Week 1 Day 5 Lesson Plan

Lesson Number: 5
Title: Weathers Effect on Homelessness
Candidate: Staci Fay
Lesson Goals
*Central Focus of the Learning Segment: Students will synthesize science knowledge about weather to determine how weather
impacts homeless individuals in different areas of the world.
*Essential Literacy Strategy for comprehending or composing text
-Students must synthesize information found from research with knowledge learned from previous lessons to draw conclusions, make
connections, and participate in discussion.
*Related Skills needed to apply the strategy in meaningful contexts
- In order to synthesize this information, students must combine ideas, provide original insights, consider different perspectives, reflect
on the information, and mesh ideas from previously learned knowledge and research together with students existing schemas.
*Standard(s) Addressed:
Literacy
-CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.9: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject
knowledgeably.
Science
-3-ESS2-2: Climate describes a range of an areas typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years.
Social Studies
-17.C.2a: Describe how natural events in the physical environment affect human activities.
*Materials/Instructional Resources:
-pencil, synthesis worksheet

*Learning Objectives:
Objective 1: Students will fluently explain how weather
conditions common to students assigned country can cause or
worsen conditions for homelessness without reading straight
from research notes

Objective 2: Students will analyze cultural implications of

homelessness from the perspective of social justice

*Assessment- Evidence of Student Understanding:

Related Assessment:
-Activity that requires students to synthesize science knowledge
learned about weather to determine how weather impacts homeless
individuals in different areas of the world. Students will synthesize
previously researched content with knowledge about homelessness.
-Criteria: Students must be able to determine how weather can have
different impacts in different areas of the world (i.e. consistently
freezing temperatures in one area, frequent hurricanes in another) by
answering guided questions on a worksheet and discussing answers
with a partner. Students must make connections between how the
government of the assigned country provides aid, if at all, to homeless
individuals during periods of life threatening weather conditions.
-Extension: Students may begin making connections between natural
disasters and how they may cause homelessness, which leads into the
next few science lessons.
Related Assessment:
-Informal assessment will be conducted while students are engaged in
partner discussion and whole-group discussion. Assessment criteria
include: students share synthesized information by making accurate
connections with the content, students actively participate in the
discussion, students maintain emphasize on global issues social justice,
and students support their contributions with research and evidence.
-Oral feedback during the discussion will be provided to students to
praise effective and insightful contributions and to prompt for deeper
thinking.
-Observations from this assessment will be used to determine if
students have been able to effectively synthesize information into a
more complete picture of the many aspects, concerns, and perspectives
of homelessness so that the teacher knows whether or not a more
thorough review of the content is necessary before continuing with the
unit.

Lesson Considerations
Pre-Assessment: Students will form groups to review content knowledge learned during the first four days of the unit, then split into
different groups to share this information as an expert. This review activity will be informally assessed to ensure students have the
necessary background knowledge for this lesson.
Prior Academic Learning and Prerequisite Skills: Students will have engaged in conversations discussing homeless individuals,
statistics regarding homelessness in different countries, and myths about homeless individuals. Students will have conducted research
about their assigned country. Students have learned about types of weather, how to read a basic weather map, and what type of
weather is common in their assigned countries as well.
Misconceptions: Students may believe that just because one type of weather is predominant in a country, it is the only weather that
homeless individuals have to face. For example, a country may typically have hot, dry weather but occasionally weather events
happen that may cause the weather to be bitter cold and rainy. Students must distinguish between common and uncommon weather in
their assigned country and discuss how this impacts homeless individuals.

Language Objectives and Demands

Identify a Language Function:
-Students with synthesize previously learned information, research, and other background knowledge to move beyond summarizing
what they have learned in order to add new ideas and perspectives to the information.
Key Learning Task:
-Students will engage in a whole class discussion to share concepts and ideas gleaned from the synthesis of content from the unit.
Language Demands:
-Students must be able to effectively contribute to a discussion, build off other students ideas, accept or reject ideas or perspectives
respectfully, and provide support and evidence for their contributions.
Language Supports:
-There are a variety of sentence starters that help students begin to synthesize information that will be provided to students.
-My idea is similar/related to ______s idea...
-I agree/disagree with ______s idea....
-The point that _____ makes is related to _____ in that...
-The significance of ______ is...
-From my perspective, ______ means...
-The concept of ______ can be expressed as...
-I feel that _____s and ______s viewpoints are related in that...
-While researching _____, I built upon...
-Our conclusion is a synthesis of ______ and ______.

