Cross-Disciplinary Content Standards-Based Lesson

Topic: Animal Adaption*
Grade 4; English Language Development & Science

Content Area Standards:
California English Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.9
Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

English Language Development
SL.4.1, 6; L.4.1,3,6
Exchange information and ideas with others through oral collaborative discussions on a range of social and academic topics

W.4.1-10; L.4.1-3,6

Writing literary and informational texts to present, describe, and explain ideas and information, using appropriate technology

California Science Content 
LS.3.a-b
3. Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know ecosystems can be characterized by living and nonliving components.
b. Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, and some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will relate characteristics and behavior of animals to their environment
• Students will determine the behavior and body structure that have specific growth and survival functions
• Students will evaluate living and nonliving things that affect animals in their environment

Materials:
Pre-activity: photos of various animals and environments
Bird adaptation activity: paper plates, pliers, tweezers, chopsticks, spoons, clothespins, bird seeds, pasta, rice, cereal
Copies of chart worksheet for adaptation activity
Class set of Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
Animal adaptation research: 5"x7" index cards with copies of rubric to assess index cards, access to Internet/computerlab

Pre-Assessment:
Students will be shown various photos of animals and environments on the white board or SmartBoard. They will match the animals to the environment accordingly and discuss with their partners why they made their conclusions.

Activities:
Bird Adaptation Activity
Students will be organized into heterogeneous groups of four. Before their experiment, students will discuss among themselves, and brainstorm and draw the different shapes of beaks while the teacher poses the question "Why are there different shapes of beaks?". For the experiment, students will fill out their chart table with the tools, materials, and their observations as they use the different tools to pick up the foods. Findings will be shared and discussed with the whole class; open-ended questions will be independently completed at the end of the experiment, below the chart table.

Stone Fox Text Reference
Using the chapter book, students will go back and make connections between the bird adaptions and the Samoyed dogs that are mentioned in the story. Students will be instructed to use the text as reference to identify and describe at least three adaptations of the dogs.

Collaborative Animal Adaptation Research
Students will be assigned in pairs and will be given an animal to research. On an index card and using appropriate technology resources, partners will record the animal behavior and structural characteristics in relation to its habitat. Their findings will be shared in a short presentation of about 3-5 minutes with a drawing or diagram.

Vocabulary: environment, adaptations, body structure, survival, behavior, habitat

Post Assessment:

• Teacher will use open-ended questions to check for student understanding of animal adaptation.
• Teacher will use teacher-made rubric to assess research content of animal behavior and structural characteristics.
• Teacher will verify student understanding of animal adaption through citation of text passages from Stone Fox.

Teaching Reflection:
In collaborating with other teachers and colleagues, there may be different approaches to introduce the lesson or different questions to pose for the students. From another perspective, activities can be altered to address other learning styles that weren't considered before.

Source:
*http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/2852?ref=search

Cooperative Learning

Both heterogeneous and homogeneous grouping patterns can be applied in lesson instruction and activities to teach grade level standards within specific content areas and to help students master grade level standards.

Advantages to heterogeneous grouping, where students of varying interests and performance levels learn and work together, include developing interpersonal relationships, increasing acceptance of classmates of different diversities and background, student tasks, roles, and accountability, and peer mentoring and leadership opportunities. In subjects such as history or science, students can benefit from wider exposure to the different viewpoints others may have on the subject matter or topic. Higher-achieving students within heterogeneous group can gain roles as a leader or mentor to assist and support those who may be struggling with the lesson. Furthermore, within a mixed ability group, students are held accountable for their efforts and the work they contribute because their task--while each are different from other's (such as discussion leader, note-taker, reporter, etc.)--are equally essential towards the completion of the overall product.

Advantages to homogeneous grouping, where students are grouped based on similar interests and/or performance abilities, include being able to target specific skills based on students' learning needs and allowing students to move on with their learning within being restricted to the pace of the entire classroom. For example, homogeneous grouping is beneficial for reading and math where students can be organized into small groups where each focuses on different concepts that the individual requires more clarification and support in (writing with more text evidence, text analysis, solving multi-step word problems, unit measurement and conversions, etc.). Lastly, by ability grouping students, creative dynamics among the team may start to form and students who usually do not actively participate in groups will explore new roles that they hadn't tried before.

In all, cooperative learning--whether it be heterogeneous or homogeneous grouping--allows for differentiation and increase in student performance by creating the opportunity for students to develop various interpersonal relationships and dynamics through different combinations of student groups and gain more access to content through those different interactions. In groups, students can explore the material more in depth, learn through different perspectives, and actively apply their skills towards a product that demonstrates their understanding.