Oregon Mountains

Grade: 5

1. Goal:

Content: SS.05.GE.03.03: The student will be able to locate, identify, and know the major significance of major mountains and land regions in Oregon.

Language: EL.05.RE.17: use the features of informational texts, such as diagrams, illustrations, charts, maps, newspapers and organizational devices to find information and support understanding.

2. Objective:

Content: Locate major physical and human features of the Earth.

Language: The student will be able to make predictions using verbs such as future tense and conditional mood.

Examples of forms:

Beginner: student will be able to respond to questions by circling, pointing or using 1-2 word answers (ie. Where is the mountain on the map?)
Early Intermediate: The man is going to camp at the mountain.

Intermediate: The man will pack a sleeping bag.

Early Advanced: The man might sleep on the mountain for a week.

Advanced: The man might sleep on the mountain for a week, because he is feeling loves the outdoors.

Targeted Language Skills:

Reading: students will read The Geography of Oregon newspaper and follow the directions within the activity, Where are Oregon's Mountains.

Writing: Students will write down their predictions regarding the mountains location in relation to the eco-regions.

Speaking: Students will collaborate with their group to create a team name based on the preview/review portion of the lesson.

Listening: Students will actively listen to the teacher's directions; they will also listen to their peers during cooperative learning.

3. Materials/Equipment/Supplies/Preparation

<> During this lesson, students will be exposed to a variety of learning strategies, such as cooperative learning, bilingual labeling, modeled talk, multimedia, Multiple Intelligences, pair-share and preview/review as they learn about Oregon's mountains and eco-regions. In order to prepare the lesson, I will need to have The Geography of Oregon newspaper available for each student in class. Also, I will need to prepare a big chart to list new vocabulary, and an overhead transparency to help students visualize Oregon and the eco-regions during our preview/review portion of the lesson. In order to being the lesson, I would like to put the students into new groups following our text's advice, using cooperative learning. I would need to arrange the students based on Howard Gardner's, Multiple Intelligences as the students will each have a specific role within the group. In order to prepare for the new grouping, I will need to understand each student, and the specific intelligence that each student possesses.

4. Procedure

A. anticipatory set, motivation or hook—about 2 minutes

Now that students are in their new groups of 3 and they have identified themselves to the rest of the class, they will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with The Geography of Oregon newspaper. We have used this newspaper in class before, however this is a new edition, so students should get acquainted with the new topics and lessons.

B. Teaching/Modeling—about 15 minutes

After the class has had time to explore the newspaper, we will come back together as a class and the teacher will lead a more specific Preview/Review session that makes connections between our first lesson, mental mapping and the types of maps we are working with inside the newspaper. Using the Overhead Projector the teacher will show students a map of Oregon that has the eco-regions identified by color, along with labels that are bilingual. Looking to our newspapers, we will identify the mountains that are located in Oregon and try to predict where they are located based on past experience, weather, and previous knowledge. On the overhead transparency, we will identify where we think the mountain ranges may fall along with writing sentences on a big class chart that exemplifies our predictions. Each student will write 2 sentences explaining one of their predictions.

C. Group Application/Guided Practice—about 15 minutes

Because the map requires students to work with latitude and longitude, we will practice how to identify geographic locations using these coordinates on a map. To practice the teacher will use the Overhead Projector to show how to use the coordinates effectively. The teacher will then hand out a 'practice latitude and longitude' worksheet, which asks the students to identify locations that the teacher had already reviewed on the overhead and also some new locations as well. Students will work as a group to finish the worksheet. Each student will have a role in completing the worksheet based on their Multiple Intelligence strength. For example, the 'illustrator' will color and identify the locations on the map, the 'discussion director' will read the directions and facilitate conversation, lastly the 'mathematician,' will verify and help in the process of identifying locations on the map.

D. Independent Application/Independent Practice—about 20 minutes

Now that the students have reviewed the eco-regions within Oregon and practiced how to locate items on a map, they are ready to move onto the newspaper and follow the directions. Students are encouraged to work at their own pace, and to use their group members as a resource for help if needed. The newspaper goes on to ask the students to place certain mountain ranges in the eco-region, based on the information provided. Through group discussion, I will ask the students to identify the mountains on our class map of Oregon as well as on their personal newspaper.

E. Closure—about 5 minutes

Now that the students have finished their activity in the newspaper and we have identified the mountain ranges in Oregon, the teacher can review what was just learned and preview what is coming up next. In order to review, I will ask the students to think of a few sentences about the Oregon mountain ranges, and then share those sentences with their partner in a Pair-share activity. Once the students have finished their discussion, the teacher can then begin preparing the students for our next lesson on Oregon Rivers. In order to get the students excited about the next lesson, the teacher could show pictures of Oregon Rivers and ask questions that will generate predictions about them.

5. Meeting Varying Needs

This lesson is very visual, which could pose a problem for students with visual impairment. In order to help these students, as a teacher, I would pair visually impaired students with classmates who can help the student by reading the material out-loud. Also, for this lesson specifically, students of a varying learning abilities and various intelligences will be paired together to help complement each other and make the activity run more smoothly. Also, for students who may struggle with vocabulary words and spelling, the large vocabulary chart we created can serve as an answer key for such dilemmas.

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6. Assessment

In order to assess the language objectives the teacher can ask the students to turn in their maps, as they have written at least 2 sentences that use verbs such as future tense and conditional mood to help make predictions. Also, for this lesson specifically I think it will be important to monitor the group dynamic. Students are placed in each group based on the multiple intelligence strengths they possess. It will be important for the teacher to assess how each student works within the group in order to make sure the intelligence each student represents is accurate.

7. Reflection

Was the time allotment appropriate for the lesson?

How did it go overall?

Did the students enjoy using the newspapers?

What should I do differently next time?

What happened that I wished went differently?

What went really well?