Time

10

35-40

*Lesson Plan Details

Lesson Introduction
-In order to activate prior learning, students will get into three groups. Group one will discuss what they have learned about
regarding homelessness statistics. Group two will discuss what they have learned about regarding different types of weather.
Group three will discuss what they have learned regarding how to read simple weather maps.
-Once students have reviewed for five minutes, members will be shuffled so that five or six new groups are formed with one
or two students from each review group. Students will share what they have learned so far about their assigned topics.
Learning Activities
-A mini-lesson about differences in weather across the globe (expanding off of Week 1 Day 4s lesson about types of
weather) will be conducted
-Common weather events will be discussed
-http://www2.davidson.k12.nc.us/webquests/weather/weather.htm
-Students will complete the last three sections of this web quest to learn about different types of weather and climate
(Local Weather, Weather Across the USA, and Climate)
-http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/art-178823/Earth-has-five-different-types-of-climate
-Students will use this map to identify the climate of their assigned country
-Students will use knowledge of their countrys climate to identify common weather events (snow, rain, fog) and
different types of extreme weather events (tornado, hurricane)
-Images and videos of the weather will be shown to students. This is one video that will be used.
http://www.proteachersvideo.com/Programme/40342/lesson-starters-weather-around-the-world
-Whole-class discussion will be conducted to summarize information students learned about weather and climate
-Questions students will be asked during a whole-group discussion include:
-How does living closer to the equator impact the climate?
-What are conditions like in countries farther from the equator?
-How can weather and climate impact humans?
-Do you think weather and climate can have an impact on homeless individuals?
-Students will discuss with partners how each weather event may impact homeless individuals (i.e. cold fronts, freezing
rain, and heavy snowfall make it difficult for homeless individuals to move around and keep warm and dry; can lead to
increased illness and death among homeless population; leads to rise of homeless individuals living in shelters or squatting in
uninhabited buildings or houses)
-Students will complete a worksheet that requires them to synthesize content learned during the mini-lessons about weather
with previous research and social studies lessons to determine how weather impacts homeless individuals in different areas

of the world (worksheet is found in the resources section of website)

-Teacher will lead a whole-group discussion where students will analyze cultural implications of homelessness from the
perspective of social justice using weather and climate as a point of focus
-Students will share their answers to their guided synthesis worksheet with a partner for 10 minutes
-Once students have shared with partners, open up the discussion to the whole class
-Questions for discussion:
-Should homelessness be considered a crime?
-Prompt for deeper thinking: consider how weather events function as a cause of homelessness
-Are you a better person than the homeless, or just better off?
-Are you immune from losing everything you care about?
-Is homelessness considered a problem in the country you researched?
-Prompt for deeper thinking: consider the resources and services your country has for homeless individuals
-Prompt for deeper thinking: consider if more resources are used after severe weather events to help those recently
forced to be homeless
-Why does the government allow homelessness?
-Question for deeper thinking: are there homeless children in America?
-Question for deeper thinking: are there homeless children in your assigned country?
-How does the government of your assigned country view homeless individuals?
-Prompt for deeper thinking: think of evidence or beliefs that supports how a government official representing a
mainstream point of view from your assigned country likely views homeless individuals
-Do other members of society look down upon homeless individuals in your assigned country?
*What planned supports will you use for the whole class, individuals, and/or students with specific learning needs?
-I have a variety of questions that emphasize the continuation of discussion around a variety of related topics so students
have multiple entry points into the discussion.
-I will allow students with IEPs their necessary accommodations, such as allowing them to have their computer to look at the
research they did to support their contributions and by providing a graphic organizer that gives students more explicit
connections they can draw off of in order to contribute to the discussion.
-I will allow my English language learners the opportunity to preview the questions I intend to ask and give them time to
formulate and write down sentences that answer these questions that the English language learner can use to aide in
participation in the discussion. I will also provide differentiated sentence starters to my English language learners if desired.
-If I have an English language learner who does not yet speak much English, I will allow another student from the classroom
who speaks the language to act as an interpreter in order to include the English language learner in the discussion as much as

possible.
-I will allow students who have extensive knowledge about certain countries (either because they were born or raised in the
country or have visited the country) to draw on their unique funds of knowledge in order to enhance the quality and
relevance of the discussion.
-I will allow students who have personal stories or examples of homelessness (personal experience or experiences they have
witnessed or read about) to share these stories to encourage participation and make explicit connections. When this occurs, I
will encourage the student and the rest of the class to make connections between the shared experience and the content
students have learned about, specifically weather and how it impacts homeless individuals.

