Tag Archives: Reflection

Species distribution in aquatic environments

Teacher Note: Depending on the length of class time available, this lesson may take 2-3 sessions to complete.

Learning Outcome
Students will describe factors that affect productivity and species distribution in aquatic environments.

Steps to the Lesson

  1. Discuss key vocabulary.
  2. Watch a video on how human activity and government policy has impacted a river system in British Columbia.
  3. Complete a Graphic Organizer while viewing the video.
  4. Conduct an investigation on how to save endangered rivers in British Columbia.
  5. Reflect on the process.

CONNECT

Goals:

  • Students will analyze how federal policies and human activity have affected aquatic systems in British Columbia.
  • Students will identify and analyze alternatives to issues affecting endangered rivers in British Columbia.

Task:
Students will conduct an investigation on endangered rivers in British Columbia and write proposals for alternative solutions on how to save the respective rivers.

Activate Prior Knowledge:
Students complete a mind map activity entitled ‘The Many Ways People Use Water’ found in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson textbook BC Science 8 (page 359). While completing the activity, students should focus specifically on what human activities impact river and lake systems.

Predict and Question:
In Canada, there is a plentiful supply of water and we rarely pay attention to how much water we use in our daily lives or how our actions impact local aquatic areas like rivers and lakes.

What are the students wondering about how human activity has impacted their local rivers, lakes and oceans?

PROCESS

Video Guidelines:

Before viewing the video, students need to understand the meaning of the following terms.

Key vocabulary to discuss: anadromous, confluence, extinction, fathom, mitigate, resident (Definitions)

Students watch the following video and track their thinking using the Graphic Organizer. Students should try to identify some key effects and implications of federal policy on the Sinixt Nation.

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the story and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the story.

Videos

Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 1.46.11 PM

Video Length (4 mins)

 

Having viewed the video above, students need to share their ideas from the video Graphic Organizer (A/B partner recommended). Teachers ask student pairs to share their main ideas and generate a list of ideas and evidence on the board or overhead. Teachers lead class discussion on the significance of the ideas generated (and those not generated) and how federal policies have impacted the environment and Aboriginal people on the Columbia River system.

TRANSFORM

Now that students have learned how federal policies and human activity have impacted a regional river system (Columbia River), students will now conduct an investigation on how to save other endangered rivers in British Columbia. Working in A-B partners or groups of four, students conduct an investigation activity found in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson textbook BC Science 8 (pages 444-445). Using the chart provided on page 445 in the textbook, students will choose a local river (or river of their choice) to research and write a proposal to save an endangered river. Student groups report out their proposals to the class in the form of an oral presentation, using either poster boards, written reports, or Powerpoint presentations.

REFLECT

Upon completion of the investigation activity, students complete a Reflection Sheet to reflect on what they liked/disliked about the investigation process and how their thinking towards how Canadian Federal Government policy impacts the environment and Aboriginal people has changed.

Extend learning or next lesson

One of the key ideas from the video is the impact that Canadian federal government policies have had on an Aboriginal population in British Columbia (Sinixt nation). There are many other examples of how government policies have affected the environment and populations in Canada. Some of these include:

  • Governments adopting (or not adopting) Kyoto Protocol emission targets.
  • The Canadian federal government imposing a moratorium on seabed oil and gas exploration off the coast of British Columbia.
  • The Canadian federal government policies regarding pollution standards in the Alberta northern Oil Tar Sands.
  • The Kashechewan Reserve water crisis in Northern Ontario.

Students can complete a research report on these and other issues affecting the environment and Aboriginal populations in Canada.

Organisms as Part of Interconnected Food Webs

Teacher Note: Depending on the length of class time available, this lesson may take 2-3 sessions to complete.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • analyse the roles of organisms as part of interconnected food webs, populations, communities, and ecosystems.

CONNECT

Goals:

  • The students will gain an awareness of environmental stewardship from a West Coast Aboriginal perspective.
  • The students will understand the concepts of ecological pyramids and interconnected food chains.

Task:

Students will select one animal from a local ecosystem and create a presentation that represents their understanding of food chains and food webs.

