Christine A. Elmore
Lesson Plan One
Objective
: To observe chimpanzees in the wild on a video tape and to time and record occurrences of specific behaviors exhibited.
Materials
: clipboards, pencils, premade check sheets (a modified version of check sheet shown on p.76 of
Measuring Behavior
), stopwatches,
Among the Wild Chimpanzees
video tape.
Procedure
: 1. Students will have viewed the video tape at least twice before this lesson to gain an overall familiarity with it.
2. Students will work in pairs, one with a stopwatch and the other with the check sheet on a clipboard. Pairs of students will be responsible for observing individual chimps (identified on the video). The behavior will be listed on the check sheet (i.e., grooming, foraging, eating, playing) and the timer will use the stopwatch to actually time the specific behavior in one-minute intervals which he/she will pass on to the recorder to write down.
3. A couple of viewings may be necessary in order to verify observations.
4. Following this, pairs of students will share their data with the larger group and a discussion will center around such questions as:
Which behaviors did the chimps spend longer periods of time on? Why?
Did some chimps dominate over others?
Was there a difference in the results for males and females? For younger and older chimps?
Lesson Plan Two
Objective
: To explore the features of nonfiction through the use of a nonfiction big book.
Materials
: the big book entitled
Beavers,
chart paper, markers, nonfiction books.
Procedure
: 1. Lead the class through a walk-through of the book, looking at illustrations, noting headings, terms, format of the book.
2. Following this initial overview, ask the following questions:
What will I learn from this book?
What do I already know about this subject?
Student responses can be put on a KWL chart and displayed in the class.
3. Ask the students to formulate questions that they think the text might answer. Record them on chart paper. Select questions and refer to the index to see if any related topics are listed there. Demonstrate how to use the index to locate specific information.
4. As nonfiction books are not simply read from cover to cover like fiction books are, turn to the table of contents page and ask a student to choose a chapter to interests him/her. Then ask the class to list topics that they think might be covered in this chapter and list them on chart paper to refer to later. A
5. As we read the chapter we will note the use of captions, headings, labels and pictures included and discuss how these features help us to better the content. After reading the chapter we will refer back to the chart and check off any of the proposed topics that we actually covered in this section of the book. This would be a good time to mention that when doing research one may well have to use a number of sources to locate answers to their questions.
6. Move next to the glossary and point out its abc format and inclusion of terms important to the content. Discuss how one can make good use of this feature.
7. Allow students now to select their own nonfiction books and peruse them, noting the same (or additional) features found. Give them an opportunity to use some of the features to gain information to research questions they have formulated.
Lesson Plan Three
Objective
: To practice taking notes from nonfiction texts.
Materials
: the big book entitled Beavers, chart paper, markers, note-taking chart, nonfiction books, pencils.
Procedure
: 1. Display a chart with several columns drawn, each having a different heading. One possibility would be: physical characteristics, habitat, food, ways to protect itself. The column format will confine the students to writing brief notes, words and phrases instead of long lines of narrative.
2. Using a page from
Beavers,
demonstrate how to write notes from the given text. For example:
All mammals have hair or fur on their bodies. Mammals also feed their babies milk from their own bodies. (p.6)
can be written in note form as:
mammals-have fur or hair, feed milk to babies
Write these notes in the column headed physical characteristics.
3. Continue taking notes from this book with the students' assistance. Emphasize the brief format that notes take. Explain the purpose of note-taking: We use notes as important ideas to include in our writing about the subject of our research. It is a real skill to be able to rephrase important concepts rather than simply copying down verbatim what we read.
4. Distribute copies of the note-taking chart to each student and allow them to select a nonfiction book on chimps to take notes from. Monitor their efforts.