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
Learn more
Related pages
- Habitat happenings: During this lesson students will demonstrate their understanding of what a habitat is through a creative writing assignment. The students will choose an animal to be and will describe themselves and their living environment.
- Animal adjectives: Students will describe animals as they review nouns and verbs associated with these animals. They will learn to use adjectives as they describe the animals. They will use this knowledge to write their stories about animals.
- Butterfly metamorphosis: This is an integrated lesson which is introduced using the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Butterfly metamorphosis is explored through art, math, and writing.
Related topics
- Learn more about animals, editing, language arts, pre-writing, stories, and writing.
Help
Please read our disclaimer for lesson plans.
Legal
The text of this page is copyright ©2008. See terms of use. Images and other media may be licensed separately; see captions for more information and read the fine print.
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 of 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 this list of guiding questions to assist them.
- What changes do you make to help you survive the winter? Do you dress differently? How? Do you eat differently? Why? What do you eat?
- Look at the list of animals on the board. Do you know any of them? How do they spend the winter? What do they eat? Does their “clothing” change?
- Student comprehension of content will be assessed through their answers to the post-reading questions.
- Student stories will be evaluated using the Rubric.
Note: It would be most helpful to have a picture of each of the animals posted on the board.
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
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.
- Common Core State Standards
- English Language Arts (2010)
Reading: Informational Text
- Grade 2
- 2.RIT.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
Writing
- 2.W.3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
- 2.W.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
- Grade 2
- English Language Arts (2010)