Process:

  1. Discuss key vocabulary.
  2. Discuss the difference between a food chain and food web and complete a food chain exercise of a local ecosystem.
  3. Play a game that highlights the process of how a food chain works.
  4. Complete a graphic organizer while viewing the video.
  5. Students complete a demonstration assignment of their understanding of food chains and food webs.

Activate Prior Knowledge:

Discuss the following vocabulary and brainstorm ideas of the respective definitions on the board.

Key vocabulary to discuss: Stewardship, indigenous, perspective, assets, potlatch, elders, traditional territory, hereditary chief, floodplain, fry, riparian, watershed, producer, consumer, primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary. (Definitions)

Predict: Discuss the difference between food chains and food webs and predict what would happen to a local ecosystem food chain if one element was removed.(A/B partner talk suggested)

Question: Teachers distribute a food chain diagram and students, in A/B partners, complete a food chain of local ecosystem. Reference Enchanted Learning for explanations of food chains.

Distribute the Krill Grill Record Sheet and play the game Dining at the Krill Grill. Students record results of the game on their record sheets. Discuss the questions at the end of the activity to reinforce understanding of food chains.

PROCESS

Video: Students watch the following video and use a What’s Important and Why sheet to highlight five keys points that focus on land stewardship.

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the video and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the video.

Videos

Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 3.11.07 PM

(Video Length: 6 mins)

TRANSFORM

Students will select one animal from a local ecosystem and create a presentation that represents their understanding of food chains and food webs. For example, a poster could be created with a food chain on one side and a food web on the other. Other possibilities include a Powerpoint presentation, drama presentation, modifying the Krill Grill game to one’s local ecosystem.

REFLECT

Students discuss what stewardship initiatives are in place in their local region/province/country and write, on the back of their video sheet, three ideas of how they can assist these initiatives.

Extend learning or next lesson

  • The National Geographic web site describes a ‘real world’ example of food chain disruption that may be occurring with Antarctic krill. Study more about the Krill at National Geographic and write a research report on the factors affecting global krill populations.
  • Create playing cards of animals in a local ecosystem (ie. bear, cougar, mouse, birds) and have students play a version of the ‘war’ card game to reinforce the levels of a food chain.

Fish Farming and Local Environments

Learning Outcome

Students evaluate the human impacts on local ecosystems.

Steps to the Lesson

  1. Complete a video Anticipation Guide.
  2. Watch a video on Salmon Gills Analysis.
  3. Research the issues surrounding fish farming and local salmon populations.
  4. Create promotional brochures supporting or refuting the benefits of salmon farming.
  5. Reflect and review the information presented.

CONNECT

Goal:

Students will gain an understanding of the impact salmon farming has on local wild salmon populations.

Task:

Students will create promotional brochures advocating the position of a society either for or against salmon farming.

Activate Prior Knowledge:

Students complete an Anticipation Guide prior to viewing a video on how salmon are affected by environmental and human factors. Students answer the questions on the sheet prior to video viewing and then reflect on whether their answers agreed with the information presented in the video.

Predict and Question:

Ask the students what questions they may still have on how environmental and human factors effect salmon popluations. What are they wondering about?

PROCESS

Video

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the video and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the video.

Videos

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 1.41.13 PM

(Video Length: 5 mins)

 

Break students into groups of five. Teachers print out and distribute information from the following links.

Why BC Lifted The Moratorium on Fish Farms

Fish Farms and Sea Lice

Lice From Fish Farms Killing Wild Salmon

Salmon Farms Teeming With Lice Threaten Wild Fish

Give each group one article and do a Jigsaw activity.

TRANSFORM

Students will create promotional brochures advocating the position of an organization that either supports or refutes the benefits of salmon farming in British Columbia. Using the above links or other research, students create a standard tri-fold brochure with images and text that advocates their chosen position. Once completed, the students will present their brochures to the class and defend their positions.

REFLECT

Teacher prints and enlarges a review activity commonly known as a ‘cootie catcher’. Students cut out the image and fold into the ‘cootie catcher’ shape. In A/B partners, students write their own review questions and answers on the lesson material. (Note: these questions and answers should attempt to balance both the Pro and Con sides of the fish farming issue.) For an example, print and enlarge a sample ‘cootie catcher’ with practice questions already prepared.

