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Running Head: earths structure1Plate Tectonics and Earths Structure 2

Plate Tectonics and Earths StructureAndrew SmithEDU 382Instructor WallAugust 19, 2013

Plate Tectonics and Earths StructureIntroductionThis three-day lesson plan is designed for a sixth grade inclusion science class, which means there are students with a range of abilities and intelligences, as well as students with learning and other disabilities. In the classroom, it is important to create a positive learning environment, where all the students will have their opinions and individual learning preferences valued, and mistakes are viewed as stepping stones to successful learning. This will help to create a safe place to learn because the students will feel included in the learning process, plus they will be willing to take more risks in their learning if they are not afraid to make mistakes.This lesson will appeal to all of the students because it will focus on various intelligences and learning styles. The curriculum approach will involve choice centers and specialists. Depending on how the centers are set up, there are many ways that the material can be differentiated so that students will be able to use their preferred learning styles, as well as their multiple intelligences. When students are able to use their preferred learning styles, they are more likely to try harder and do their best. Plus, when they are taught through the multiple intelligences, they can strengthen their weaker ones, while creating understanding through their stronger ones.Before the lesson begins, there will be multiple forms of pre-assessments to find what the students know, what they understand, and what they need to learn next. Assessing student knowledge prior to the learning experience helps the teacher find out a variety of things, (Gregory & Chapman, 2013, P. 56, Par. 8) things that will help in the planning of the curriculum and designing instruction. The types of pre-assessments used would involve different learning styles and intelligences so that the students could really show what they know, because some students may have a harder time expressing their knowledge through just one form. The pre-assessments will show which students are at what level of mastery, which helps in determining the differentiation used in the classroom to help all students learn to the best of their abilities.With all the different types of learners, with their preferred learning styles, and their multiple areas of intelligence, it is a good idea to prepare alternate assessment plans for the class. There will be both, formative and summative assessments. This way, the instructor can see if the students are learning and understanding the material, before moving on to another step in the lesson. Formative assessments will show if, and where, students are confused about a topic, that way the instructor can go back and reteach that aspect. This can be done for the total group, small group, or one-on-one. There are many types of formative assessments, which include pre-assessments and on-going assessments, and depending on the students and their strengths and weaknesses in the classroom, would greatly determine which ones were used during the lesson.Meta-cognitive time is also very important to the learning process. After students learn something, they need time to digest and think about the information. Journaling is a good method to do this, it allows the students to think about what they have learned, and it gives them the chance to write it in their own words. This also increases the retention of the information in their long-term memory, making recall easier. After learning new chunks of information, students should do journaling activities, that way they would have meta-cognitive time after each step in the learning process.This lesson offers opportunities for projects, creativity, problem solving, and offers different levels of challenges for students at various levels of mastery. Each day of the lesson the students will work at a different center, that way the material is taught through multiple methods, using different areas of intelligence and learning styles. The choice centers will have creative projects, ask students real-world, open-ended questions to problems caused by the tectonic plates (earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc), and will provide challenging work that will still be in their zone of proximal development. Using specialists will enhance this lesson by offering multiple resources, such as books, videos, pictures, models, etc., which will offer another level of differentiation.During this lesson, the student groupings will fluctuate, from total group, to small group, and possibly independent. The introduction of the material will involve the total group, with the teacher addressing the whole class. As the class dives into the work, the students will divide smaller groups and start the different centers. There will be three centers around the room, one devoted to computer research, another to multimedia research, and the last one using models of the tectonic plates, as well as model volcanoes. Each of these centers will also target different levels of mastery. Students will work in small groups to complete the objectives of the center where they are working. The teacher and specialists will be available to offer assistance. The different team members, or specialists, will contribute a great deal to this lesson. The librarian will be able to provide titles of interesting and informational books about plate tectonics, the media specialist can provide videos, audio recordings, pictures, etc., and the art teach can help the student design fun and creative projects that will demonstrate what they have learned. Utilizing these specialists will allow the teacher to successfully differentiate the material so that all the students will be able to learn, and demonstrate what they have learned. When we provide alternative resources to our lessons, as opposed to reading a boring textbook, it makes the lesson more enjoyable, which is important to learning.

