Wethersfield Public Schools Grade 4 Unit Overview: Food Webs and Adaptations Revised 3/13/12 Approved by Administrative Team 3/28/12 Approved Student Programs & Services May 1, 2012 Approved Board of Education May 8, 2012 Focus: Using a Reader s Workshop approach students will select and read multiple just-right books from the non-fiction text set on food webs and adaptations. Using the structures of Reader s Workshop students will engage in a series of mini lessons, teacher/student conferences, whole group and small group discussions, and writing activities in order to develop a deeper understanding of non-fiction reading and scientific concepts. Students will develop strategies to read nonfiction texts and understand how text structures and features support comprehension. As the unit continues, students will learn to determine the main idea, supporting details, synthesize information and think critically about what they read. This unit will also support students in understanding how organisms can survive and reproduce only in environments that meet their basic needs, as well as how organisms depend on the living and nonliving features of their environment. This unit will take approximately 4-5 weeks and should be taught prior to the CMTs. Enduring Understandings: Reading Readers use knowledge of nonfiction text features and structures to support comprehension. Readers think critically and ask questions to interpret, analyze and evaluate nonfiction texts and the author s purpose. Science Plants and animals have structures and behaviors that help them survive in different environments. When the environment changes, some organisms survive and reproduce and others die or move to new locations. Organisms depend on other organisms (plants and animals) and on nonliving things in an ecosystem to meet their basic needs for food, water and protection. Essential Questions: Reading How do readers communicate their understanding of nonfiction texts? How can we tell if nonfiction texts are reliable, accurate, or biased? Science-Food Webs How are all living things connected? How do animals depend directly or indirectly on plants to provide food and energy? How do the living and nonliving features of an animal s habitat affect its ability to grow and survive? When an environment changes, how can it affect the living things in that environment? Science-Adaptations How do the structures and behaviors of animals and plants help them to survive in their environment?
CT Science Content Standards (2010) 3.2. Organisms can survive and reproduce only in environments that meet their basic needs. 4.2. All organisms depend on the living and nonliving features of the environment for survival. Expected Performances (CMT): B3. Describe how different plants and animals are adapted to obtain air, water, food and protection in specific land habitats. B4. Describe how different plants and animals are adapted to obtain air, water, food and protection in water habitats. B10. Describe how animals, directly or indirectly, depend on plants to provide the food and energy they need to grow and survive. B11. Describe how natural phenomena and some human activities may cause changes to habitats and their inhabitants. Assessment: Performance Tasks The Food Webs and Adaptations unit was integrated with the nonfiction literacy unit and therefore, either a reading task or a writing task can serve as the required performance task. There may also be times when teachers want additional information about students learning and may do an additional task. Included is an optional science performance task: Jr. Ranger. If you choose to do Jr. Ranger as your science performance task, students will still need to complete a reading or writing performance task. There are 3 suggested performance tasks included at the end of the nonfiction reading unit in the Language Arts Curriculum binder. While performance tasks for the writing unit have not yet been included, the writing produced by students within the writing unit serves as a performance task. If a reading or writing performance task is completed for this unit, then teachers need to ensure that connections have been made to the scientific concepts taught in the unit. One option is for students to complete the reading task, You Are an Expert Author. Another option is for students to bring a feature article to publication. Either one of these performance tasks can cover reading, writing, and science, as long as the topic of their nonfiction book or feature article relates to research done around food webs and/or adaptations. Please note: The Language Arts bottom lines include teaching the units of study; this includes fourth graders learning how to write feature articles in writing. This is the first time feature articles are introduced to students and therefore the unit of study is an important experience. Classroom teachers may choose to have students take one feature article to publication as the performance task, thus covering Language Arts and science requirements. If students do not take a feature article to publication, they are still expected to work in the unit and produce draft feature articles.
Unit Overview of Concepts: (Taken from CT GLCs-2010) Food Webs Living and nonliving things interact in land and water environments called ecosystems. Every ecosystem has certain conditions ( abiotic factors ) and a variety of living things ( organisms ) that are adapted for survival in those conditions. Abiotic factors include the quality and amount of air, sunlight, water and soil, as well as the terrain and climate. Plants use energy from the sun to produce their own food from air and water. The type of soil, amount of water and temperature range in an area determine the plants that grow there. Animals that live in an area get their energy and nutrients either directly or indirectly from plants that grow there: herbivores consume only plants, carnivores consume animals, and omnivores consume both animals and plants. Decomposers consume plant and animal waste and remains, returning nutrients to the soil where they are used again by plants. Some of the sun s energy is transferred from one organism to another when a plant or animal is consumed by another animal. A food chain is a simple model that illustrates the passage of energy from one organism to another. Food webs are more realistic models that show the varied energy-passing relationships among plants and animals in an ecosystem. Environmental changes due to natural phenomenon (droughts, disease outbreaks, forest fires sparked by lightning) and human activity (establishing conservation areas, passing laws to control pollution, clearing forests for agriculture or construction, applying chemicals to lawns and crops, burning fossil fuels) can be beneficial or harmful to organisms. Adaptations Adaptations are passed from parents to offspring. Individuals that happen to be bigger, stronger or faster can have an advantage over others of the same kind for finding food and mates. Animals have behavioral ( hibernation, migration, spinning webs, producing a bad odor, panting) and structural adaptations ( camouflage, shape of teeth or beaks, sharp quills, hard shells, antlers, body covering, blubber) for: protection from predators getting food, air, and water surviving harsh environmental conditions Plants have behavioral (growing or facing toward sunlight, sending out chutes to get taller, dropping leaves, storing water in thick stems) and structural (spines, thorns, toxins, needle-shaped leaves ) adaptations for: getting the sunlight they need to survive protection from predators surviving in different environmental conditions
Knowledge and Skills/Objectives: Taken from CT GLEs-2010 (The information in parenthesis found after each objective below shows the link to the CMT expected performance. For example, if it says B10 after the objective it indicates that that objective covers that specific CMT expected performance. ) Food Webs Give examples of ways that living and nonliving things are interdependent within an ecosystem. (B10) Draw diagrams showing how the sun s energy enters and is transferred from producers to consumers in a local land or aquatic food chain. (B10) Analyze food webs to describe how energy is transferred from plants to various animals in an ecosystem. (B10) Distinguish between naturally occurring changes in ecosystems and those caused by human activity. (B11) Predict the effect an environmental change, such as drought or forest destruction, might have on the community of living things. (B11) Adaptations Compare and contrast the structures and behaviors that enable different animals and plants to get food, water and sunlight; find mates; and be protected in specific land and water habitats. (B3/B4) Explain how behaviors such as hibernation, dormancy and migration give species advantages for surviving unfavorable environmental conditions. (B3/B4) Give examples of ways animals benefit from camouflage. (B3/B4) Evaluate whether an adaptation gives a plant or animal a survival advantage in a given environment. (B3/B4) Embedded in this unit of study are many opportunities for students to incorporate inquiry skills (B INQs) laid out in the state framework. For example: B INQ.1 Make observations and ask questions about objects, organisms and the environment B INQ.2 Seek relevant information in books, magazines and electronic media B INQ.5 Use data to construct reasonable explanations B INQ.7 Read and write a variety of science-related fiction and nonfiction texts B INQ.8 Search the Web and locate relevant science information.
Wethersfield Public Schools Grade 4: Food Webs and Adaptations Revised 3/1/12 Suggested Touchstone Text: Enchanted Islands: The Galapagos by Carolyn Hendricks Lewis We encourage you to explore other mentor texts. All teaching points and page numbers are suggested. This is one way the unit could go. Each lesson begins with a mini lesson from the nonfiction unit of study. Teachers model using books from the Food Webs and Adaptations text set. Students read independently and use think marks or post its to track their thinking. Partner time should include reading together, sharing important new information, and talking around big ideas of the reading and science unit. The teaching share can highlight the important science concepts that need to be learned. Many of the skills found in the unit overview can be the focus of a teaching share. Anchor charts can hold big ideas throughout the unit and serve as a reference tool for students. You will notice some suggested books and page numbers for mini lessons and teaching shares. These have been selected because they directly relate to the science content that must be covered in this unit; however, the order and selection of the suggested lessons is flexible and should take student needs into consideration. LA Connection Previewing Books & Nonfiction Text Features: Graphs, Cut-Aways, Fun Facts and Famous pages Suggested Teaching Point/Resources/Teaching Share Teaching Point: Today I want to teach you that nonfiction books have features and structures that help you understand and predict the big ideas in the text. I am going to teach you how to preview nonfiction looking at the title, cover, table of contents, and some of the text features. Enchanted Islands: pictures with captions (pg. 13); chart/table (pg. 25 or ) map (pg. 6) Food Webs embedded biography on Darwin s beaks (pg. 15); food web graphic organizer (pg. 33); cause and effect chart (pg. 23) Activating Background Knowledge Teaching Point: When readers start to read a new text, they activate their background knowledge or schema to understand nonfiction texts and build skills for reading other nonfiction texts about that topic. So when I first pick up a book What Are Food Chains and Webs?, I already need to start thinking What is this going to be about? That is why it is so important to pay attention to titles. Watch me as I keep going through this book and connect it to what I already know. teachers continue previewing book with students, showing thinking. This could be done with any text from the unit. Activating Background Knowledge: What do you already know about Food Webs and Adaptations? Learning New Words Teaching Point: Today I want to teach you that as readers of nonfiction we often are faced with new content-specific words that we have to figure out. There are many strategies we can use to figure out the meaning of unknown words. One way is to read around or read beyond the word to look for clues. Another strategy is to look for common roots, prefixes, or suffixes that could help us make meaning. Sometimes, nonfiction books also include a glossary to help readers. So as you read independently
today please be on the lookout for important new content-specific words and posting for how you were able to make meaning of them. Enchanted Islands pg. 8 (referring, tameness) Begin building word wall with only content-specific vocabulary. Vocabulary will continue to be discussed and added to word wall as the unit progresses. o adaptation, advantage, camouflage, hibernation, migration, ecosystem, organism, abiotic factors, nutrient, producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, decomposer, food chain, food web Determining the Main Idea Teaching Point: One of the most important jobs we have as readers is figuring out the big idea in texts we read. This is especially true with non-fiction. We need to learn what the author is teaching us about the topic. Today we are going to practice some ways readers can identify the main ideas in texts. Another way to record the main idea of a text and supporting details is to use a boxes and bullets format. Teachers choose examples from below based on class need to teach main idea. Start teaching chart. Tips for Finding the Main Idea: Read the title and first paragraph. Think, What is this section mostly going to teach me? Read subheadings and the topic sentences and think. What is this part mostly teaching me about this subject? Use text features to think about what the section teaches. Stop after each page of section and ask, What have I learned now from this part? Fact and Opinion Teaching Point: As readers it is important for us identify the difference between fact and opinion in nonfiction texts. Watch me do this in the book.. Enchanted Islands: (pg. 10) for opinion. Students find facts and opinions in texts. Nonfiction Text Structures: Description Comparison/Contrast Cause/Effect Problem/Solution Question/Answer Teaching Point: Today I want to review other text structures such as description, comparison/contrast, problem/solution, and cause/effect and explore them in nonfiction texts. Teachers model the different structures depending on class needs and the students describe how the structures help them learn about their topics. This lesson may need to be extended depending on students prior knowledge of text structures.
Choosing Topics Teaching Point: As readers of nonfiction, we become experts on the topics we explore and prepare ourselves to teach others what we have learned. To teach someone, you need to know the main ideas and supporting details and it helps to use an explaining voice and gestures. (model using boxes and bullets to record your main idea and supporting details and how you can glance at this post to remind you of what you want to teach). Students choose a topic they are interested in and would like to further explore. The teacher might have this topic be the one students will explore to write their nonfiction feature article about. Feature articles include the author s perspective therefore students should be considering their stance on the topic they are exploring. Students create some guiding questions for their research. Teachers can use the Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions from the unit to guide students. Choosing Topics Exploring Nonfiction Teaching Point: Today you are going to start gathering books to read about your topic. Make sure you explore many books on your topic of interest and make decisions about their usefulness and readability. Are they just right for you? Are they considerate? Watch me do this as I read.. Students find websites, bookmark sites, print key materials, place materials in research folders/book bins, and take notes from sources. Using Comprehension Strategies to Understand Nonfiction: Questioning Teaching Point: One way readers can help themselves understand what they are reading is to ask themselves questions as they read and try to answer them. Let me show you how I use I wonder questions to think about what I am reading and to share my thinking with a partner. Students set up pages in their notebooks or research folders to record information. Students continue to check status of questions and refocus research to find answers to open questions. Skimming and Scanning Teaching Point: Today we are going to learn how to skim and scan texts and adjust our reading to match the type of text we are reading. Sometimes, if a text is complex, we need to slow down our reading rate. Sometimes, if we are just looking for a specific fact, we can read quickly scanning the text. Watch me as I show you how to do this in Students practice skimming and scanning to find information using key words and features, and to look for answers to questions they have while reading. Students learn to post for important information, collect information, gather questions, and make notes in
notebooks. Students write about things they learned in nonfiction texts to understand the importance of gathering information when they read. Nonfiction Text Features Teaching Point: Today I want to remind you how as you continue to explore your nonfiction texts, you should keep using text features such as maps, table of contents, bulleted list, bold words, diagrams, captions to help you gather information. Demonstrate gathering information from text using the features. Choosing Texts Wisely Teaching Point: As we continue to look for books to explore about our topic there are a couple of other things we need to consider. We need to think about the quality and accuracy of a text and if the text is reliable or biased. Do some of this work in front of student comparing two or three texts. During independent reading students compare information and ideas across texts and sources, and revise ideas. Students compare and contrast the experience of reading informational texts and viewing an audio or video version of the information. Using Comprehension Strategies to Understand Nonfiction: Monitoring Meaning and Determining Importance Teaching Point: Sometimes when we read we find interesting facts and ideas in nonfiction texts. But it is also our job to think about if they are important. Let me show you how I think about the difference between interesting facts and important facts in this book. Students post or mark new learning and discuss new ideas with one another to build skill comprehending informational texts. Students learn from each other by paraphrasing what they are learning and sharing their ideas. Synthesizing Teaching Point: Today I am going to show you how as you move from one paragraph to another, you need to think about how the two paragraphs continue to build on one main idea. Students listen as you show them how to do this and then.. Students figure out how what they read fits in with what has been said so far. Students post or mark new learning and discuss new ideas with one another to build skill comprehending and following directions in informational texts. Students learn how to use graphic organizers (such as a fact/my thinking double entry in a notebook) to jot down what they learn.
Determining Importance with Tricky or Inconsiderate Texts Teaching Point: Some nonfiction texts are what we call very considerate. The have headings, subheadings, bold words, and may be organized in chapters to help you read it smoothly and easily understand the ideas. Other texts are what we call inconsiderate. They don t offer a lot of features and headings to help you, and sometimes even one paragraph has many ideas. Today we want to look at how we can get to the big ideas in tricky texts. Wetlands example of tricky text. Narrative without headings. Read the first four pages and discuss. Identifying Sequence: Using a Timeline Teaching Point: There are also structures in nonfiction texts that help us understand what we are read. One of these is a timeline. Both fiction and nonfiction texts are often organized by a timeline. Let s looks at some texts and see how they are sequenced. Students review nonfiction texts structured by sequence in their independent reading. Students understand events are sequenced in both fiction and nonfiction. Students retell information from a timeline to build skill using this feature to comprehend nonfiction texts. Summarizing Teaching Point: Today we are going to practice summarizing what you have learned about a topic stating the main ideas and some supporting details. Watch me as I do this work in The Grand Canyon. Students use all the strategies of good nonfiction readers to summarize excerpts. Students discuss new concepts and ideas and share interesting information they have learned about their topic. (This will help them develop a stance for their topic as they are writing and revising their feature/informational articles. Celebration Teaching Point: Today we are going reflect on what we have learned about our topics and plan a way to share their learning with the world. Students work on performance task.