Extend learning or next lesson

Students complete an in depth research report on BC Fish Farming; considering perspectives from both the Fish Farming industry and the anti-fish farm movement.

Reflections on Residential School Creative Response

Speaker’s biographical notes: 

Meeka Noelle Morgan, M.A., identifies with her Secwepemc and Nu-Chah-Nuulth heritage, and now resides in Secwepemc territory in the southern interior of BC.  Both of her parents were sent to residential schools, but this was never spoken of openly in her home.  Throughout her years at public school, she felt that the knowledge and history of her people was not acknowledged or explored adequately or in a meaningful way, which contributed to her feeling very invisible in the scheme of things.

Meeka studied the perspective of her parents’ generation on the impacts on families during the 1950’s and 60’s.  She wanted to explore how the people in her community maintained their sense of family during this time, especially with the onslaught of residential school. Community and family members told their memories of family life before, during, and after residential school, and reflected on those impacts.  Meeka wanted to keep the spirit of each person telling the story in the heart of her research, so she created a verbatim poetic narrative out of each interview, capturing the unique voice and imagery of each storyteller.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • organize details and information about material they have read, heard, or viewed using a variety of written or graphic forms.
  • identify and explain connections between what they read, hear, and view and their personal ideas and beliefs.
  • use information that they have read, heard, or viewed to develop creative works as response activities.

Steps to the Lesson

  1. Conduct a discussion on values and complete a Values Inventory.
  2. Complete a K-W-L strategy on residential schools.
  3. Watch a video narrative on residential schools.
  4. Write a poem reflecting on the residential school experience or student values.
  5. Reflect on the process.

CONNECT

Goals:

Students will

  • identify their own values.
  • view/listen to a video about one person’s childhood values and the impact of residential. school on those values.
  • interview each other.
  • create a poem about their partner’s values to share with the class.

Task:

Students will identify the impact of the residential school system on a family’s traditional values and create a poetic response by focusing on their own values.

Activate Prior Knowledge:

  1. Define values (beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment).  As a class, brainstorm examples.  Use the following questions to guide discussion:
  • How do you know the difference between right and wrong?
  • What is important to you?
  • Do different people have different ideas about what a ‘good’ person is?
  • What does your family teach you about right and wrong?
  • What things are important to your family?
  • How does your family define a ‘good’ person?
  • Do different families have different ideas about what a ‘good’ person is?
  • Will your children have the same values as you do?
  • Could anyone make you change these values?
  • What are some ways people could take these values away from you or your children?
  • Option:  use the Values Inventory attached.  Once students complete the values inventory, they meet with an A/B partner to compare their responses. 
  1. Using a K-W-L strategy sheet, ask students to identify what they already know about the residential schools in Canada and the experience of aboriginal people in them.

Predict and Question:

Tell students that they will watch a video clip of a woman who wrote a poem about the way one of her community member’s values changed after going to residential school. Ask the students to predict ways that the person’s values were affected by the experience of residential school. What are they wondering about?

PROCESS

Video

Students will listen/watch the clip and use a Placemat strategy to aid comprehension. In small groups, the students create a common response to the video, recording words or images that they find significant.  The teacher pauses the video at two key spots to allow students time for this process.

Videos

Reflections on Residential School

Click above to view video in Mac OSX (Quicktime)
(Video Length: 9 mins)
Click Here to Read Transcript

First, stop the video just after the speaker talks about restaurants and then talks about the way the grandparents were teachers:  “my grandmother / clothed me / taught me the language / in my early life / teachers.” Allow students time to respond to what they have heard so far. Then, tell the students to resume sketching while they listen to Part Two.

Continue the video until the majority of the material about the residential school experience has played.  The speaker talks about them being hungry and says, “after supper / we would run through those fields / pick whatever we could get stash them / in our shirt / make cache pits / for later.” Pause the video and repeat the above process.

Continue the video until the end of the poem, and allow students time to finish their placemat.  Conduct a gallery walk so that students can see all the placemats that were created.

In A/B partners, students will compare the similarities and differences in the values described before residential school/during residential school and after the experience, using a Venn Diagram worksheet.  Finally, students return to their K-W-L sheet, identifying what they learned about residential schools during this activity.