10

Closure
-To conclude the lesson, show the list of questions asked during the whole class discussion to students on the
projector/interactive whiteboard. Ask students to write the numbers of the questions that they still are having difficulty
understanding on a half sheet of paper.
-Mention to students that the questions students are still struggling to answer and discuss will be integrated into future
lessons. Conclude this lesson by encouraging students to use the time they have before the next lessons to learn more about
the questions they struggled with. Hold a brief discussion where students identify ways in which they can discover this
information (i.e. asking parents or grandparents, going to the library, conducting research on the Internet).
-Exit slip: Considering how weather impacts homeless individuals in your assigned country, what is a take-away you learned
from this lesson? Provide examples from our whole class discussion to support your take-away.
Extension
-If there is time, students can compare the weather common in their assigned country to another students assigned country or
to the United States. Students should look for similarities and differences in the politics and economics of the country (i.e.
severe cold weather and heavy snowfall may lead to a decrease of the economys health, leading to loss of jobs and possible
increase of homeless population). By analyzing this information, students should discuss how homeless individuals are
viewed and treated in different countries from a perspective of social justice.

Lesson Plan Appendix and Commentary Section

Utilizing Knowledge about Students to Plan and Implement Effective Instruction
Building on Personal/Cultural/Community Assets:
Explain how your plans linked students prior academic learning and personal/cultural/community assets to new learning
-Prior to this lesson, students will have participated in creating rules for safe, respectful class discussions. Students will have
considered different myths about homeless individuals and why those myths exist. This will have been accomplished by showing a
video discussing the different faces of homelessness (i.e. a woman who does not drink or do drugs, a single father with a child,
orphaned children, an ex-business owner, etc.). Students will have compared the percentage of homeless individuals in different
countries and speculated on why there are more homeless individuals in some areas than other (i.e. economic reasons, high occurrence
of natural disasters, different levels of government aid, etc.). Students will have conducted research about a country they were
assigned. This research encourages students to learn about the type of government of the country, how the economy works, what the
climate is like, if any major landforms exist in the country, and what religious beliefs and cultural norms exist. Students will draw on
some of this research for this lesson, and they will draw on some other pieces of this research for future lessons. Finally, students will
have engaged in a science lesson discussing different types of weather and how to read basic weather maps so students are able to
understand the general climate of their country and what types of weather are typical in their assigned country.
-Students are encouraged to integrate their own personal experiences or things they have read about prior to this unit; therefore, plenty
of opportunities to share these experiences are integrated into the whole class discussion. Student experience will be viewed as
valuable contributions of a students personal funds of knowledge, and other students will be held to high standards of behavior
regarding respectfulness. Throughout the unit, students will have access to a list of resources for homeless individuals in the
surrounding area in case a student is homeless or knows a family member or friend who is. The teacher will be held to a high standard
of cultural relevancy and ensure an environment of tolerance and respect is built in the classroom prior to this unit.
Grouping Strategies:
-Students engage in small group work in order to activate background knowledge about a variety of topics previously learned about
during this unit. The small groups are then split so each student acts as an expert in a new group. This is done so students review
multiple pieces of content previously learned about in order to activate background knowledge related to a larger amount of
information than the student may have thought of on his or her own. Students engage in independent work for a small portion of the
lesson in order to gather their thoughts and synthesize ideas. Students engage in whole class discussion in order to communicate
synthesized ideas, help develop synthesis of ideas if some students are struggling, to share knowledge learned about different
countries, and to further build on collective knowledge. Whole class discussion was chosen to allow for extensive teacher scaffolding
when needed because synthesis is a difficult concept and students benefit from hearing contributions from other students in order to
effectively understand the process of synthesis and how it leads to deeper understanding of the content.

Supporting Literacy Development

Reading/Writing Connections:
-Students make connections from reading research online to writing answers on a guided worksheet that helps students begin
synthesizing the information they researched and read. Students are able to see the connections between reading and writing
consistently throughout this lesson and the unit as a whole. Students are further able to see the connection reading and writing has to
furthering critical thinking and analysis skills. Students will recognize reading and writing as an effective tool for learning new
content.