Introduction
This
interdisciplinary unit was developed for fifth-grade classes in Science and
Language Arts. These fifth graders attended separate classes for Language
Arts, Science, Math and Social Studies. Some of the students attended my LA
class, some attended my Science class, and some attended both. Therefore
the unit had to be developed in a way that was compatible with everyone's
schedules.
The original
purpose of the unit (as designed by the school faculty) was to teach the
students the taxonomy of the animal kingdom. They were to learn each level
primarily through rote memorization of the facts, using worksheets. I knew
this would be ineffective and boring. Wanting to make as many connections
as possible in this unit, to connect the knowledge to be learned to the
interests and experiences of the students, as well as to real-world needs, I
developed the following unit, Kingdom Animalia.
I decided to
have the students learn the taxonomy of the animal kingdom through a study
of the biomes of the planet Earth. There were two sets of Expert Groups,
and every student belonged to one Expert Group in each set. The first set
of Expert Groups was the Biomes set, and the second set of experts were
assigned to one of the seven continents. For examples, one student may
belong to the biome group on Deserts and also be a member of the expert
group on Asia. Each continent group was composed of at least one
representative from each Biome Group. Students were allowed to select the
groups to which they belonged, only limited by the fact that we had to have
enough people in each group. Assignment to groups was originally done by
drawing the name of a group. Students were then allowed to negotiate and
trade with each other in order to get into a different group if they
preferred that group to the one they drew.
The main
outcomes from the unit are listed below. You may click on the unit outcome
to view the full details of each unit outcome. For an explanation of how
each unit is designed, please refer to the page on
Critical Attributes of Units.
Outcome #1
- Discover the commonalities, differences and connections among myths,
legends and folk tales from different countries.
Outcome #2
- Based upon your investigations of mythology, create and publish a myth.
Outcome #3 -
Analyze the impact which humans have had upon the Kingdom Animalia,
identifying causes and effects. Make and defend predictions and
recommendations. (not online yet)
Outcome #4 -
Conduct an investigation of the seven major biomes on our planet,
identifying animals for each classification within the Kingdom Animalia.
Compare and contrast biomes on different continents based on animal species.
(not online yet)
Writing
Workshop - If you do not have the book In the Middle by Nancy
Atwell, it is a must for your classroom. She has fantastic examples of how
to set up a Writing Center and run excellent Writing Workshops in your
classroom. My students and I loved it.
