UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

Lesson Topic: What is erosion? Date: 6/2/19.

Inquiry Question: How do wind and water affect the land? Grade Level: 2

Expected Outcomes: What is your learning objective for
students to know at the end of this lesson?
By the end of this lesson, students will know that erosion is
the process of wind and/or water moving types of sediment
(specifically dirt in this lesson).
Behavioral Needs Focus Student: How will you modify, accommodate, or
differentiate instruction to ensure universal access to curriculum for your Focus
Student?
My focus student has a cochlear implant and ADHD. He also has some
developmental delays that affect his processing and social behavior. This student will
be placed in a heterogeneous group with students who are collaborative and mild
tempered. The group was selected in order to provide academic and behavioral
scaffolding. This student will also use sentence frames and a word bank for
new/tricky vocabulary.

Real world pictures and video clips will be used to reinforce learning so that this
student and others can associate vocabulary and concepts with processes that
happen outside of the classroom.

Assessment: What evidence of learning will you gather to
assess student learning?
Images from Harry Potter are incorporated into the lesson in order to create cultural
relevance and interest for this student and the whole class. The NGSS science
model assessments will be based on drawing Hogwarts and the erosion that might
occur due to the fact that Hogwarts is positioned on a cliff above a lake. The student
engineered 3-dimensional structures that will be completed as a culminating task at
the end of this unit are also modeled after Hogwarts. By using Hogwarts as a specific
example around which to center learning, I am providing a more concrete basis for
application of the material for my focus student.
Flexible Grouping Strategies: How will you group students in the lesson to address
identified language, academic, and instructional needs for individual students?

Science models will be used to assess understanding. Students will be in heterogeneous groups based on student needs and strengths.
These student drawings will represent student thinking about The focus student above is in a group that scaffolds his behavioral and academic
the process of erosion from wind and water. Labels will help needs. Other students are placed in groups based on language needs. One student

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

with assessment of vocabulary application. with high conceptual understanding but limited vocabulary is placed in a group with
high vocabulary and similar high conceptual understanding. This will allow him to
Additionally, observational assessment will occur throughout perform to his highest ability by providing peer scaffolding for vocabulary.
the lesson, probing student thinking and noting student
responses. Other students are placed in groups based on their abstract versus concrete
thinking. This creates very unique groups with very different perspectives on how to
An exit ticket will assess student understanding of the approach the unit tasks. By having the groups convene and assess each other’s
specific lesson goals as well as potential alternate thinking, they will also then be able to impart their group strengths to other groups as
understandings that need to be addressed in future lessons. well.

Students are in cooperative groups. They are also engaged in a discovery process
that produces inquiry-based learning through simulations. These methods are based
in the 3rd tenant of multicultural education: equity-based pedagogy
What academic content standard(s) will you focus on during this lesson?

ELA 2.W.7. Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science
observations).

Science 2.ESS2.1. Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land. (ESS2.A Wind and
water can change the shape of the land.)
Lesson Differentiation: Explain how you will ensure student engagement and differentiate within this lesson to meet the needs of students who
have learning difficulties, students who are language learners, and students who are gifted.

- This lesson focuses on concrete methods of learning using the principles of SIOP. Students engage in hands on learning activities that
demonstrate processes of erosion in order to observe the concepts in action. Additionally, real world visuals provide another mode for making an
abstract concept concrete by providing examples of erosion on a massive scale.

- At the beginning of the lesson, students will have a vocabulary preview so that they can engage with the language of the lesson.

- Students will use drawings and words to communicate their thinking. This provides access to language learners while also offering a point of

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

engagement for gifted children to further explore their thinking in deeper and more meaningful ways.

- Learning through inquiry will also engage each student by providing them with access to their own prior knowledge and personal connections.
Students use a variety of funds of knowledge when exploring phenomena.

Lesson Design: Explain your planned activities to meet your learning objective.

I do (2min):

The teacher displays an image of Hogwarts, telling the students that Dumbledore and Harry Potter need our help to protect Hogwarts from
erosion. The teacher then states that in order to do this, we must first learn all that we can about erosion.

The teacher presents vocabulary and brings forward pebbles, sand, dirt, and clay samples from a past science experiment, priming students with
prior knowledge by reminding them that these are all sediments that are formed from rocks and other materials breaking apart. The teacher then
puts up the vocabulary word sediment on the board next to the samples, thinking out loud about how these samples all have this vocabulary word
in common because they are all examples of sediments.

The inquiry question is read “How do wind and water affect the land?” The teacher thinks out loud about walking across the yard on a windy day
and having dirt blown into her eyes. Students think-pair-share about how wind and water have affected them.

