Second Grade - Merced County Office of Education



Second Grade

Houghton Mifflin Theme 2 Launch:

Nature Walk - Animals

Starting the Research

Introducing the Super3 – the young students’ version of Eisenberg and Berkowitz’ Big 6. This research process breaks it down into three steps.

Step 1 = Plan (beginning)

Step 2 = Do (middle)

Step 3 = Review (end)

Step One: Plan

“The Plan” (Beginning) is the important first step of the Super3, and it is a step that students do not always take naturally. More often, they jump right into the middle and begin doing their assignments. The key is getting them to understand its importance. When kindergartners are given a picture to color, spend a moment with them discussing the step that they take in choosing colors. What are they doing when they choose a blue crayon for the sky? They are planning how they will tackle the assignment to achieve the desired effect. This is really no different from a twelfth grader planning which resources she will consult first when writing her term paper about Hamlet. Helping your students begin to think in terms of process creates the foundation for educational success throughout their school career.

Information Literacy Standards covered:

1 The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.

3 The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively.

Here are the things involved in “the plan” for this lesson as well as some CA State Standards (other than the obvious ELA standards covered).

S2.a. Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind and that the offspring resemble their parents and another.

S4.c. Compare and sort common objects according to two or more physical attributes (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).

• Teacher will need to define offspring for students.

• Teacher will demonstrate/model how to find the information by using an article from World Book Online. It will be helpful if your students have the article in front of them. All the students will help the teacher find the answers in the article and fill out their own note taking sheet together.

• Students will go to the library to research an animal.

• Students will find a book about their animal (have them browse the animal section of the library before they choose an animal. This way, they will be guaranteed to have a book. If they choose the animal first, there may not be a source for them and this can lead to feelings of frustration). They will try to use the table of contents to assist them in answering the questions.

• Students will use the same note taking sheet as used by the teacher in the example on elephants to gather information about their animal.

• The notes will be used to create a brochure about their animal. The brochure will include the facts taken from the notes as well as one comparison chart which compares and sorts common objects according to two or more physical attributes. In this chart, they will use the knowledge gained during research and compare it with another animal they already know something about. (i.e., an elephant has four legs and a bird only has two). It will help if you give each student a blank brochure to put their information on. While they are researching, help them find at least one picture of their animal. The “blank” brochure should also include a blank comparison chart they will fill in.

See PowerPoint presentation for Pathfinder for ways to find sources.

Step 2: Do

• This is where the students will use the sources gathered to actually find the information.

– Notes

– Putting it all together in the form of a brochure

• At a minimum, students need to use the sources to find out the following information about their animal:

– Describe it’s appearance (physical characteristics)

– Characteristics which make the animal different or fun

– Why the animal is important

– Whether or not offspring looks the same and why or why not.

See PowerPoint for examples and worksheets.

Step 3: Review

Review (End) is a more difficult concept for most students to remember. Many kids feel that once they complete a task or assignment, the job is done. However, to truly build a foundation for academic success, young students must not forget to evaluate what they have produced.

Your “review” can simply consist of putting the following questions up on an overhead or the board and having the students participate in a discussion.

• What was the hardest part of the research?

• What did you learn?

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