Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher Emily Veenstra, Krista DeVries, Anna Claire Lambers, Jenna Boekeloo
Date

May

Subject/ Topic/ Theme

Survival of Organisms

Grade ___5_________

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
This lesson is the fifth in a unit of 6 lessons. It relates the previous units we covered on fossils, survival of the fittest, and how
animals relate to their environment.
Learners will be able to:

cognitiveR U Ap An E
C*

(content & skill objectives)

Recognize that there is a relationship between the animals and their environment.

Observe how both human actions and natural causes (both catastrophic events) can effect the environment.

Analyze the relationship of environmental change and catastrophic events to species extinction.

An

Infer what might happen to the environment based off of the catastrophic events they learn about.

An

physical
development

socioemotional

NextGen standards (or GLCEs if not available in NextGen) addressed:

L.EV.05.14 Analyze the relationship of environmental change and catastrophic events to species extinction.
(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular
learners write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.)
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create

II. Before you start

Identify prerequisite
knowledge and skills.
Pre-assessment (for learning): -

Outline assessment
activities
(applicable to this lesson)

Formative (for learning): +As groups are reading through the different case studies and answering questions,
we can be walking around the room, listening in to the groups discussions with the questions.
Formative (as learning): +
Summative (of learning): +Create their own news report within their group. They must include

something with their assigned catastrophic event, a description of the environment, and animals that
are effected by the change in the environment.

What barriers might this

lesson present?
What will it take
neurodevelopmentally,
experientially, emotionally,
etc., for your students to
do this lesson?

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Provide Multiple Means of

Representation
Provide options for perceptionmaking information perceptible

Provide Multiple Means of Action

and Expression
Provide options for physical actionincrease options for interaction

Provide Multiple Means of

Engagement
Provide options for recruiting
interest- choice, relevance, value,
authenticity, minimize threats

Provide options for language,

mathematical expressions, and
symbols- clarify & connect
language

Provide options for expression and Provide options for sustaining effort
communication- increase medium of and persistence- optimize challenge,
expression
collaboration, mastery-oriented
feedback

do this lesson?

Provide options for comprehensionactivate, apply & highlight

Provide options for executive

functions- coordinate short & long
term goals, monitor progress, and
modify strategies

Provide options for self-regulationexpectations, personal skills and

strategies, self-assessment &
reflection

An envelope filled with the information, pictures, etc. for each case study
Materials-what materials Case Study on a particular animal
(books, handouts, etc) do Pictures included in the case study envelopes
you need for this lesson
and are they ready to use?

How will your classroom

be set up for this lesson?

Ideally, the classroom could be split up into four stations for the four different case studies. If not,
however, the groups could just establish themselves and we could physically rotate the case study
envelopes between the four groups.

III. The Plan

Time
5 min

Components
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)

Describe teacher activities

AND
student activities
for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order thinking questions and/or
prompts.
Close your eyes and pretend you are a chameleon. Listen and imagine.
Now chameleons are known to change their color
based upon their environment. This is called
camouflage. Camouflage helps certain animals
blend in with their environment. Not all animals
have the ability to change their camouflaged,
however.
Now pretend you are a white fox living in a
northern region where there is constant snow cover.
You have camouflage because you are able to blend
in with your surroundings. But then something
terrible happens! A catastrophic event (which means
a really really big event) melts all the snow. So
now you are a white fox living in a grassy area.
There is no more snow for you to hide in so you are
easily seen by all your predators. What would you
do? You need to get your food, but with your white
coat going out on the dirt covered ground is risky.
Or would you venture out and risk getting eaten by
your predators.

[5]

4-10-14

Explore:
Hand out catastrophic event envelopes to each
group.
In each envelope, there is a brief description of a
catastrophic event, an article about an animal that is
effected by the catastrophic event, and a picture of
the animal.
Read through the catastrophic event sheet first.
Discuss the final question as a group. Once you
have inferred the effect of the catastrophic event,
take a look at the animal and read through how the
animal was effected by the event.
Teacher is walking around the room (Or, in this
case, one teacher could be assigned to each
catastrophic event)

Explore the catastrophic event within your

envelope. Read through some real life catastrophic
events. You and your group will only be exploring
one of the four catastrophic events. (Still at the
individual stations)

[10]

[10]

Development
(the largest
component or
main body of
the lesson)

Explain:
Be sure to monitor students discussions within your
group. Give each group the brief scenario of a
catastrophic event that occurred. Be sure they do
not move on to looking at the specific animal prior
to finishing the discussion portion.
Hand out the next set of papers that has a specific
animal case study on it.

Explain how the catastrophic event might effect the

animals that were in the environment after the event
happened. Discuss or predict ways they think the
catastrophic event might alter or change the
environment or cause a particular species to change.
Look at a specific animal that actually changed
through natural selection or has become endangered
because of the environmental change that took
place.

Go over news report activity. Each of you had a

different catastrophic event that you were focusing
on. We want to see some of the different
Create a news report with your group to report on
catastrophic events that your classmates explored. the catastrophic event of the group.
To do so, we are going to create news reports. With
your team, create a news a news report that
describes your catastrophic event, including the
animal that was effected by it. Be creative with
this! Set your news report team in the time and
place of the catastrophic event. It can be
immediately after or during the time of the event.

[15]

Expand:
Lead discussion on how catastrophic events have an
effect on the environment. Say something along
the lines of, We have looked at several catastrophic Discuss based off of what they know/ apply what
events that had or are having an effect on several
they learned.
species causing them to be endangered. Now lets
take the scenario one step farther. Tell me how can
species extinction in general be related to
catastrophic events and environmental change?
[10]

Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)

Provide time for the students to reflect and record in

their journals. Give this prompt for their Journal
Journal
Time:
1) summarize what we did
2) list three new things youve learned
3) write down any questions you have about this
topic around the room mentally assessing where
they are at.

Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as well as ideas for improvement
for next time.

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