ECE 332: The Preschool Practicum



Reflection: The lesson plan has students look at an article on how deforestation affects butterflies. The students must think critically about this issue and draw conclusions from the article. The students must then use this information to figure out how to help save the butterflies. The students must critically think and problem solve in order to complete this lesson. That is why I chose this artifact for Standard 3: Development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

Childhood/Early Childhood Department

Lesson Plan

Date of Lesson _November 24, 2008_ Time __11:30___ Length of lesson__40 min___

Curriculum Area _Science_ Content Area: Life science, Earth science, or Physical science

Title of Lesson (identify concepts taught) __The effects of deforestation on butterflies___

Age/Grade level_4th_ Teacher’s Name __ Morgan Chylinski___

1. Learning Objectives

a) List and explain the reasons that butterflies are killed by deforestation.

b) Read and Highlight news article.

2. New York State Learning Standards (Science, Math Art, Language arts, etc…as needed)

Science Standard 4- Physical Science

Key Idea 2.1: Extreme natural events (floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other severe storms) may have positive and negative impacts on living things.

Science Standard 4- Living Environment

Key Idea 1.1: Animals need air, water, and food in order to live and thrive.

Key Idea 5.2: The health, growth, and develop-development of organisms are affected by environmental conditions such as the availability of food, air, water, space, shelter, heat, and sunlight.

Key Idea 7.1: Humans, as individuals or communities, change environments in ways that can be either helpful or harmful for themselves and other organisms.

English Language Arts Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

o Locate information in a text that is needed to solve a problem

o Make inferences and draw conclusions on the basis of information from the text, with assistance

3. Materials (for the lesson)

Article 1

Article 2

Handout 1

Highlighters

4. Lesson Process

A) Engage / Introduction (5 min.)

Have the students participate in a Think-Pair-Share. The students will think about how butterflies would be affected by deforestation. They will then share their thoughts with their pre-assigned learning partner. (5 min.)

B) Explore / Learning procedures relating to objectives (approximate times)

The students will be working with their learning partner on this activity.

1. Each set of pairs will receive one copy of the article “Killing Conditions: Wet Followed by Extreme Cold.” They will read the article together. The pairs will also be given a highlighter and they will have to highlight the information that they find important in the article. (10 Min.)

2. The students will then discuss the article and how the article makes them feel. (3 Min)

3. The partners will then make a list in their science journals of reasons that deforestation would kill butterflies based on the article and their prior knowledge of butterflies and deforestation (10 Min).

List all links to other curriculum areas; be sure you have included the standards.

• Reading and highlighting the article helps the students with their English Language Arts skills. The students are using prior knowledge and the article to make inferences which is a key skill needed to become a comprehensive reader.

(C) Explain / Conclusion (12 Min.)/Checking for understanding

The partners will come back together as a class. As a whole class, we will make a list of reasons that butterflies are affected by deforestation. Examples of this are: Lack of food, habitats are destroyed, and changes in climate. The students will have to explain why they believe this would kill the butterflies. If students have not come to these conclusions, I will introduce them and explain why this happens because of deforestation. We have discussed deforestation in a previous class so the students should be able to come to many of these conclusion specifically related to the butterflies.

(D) Extend, Expand, or Elaborate / “If time”/ extensions

The students will look at four maps of deforestation in the United States. The maps are from 1620, 1850, 1920, and today. In the students’ journals, they will have to explain the changes that they see in the forest of the United States and why this happened. This will be one paragraph in their notebooks. The second paragraph will be on what we can do to stop deforestation in the United States and help the environment.

(E) Evaluation / Assessment

(Teacher does this)

(a) Learning outcomes of previous lessons related to this topic:

The students did a think pair share at the beginning of the lesson to find out what they know about the outcomes of deforestation on butterflies.

(b) Focus of assessment in this lesson (related to and restates the objectives)

The lesson’s focus is to describe the reasons that butterflies are killed by deforestation. The students are also showing that they can read and highlight an article.

(c) Method of assessments used in this lesson (example attached)

The students’ journals will be checked after the lesson to see if they can tell why deforestation kills butterflies. The pairs will also turn in the highlighted copy of their article to show that they read and highlighted the article. The students’ answers in whole class discussion will also show their understanding of this topic.

(d) Differentiation (of expected outcomes)

Differentiation of activity is to be provided and described throughout the lesson plan to ensure that children’s individual learning needs are met. You must describe how this will be done. You may do this in chart form.

(i) Low level students

Students who have trouble writing will not be expected to make their own list. Their partner can write out the list and a copy can be made for them to put in their own science journal.

(ii) Higher level students

Higher level students would have to read article 2 in addition to article 1.

(e) Lesson modifications

(i) Low level students

The low level students learning partner will be someone who is strong in the area that they struggle in. Someone who has trouble reading will have a learning partner that can read the article for them and the low level student will be able to listen and help highlight.

(ii) Higher level students

The higher level students will be in charge of reporting to the class on what exactly happened to the butterfly population as a result of this storm. They can use the information from the second article and go online to look up the impact of the storm.

5. Assessments of lesson (Attach examples)

Standard:

Short Answer Question on Test:

What are three ways that deforestation affects butterflies?

Alternative:

Students write a letter to ask a government official to stop deforestation. In the letter, they must explain why deforestation is hurting butterflies.

6. Student work Attach any worksheets used during / after the lesson.

7. Learning center Provide the directions and materials

8. References (Resources / sources used in creating lesson plan) [If you use Science is… or the Sciencesaurus you must include the page number(s)]

Killing Conditions: Wet Followed by Extreme Cold. (January 2002). Monarch Butterfly. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Journey North Web site: monarch/StormJanuary2002.html.

Single Storm kills 75% of Eastern North America’s Migratory Monarchs. (January 2002). Monarch Butterfly. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Journey North Web site: .

Article 1:

Killing Conditions: Wet Followed by Extreme Cold

For monarchs, the weather pattern that occurred in mid-January was the recipe for disaster: Heavy rains were followed by clearing skies and plummeting temperatures. This storm was an historic extreme in that the rains were heavy during the peak of the dry season in Mexico, and the temperatures were exceptionally cold. Monarchs are essentially tropical butterflies and cannot tolerate sub-freezing temperatures for very long. When they are wet, they die at warmer temperatures than they would if dry.

Said Brower, “Never in the 27 years we’ve been studying in Mexico have we known temperatures to have fallen this low. I think the temperatures dropped below -8C and froze all the wet butterflies...except those in the middle of the clusters...”

It’s important to emphasize that this year’s storm was an extreme, and a high level of mortality may have occurred even with the best forest cover. However, for scientists, conservationists and government officials alike, the historic storm of 2002 will serve as a cautionary reminder: If deforestation continues at its present rate, a single storm even less severe would be capable of decimating the over-wintering population.

“There's always a probability of a severe storm like this,” Brower told NPR, “but at the hands of humans there's been a 44 percent degradation of the forest over the past 28 years. And the rate of forestry in the area is increasing. This storm shows that we need to really protect the central core area where their survival is really threatened.”



Handout 1:

[pic]

Article 2:

Single Storm Kills 75% of Eastern North America’s Migratory Monarchs

January 2002

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Between 12-16 January 2002, a severe winter storm hit the monarch sanctuary region deep in central Mexico. Mexico's over-wintering sites harbor all of eastern North America's migratory monarch breeding stock. Dr. Lincoln Brower and colleagues released mortality estimates. Based on data collected from the two largest sanctuaries, over 75% of the population was killed by this single storm.

• Sierra Chincua Sanctuary: 74% of the butterflies were killed

• El Rosario Sanctuary: 80% of the population was killed

• At the two colonies combined, an estimated 200-272 million butterflies were killed.

Significantly, these two huge colonies are the winter sanctuaries of 2/3 of eastern North America’s migratory butterflies. The other 1/3 of the butterflies are spread among other smaller sites in the vicinity. While scientists have not yet visited these outlying sites, mortality rates are feared to be similar because the sites are small, their forest habitat is less pristine, and because the rain and cold were prolonged in the region.

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Dr. Brower described the catastrophe in an interview with Journey North: “The ground in these two colonies was littered with monarchs that had an eerie flat, pallid appearance that I have never before seen--like wet leaves. The heavily packed piles of butterflies were up to 13 inches deep, and even those that were still alive may not have been able to struggle out. The main survivors were buried alive, covered by dead butterflies that were insulating them (from the cold).”

In an interview with National Public Radio Brower said, “The most macabre aspect of the whole thing was sticking my hands down in and realizing at the bottom of the pile there were a whole bunch of them still alive.”

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