Artifact 3.1

Lesson Plan #3 Stage 1 – Desired Results   Learning Goals: Students will begin to understand the parts of a leaf and how they help to make food for the tree so that they can realize the importance of parts of wholes working together.
Understanding / Goals Students will know: That leaves have different parts. That trees make their own food. Leaves are important for making food for the tree.	Essential Questions: What are the parts of leaves? How do leaves help trees? How do trees make their own food?
Student Objectives (Outcomes) Students will be able to: Identify the parts of a leaf. Draw a detailed picture of a leaf. Explain how leaves make food for trees.
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks: Drawing their own leaf and identifying the parts that they see.	Other Evidence: Communicates observations of parts of a leaf orally and through drawing. Class created rubric for scientific observational drawings.
Stage 3 – Learning Plan   This lesson will begin by taking a survey and asking the students. “Do you know what photosynthesis is?” Students will come up and write their name under the ‘yes’ column or ‘no’ column. We will then look to see how many people think they know what it is. If there are students who think they know they can share their ideas. Then I will ask students for evidence.  I will expect some of this to be familiar to a few students because they do know a lot about plants and the environment and because they will come across it in their research from the previous lesson. Next I will mention the things that the students listed that trees need for survival and I will say, “Gee, I don’t ever see a plant eat food, how do you think they get their food?” Students will then pose ideas and we will brainstorm together ways that they can find evidence for their ideas or answers for their questions.  I will then explain that tomorrow we are going to come back to this question, because first we need to talk a little but about leaves.  Today we are going to look closely at a leaf to see what we can notice. Students will draw detailed drawing of their leaves and describe what they see. (I looked at ______, This is a picture of what I saw, I noticed _____. Worksheet) Students will then look at an example of labeled leaf and compare their drawing with this one.

 

Vocabulary:

Vein

Tip

Blade

Petiole

Materials Needed:

Leaf diagrams

Scientific drawing worksheet

Magnifying lenses

Activate Prior Knowledge: We will talk about the things we have been noticing about leaves for the past couple of months and see if we can look for new things to observe.

ELLs and IEPs / differentiated instruction: There is a lot of room in this lesson for differentiated instruction because there are many methods and approaches to finding out what photosynthesis is and each child could bring a new piece of information to the group depending on the type of source they got their information from. For example in the past when students have wondered or had a question about something, they have had a teacher write a survey question on a piece of paper and they went around the school talking to students and teachers; they have called someone that they knew might know the answer to their question; they have talked with another student in the class who may be an expert in that area, they have listened to information on the internet, etc. ELL students and students on IEPs can benefit from this type of learning.

Integration of content areas: This lesson incorporates art because students will be drawing leaves. It also incorporates English Language Arts because the students will be doing research in various ways to find out what photosynthesis is and sharing it with the class. I will support the students with this part by helping formulate questions if they decide to call or talk with people in the school. I will also encourage and support all forms of communication.

Standards:

• Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things.
• Recognize that animals (including humans) and plants are living things that grow, reproduce, and need food, air, and water.

Rationale: The passion and drive for science by one of my focus children helped in designing this lesson. In a previous lesson in which the students were asked to sort leaves my focus child and his partner looked so closely at the leaves they started to count the veins in each one and sort them that way. I feel confident that he will excel during this activity as well. This lesson supports the overall learning goal because children will need to understand the structure of a leaf in order to understand how the leaf makes food for the tree. It also supports the strength of my other focus child who loves to draw. She will most likely put a lot of detail into her leaf drawing. My school really reaffirmed my belief in inquiry based learning and allowing the students’ questions and insights guide the learning. I have seen so many positive things from this way of learning. Therefore, that is why I have chosen to pose such large questions and have the children come up with ways to find the answers.