Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Comprehensive Unit Plan

Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment

Kelly Dummler, Jessica Johnson, Evelyn Payne

Dr. Lupo
November 12, 2017
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Component 1: Quad Text Set

Your Name: Kelly Dummler, Jessica Johnson, and Evelyn Payne

Grade Level and Subject Area of the Class: Third Grade Science

Theme or Topic of the Text Set: Natural and human influences that impact the survival of
species

Standard of Learning: 3.10 The student will investigate and understand that natural events and
human influences can affect the survival of species. Key concepts include
a) The interdependency of plants and animals;
b) The effects of human activity on the quality of air, water, and the habitat;
c) The effects of fire, flood, disease, and erosion on organisms; and
d) Conservation and resource renewal

Target Text

Source Lexile Grade

Band

Human Activities Affect the Environment 800-890 8 Grade

th

Reason for Choice: The article allows for student to identify the ways that humans impact the
survival of species. Humans affect the environment by causing pollution and this pollution
diminishes the quality of life that plants and animals have. This text introduces terms such as
biodiversity, renewable resource, nonrenewable resource, and pollution. It also discusses
specific negative effects that humans have on the environment such as air quality, water quality,
and habitat quality. These are all important concepts for third graders to be familiar with and
understand.
http://www.paulgoodenough.com/mrchitty/TEXTBOOK/Source/Chapter%2014%20Pg%20462-
490/Section%202.pdf

Visual Text/s

Source Brief Description

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ULcVdeqgE In this video, Bill Nye explores the topic

of erosion. He visually shows kids what
erosion can do to the land through
experiments.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Reason for Choice: We included this video on erosion because students need to know how
natural events affect the earth. The students will see in this video that the earths features are
constantly changing. They will come to understand that there are some things that happen to the
environment that they have no control over. The video talks about erosion and gives examples of
erosion but doesnt provide information on how this might impact the life of species. The
students will think about erosion and then use their prior knowledge to make inferences about
how erosion may affect species.

Information Text 1 (Near Grade Level)

Source Brief Description Lexile Grade

Band

Recycle! by Gail Gibbons This book discusses the AD840L 3 -4

rd th

importance of recycling grade

and the effects that
recycling has on species
and the environment. It
talks about the different
ways that people can
recycle in order to save
the environment.

Reason for Choice: This book discusses different resources for example; paper and plastic that
are important to recycle and defines key terms such as recycling. It discusses ways that polluting
the environment is hurtful and how these materials impact habitats, animals, and plants. It
allows for third graders to understand the effects humans have on species and allows for them to
make better decisions before they pollute the environment. This book also provides ways in
which students can get involved in their own communities to recycle in order to reduce their
ecological footprints and save the species living around them. Students will be able to activate
their prior knowledge when they read this book and be able to relate recycling to their everyday
lives.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Information Text 2 (Below Grade Level)

Source Brief Description Lexile Grade

Band

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry A man decides to chop 590L 2 Grade
nd

down a tree in the amazon

rainforest. When he takes
a rest, all of the animals in
the rainforest whisper in
the mans ear to try to
convince him to not chop
down the tree with their
reason being all living
things depend on each
other.

Reason for Choice: The book discusses the interdependency between of plants and
animals. When reading this book, students will be able to understand the benefits
that plants and animals have on each other. This balance between nature and
animals is constantly interrupted by human interaction. The animals in the story
talk to the man about why they need the tree in order to survive, which will help
students to realize for themselves the interdependency between plants and
animals. It will help the students to reflect on their actions and what they can do in
order to not disrupt the relationships plants and animals have with each other.

YA Selection

Source Brief Description Lexile Grade

Band

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg Litterbug Walter 550L 3-5

doesnt see how his
actions affect the world
around him until one
dream changes his
whole perspective.
Walters dream takes
him to a future world
corrupted by pollution
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

and chaos. The street

that he lived on is piled
with trash, he finds
acres of stumps where
forest used to be, and
rows of great
smokestacks. There
were many
environmental
nightmares and Walters
bed lands in the middle
of each one of them.
This shows Walter how
damaging pollution can
be and that taking care
of his environment
influences life around
him.

Reason for Choice: This book discusses several consequences of living in a polluted world. This
is an appropriate book for the students because at this time the students are learning about living
systems and how to take care of them. Understanding the several ways that pollution occurs will
make students more cautious of their environmental safety. At this point, students should be
learning how to be a good citizen, and taking care of the environment is a significant part of
being one. The students will be learning about some of the positive and negative human
influences on the ecosystem.

Purpose for Reading

Texts Purpose for Reading How you will address the purpose
with students

Visual Text: The purpose for this video is to help
students visualize erosion in action
by actually seeing it. A video by Bill
Nye will also interest the students
and motivate them to want to learn
more on the topic.
The video will be used for our
vocabulary lesson. Students will
watch this video and identify
keywords that reflect erosion and the
different types of erosion. Students
will be asked to think critically about
how these different types of erosion
and how it affects the land and the
organisms that use the land.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan
Informational The purpose for this text is to help
Text 1: students understand the different
materials that you are able to
recycle. It will help students to
understand that recycling benefits
the environment and will motivate
students to want to change their
actions to make better decisions
about the products they use and how
they dispose of them.
Informational The purpose of this text is to draw in
Text 2: student attention the relationships
between plants and animals by using
a narrative story. The story explains
the harmonious balance and
interdependence between plants and
animals in a way that will interest
students.
Accessible/YA The purpose for this text is to help
Text: students come to realize that their
actions have a direct impact on the
environment everyday. They will
understand that their perceptions
and attitude towards pollution
affects how they take care of the
world around them.
Target Text: The purpose of this text will help to
better students knowledge on how
human impacts affect the survival of
species. They will understand that
the issues of air quality, water
quality, and habitat quality affect the
environment in which we live.
Students will explore the purpose of
this text by stating what background
information they already have on
recycling and what they want to learn
about it before reading. During the
reading, students will have an open
discussion on the topic to expand
comprehension. After the reading,
students will state what they now
have learned about recycling.
The knowledge gained from reading
this text will tie into the writing
activity the students are asked to
complete. The students will be asked
to make personal connections to the
text and analyze how human in
general, and specifically themselves,
alter plant and animal relationships.
The writing activity will encourage
students to think about and eventually
come to realize how their actions can
have positive or negative effects on
the environment.
In the think aloud students will be
asked open-ended questions about the
topic of air quality, water quality, and
habitat quality. They will have to
form their own definitions of key
terms throughout the text and make
connections to these terms to their
everyday lives. The students will also
use this text to complete the reading
guide on the different ways that
humans affect the environment in
which they live. They will use the
reading guide to clarify information
that may be challenging or confusing
to the students in the text.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Component 2: Writing Activity

For the writing activity the students will complete a pre-post journal in a whole group setting.

The prompts that will be given to the students will help them to build a connection between all of

the readings in the quad text set.

Before students engage with the readings in the quad text set the students will answer the

following given prompt:

In what ways do you influence the environment around you both positively and negatively?

This question will be used as an introduction to the topic of how humans influence the

environment and species around them. They will also be able to activate their prior knowledge

and connect their everyday lives to the upcoming readings. Students will then share their

responses with the entire class and note similarities and differences between their peers

comments.

After students complete all of the readings within quad text set they will engage in a second

writing prompt:

What are some ways that you can change your actions to have a more positive effect on the

environment?

This question will allow students to apply the knowledge that they learned from their texts to the

real world and expand upon the ideas from the initial question. It will also allow for them to

reflect on their negative actions that they wrote about in their pre journal and turn those negative
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

actions into more positive ones. Students will be able to take more of an action in their

community to help the environment while building an understanding and applying the concepts

that they learned through their readings inside and outside of the classroom. This also allows for

students to reflect on the reading and helps teachers gauge students understanding of how

human actions influence the environment and species around us.

Implementation:

According to Developing Reading Comprehension by Katherine Stahl and Georgia Garcia,

...writing about texts improves the reading comprehension of students in grades 3-12 (Stahl &

Garcia, 2015, p. 120) Reading and writing instruction should be connected because they

influence one another. We wanted to pick a writing activity that would get students to make

personal connections with the text and to see how our topic of pollution and the environment

apply directly to them. The class handout from week four on Canvas said that pre/post reading

journals allow students to explore their knowledge about a topic through a writing prompt before

they begin the unit. After students have read a text, they then come back to that prompt and

explore how their new knowledge has either reshaped or confirmed their previous ideas (Lupo,

2017). Our pre-reading prompt and post-reading prompt allow students to access prior

information and then expand upon the concept by applying the concept into the real world. They

are asked to first bring to light their knowledge on pollution and the environment, and by the end

of the activity they expand on what they have now learned to apply to it their lives.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Component 3: Discussion Activity

For the discussion technique we will be doing a K-W-L chart. This strategy helps students to

activate prior knowledge before taking on a new topic. They will essentially be able to connect

what they already knew about a topic with knowledge that they gain through reading about the

topic to deepen their understanding. Teacher's guide and monitor the discussion but the students

interactions and expression of their own ideas makes this strategy powerful.

Before reading the book Recycle! by Gail Gibbons, we will discuss as a whole group what the

students already know about recycling. The students will be encouraged to think about the ways

that they have seen recycling in their homes and taken part in it. They will be providing the

knowledge throughout the discussion and the teacher will act as a guide. As we discuss, the

students will fill in the what do you already know column of their K-W-L chart.

After we talk about what they already know about the topic, we will move into a discussion

about what they want to know which will be supported by the reading. The students will think

about what they want to know about recycling and other ways that they can help take care of

their environment. Students will be able to give their input on a topic by asking them what they

want to know. This sets a purpose for reading as the students will be looking for answers to their

own questions. They will be active participants in the learning process and find the reading more

engaging. As they think about what they want to know, the students will fill in the second section

of their chart independently after discussing with the class their thoughts and before we begin

reading the book.

 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

After reading the book, the students will return to the K-W-L chart and discuss things that they

learned from the reading. This will include a lot of talk from the students as they discuss

interesting facts that they heard or new things that they learned about. Once again, the teacher

will only serve as a guide in this portion of the K-W-L chart as the students do most of the

talking. During this time the teacher will be able to gauge student understanding as they discuss

components from the text.

Implementation:

According to Developing Reading Comprehension, high-level discussion of texts by students

encourages them to make personal connections to the themes in the books they are reading and

has them more actively participate in content (Stahl & Garcia, 2015, p.104). We choose a K-W-L

chart for our discussion activity because we wanted each student to feel welcome to participate

and to be able to display their development in knowledge of the subject for the whole class to

see. We choose to do it in a whole class setting because whole group discussion activities allow

for the teacher to scaffold students thinking and model how participation works ( Stahl &

Garcia, 2015, p. 107). The teacher can monitor students prior knowledge through the K-W-L

chart to better plan this lesson and future ones on a similar topic. We also chose this activity

because it has the potential to tie into dialogic talk the best. The article entitled Dialogic

Teaching: Rethinking Language use During Literature Discussions by Alina Reznitskaya says

that dialogic teaching puts students at the center of the curriculum and helps them to develop into

independent thinkers who are capable of higher order thinking. (Reznitskaya, 2012). A K-W-L

chart allows room for the students to openly discuss ideas, build ideas off of other students
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

thinking, and direct curriculum by determining what they want to know in the lesson while the

teacher steps back to scaffold and model appropriate participation.

Component 4: Think Aloud

Title of Text: Human Activities Affect the Environment

Text Teacher Script Strategies modeled/practiced

Pollution: the action or I wonder what harmful Having multiple visualizations

process of making land,
water, air, etc., dirty and
not safe to use. It is the
addition of harmful
substances into the
environment. the environment because it is
substances are? Im looking at of pollution examples and
this picture of a car with black modeling the thinking that we
smoke coming out of it. It seems expect from the students will
to me like this black smoke help the students form their
would be considered harmful to own definitions to improve
their vocabulary and
polluting the air. If we let these comprehension skills.
things into the environment, Im
thinking that it will continue to
damage the air that we breathe in
everyday. The smoke that Im
seeing in this picture also reminds
me of another time when Ive
seen smoke in the air from
burning firewood.

Biodiversity is the Im seeing this word Noting the prefixes and root
number and variety of biodiversity in the text. It looks words of vocabulary can help
life forms within an like a challenging word but Im clarify the meaning of the
ecosystem. thinking that I could break it vocabulary word. Students will
down into two familiar parts. I be able to make personal
see the prefix bio in this word. connections to these words as
I know that this prefix means life. they break them down into
Let me think of a time when Ive simpler parts.
heard the word diversity being
used. I can remember using this
term when talking about
differences in groups of people.
Remember when we talked about
ancient China and Egypt and the
different characteristics and
values of these places. We can
say that China and Egypt are two
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

diverse places. When I put the

word biodiversity back together, I
can infer that it means a variety
of different forms of life within
an ecosystem.

Chemicals or waste that I was at the beach last weekend Ask students to make
drain off of farm fields, and I saw that the waves were connections between the text
animal feedlots, and bringing empty soda cans onto and their own experiences.
landfills all cause water shore. I remember reading in the
pollution. So do oil text that trash is a form of
spills, soil erosion, and pollution. This pollution is not
the discharging of only harmful to the ocean but
wastewater from towns also to the environment we live
and industries. in.

Application:

Using photos to define vocabulary- Earlier, I showed you how to use photos in a textbook

chapter to define complex vocabulary. I want you all to practice this skill. On page 479, there is a

picture of deforestation. On your own, use the picture to help you explain what deforestation is in

your own words. Does it look harmful or good? How could this affect the environment?

Breaking down words-We are going to practice determining word meanings by breaking down

a word like I did for biodiversity. Lets take a look at the word wastewater. Our text does not

give us a definition of the word, however, we can take what we know about the word waste and

the word water to come up with our own definitions. Take a second to pair up with a partner

near you and see if you can come up with your own definition for the term wastewater by

breaking the word down into smaller parts.

Personal connections- Remember when I took what I was reading about the text and connected

it with experiences I have had or seen? I gave the example of when I was on the beach and saw
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

the waves bringing in empty cans. I want you all to make a personal connection as well. Pair up

with a partner near you and talk about a time you saw some type of pollution out in the world.

Was it trash all over a parking lot, dark smoke from a factory, or chemicals in a river? Whatever

the situation was, share it with your partner and then we will come back as a whole class to talk

about our experiences together.

Implementation:

According to Developing Reading Comprehension by Katherine Stahl and Georgia Garcia, a

prompted think aloud is when a teacher chooses a passage to analyze before reading it to the

students. The teacher needs to think of opportunities for students to use different comprehension

strategies; such as prediction, visualization, summarizing, and more (Stahl & Garcia, 2015, p.

97). For our think aloud, we have picked our target text of a science textbook chapter and

analyzed it in order to maximize students opportunity to comprehend. We selected major

vocabulary that is vital to our entire unit and also allowed students to make personal connections

to the text so that they gain a deeper understanding of what they are reading about. By allowing

students to explore their own definitions of pollution and visualize pollution in action, they are

expanding their strategies for comprehension. This read aloud will get students discussing ideas

surrounding our unit, but also help them to gain more comprehension strategies and learn how to

monitor their comprehension on their own.

 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Component 5: Reading Guide

Section of Text Picture Student Thinking

Remember! Looking at the pictures to the

A renewable resources can be left, can you label which
replaced. resource is renewable and
Nonrenewable resources which is nonrenewable?
cannot be replaced.
Check out the chart on page Renewable:
474. __________________

Nonrenewable:
__________________

Read the section on air ___ Check here if you

quality on page 476. understand how these
pictures affect air quality!

Read the section on water Can you name two examples

quality on page 477. of water pollution?

1. _________________

2. _________________

Stop and think! ___ Check here if you

Did you know that air explain to a friend how
pollution can be affect water runoff can be both water and
quality too? air pollution
Check out the chart on page
478.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Read the section on habitat What is one way humans

loss, change, and biodiversity affect habitats?
pages 478-480.
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________

Implementation:

In Differentiating Reading Instruction in Grades 4-5, McKenna, Walpole, and Phillapakos state

about eight benefits of reading guides. Some of these benefits include integrating reading and

writing, model purposeful reading, and making reading an active rather than passive process

(Walpole, McKenna, & Phillapakos, pg. 123). We choose to create a reading guide for our target

text because it will help the students tackle challenging concepts through multiple supports and

teacher scaffolding. The reading guide will accompany the target text while to students read to

assure that they are comprehending what they are reading, and monitoring their own

comprehension. Since our unit is planned around third grade, we have decided to center our

reading guide around images that align with our target text. That way, students can see science

concepts in action and the reading guide will be less wordy and overwhelming.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Component 6: Vocabulary

Technique: Graphic Organizer- Tree Diagram

Topic: Erosion

Related Text(s): Visual Text: Bill Nye Erosion Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ULcVdeqgE

List of Terms: Erosion, water erosion, wind erosion, ice erosion, runoff, deflation, glacial lakes

Discussion of Words Selected: The words we selected have come up in the other texts. We have

already discussed natural resources, such as water and wind, and we have discussed how habitats

can change based on human activity. Now, we are exploring how nature can change our

environment. Erosion is our main concept (trunk), but the types and characters of each type are

different components (branches).

Graphic:
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Description of Approach: The tree diagram is a graphic organizer used to illustrate how a large

concept can be divided into several smaller components. The students will create a tree diagram

in order to see how several terms can relate to one concept. The students will put erosion at the

top of the tree diagram and expand from there. There will be three branches off of erosion based

on the three types of erosion talked about in the Bill Nye video: Wind, water, and ice erosion.

From there, the student will branch off of each specific type of erosion to identify the different

characteristics/examples of each. The interconnected tree reinforces the idea that all of these

terms fall under the concept of erosion.

Justification for Approach: Walpole, McKenna, and Phillappakos provide many different

vocabulary instructional techniques in chapter 7 of Differentiating Reading Instruction in Grades

4-5. One of these techniques includes graphic organizers which can be split up into smaller

categories, including tree diagrams. Tree diagrams show how large concepts can be divided into

smaller components (Walpole, McKenna, & Phillapakos, pg. 97). We choose to do a tree

diagram for our video because the main concept is erosion, but there are different types (or

components) of erosion. Having students recognize the different characteristics of each type of

erosion will show that they understand the definition of the concept well enough to recognize it

in different contexts.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Implementation

Diverse Students

Our entire comprehensive unit plan provides numerous engaging and meaningful

activities centered around reading that will appeal to all readers and help all students, no matter

how diverse, gain a deeper understand of the content. Stahl and Garcia claim this about diverse

students, They need opportunities to read, write, and discuss texts rather than watch the teacher

or other students do these tasks (Stahl & Garcia, 2015, p. 27). Our comprehensive unit plan

includes different writing, discussion, and thinking activities that will allow students to express

their understanding in their own words. By allowing students to write a response to a reading in

whichever language they prefer, it will allow them to bring their own level of skill to the prompt.

Since diverse students come into school with a wide range of background knowledge and

experience, we made sure to provide many different opportunities and contexts for students to

see the content in. Teaching English Language Learners: What the Research Does- and Does

not- Say by Claude Goldenberg says, Just as with English speakers, ELLs learn more words

when the words are embedded in meaningful contexts and students are provided with ample

opportunities for their repetition and use, as opposed to looking up dictionary definitions or

presenting words in single sentences (Goldenberg, 2008, p. 17). Many of the key terms from

our unit appear in multiple settings, giving students a lot of opportunity to work with them.

Students also have texts on all different reading levels so that they are not confined to a

particular reading level. All of the different activities we have planned, as well as the varied text

complexity levels, also help students with disabilities. The most effective teachers use their

complex knowledge of literacy, pedagogy, and student characteristics flexibly, to provide

uniquely responsive instruction for their students (Wharton- McDonald, p. 269). By offering
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

lots of different activities and reading aids, this comprehensive unit plan will help students with

all different learning disabilities connect to the content and truly understand it. Different levels of

scaffolding and support will be provided to help all students with reading comprehension.

Struggling Readers

This unit plan includes texts that may be challenging for a third grader to read. Not to

mention that not all third graders are on a third grade reading level, so it is crucial to provide

support for struggling readers throughout. By doing this unit plan, the students will be reading to

learn instead of learning to read. We are doing this by showing the students how important

reading is in different content areas, such as science. With this being said, providing motivating

and engaging activities will allow for children to develop a desire to read instead of not wanting

to read at all (Lupo, 2017). Students will also be given a clear purpose behind each reading and

each activity to explicitly teach each struggling readers and students with disabilities why it is

important to read a specific text and how the activities will help them build upon their knowledge

(Wharton-McDonald, 2011). Throughout the unit, the teacher will participate in interactive read

alouds with the students so that they can listen to the text and look at the pictures to help build

their comprehension skills. After the text has been read/watched, the students will be given the

opportunity to refer back to the text as they do the activities to help spark their memories about

what was just looked at. The incorporation of both small group and whole group instruction will

give the struggling readers high quality, high level vocabulary, and comprehension instruction

when necessary (Walpole, McKenna, Philippakos, p. 16). Activities throughout the unit will also

be modified as needed in order to meet the needs of all of the students in the class. The students

will be asked to activate their prior knowledge and make connections so that they can better

understand what they are reading as well. The teacher will also scaffold student thinking and
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

model what the students should be doing in order to gradually release the responsibility to the

students and to help build their confidence as readers (Stahl & Garcia, 2005).

Order of Texts and How Students will Encounter Them

The order of our texts we have chosen for comprehensive unit plan is first Just a Dream

by Chris Van Allsburg, then The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, then the Bill Nye video on

erosion, then Recycle! by Gail Gibbons, and lastly our target text, which is a textbook chapter

titled Human Activities Affect the Environment. We choose to introduce the more narrative

and story like texts first to draw in student interest and to get them to make personal connections

with the science concepts we are covering. Next, we choose the video on erosion to break up the

amount of reading and to make a gradual transition into more informational texts. Second to last

we choose the informational book on recycling. This is because it is more vocabulary based and

has a lot of important scientific content in it. The last text the students will encounter is the target

text. This is because it is our most difficult reading and students will need ample background

knowledge and experience with the subject in order to comprehend it. Students will encounter

the texts and the activities in a variety of ways. This comprehensive unit plan incorporates

whole group, small group, and individual instruction. The teacher will read each text as a whole

group while doing an interactive read aloud. This will give students the opportunity to respond

to the text and help them to build their understanding on the science concepts. After the texts are

read, the students will go back and work on the activities in a variety of ways. The writing

activity will be completed individually where the students will be given the opportunity to

respond to a prompt. The reading guide will also be done individually, however, the students

will be given the opportunity to read the target text again individually at their desks after the

teacher has read it to them. There will also be small group instruction with this article to provide
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

extra support for the struggling readers since this text is way above grade level reading. The

discussion activity and the think aloud will be done as a whole group so that students can share

their thoughts on the readings. Lastly, the vocabulary activity will be done in partners where

they are sorting a variety of terms together.

For each of the activities, students will either complete them before, during, or directly

after the readings. The only exception to this is the pre-post journal. The students will be asked

to answer the pre-part of the journal before any reading has happened. This will get them

reflecting on the topic our unit covers before we have addressed it. They will then answer the

post-part of the journal after the entire unit has been completed. This will allow them to use all of

their new knowledge to see how it fits into their lives outside of school. The discussion activity,

which is the K-W-L chart, will be completed during all parts of the reading. This is because a K-

W-L chart begins with students writing down what they already know, stating what they want to

learn during the unit, and then writing down everything they learned after the reading/ lesson is

over. The vocabulary activity will be completed after the reading. The think aloud and the

reading guide will be completed during the readings because they serve as scaffolding for student

understanding as they look at our target text.

Structure of Lessons

Each of the activities in this unit were picked with careful consideration and supported

with research defining the benefit and importance of each one. For our informational texts, we

designed a pre/post journal that would have students making a personal connection with the text.

According to Developing Reading Comprehension by Katherine Stahl and Georgia Garcia,

...writing about texts improves the reading comprehension of students in grades 3-12 (Stahl &

Garcia, 2015, p. 120) Reading and writing instruction should be connected because they
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

influence one another. This writing activity will help students to access prior knowledge and

reflect on their new understandings after they have read. For our second informational text, we

choose to do a K-W-L chart planned around the concepts of dialogic teaching. Dialogic

Teaching: Rethinking Language use During Literature Discussions by Alina Reznitskaya says

that dialogic teaching puts students at the center of the curriculum and helps them to develop into

independent thinkers who are capable of higher order thinking. (Reznitskaya, 2012). Our K-W-L

chart will open up a whole class discussion in which students build ideas off of each other and

participate in a dialogue with few teacher interruptions. For our target text, which is above grade

reading level, we choose to do both a think aloud and a reading guide. Think alouds and reading

guides are both great ways to scaffold student understanding while they read. Think alouds

monitor students understanding through the teacher modeling comprehension strategies such as

prediction, visualization, summarizing, and more (Stahl & Garcia, 2015, p. 97). When it comes

to reading guides, Differentiating Reading Instruction in Grades 4-5 state integrating reading and

writing, model purposeful reading, and making reading an active rather than passive process as

some of the many benefits of reading guides (Walpole, McKenna, & Phillapakos, pg. 123). Our

final activity choice is a tree diagram on vocabulary for our visual text. The video covers the

larger concept of erosion and breaks it down into the different types. Tree diagrams show how

large concepts can be divided into smaller components, and this will help students recognize the

concept in different contexts (Walpole, McKenna, & Phillapakos, pg. 97).

 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

References

Goldenburg, C. (2008). Teaching english language learners: what the research does- and does
not-say. American Educator, 8-44

Lupo, S. M. (2017) Handout class 3 comprehension instructions: [Class handout]. Retrieved

from canvas.

Lupo, S. M. (2017). Handout class 4 writing: [Class handout]. Retrieved from canvas.

Reznitskaya, A. (2012). Dialogic teaching: rethinking language use during literature discussions.\
The Reading Teacher, 65(7), 446-456.

Stahl, K. D., & Garcia, G. E.. (2015). Developing reading comprehension: effective instruction
for all students in preK-2. New York, NY: Guilford.

Walpole, S., McKenna, M. C., & Phillapakos, Z. (2011). Differentiating reading instruction in
grades 4-5. New York, NY: Guilford.

Wharton-McDonald, R. (2011). Expert classroom instruction for students with reading

disabilities. McGill-Franzen, A. & Allington, R.L. (Eds.), Handbook of Reading
Disabilities Research (265-272). New York, NY: Routledge.
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Rubric:

Assignment Criteria Self- Instructor

Assessment Assessment
Level of Selections and Coherence of the Quad Text
Set
All selections are at appropriate levels of difficulty. Origin
of all sources is clear and adequate for locating. All parts
25
of the organizer are complete. The quad text set is a
coherent set of texts and the visual, information, and
accessible texts are likely to facilitate students
comprehension of target text. (25 points)
Purpose for Reading
There is a clear, authentic purpose for reading each text
10
and a plan to establish the reading purpose with students.
(10 points)
Writing Activity
The implementation plan includes a description of a
writing activity that will follow the reading of the target text
and other lesson components. The writing activity will 10
foster students thinking and allow for reflection of ideas
both in the target text as well as across the quad text set.
(10 points)
Discussion Technique
The implementation plan includes a description of a
technique for discussion from our course readings, which
fosters students critical thinking about the text and
10
ensures that all students have an opportunity to talk about
the text. The discussion should prepare students for the
writing activity.
(10 points)
Think Aloud
The think aloud models thinking and particular strategies
to assist students in making sense of complex texts and 10
provides practice for students to engage in the strategies.
(10 points)
Reading Guide/DR-TA
The reading guide or DR-TA demonstrates an
understanding of the places where students may struggle
with the target text and provides strong supports to aid in
15
understanding of the text. The guide or DR-TA are well
organized with appropriate purpose setting devices
employed to aid in students comprehension of the text.
(15 points)
 Natural and Human Impacts on the Environment: Comprehensive Unit Plan

Vocabulary Approach and Graphic

The approach is appropriate for the concepts being
compared. The graphic representation clearly depicts the
selected vocabulary approach for the content specific 15
concept. The justification of the approach is valid,
supported by text, and demonstrates an understanding of
the appropriate use of the approach (15 points)
Implementation of the Lesson
The plan for implementation considers a relevant order of
presentation of the quad text set that supports students
understanding of all texts and in particular, the target text.
Description of how the lesson will be administered utilizes
small group, whole group, and individual work time
25
appropriately. Description includes how each component
of the lesson will be administered (reading guide, think
aloud, purpose setting, writing, vocabulary, and
discussion) References from course readings are cited to
justify choices in the lesson.
(25 points)
Interdisciplinary Approach
The implementation plan demonstrates and integration of
10
literacy into content areas and an interdisciplinary
approach to instruction. (10 points)
Diversity
The implementation plan addresses ways to consider
learning needs of language learners, students with
disabilities, and students of varying reading ability levels. 10
The plan includes citations from our course readings to
support choices.
(10 points)
Professional Language
The paper is written in presentation-style English, with rules
of grammar, agreement, and punctuation followed.
References are included and listed using APA formatting
following the body of the paper on a new page. 10
Cover sheet with title of project, author, and date, ALONG
with this rubric (self-assessment completed and included
in the paper) are presented together as a single file when
submitted through the assignment link. (10 points)

Grade: ____ out of 150 points 150