Taming Wild Beasts Unit Introduction

Read180 Whole Group Lesson

by
Alyssa Carmona

1. Learning Outcomes:
Throughout the course of this lesson, the teacher will work with the students to
explore a number of ideas relating to their new Taming Wild Beasts unit. This will
serve the purpose of having students activate and extend their prior knowledge
about wild animals, and will include things like examples of wild animals, their
natural habitats, and reasons that they are sometimes taken from their natural
habitats.

2. Common Core Standards:

CC.1.2.5.G: Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating
the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
CC.1.5.6.A: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, on grade-level
topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.

3. Lesson Objectives:
Students will be able to respond to questions related to the units Anchor Video, and the
units overall content.
Students will be able to engage in collaborative discussions with their peers.

4. Anticipatory Set:
Begin by explaining to the students that we are going to be beginning a new unit:
Taming Wild Beasts.
o Tell them that we are going to watch some videos that are related to this new
unit, and will then have some discussions with one another.
Play the videos for the students, and then move on to the procedures portion of the
lesson. The videos will consist of the following (descriptions from Read180 teacher
textbook):
o #1: Taming Wild Beasts This video provides background about wild animals. It
raises the essential question for the Workshop: What happens when you take
wild animals out of their natural habitats?
o #2: Pet Tiger Attack Describes how one man kept a 450-pound tiger in his New
York City apartment.
o #3: Wild Pets Explains what happened when the police discovered a family
with several pet alligators.
o #4: Zoos Go Wild! Shows how some zoos create homes for wild animals that
are similar to the animals natural habitats.
o #5: Elephant Lady In this video, youll meet Barbara, a wild elephant who was
in the circus for many years. Barbara was tired and malnourished. Shed been
 chained up, locked in a hot cage, and forced to train for hours every day. Then, a
former trainer named Carol Buckley rescued Barbara and took her to an
elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. This sanctuary is similar to elephants natural
habitat and Barbara feels quite at home now.

5. Procedures:
Once the videos are over, the teacher will have the students share two reasons why
animals are generally better off living in their natural habitats.
He/she will have the students partner up, and will provide each pair with a sticky note.
o Each pair is to write two reasons why animals should be allowed to live in their
natural habitats.
o Once they have written two reasons on their sticky note, the pair can come up
and stick it on the classroom whiteboard.
o Once all pairs have placed their sticky note on the board, read the responses for
all students to hear.
Next, the teacher will ask students: What problems can result from taking animals out of
their natural habitats?
o The teacher will then allow for students to respond. If students are having
trouble responding, the teacher will suggest thinking back to the videos that we
just watched.
Once this question has been discussed, examples of wild animals, as well as reasons
why wild animals are taken from their natural habitats will be discussed.
The teacher will have the each student open up to a clean page in his/her composition
notebook.
o On the center of the page, he/she will have the students write Wild Animals
(model on the whiteboard).
o Next, the teacher will have each student split the page in half (either by folding,
or drawing a line down the middle).
o The teacher will tell the students that, on the first half, they are going to come up
with a list of examples of wild animals. Title this side Examples (model on the
whiteboard).
o Then, the teacher will tell the students that, on the second half, they are going to
come up with a list of reasons that animals are taken from their natural habitats.
Title this side Reasons they are taken (model on the whiteboard).
The teacher will provide the students with some time to create their lists. He/she
will tell them that, if they are having trouble, they can think back to the videos that
we just watched.
o The teacher will also tell the students that they can either work on their own
or with a partner.
Next, the teacher will have the students share their ideas with the class, and will
write the students responses on the classroom whiteboard.
Once each list has been discussed/created, the teacher will replay the Elephant Lady
 video, and ask the students to think about two questions as they watch it:
o Why are circus elephants sometimes unhealthy and unhappy?
o Why do you think Carol Buckley cares about elephants?
The teacher will play the video, and will then have students discuss their ideas with a
partner. He/she will then have some student volunteers share their responses with
the entire class.
The teacher will then move on to the closure portion of the lesson.

6. Differentiated Instruction:
In order to provide differentiation within this lesson, activities that appeal to
different types of learners are incorporated. The videos that are going to be
shown/discussed will appeal to both visual and auditory learners. In addition, the
lesson incorporates the use of both verbal discussions and written responses. These
aspects will appeal to linguistic learners. Lastly, there are multiple opportunities for
response within this lesson that will be differentiated. On a number of instances,
students will be given the choice to work independently or with a partner. As a
result, both intrapersonal and interpersonal learners needs will be met
simultaneously.

7. Closure:
At this point in time, the teacher will remind that students that, during this unit, we
are going to be reading about wild animals and their lives in captivity.
The teacher will then have the students do a picture walk of the unit. He/she will
have them look at the photos on pages 184-193.
o The teacher will ask the students whether or not they think any of the
animals pictured would make good pets, and why they do/dont think so.
Before the lesson ends, tell students that, the next time they meet in their small
groups, they will go over the vocabulary for the new Taming Wild Beasts unit.

8. Assessment (Formative and Summative):

Formative Assessment
o Each of the lessons objectives will be continually assessed throughout the
course of the lesson. Once the videos have been introduced and shown to the
students, a number of questions will be posed, and a number of discussions
will be facilitated. As each question is posed by the teacher, and as each task
is completed, the students will not only receive opportunities to respond
independently, but will also receive opportunities to engage in collaborative
discussions with their peers. Throughout each one of these instances, the
teacher will be actively listening and responding to the students. In doing so,
he/she will not only be able to provide the students with additional support
as needed, but will also be able to assess each students ability to meet the
lesson objectives.
Summative Assessment
o Summative assessment will occur at the end of the Taming Wild Beasts unit
 via an online assessment (Read180 rSkills Test).

9. Materials/Equipment:
Interactive whiteboard
Read180 DVD
Sticky notes (at least one per student)
Each students individual composition notebook
Pencils (one per student)

10. Technology:
The classrooms interactive whiteboard will be used throughout the course of this
lesson. First, it will be used to show the videos related to the Taming Wild Beasts
unit. Later on in the lesson, it will be used as the class collaboratively creates a Wild
Animals T-chart.

11. Reflection on Planning:

This was the second whole group Read180 lesson that I planned for, so I started off
feeling a bit more comfortable than I had with the last one. This lesson, though,
unlike the last whole group Read180 lesson that I had planned for, will be the first
lesson in a new unit. Once again, this is a Read180 lesson unlike any other one that I
have observed thus far. As a result, Mrs. Watkins input and feedback yet again
proved to be crucial. I sat down with her in order to talk things out regarding the
flow of the lesson once again, and this proved to be extremely helpful.
As stated previously, I have not witnessed an introductory Read180 lesson take
place. So I am very eager to see how the lesson goes when taught. When planning for
this lesson, one thing I had felt was that it included a bunch of different things within
it, and I almost felt that I would be bouncing around from one thing to the next
when teaching the actual lesson. At the same time, however, I know each individual
aspect of the lesson is related to the overall unit, so I do hope and plan to make
my transitions within the lesson as seamless as possible. I will also definitely make
it a point to have the students understand that each thing that we do during this
lesson is relevant. In addition, being that the lesson does contain multiple
interactive components, I think that the students will be highly engaged throughout
this lesson, and I am looking forward to its implementation.

12. Reflection on Instruction (once the lesson has been taught):

The lesson has been taught, and I am very happy with how things turned out! One
thing I wrote about in my reflection on planning was that the lesson contained a
bunch of different things. As a result, I was a tad bit fearful that the lesson flow
would seem choppy and confusing. However, after teaching the lesson, I am happy
to report that this was not the case! Because each part of the lesson was related to
the overall topic of the new unit, it all wound up flowing together quite nicely. As a
matter of fact, each activity that we did was able to easily reference back to the
previous activity. In addition, the students (in all 3 of the Read180 groups) were
intrigued by the content of this lesson, and were also continuously engaged
 throughout. Student participation was constant and ongoing students were not
only willing to participate, but were excited and eager to do so.
This turned out to be a really fun lesson, for both me and the students. Many
questions were also raised throughout the course of this lesson by the students
about the readings that will be coming up as we move forward with the unit. As a
result, I really think that the rest of the unit will also go over well. It is so important
for students to be engaged, but it is even more important for this engagement to
start from the very beginning. Once the initial intrigue is there, and a strong
foundation has been provided, the possibilities for continuing to build upon that
foundation become endless.