TRANSFORM

Option A:  Students prepare a poem in response to the experience of listening to the narrative about residential school.  This can be a free verse poem, expressing their emotions as they listened to the video.  A sample poem, created by Meeka Morgan, represents her response to the difficulty for the people being interviewed, and is included.

Videos

Reflections on Residential School

Click above to view video in Mac OSX (Quicktime)
(Video Length: 1 min)

Click Here to Read Transcript

Option B:  With the same or a different partner, students interview each other about their personal values.  This activity asks them to return to an individual examination of values with a heightened awareness and broader understanding of their own values and the way they are influenced by society.

Students may either develop a list of questions to ask each other, or you may choose to use the initial brainstorming questions above.  In either case, A/B partners ask each other questions, taking notes of their partner’s responses. The students will now have a greater sense of self when responding to the questions, and greater depth and an enhanced understanding should be evident in their responses.

Finally, each student creates a “Found” poem based on the interview.  Note:  they are not using their own material:  they are using their partner’s responses. Students create a poem (you may choose to require a minimum number of lines), choosing words and phrases from their interview notes that express the underlying values of their partner and the themes he/she revealed in the interview.

Students may have poetry readings in small groups or as a whole class.  See a possible assessment rubric at the end of the lesson.

 

REFLECT

Students write a reflection about what they felt they did well in this activity and what they found difficult.  They could also respond as to whether or not they feel their partner captured the essence of their interview in their found poem.

 

Extend learning or next lesson

  1. Use the video as part of a larger unit on residential schools in Canada.
  2. Use the lesson as part of a study of My Name is Sepeetza, by Shirley Sterling. \
  3. Students interview a family member or an elder in their community about how their childhood influenced their values, and whether or not those values changed over time.  First, discuss what types of questions Meeka Morgan would have asked the people she was interviewing.  Develop a list of questions together for the students to ask their guest.  If possible, have the students take a photograph of the family member or elder to include when presenting the result of their interview (which could be in the form of an oral presentation or a short written report – if the written report is chosen, be sure to provide a copy to the person interviewed).  This lesson is adapted from the assignment “Interview an Elder” in the above-mentioned novel study.

Free Verse Poetry Writing

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • interact and collaborate in pairs, small groups, and large groups to comprehend and respond to a variety of texts.
  • speak and listen to make personal responses to texts, by describing reactions and emotions.
  • read, both collaboratively and independently, to comprehend a variety of literary texts, including poetry in a variety of narrative and lyric forms.
  • read, both collaboratively and independently, to comprehend a variety of literary texts, including student generated material.
  • explain and support personal responses to texts read and viewed, by describing reactions and emotions.
  • write effective imaginative texts to explore ideas, information, and understandings to make connections and develop insights.

Steps to the Unit

  1. Read and research various free verse poems.
  2. Compare and contrast three free verse poems to three different genre poems.
  3. Brainstorm evaluation criteria for student written free verse poems.
  4. Create individual free verse poems for presentation in class.
  5. Reflect on the process.

CONNECT

Goals:

Students will:

  • develop an understanding of free verse style poetry.
  • read a variety of Aboriginal poems in the free verse style.
  • create their own free verse poem to present to the class.

Tasks:

Students will create their own free verse poem describing themselves and how they relate to their family, school, community, and world around them.

Activate Prior Knowledge:

Poetry as an art form may predate literacy itself. Many ancient works in prehistoric and ancient societies appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission. Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses.(wikipedia.org)

There are many forms and genres of poetry that students may have read (ie.sonnet, haiku, acrostic, cinquain) and each has their own unique structure of language. For the context of this lesson, students will read poems which follow a free verse or lyric free verse form.

Free Verse can be defined as:

A term describing various styles of poetry that are written without using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns that readers will perceive to be part of a coherent whole.(wikipedia.org)

Predict and Question:

Teachers ask the students if they have any questions regarding the structure of free verse poetry. What are they wondering about?

PROCESS

Before students start their writing process to create their own free verse poem, students should read a number of poetry selections to build their awareness of the free verse form. There are a number of different poetry collections available in school libraries and on the internet for students to read.

Some library collections include:

  • Till all the stars have fallen – David Booth
  • Many Voices – David Day
  • Poetry Alive – Dom Saliani

Teachers should select three free verse poems from their chosen resources and pair them up with three poems of different genres. For example, teachers could choose poems using the haiku, sonnet, and a traditional a-a-b-b form. As mentioned above, there are many poetry collections available in libraries and on the internet for teachers to choose from. Examples of haiku, sonnet, and traditional rhyming poems are included below:

Once the poetry pairs have been created, teachers distribute the poems (or display them on a screen using a projector/overhead) and have the students, in A-B partner groups, compare and contrast the poems using a “This is a Free Verse poem/This is Not” approach. In other words, students look at the free verse poem and identify what makes a free verse poem unique. Students should pay attention to elements like:

  • number of words per line.
  • number of syllables per line.
  • rhyming patterns.
  • number of lines in the poem/stanza.
  • theme/mood of the poem.

Then, while looking at the second poem in the pair, students try to identify why the second poem is NOT a free verse poem; using the same criteria as listed above. Students use Venn Diagram to record their observations.

——————————————–

Once the poem pairs have been compared and contrasted by the students, teachers select three new free verse poems, three new non-free verse poems, and distribute all six poems to each student A-B partner group. Then, the students look at all six poems and attempt to identify which poems are free verse and which poems are not. Student partner groups report out their reasons to the class.

As above, sources of poetry include the resources listed above or other anthologies in the school library. Online sources include:

TRANSFORM

Now that the students have a better understanding of the free verse form of poetry, students will create their own free verse poems. Teachers will need to brainstorm with the students the evaluation criteria expected for the finished product (ie. poem length, writing conventions, poetic mood). Students can write their poems using a variety of themes. For example, students can create poems that reflect a personal experience, their favourite hobby, social issues, or global issues like global warming. Teachers can brainstorm different topics for students to connect with on the board.

If some students are still struggling with arriving at a poem theme or topic, students can use an ‘I am’ format similar to the following poems

Teachers should point out some important elements in these poems:

  • The opening line is repeated at the end of each stanza.
  • There is six lines per stanza.
  • The poems reflect not only the students’ thoughts, hopes, and dreams, but the world around them.

Once students have completed their poems, students should present their poems to the class, a small group, or privately to the teacher.

REFLECT

Students reflect on their poems and, using either a writing journal or blank sheet of paper, write on what they have learned about the free verse form of poetry. How has their thinking changed?

Extend Learning or Next Lesson

Students build on their poetry writing skills and research/write other poetic forms such as haiku, cinquain, acrostic, etc.

Lesson One Speaking and Listening

(Oral Language – Speaking and Listening)

The Story of Little Mouse Sister

Learning Outcome

Students assess their own speaking and listening skills, set goals for improvement, and formulate creative oral responses to information or ideas.

CONNECT

Goal: Students will listen to a story identifying main events as they relate to developing a plot profile. Students will retell a story in their own words infront of a small group.

Activate Prior Knowledge: Students are given phrases from the story. Students need to read the phrases with a partner and try to predict what the story may be about. Do not give them the title of the story at the beginning.

Predict and Question: Have students share their predictions about the story. Give them the title and ask how it has changed their thinking. Questions: What are you wondering? What questions do you have?

Task: You will be listening to a story. While you are listening, you need to keep track of important details on a plot profile sheet. You will be responsible for retelling the story to a partner and a small group.

PROCESS

Audio

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the story and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the story. Students can track ideas on the Plot Profile Sheet during the story.

Little Mouse Sister 1_ Little Mouse Sister Part 2

Click here to Read Transcript

A/B Partners – Students complete their plot profile sheets and share with a partner. Students discuss what they think the key events were and where the climax of the story occurred.

TRANSFORM

Students then practice retelling the story with their partner using their plot profile sheet as their guide. Partners give each other feedback on their retelling. Students then move into groups of four and share their retelling.

REFLECT

Students complete Reflection Sheet assessing their speaking and listening skills and formulating future storytelling goals.

Extend learning or next lesson

Students write and illustrate their retelling. Possible formats:

– 11 x 17 storyboard, divided into 10 squares.

Circular Journey template