The Whooping Crane!
Lesson Plan: The Whooping Crane
Hadley George and Kierstin Achey
Purposes:
To understand what makes an animal endangered.
To focus on the whooping crane and their impacts.
To improve students presentation skills, collaboration skills, and research skills.
Lesson Summary
The class will be divided into groups of 4 students. Each group will create a poster and present it to the class. Our driving question is: should whooping cranes be saved? Whooping cranes are an endangered species. Students will research facts and information about the whooping crane to help them make their decision on whether or not they should be saved. Students will also have to use reasoning and decision making skills to form their opinion. Our target group is 1st grade students. This is relevant to 1st graders because they will learn important information while completing a fun and engaging assignment.
Lesson Narrative
Introduction: Review the criteria for the poster. The main criteria is that the poster contains 3 facts about the whooping crane, their opinion on whether or not they should be saved. The poster should be colorful, engaging, and easy to read. Also the criteria for presenting. That students listen and respect each other when other groups are presenting and that the group presenting stays on topic, talks loud and clear, and shows the whole class the poster.
Presentation: Prior to the presentation students will be separated into groups of 4 students. Each group will research information on the whooping crane; such as, what is a Whooping Crane, how many are left in the world, what is their habitat, what is their main source of food, how do they affect our ecosystem, what is their value to the community, why is their population declining? The groups will then create a poster, highlighting 3 facts about the cranes, where or not they should be saved, and their reasoning. The posters should be easy to read and eye catching. Each group will then present their poster to the rest of the class. Students will practice presentation skills by listening to one another, respecting others opinions, and speaking clearly and loudly.
Debriefing: After each group has presented, the class will come together. They will determine how many groups thought we should save the cranes and how many didn’t. They will discuss the main reasonings for each side. They will then discuss ways they personally could help save the crane making the lesson more personably applicable.
Grabber: The grabber for our students is a video discussing the whooping crane. This video tells 15 fun facts about the bird. It will allow the students to get background information over the bird and to spark an interest. We thought it was important to find a grabber that really made the students eager to learn about the whooping crane and decide for themselves if the endangered bird should be saved. Our grabber hooks the students into asking more questions about the topic. Our video will spark an interest in the students, making them eager to learn about the whooping crane. This grabber might spark some emotional situations due to people's feelings on animals. Some kids might use their emotions while others will use research. The grabber Will be used as an introduction to get the students thinking outside the box. It will help the students have a background knowledge before researching an unknown topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG037ebynJAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG037ebynJA
Culminating Activity: The students will be asked to research the Whooping Crane. After their research the students are going to filter through their fun facts and choose three to backup their opinion on if the Whooping Crane should be saved. The students will make a poster and include a picture of the bird and their fun facts supporting their stance. The students will design their poster on a piece of paper before completing the actual large poster making sure it is organized and easy to understand. The poster will be written clearly and easy to read. The facts will be correct and relate to the whooping crane, giving logical reasoning as to whether or not the animal should be saved. The students will also work together collaboratively and use their teamwork skills. The presentation will consist of everyone in the group standing up in front of the class. 3/4 kids will say the fun fact they are responsible for. The 4th student will be stating the whole group’s viewpoint on if the Whooping Crane should be saved. The students in the group will also need to back up their viewpoint with legit research. The information is presented with knowledge and creativity.
Assessment: Before leaving class students will complete an exit ticket. This exit ticket will make sure that the students retained information from the lesson and learned about the whooping crane. On a piece of paper the students will write one fact they learned about the whooping crane and will turn it in. This will allow the teacher to determine which students understand the material and which need a little more help. It is a formative assessment that will not be for a grade.