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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

The Bear Who Wouldn't Sleep

Intermediate-level ESL students will apply facts from a content-based reading passage to create a short story about a bear who doesn't hibernate with his family.

A lesson plan for grade 2 English Language Arts

By Donna Kauffman

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

  • use reading comprehension strategies to answer fact-level questions about migration, adaptation, and hibernation from a science text.
  • apply factual knowledge to create a short story.
  • use prewriting and revision techniques to create and edit a short story.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

4-8 Days

Materials/resources

  • How Do Animals Spend the Winter? (excerpts only) pictures of animals listed in animals.txt
  • pencil
  • paper
  • markers
  • glue sticks
  • brown, black, and tan pompoms to make bears
  • craft eyes for bear
  • construction paper and cardboard
  • yarn to bind books

Technology resources

internet connection for access to supplemental materials (see below)

Pre-activities

Students will name the four seasons, and discuss winter climate.

Provide students with a list of animals (See the attached file, animals.txt) and ask them to make predictions on how animals survive climate changes in the winter. Use list of guiding questions to assist them (see prequest.txt).

Activities

Day 1:

Complete pre-activity and read the introduction and “Migrate” section of “How Do Animals Spend the Winter?”. Ask post-reading questions relevant to these sections (see postquest.txt).
Day 2:
Read remainder of “How Do Animals Spend the Winter?”. Ask relevant post-reading questions (see postquest.txt).
Day 3:
Review major points of “How Do Animals Spend the Winter?” Tell students that they are going to write a story about a bear which doesn’t hibernate in winter, entitled, “The Bear Who Wouldn’t Sleep.” Ask students to brainstorm answers questions in attached file (brainstorm.txt) as part of prewriting. Students will make an outline of beginning, middle, and end of story.
Day 4-5:
Students write stories. Stories must include appropriate setting, their bear must meet at least 4 other animals with different means of surviving winter, and must utilize correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and subject/verb agreement. Stories must have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Exchange with partners to do fact checks about animals in stories and writing mechanics listed above.
Day 6-8:
Students revise work (peer-edit) and create illustrations. Students make book jackets with construction paper, cardboard, and bears constructed from pompoms. Students read their stories to the class.

Assessment

Student comprehension of content will be assessed through their answers to the post-reading questions.

Student stories will be evaluated by the criteria listed in Day 4-5 above (see rubric.txt).

Supplemental information

Attachments:

Related websites

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/animals.html

Comments

None

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 2

  • Goal 3: The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
    • Objective 3.02: Connect and compare information within and across selections (fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama) to experience and knowledge.
    • Objective 3.03: Explain and describe new concepts and information in own words (e.g., plot, setting, major events, characters, author's message, connections, topic, key vocabulary, key concepts, text features).
  • Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
    • Objective 4.06: Plan and make judgments about what to include in written products (e.g., narratives of personal experiences, creative stories, skits based on familiar stories and/or experiences).
  • Goal 5: The learner will apply grammar and language conventions to communicate effectively.
    • Objective 5.02: Attend to spelling, mechanics, and format for final products in one's own writing.
    • Objective 5.03: Use capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphs in own writing.
    • Objective 5.04: Use the following parts of the sentence
      • subject.
      • predicate.
      • modifier.