Life Cycle of a Whale/Dolphin

Title of Project: Life Cycle of a Whale/Dolphin

Schools and Teachers

Winthrop Ave Elementary Teacher: Lorena Cuttitta

ENL Proficiency Level | ENL Program | Standards | Technology

Entering, Expanding, Commanding   |   Stand-Alone, Integrated ENL/Science   |   4R3    |   Book Creator

Assessments

Students were assessed informally verbally when they were able to express the importance of looking at different sources of information to support a claim. 

Students also created a book of interesting facts about whales.

Description

A student in the class said that when whales die they explode. She added that she had seen it on the internet. That statement was the catalyst for my lesson on "misinformation".

Students created their own books of interesting facts using "bookcreator.com". My lesson was about being savvy when surfing the internet. By the end of the 3-4 session project, students were able to internalize the idea of doing research by using multiple sources of information, such as books, magazines, the internet, articles, databases, etc. to get a complete picture of what we are trying to learn. 

Content

I can explain the life cycle of an animal (whale, dolphin) based on the evidence found in my research and share interesting facts.

Language

4R5: I can explain in my own words the cause and effect of what is being said. I can go further and do research to study the problem and possibly come up with a solution. I can understand the  need to compare the information from different sources to get to the "reliable" facts.

4R8:  I can explain how a claim is / or is not supported by evidence.

Technology

Students used the internet, commonsense.com, books, and articles to create online books of their own using bookcreator.com.

Student work

    

Procedure

Students worked on a research project to learn what the different was between information and misinformation. First they selected an animal from the ocean to do research on. Then they did research using a variety of different materials including the internet and books. Then they used a template in Book Creator to write down what they learned, including important artifacts. They also included how they learned their new information on the last page of the Book Creator template.

Resources and Other Materials

Reflection

Students really enjoyed reading and creating their own books using "bookcreator.com". I believe that they took their learning to a higher level because they were motivated to learn more about the topic.