Core Standards:Plate tectonics accounts for important features of Earth's surface and major geologic events, (California Department of Education, 2009).Assessment tools for data collection:Pre-assessment will include student interest surveys, graffiti fact boards, and a written pre-test. On-going assessment will use journals, observations, wraparounds, and exit cards (grand finale comment). The formative assessment will be based on multiple areas, including some of the pre-assessments, their journal entries, exit question cards, presentations, the model they created in the art center, a short essay, a written test with various types of questions, based off of Blooms Thinking Taxonomy, and will include real-world open-ended questions, and a rubric that will reflect independent and group work (Instructional strategies that support differentiated instruction, n.d.).Essential Questions:What causes the shift of the tectonic plates, and what are the results of these shifts? What causes earthquakes? What causes a volcano to erupt? What causes tsunamis? What are the layers of the Earth, and what are their characteristics?Content:Students will know: That the layers of the Earth are the lithosphere, the mantle, and the core. That the lithospheric plates (tectonic plates) move very slowly, at the rate of a few centimeters per year. The major geologic features of California, such as mountains like the Sierra Nevada Mountains, faults like the San Andreas Fault, and volcanoes like Mount Shasta. Students will understand: That volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are caused by the movement of the tectonic plates. Students will be able to: Explain geologic events, like the formation of mountains, canyons, and other geologic features, in terms of plate tectonics. Determine the epicenter of an earthquake, and estimate what kind of effects it may have, depending on the size of the earthquake and where it occurred (Gore, 2005).Activate:Pre-assessment will be conducted 2-3 weeks before the lesson begins. The results will determine what aspects are chosen to study, based on student interest, where to start in the instruction, based on what students already know, and the student groupings, based on their levels of mastery. Students will conduct a personal interest survey on the topic of tectonic plates. Next, the class will create a graffiti fact board with everything they already know about tectonic plates. Then, the students will take a written pre-test. Multi-media presentation: Destruction caused by tectonic plates (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes), ask students how these relate to the tectonic plates. After the presentation, the students will do a journaling activity, writing their thoughts about what they saw in the videos and pictures. Acquire:The results from the student interest survey will be used to ascertain what aspects of plate tectonics they want to learn more about in-depth. Day 1, students, in small groups, will conduct research on these areas through the use of the library, online resources, and video, audio, and pictures provided by the resource specialists. The groups are determined by student interest, each group will explore a different topic related to plate tectonics. Each student in the group will use different resources to conduct the research, such as the library, internet, videos, audio, pictures, maps, and diagrams. That way each student is responsible for a different aspect of the work. Then the groups will do presentations to the class about what they have learned, while the other students take notes and the teacher asks question. After presentations, the instructor will use a brainstorm response, separate the students into small groups of 3, and share and compare notes taken during the presentations. Afterwards, the instructor will do a question/answer assessment to see what the students still need to learn about the topic of plate tectonics, and design the choice centers. Before leaving, students will fill out exit cards, answering questions about what they learned that day.Grouping Decisions:Day 2, the class will be arranged into the choice centers, determined by student interest and what they need to learn next to meet the standard. Students will separate into choice centers, which will be a computer center with access to multimedia resources, a resource center with a wide variety of resources, maps, diagrams, models, and books, and an art media center to create models of earthquakes, volcanoes, and Earths layers including the tectonic plates. In these centers, they will form smaller groups of 3 to complete the project of their work center. Each student will have two jobs, as listed in Figure 6.6 (Gregory & Chapman, 2013, P. 128, Fig. 6.6). During the last 10-15 minutes of class, students will do another journaling activity, and fill out another exit card, but with questions related to the topic they may not quite understand. Day 3, after students have completed their center project, students will form new groups, with one student from each center, so that they can share the things they learned.Assess:After the groups have discussed the things they learned, each group will fill out a questionnaire and do a one-on-one presentation for the teacher. While one group is presenting to the instructor, the others will be filling out their questionnaire. These will be the final formative assessments before the summative assessment. The final assessment will be multi-faceted, including a rubric, reflecting independent and group work, their journal entries, other work throughout the lesson, the presentations, an essay, and a quiz with questions addressing multiple areas of Blooms Thinking Taxonomy. It is important to use multiple forms of assessment because as the text states, [if] only a final test is given and graded, it may not be a true indication of students knowledge and skill. They may have had a bad test day or been anxious about the test, (Gregory & Chapman, 2013, P. 79, Par. 4).ConclusionIn todays classrooms, with students with a wide range of learning preferences, intelligences, previous knowledge, and experiences, differentiation is a must. There are many methods an instructor can differentiate the material, from the types of assessments, activities, and student groupings, to just name a few. If teachers are to successfully teach their students, they must start with learning about their students. This can be done through observations, student surveys, and pre-assessments. The results will give the instructor ideas about how they should differentiate the material, what levels of mastery they need to target, how they may want to group students (by interest, learning style, mastery level, etc.), and what the students will need to learn next in order to meet state standards.

ReferencesCalifornia Department of Education. (2009, June 11). Science content standards.Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/sciencestnd.pdfGore, P. (2005, March 9). Plate tectonics. Retrieved fromhttp://facstaff.gpc.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/GPS/platetect.htmlGregory, G. & Chapman, C. (2013). Differentiated instructional strategies: One size doesnt fitall (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Ltd./Corwin Press.Instructional strategies that support differentiated instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved fromhttp://extranet.das.pac.dodea.edu/principal/Professional%20Articles/Differentiation/Differentiated%20activities.pdf