We do (10min):

Students are shown a word web with the center missing. Surrounding the center are pictures and videos that exemplify erosion. The teacher asks
students to think about what the pictures have in common. Students think-pair-share about what they notice. They share out a partner’s answer to
the class as the teacher documents student thinking on the word web. The center of the web is then revealed as the word erosion. The teacher
uses student thinking and the word web pictures to write out a working definition for the new vocabulary term. Depending on current class
understanding, the definition will be something like this: ‘Erosion is when dirt breaks apart and falls away’.

The teacher reads the inquiry question again and tells the students that they will further explore what erosion is by using wind and water to cause

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

erosion in their own dirt samples. The teacher introduces the tools (straws, water droppers, dirt, containers, science journals) and demonstrates
improper use of each tool. The teacher has students share out proper use of the tools and demonstrates what this looks like. Students are then
placed into groups to start exploring.

You do (20min):

Students use light wind from the straws to blow on the dirt and observe what happens. They use water droplets to observe what happens. The
students, with teacher guidance, then use heavy water from a watering can, and heavy wind from a blow-dryer, and observe what happens. In
groups, they cocreate a working scientific model with labels that describes how water and wind affect the dirt differently. Through teacher
prompting and small group conversations, students will notice that wind blows away the top layer of dirt, causing more destruction as the wind
increases. They will notice that water causes some erosion when used lightly over a longer period of time, but causes whole amounts of dirt to
wash away quickly when used in larger quantities. They will notice that all erosion eventually changes the shape of the dirt.

Wrap-up (10min):

Students will reconvene on the carpet to discuss their findings. They will turn and talk with someone, not from their group, to discuss their
observations. Students will then share out their thinking, which will be added to a chart that documents light vs strong wind/water erosion and the
effects on dirt. We will then revise our definition of erosion: ‘Wind erosion is when wind breaks apart and moves dirt. Water erosion is when water
breaks apart and moves dirt’.

The teacher will again show students the picture of Hogwarts, and ask students to think about how erosion might affect Hogwarts. Students will
think-pair-share. The teacher will document student thinking on the picture of Hogwarts, drawing and labeling how the land might change from wind
and water as well as how the Castle might change. This picture/drawing will be used as a scientific model in the following lesson when students
experiment with material strength and erosion.

Exit Ticket (5min):

Students will answer multiple choice questions with pictures that apply their learning to a new context:
Which pictures show heavy wind/water erosion that happened quickly?
Which pictures show light wind/water erosion that happened in a short time/long time?

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

Academic Vocabulary Instruction: What specific
vocabulary/terms will you explicitly teach and have
students practice during this lesson to ensure
concept understanding?
New vocabulary: water erosion and wind erosion
Important vocabulary that is already known:
observation, model, and sediment
Culturally Relevant: How is this lesson relevant to the students in your class? How does
this lesson encourage a classroom that is supportive of diversity?
The hook for the whole unit is based in designing a structure for Hogwarts that will help
prevent erosion from destroying the castle. Many of the students are reading Harry Potter at
home with their parents. By including this theme in each lesson throughout the unit, students
are able to access thinking related to their current understanding of a story in which they are
personally invested. This hook also provides students with an authentic application for their
thinking as well as a learning context in which their ideas can build upon knowledge that they
already have.

This unit also ties into our prior wildfire unit that we used for nonfiction reading. This prior
unit addressed the growing student interest and concerns from the recent fires that affected
some of their friends and families throughout California. Eventually, this current unit will
address how erosion affects communities differently. Students will analyze how cost and
individual versus community needs affect the way in which we view solutions and outcomes
for different peoples. This lesson provides the conceptual foundation for the
scientific/engineering principles that students will eventually embed into the greater
sociocultural context of the unit.

Classroom Management: What do you anticipate your focus student will Integration of Technology: How will you integrate available
need to be successful with this lesson? What other issues should you technology resources into this lesson as you plan, teach, and assess
consider to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for student learning? student learning? How might students use technology in this lesson to
deepen their understanding of the content?
My focus student will need a patient group dynamic with students who are
adept at explicitly stating their thinking. He will need access to printed Technology will be used in this lesson to present photographs and
vocabulary words and concrete examples that explain the concepts. He will videos of erosion processes in the real world. There is not much
need guidance when making his model so that he is able to include all of his student use of technology. This is an area to expand upon and further

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

thinking in an organized fashion. create a sense of global reach and relevance for the eventual
outcomes of the unit as a whole.

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide