Cluster 3: Research to Build and Present KnowledgeArchived

Students will be able to explain the threats to animals in certain Everglades habitats and why they are threatened or endangered. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use their knowledge of minerals and the rock cycle to analyze the rocks on three available sites for a new skate park. After analyzing each rock site, they will write a one page recommendation that will explain the classification of the rock and why it is the best for option for building. In addition, they will create a product plan that contains information on the rocks, their history and their uses. Student groups will present to fellow group members then each student will evaluate the products.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will conduct a close reading of an informational article about pythons in the Everglades. Students will use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of selected academic words in context, and they will sort selected tier 3 words into categories and examine the relationships between words in a category. Students will also answer text-dependent questions about the article and identify and describe the cause/effect structure used throughout the article. Students will complete an informational paragraph about the events that are occurring in the Everglades using text evidence to support their ideas. Graphic organizers, answer keys, and a writing rubric have been provided with the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an informational article about the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. Students will identify and describe the cause/effect structure used throughout the article. Students will write an expository paragraph about events occurring in the Amazon Rainforest.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an informational picture book about a community in Africa that plants mangrove trees to help the community. Students will use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of selected academic words in context. Students will also identify and describe the central idea and relevant details used throughout the book in order to write a summary paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explain how the setting impacts the plot of a story. The teacher modeling and guided practice phases feature the story The Three Brothers: A German Folktale by Carolyn Croll. In the independent practice, students will read the passage "A New Home," which is provided with the lesson, and identify the setting and explain how the details of the time and place affect the plot. This lesson is part one of a two part unit on setting; the other lesson has been attached as a related resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the second of two lessons in a unit on setting. The lesson features "Forest Ghosts" from Even More Short and Shivery retold by Robert D. San Souci to make predictions about characters. The first lesson in the unit has been attached as a related resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will brainstorm survival tips for future fourth graders and incorporate these tips into a "how-to" essay. Students will use an online tool for creating an outline, and a graphic organizer and proofreading checklist are also included to help students edit their writing. A rubric is provided in this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about the history of the women's suffrage movement and what it took for women in America to get the right to vote. Throughout the lesson, the teacher and students will look at primary sources such as pictures and original documents, as well as videos about the movement and a PowerPoint to help build students' background knowledge. Then students and the teacher will work through a Reader's Theatre script called "Failure is Impossible" that describes the evolution of the Women's Suffrage Movement. Text-dependent questions for the script have been included. At the end of the lesson, students will work in groups to complete a timeline (an answer key is included) and then individually write an opinion piece on this topic. A rubric is provided to help teachers assess students' writing.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a 5E lesson which allows students to explore the differences between learned and inherited behaviors in animals. The lesson includes engaging videos of animals doing incredible things.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will take notes about the Everglades using a variety of resources. Students will identify appropriate text features that can be used to convey information. As a final product, students will practice their expository writing by creating an informational brochure about the Everglades that uses the description text structure and multiple text features.

Type: Lesson Plan

The Plant Package MEA provides students with an engineering problem in which they are asked to rank different plant containers using recycled materials.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

This is an integrated science and reading lesson. This lesson is intended as a beginning of year lesson to give students the foundation in some of the practice of science and writing standards. Students will conduct an investigation on inherited traits and use evidence from a research article and their investigation to support their findings.

Type: Lesson Plan

After dissecting a flower(s), the students will be able to identify the parts necessary for pollination, or reproduction of flowering plants. They will also make comparisons and find patterns in nature, leading them to the understanding of the processes of sexual reproduction in flowering plants, including pollination and fertilization (seed production).

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will identify multiple causes and effects in a work of historical fiction. The lesson features the text Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a fun science lesson that teaches children about inherited animal behaviors through observation and direct instruction. Students then use their new skills to write a news article explaining what school might be like if teachers or students had different inherited and learned behaviors. This lesson can be integrated into reading and includes an opportunity for writing across the curriculum.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the second lesson in a fourth grade unit on classification and categorization. In the independent practice activity, students will develop a few research questions on a topic of their choice, conduct research and use text features to identify information relevant to answering each question, take notes, and then sort and organize the information they gathered into an outline. The teacher modeling activity uses the text Animals that Hibernate by Phyllis J. Perry.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the third lesson in a fourth grade unit on classification and categorization. Students will use an outline to create a research report. The additional lessons in the unit are attached as related resources.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this two to three day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to absorb deep lessons from Richard Feynman's recollections of interactions with his father. By reading and rereading the passage closely, and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will identify how and why Feynman started to look at the world through the eyes of a scientist. When combined with writing about the passage, students will discover how much they can learn from a memoir.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the independent practice activity, students will develop three research questions, conduct research and take notes to answer each question, and then classify and categorize the information they gathered into an outline form. The teacher modeling section uses the informational text Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac (text not provided) and the guided practice activity uses a text titled "Creepy Cave Crawlers" (text provided with the lesson).

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a MEA where students act as contest participants to determine the best flower to introduce to the Everglades for pollinators including those that are blind.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with the teacher to identify cause and effect relationships in the text Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale retold by Verna Aardema. Students will then independently identify cause and effect relationships in a myth called "Why the Cat Purrs" and write a paragraph response using evidence from the text. The passage for students to practice with is provided with the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this resource, students will identify and describe evidence in a text showing that it is historical fiction. In guided and independent practice activities students will use the text Meet Addy: An American Girl, by Connie Porter.

Type: Lesson Plan

Exploding a moment is magnifying an event much like a film maker does when he zooms in on the action using slow motion. Through the use of photographs or text illustrations, students will become familiar with identifying sensory details and use this imagery to improve their writing.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the third of three lessons in a fourth grade unit on characters. Students will identify and describe how the relationship between the protagonist and antagonist affects the plot. The teacher modeling and guided practice uses the story Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser. The other lessons in this unit are attached as related CPALMS resources.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the second lesson in a fourth grade unit on characters. Students will identify and describe the antagonist in a story using text evidence. The lesson uses Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser in the teacher modeling and guided practice. The other lessons in this unit have been attached as related CPALMS resources.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the first lesson in a fourth grade unit on characters. Students will identify and describe the protagonist in a story using text evidence. The lesson uses Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser in the teacher modeling and guided practice. The other lessons in this unit have been attached as related CPALMS resources.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this resource, students will identify and describe evidence in a text showing that it is a biography. In guided and independent practice activities students will use A Picture Book of Anne Frank by David A. Adler.

Type: Lesson Plan

Through teacher demonstrations and lab type investigations done in rotations, students will explore magnets, magnetic materials, magnetic fields, and electromagnets.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students will use resources to answer questions about a topic. They will use a graphic organizer to record their research.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this teaching idea, fifth grade students learn about the Great Depression, conduct research, and read the historical fiction novel, Esperanza Rising. After conducting interviews, students write 3rd person narratives and draw portraits of the locals who lived through that time period. This project was conducted in a Senior Center in Massachusetts and can easily be translated to a classroom in Florida.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea describes a project fourth graders participated in after studying American immigration. Students wrote essays about what was important to them and created expressive self-portraits.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea describes a fourth grade project students participated in after studying early man. Students created a magazine which included photos, drawings, text and graphics of what they researched and learned.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this lesson, students will use a comic-strip format for pre-writing to reinforce plot structure and create their own personal narratives. Students will learn to differentiate between random or background events and events that are significant to the plot of the story. Handouts and a virtual manipulative are included in this lesson.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This National Geographic Kids article explains how the invasion of non-native plants is threatening native food webs.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the complete and incomplete metamorphosis stages.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes chemical, biological and mechanical weathering and includes causes and examples for each.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how energy passes through food chains. Examples of each link in the chain and a description of its role in the food chain are given.

Type: Text Resource

In this lesson, third grade students access prior knowledge about water pollution before exploring the topic further using read-alouds. They then complete a sequencing graphic organizer using a story of a fish and its journey from the mountains to a polluted waterway. Finally, students' understanding of cause and effect is reinforced using a hands-on experiment, art project, and graphic organizer.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

These activities provide a foundation for using nonfiction resources for developing and answering questions about gathered information. Using a wide variety of nonfiction literature, students learn to sort and categorize books to begin the information-gathering process. Then, working with partners and groups, using pictures and text, students are guided through the process of gathering information, asking clarifying questions, and then enhancing the information with additional details. Students complete the lesson by collaboratively making "Question and Answer" books for the classroom library. This is a high-interest foundation builder for using nonfiction literature in research as well as for pleasure reading.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence