Bruce Smallacombe

Strategic Teaching Plan

Study Skills and Content Literacy (EDU 742)

The University of New England

Professor Suzy Lovejoy

 Earth and Space science in my high school is a course that is in high demand.

The majority of my students are the lower level to middle of the road students.

They are not very science minded and they have no intentions on entering a field

where science is a priority. My students do succeed because they try hard, but they

are in no way capable of taking Advanced Biology or Anatomy & Physiology.

Due to state testing at the end of the year, Earth and Space is designed as a

content knowledge course. Similar to the concerns in the article by Vacca, we focus

so much on content that we push reading skills aside. Now that state testing is a

week away from being over, I have the chance to put reading at the forefront of my

students’ learning.

This lesson plan is designed to lead my students towards a debate on global

warming. Since global warming is a hot topic with many different views, we will not

be focusing on one text. We will use several articles and web sites to reach our

objectives for the unit.

Objectives:

• Students will define Global Warming

• Students will be able to state the viewpoints of both sides of the global

warming debate
 • Students will use pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading activities to

aid in their understanding of the topic

• Students will choose a side to defend for an in class debate

• Students will state their reason(s) for choosing the side they will defend

Day One:

Learning activity one: Quote of the week (Stephens & Brown, 2005 pg. 66) {Pre-

reading}

Upon entering the classroom, students will observe this week’s “quote of the

week” on the smart board. It states:

“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that

man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American

people? It sure sounds like it.”

-JAMES M. INHOFE, speech in U.S. Senate, July 28, 2003

Students are to put this quote into their notebooks and then write a

paragraph to try and answer the question within. The students will then get into

small groups of 2-4 people and discuss their thoughts on the quote. These early

thoughts will eventually lead to the entire class debate. After group discussions, we

will have an entire class question and answer session about the quote.
 Students will be given a copy of the article “Forget Global Warming, Welcome

to the New Ice Age” at the end of class. Their homework assignment will be to skim

the article and highlight all of the scientific organizations that are mentioned in the

text.

Day Two:

Learning Activity Two: Admit Slip (Allen, 2004) {Pre-Reading}

Part of working on scientific research is to make sure one’s sources are

reputable. Using the homework assignment as an admission slip will begin to show

the students that they need to look where their information is coming from.

Today’s lesson will be to focus on sources of information that are reputable versus

ones that are not.

After a short five to ten minute discussion on all of the sources from the

article, the class will go to the library for a presentation from the librarian. She will

show the students the school’s online research website where they can go to do

research without having to use the internet. It’s very similar to ERIC where they can

get journal articles and papers that can be considered reliable.

Day Three and Four:

Learning Activity Three: Cornell Note-Taking (Allen, 2004) {During Reading}

Students will be given several articles to read and review. Some articles are

from the global

warming is occurring side and others are from the not occurring side. The articles

are:

1. Forget Global Warming, Welcome to the New Ice Age.

2. Global Warming Petition Project (www.petitionproject.org)

3. Is there Global Cooling (www.isthereglobalcooling.com)

4. Climate Change (www.epa.gov/climatechange/)

5. Global Warming

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

6. Glacier National Park (www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm

Students will use the Cornell Note system to gain knowledge for their

debate. They will then be able to review their notes when it comes time for them to

put together information for the class debate.

Day Five and Six:

Activity four: Reading Response Logs (Tovani, 2004 pg. 110) {During Reading}

Students can begin to do their own research on the side they wish to debate

for. As they read and review the information they find, they are to write down the

title, author, summarize the readings, and provide a response to what they found.

Day Seven:

Activity five: Compare and Contrast (Allen, 2004) {Post Reading}

 For today’s assignment students will take all of the information they have

gathered over the first six days and work on comparing and contrasting the two

sides. In any good debate, the people participating know what the other side has to

debate with. By comparing and contrasting the topics, the students will be able to

provide arguments for what the other side states.

Day Eight:

Activity six: Exit slips (Allen, 2004)

After the final day comparing and contrasting debate topics, students will

provide an exit slip answering the following question: “How will you know that you

mastered this topic?” After eight days of research and review, the students have

read several different sources of information about global warming. Global warming

is a topic that presently is a hot debate and has been for years.

Days nine and ten will allow the students to work together in groups to put

their main ideas together for the debate. After the weekend, day eleven will bring

the debate where the two groups will present and defend their arguments.

Bibliography

Allen, J. (2004). Tools for teaching content literacy. USA: Janet Allen.

Stephens, E.C. & Brown, J.E. (2005). A handbook of content literacy strategies: 125
practical reading and

writing ideas. Massachusetts: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.

Tovani, C (2004). Do I really have to teach reading? Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.