Leanne Koeller

CI 451
Name: Introducing Oceans

Date: December 2, 2010

Grade Level/Subject: 5th grade/Science

Prerequisite Knowledge:
- Students will have knowledge of oceans and oceanic life.
- Students will know different formats of poems.

Approximate Time: 1 hour

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

- Students will be able to identify key aspects of the ocean.
o Ocean animals, plants, landforms, etc.
- Students will be able to create a poem/picture that relates to an ocean concept.

Language Objectives:
- Students will have created a poem that relates to an ocean concept (waves, sharks, coral,
etc.)

Content Standards:
3.B.2b Establish central idea, organization, elaboration and unity in relation to purpose and
audience.
3.C.2a Write for a variety of purposes and for specified audiences in a variety of forms
including narrative (e.g., fiction, autobiography), expository

Materials/Resources/Technology:
- Paper
- Pencils, markers, colored pencils, etc.
- Blackboard

Implementation:

Time
Opening of lesson: (Objectives, hook, behavior expectations)
- I will begin the lesson, by having the students come to the floor to create a
KWL chart about the ocean.
10 minutes - We will write down what we already know about the ocean and what we want
to know.

Procedures:
- Next I will tell students that today they will be using their knowledge of the
 ocean to create a short poem. Together we will brainstorm poem topic ideas
(sharks, coral reef, fish, whales, salt water, etc.).
- Together we will go over the definition for each of these words and add them
to our class word wall (for the ELL students).
- I will tell students that this is a creative writing assignment; however, they
need to make sure that they relate it to what they have learned about the ocean.
- As a class we will then create a poem to model what is expected.
- I will then give the students work time to come up with a creative poem.
(They can use poem formats that we discussed earlier in the year.)
- During this time I will work with my ELL students. I will modify their
assignment, and have them write a Cinquain poem.
- The format for this type of poem is:
Line1: A noun (Main Topic- 1 word)
Line2: Two adjectives (Words that describe the main topic)
Line 3: Three -ing words
Line 4: A phrase about the “Main Topic” (4 words)
Line 5: Another word for the noun (synonym for “Main Topic”)
- I will explain this structured poem to the ELL’s and give them a couple of
examples:
Spaghetti
Messy, spicy
Slurping, sliding, falling
Between my plate and mouth
Delicious
- However, I will make sure that the ELL’s know that they need to write their
poem about the ocean. They can use the ocean word wall words to help them
come up with a topic.
- Depending on the ELL child, I will allow them to write the poem in their native
language.
- Then we will work on translating it together, or with an ESL teacher.
- All students then will be expected to write their poem (after it has been checked
over by a peer and me) on nice paper. They will also include a picture that goes
along with their poem.

Summary/Closing:
- The students will present their poem to the entire class.
- They will also explain their rationale of why their poem relates to the ocean.
- ELL students will have the opportunity to either read their poem in English,
their native language, or both. (This is a good opportunity to make all of the
students realize that there is a lot of diversity in our world, and not everyone
speaks the same language.)

Student Assessment:
 - Were students able to create a poem?
- Were students able to create a visual that goes along with their poem?
- Did students have a good rationale when explaining why their poem relates to
the ocean?

Rationale:

This is a lesson plan that incorporates many ELL strategies. I know that all students do

not learn at the same rates, so I tried to make sure that I provided modifications for students who

may struggle more with this lesson. For example, I allowed the exceeding students to create any

type of poem that we had discussed previously in the school year. However, I adjusted this

assignment for the ELL students and had them write a Cinquain poem. This is a shorter poem

and it gives students very structured directions. I also allowed the ELL students to write this

poem in their native language, and then we would translate it later to English. I also have a word

wall that the ELL students can reference when writing their poems. This should help them with

identifying and spelling different words.