginning to like the format. It is fun to get online and see what Martina has updated and how I can add to or modify the information.
My main concern as the media specialist is finding age-appropriate strategies for teaching information literacy. My contact with first graders is limited and I will need to further research and consult with Martina to determine what this age group is capable of when it comes to research or computer skills.
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Kara,
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me address the last concern you have about teaching research and information literacy in an age-appropriate format. As a mother of a first grader, I got knocked back down to reality when I offered to come do a class presentation on African folktales in my son's class. Everything went well, it's just that I was trying to start with global ideas and his teacher reminded me that the first graders need to start with themselves and then see how they fit in the larger world. So I wound up reading an Anansi the Spider folktale and we did a chant and talked about how stories lived on through generations through songs. THEN, we were able to show them Ghana on the map (Anansi is a Ghanaian folktale)and have them color in this country and put Anansi on the map near Ghana.
I say all that to say that once you hook students in and help them see the topic in their tiny worlds, then you can move out to the larger world. So I would recommend starting with conversation about the zoo and who has seen a butterfly. Then I would perhaps find a picture book or short story about butterflies. Then you could coordinate a scavenger hunt activity or a quick Q& A to find our if students know where to find science information at their school or public library about butterflies.
The information literacy lesson could be about learning your libraries organization scheme and about the components of a book (e.g. spine, title page, table of contents, glossary, etc).
Also, I tend to look for 'why' questions as evidence of higher order thinking. Can you insert some in your next revision?
Hope that helps.
Prof. K.