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Background Information
Teacher Candidate: Kiera Burnett
Date: October 20th, 2015
Grade: 5th Grade
Unit/Subject: Life Science/Ecosystems
Instructional Plan Title/Focus: Whos Eatin Who?
Section 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment
a. Instructional Plan Purpose:
We are going to be investigating how organisms are connected in an environment. This will help
students understand the different roles organisms play in a food web. They will investigate this by
playing different roles in the ecosystem and seeing how the introduction or disappearance of various
organisms will affect this. I would teach this lesson toward the beginning of a unit, but not as the very
first activity. This activity requires prior understand of ecosystems and the various levels within them. I
would follow this activity with further exploration of food webs including increasingly more organisms.
b. State/National Learning Standards:
types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species
can damage the balance of an ecosystem. (5-LS2-1)
c. Content Objectives and alignment to State Learning Standards:
1. SWBAT relate organisms in an ecosystem based on food (LS2.A)
2. SWBAT classify organisms based on what they eat (LS2.A)
Language Objectives:
3. SWBAT use the following words: decomposer, producer, herbivore, and carnivore (LS2.A)
d. Previous Learning Experiences:
Prior to this activity, students would learn about the various levels within an ecosystem (decomposers,
producers, herbivores, and carnivores). They will have practiced relating two organisms and their
functions in an ecosystem, but will not have looked at interactions between more than two organisms.
This activity is an expansion of their prior learning.
e. Planning for Student Learning Needs
Accommodations would be made for students with various disabilities. Students with mental disabilities
would be partnered with another student so that they could still complete the activity. Students with
physical disabilities would be assigned a stationary organism in the ecosystem, such as a plant. During
the writing portion, students who are unable to write would be allowed a scribe.
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f. Assessment Strategies
Content/Language Objectives
Assessment Strategies
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g. Student Voice:
Student-based
evidence to be
collected
Exit Slip
Self
Assessment
Exit Slip
webs and their role in relating organisms. This would also be full-class instruction. Finally, students
would work individually to complete their own food webs.
Section 2: Instruction and Engaging Students in Learning
a. Introduction:
I will introduce this concept by igniting students competitive spirit and telling them we are going to see
who can survive the best in the wild by playing a game. I will introduce four organisms (wheat, deer,
mushrooms, and wolves) and assign students to one of the four.
b. Questions:
1. What level do you think this organism represents on the food web? (Analysis)
2. What would happen if I introduced another herbivore, like a rabbit, into the ecosystem? (Synthesis)
3. Which organism has to work the hardest to survive and why? (Evaluation)
4. What would happen to each other level in the food web if we removed carnivores? (Synthesis)
5. What would be the effect of a drought on this ecosystem? (Synthesis)
c. Learning Activities:
Learning Steps and Activities
Supporting Theories/Principles
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d. Closure:
To close this activity, I would ask students what they learned from doing these activities. Students
would briefly discuss the struggles and ideas they had when creating the food web as well. This
discussion would be followed by an exit slip to monitor student voice.
e. Independent Practice:
Students would be encouraged to discuss this activity with parents. As an extension activity, students
could independently visit another ecosystem and draw a food web for it. This could even be done in
their own back yards!
f.
g. Acknowledgements:
Food Chain Game. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2015, from http://cpaws-southernalberta.org/upload/
Animal_Game.pdf
Willard, T. (2015). The NSTA quick-reference guide to the NGSS, elementary school (p. 70). Arlington, VA:
NSTA Press.
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