The Ocean and Weather: El Niño and La Niña
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/15/g68/seasnino.html
A lesson plan for Grades 6–7 Science and English Language Arts
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 6–7
- Subjects
- English language arts (writing), science (meteorology), social studies (geography), thinking skills (information literacy, research skills, visual literacy), education technology (integrating technology), teaching methods (cooperative learning, discussions, online learning)
- Provider
- National Geographic
Legal
This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.
In this Xpeditions lesson, students explore the weather phenomena El Niño and La Niña and learn about when and where these weather changes occur and about the effects they have on everything in their wake. Activities in this lesson engage students in collaborative group work, online research, development of map-reading skills, whole class discussion, and writing assignments.
Students will:
- identify the effects of El Niño;
- pose hypotheses about the occurrence of natural events;
- identify relationships among patterns on a map; and
- write a newspaper article detailing the effects of El Niño.
Xpeditions provides detailed directions for completing the lesson, suggestions for assessment and extension activities, discussion questions, and links to necessary web resources.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 7
- Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives in response to personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
- Objective 1.01: Narrate an account such as a news story or historical episode which:
- creates a coherent organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
- orients the reader/listener to the scene, the people, and the events.
- engages the reader/listener by establishing a context and creating a point of view.
- establishes the signficance of events.
- Objective 1.02: Explore expressive materials that are read, heard, and viewed by:
- monitoring comprehension for understanding of what is read, heard and/or viewed.
- summarizing the characteristics of expressive works.
- determining the importance of literary effects on the reader/viewer/listener.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- comparing and/or contrasting information.
- drawing inferences and/or conclusions.
- determining the main idea and/or significance of events.
- generating a learning log or journal.
- maintaining an annotated list of works read/viewed.
- creating an artistic interpretation that connects self and/or society to the selection.
- constructing and presenting book/media reviews.
- Objective 1.03: Interact in group settings by:
- responding appropriately to comments and questions.
- offering personal opinions confidently without dominating.
- giving appropriate reasons that support opinions.
- soliciting and respecting another person's opinion.
- Objective 1.04: Reflect on learning experiences by:
- analyzing personal learning growth and changes in perspective.
- examining changes in self throughout the learning process.
- determining how personal circumstances and background shape interaction with text.
- Objective 1.01: Narrate an account such as a news story or historical episode which:
- Goal 5: The learner will respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes.
- Objective 5.01: Increase fluency, comprehension, and insight through a meaningful and comprehensive reading program by:
- using effective reading strategies to match type of text.
- reading self-selected literature and other materials of individual interest.
- reading literature and other materials selected by the teacher.
- assuming an active role in teacher-student conferences.
- engaging in small group discussions.
- taking an active role in whole class seminars.
- analyzing the effects on texts of such literary devices as figuarative language, dialogue, flashback, allusion, and irony.
- analyzing the effects of such elements as plot, theme, point of view, characterization, mood, and style.
- analyzing themes and central ideas in literature and other texts in relation to personal issues/experiences.
- extending understanding by creating products for different purposes, different audiences and within various contexts.
- analyzing the connections of relationships between and among characters, ideas, concepts, and/or experiences.
- Objective 5.02: Study the characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry) through:
- reading a variety of literature and other text (e.g., mysteries, novels, science fiction, historical documents, newspapers, skits, lyric poems).
- analyzing what effect genre specific characteristics have on the meaning of the work.
- analyzing how the author's choice and use of a genre shapes the meaning of the literary work.
- analyzing what impact literary elements have on the meaning of the text such as the influence of setting on the problem and its resolution.
- Objective 5.01: Increase fluency, comprehension, and insight through a meaningful and comprehensive reading program by:
Science (2005)
Grade 7
- Goal 3: The learner will conduct investigations and utilize appropriate technologies and information systems to build an understanding of the atmosphere.
- Objective 3.05: Examine evidence that atmospheric properties can be studied to predict atmospheric conditions and weather hazards:
- Humidity.
- Temperature.
- Wind speed and direction.
- Air pressure.
- Precipitation.
- Tornados.
- Hurricanes.
- Floods.
- Storms.
- Objective 3.06: Assess the use of technology in studying atmospheric phenomena and weather hazards:
- Satellites.
- Weather maps.
- Predicting.
- Recording.
- Communicating information about conditions.
- Objective 3.05: Examine evidence that atmospheric properties can be studied to predict atmospheric conditions and weather hazards:
