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
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Related topics
- Learn more about animals, editing, language arts, pre-writing, stories, and writing.
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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 pre-writing 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 on animals on the animal list
- 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 an animal list and ask them to make predictions on how animals survive climate changes in the winter. Use list of Pre-quest guiding questions to assist them.
Activities
Day 1
Complete pre-activity and read the introduction and “Migrate” section of “How Do Animals Spend the Winter?”. Ask relevant Post-quest guiding questions.
Day 2
Read remainder of “How Do Animals Spend the Winter?”. Ask relevant Post-quest guiding questions.
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 who doesn’t hibernate in winter, entitled, “The Bear Who Wouldn’t Sleep.” Ask students to brainstorm answers to questions in as part of pre-writing. 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 using the Rubric
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 3.03: 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.
