Lesson Study

1. DESCRIPTIVE TITLE OF THE LESSON

Exploring Extreme Weather Using Informational Texts
2. THE TWO SELECTED CONTENT AREAS
English Language Arts and Science
3. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC TO BE ADDRESSED
During this lesson, students will be exploring different types of extreme weather
using informational texts. They will use the text features and skills they have learned about
informational texts to research a storm in groups, creating a poster of information, and
presenting the poster to the class. On the second day, the students will create a creative
writing piece from the perspective of a news reporter about extreme weather.
4. CONTEXT
A. Grade Level: Second Grade
B. Classroom Description:
The students in our classroom are very diverse. We have eight English Language
Learners, two students on IEPs, and most of the students are of lower socioeconomic
status. The students form an overall well behaved classroom that is usually on task, except
for on a few of their bad days. We have students like Ryan, who are very energetic and
social, and then students like Kelly who are studious and shy. The classroom personalities
are diverse but come together well, making group work interesting. The classroom
community is very strong and the students all seem to feel very comfortable with the
teacher and one another. The host teacher advocates students taking responsibility for their
own actions and also uses responsive classroom by stopping instruction and having circle
time to talk and resolve issues that arise in the classroom. Most of the day is filled with

whole group instruction and worksheets with the occasional creative writing assignment or
activity.
C. Prior Knowledge:
The students have briefly explored text features. When reading informational texts,
the teacher tries to constantly point out things like headings and keywords, but they have
never formally been taught informational text features. The students have also never
formally been introduced to extreme weather but have had discussions about normal
weather. When we gave them a pre assessment on the material, many of them could not
describe the difference between extreme and normal weather.
5. DESCRIPTION OF THE OBJECTIVES OF THE INTEGRATED LESSON
A. Content Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.5
Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries,
indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
ESS. Earth and Space Science
2. This topic focuses on air and water as they relate to weather and weather
changes that can be observed and measured. (02-02)
B. Overarching Ideas Related to Standards
Our lesson is a hands-on learning experience. We want the students to work
together and learn from each other. The overarching idea is extreme weather and the use of
text features. We will have the students do research on specific types of extreme weather
and while they are researching using expository texts they are using text features such as
headings, captions, index, glossary, key words. We hope that ultimately the students will

become more efficient when using expository texts and doing research in the future. What
we want the students to take from the experience as a whole is an interest and knowledge
of extreme weather and the unbelievable phenomenon that happen on our earth. Our host
teacher informed us that they rarely ever do group projects and we want them to learn and
grow as a classroom community. Learning to respect and share ideas with each other.
Following the research portion of our presentation we will have the students
participate in a writing project. We hope that the students enjoy writing these papers and we
look forward to reading them! The students are able to express their ideas and show their
creativity with little restrictions. We hope the students take memories and a deeper
appreciation for writing, realizing that it can be fun rather than tedious.
6. QUALITIES OF EXPERIENCE
A. Qualities of Experience
1. In what ways will this lesson allow for students to foster a community and
collaborate?
2. In what ways will this lesson allow for unpredictable productivity among the
students?
3. In what ways will this lesson allow for student discovery and surprise?
B,C. Qualities of Experience Explained
In What ways will this lesson allow for students to foster a community and
collaborate?
A sense of community is one of the most important aspects of a classroom. A
community allows students to feel safe, welcomed, valued, and part of something bigger
than themselves. The way and the extent to which a student can learn effectively depends
on this community building. Learning is a dependent variable, relying heavily upon a deep

sense of place and community within that place (NCSS p.3). In order to create this
community, the classroom must offer ample opportunities for collaboration. Collaboration is
an essential life skill that should be fostered in students from a very young age. It is
important to give students the chance to engage in negotiation and problem solving (LTT
p.137). Collaborating allows students to get to know one another, learn how to work
together, and gives students the opportunity to support each other in their learning.
Students were held accountable as part of a larger group, and it was everyones task to
make certain that each individual member of the group was successful (Culturally Relevant
Teaching p.1). When much of the class time is spent on individual work and worksheets,
these opportunities to support and learn from each other are lost.
We feel like there is already a decently strong sense of community in our classroom,
but want to continue to express the importance of this community and students feeling like
they belong to a group of peers (Katz, p.2). We want to build off of this sense of
community, and transfer it into collaboration, by allowing students to work in groups based
off of their interests. By giving the students the opportunity to work in groups, something
they dont usually do, they will be exposed to a different way to learn, and begin to learn
how to work together. The presentations of each groups information will allow students to
understand the importance of sharing information, collaborating, and listening to other
people. As students explore different types of extreme weather, they can help one another
navigate using text features, and combine their research to form a fuller understanding and
view of that storm.

In What ways will this lesson allow for unpredictable productivity among the
students?

The second quality of experience that we chose was to allow students the chance for
unpredictable productivity. Creative teaching is an inside-out operation- it is dependent
upon original and useful responses from the children, a type of unpredictable productivity
(Cute p.69). No matter how much preparation you do with the curriculum, the students will
always change it and these changes are important and enriching for everyone involved.
They keep students and teachers interested (Ayers p.107). Giving the students the chance
to stretch the curriculum in ways that the teacher didnt necessarily see is part of learning
and makes the learning process enjoyable. The curriculum is an ongoing problem of
determining what knowledge and experiences are the most worthwhile. (Ayers p.98). It is
important that the students have a say in what is important to learn, and by allowing them
the chance for unpredictable productivity, they get this chance to stretch the curriculum in
the ways that they see important or interesting. Throughout this unpredictable productivity,
we will create a problem posing education where teachers and students are co
investigators of problems that arise organically from their daily experiences (Cowhey p.17).

In a classroom where most of what students do is worksheets, we thought that this

was particularly important. We wanted to give students the chance, during their creative
writing assignment, to take the activity, and the information that they have learned, and go
in whatever direction they want. By allowing them this freedom, we think that we are sure to
see many ideas that we as teachers might not have even thought of before. Children are
capable of far more than we expect of them. (Cowhey, p. 18) If we take away restrictions
and guidelines it will allow for genuine results. As students use their imaginations and create
on their own, they are required to look at natural disasters from a different viewpoint,
making sure that they really understand what their natural disaster is, and how the disaster
might apply to real life.

In what ways will this lesson allow for student discovery and surprise?
The third quality of experience that we chose was allowing students the opportunity
for discovery and surprise. Children are naturally curious about the world we inhabit
(Ayers p.117) and it is important that we pull upon this curiosity and allow students to
explore and discover the world around them. Giving students the opportunity for discovery
and surprise actively engages students in productive work that is linked to the real world
and student interests (Ayers p.105). This opportunity for students to explore and discover is
something that is not often used in a classroom where worksheets are the primary source of
instruction. If a student is curious about something and asks a question that we as teachers
cannot answer we should respond with I dont know, but how can we find out? Where can
we look? who would know more about that? (Cowhey, p. 70).
During the research portion of the activity, students take learning into their own
hands, discovering information about natural disasters on their own. If the students are truly
interested in the topic that they have picked, then this opportunity for discovery will not only
enhance the research, but will make the knowledge formation just that much more
rewarding for the students, giving them personal connections to the material. In order to
allow discovery we encourage freedom, sharing, conversation, movement, risk-taking, and
spontaneity-the natural characteristics of childhood.(Weber-Schwartz, p.54) As students
discover, and create knowledge on their own, their discoveries about natural disasters will
stick with them far more than if a teacher were to lecture about the disasters. We are
interested in students constructing their own knowledge and feeling powerful and energized
enough to go further in their expectations of the world and their own minds (Ayers, p.104).

D. Rationale Related to Classroom Context

Our host teacher focuses a lot on reading and math, almost never touching on
science or social studies. For this reason, we wanted to make sure we included one of
these topics in our lesson. We chose science, specifically focusing on extreme weather.
This focus on extreme weather catered to the curiosity of many of the students in our class
that enjoy exploring dangerous and terrifying, extreme events. Most of the work done in
their classroom is worksheets that are taught in a whole group setting. Because of this, we
wanted to make sure we gave the students the opportunity to work in groups, learning how
to collaborate and compromise. This group setting also catered to a lot of our students
different personalities, allowing some of the social students like Ryan to take a leadership
position, and other, quieter students that like to read like Raymond to take on other
important roles in the group as they all did their research together. The students love to
showcase their abilities to the class and rarely get the opportunity to do so. That is why we
made sure to include the sharing portion of our lesson. This portion hopefully shows the
students that their work and research is important and valued by not only the teacher, but
also by their classmates.
7. DESCRIPTION OF LESSON DESIGN A,B,C
Day One:
Introduction to Extreme Weather
At the beginning of the lesson, the students will be called to the carpet for a
discussion. Due to the fact that our students have never really discussed extreme weather
before, we wanted to take the time to see what prior knowledge they have about storms.
We began the lesson by asking When you hear the word extreme weather, what do you
think of. The students are then asked to start yelling out words they associate with
extreme weather as we write the words on a dry erase board. By asking this question, we

aim to get the students really thinking about extreme weather and what they know. As
different students yell out words, hopefully it will spark someone elses background
knowledge and help them think of some words associated with extreme weather as well.
Along with reaching into student background knowledge, we will also begin to get some
sense of how much the students know about extreme weather. Knowing this information is
very important to our lesson. This information will tell us how much and what to teach.
After this brief discussion and collaboration of our thoughts about extreme weather,
we will give a brief overview of what extreme weather really is.
There are a lot of different kinds of extreme weather. Some examples include tornadoes,
hurricanes, or blizzards. Most extreme weather is dangerous and can cause a lot of
damage to our community and the Earth, which is why it is different than normal weather
such as a sunny day or rainy day because they are normal and usually do not cause harm.
The teacher will then read a short book that gives an overview of all different types of
extreme weather. The purpose of this book is to continue to build background knowledge
about extreme weather and really get students thinking about the different types of storms.
It is important to stop throughout the book to ask students if they have every heard about
some of the storms or even experienced them. Connecting the storms to real life is an
important aspect, so that the students better understand and have a stronger desire to learn
more.
The teacher will then inform the students that we will be focusing on researching four
different types of storms: tornadoes, blizzards, lightning and rain storms, and blizzards. The
students will be asked to go back to their desks and rank the two storms that they are most
interested in, writing their choices on a post-it note and then turning it into one of the
teachers. We decided to base the research groups off of interest because this is not
something that the students don't get to do very often. Providing this opportunity for choice

gives the students ownership in their learning and will hopefully motivate them to learn as
they focus on something that interests them.
Introduction to Text Features
While one teacher is organizing the groups based on interest, the other teacher will
begin a discussion on text features. The teacher will begin by reminding the students how
they have discussed some of the basic features of an informational text in class throughout
the year. The teacher will remind the students of the use of the text features, explaining that
most informational texts are not meant to be read cover to cover. When we are searching
for research, many times we can use the text features as shortcuts to help us find the
information we need. Explaining this will allow the students to understand why it is we have
to learn the text features.
The teacher will then use the book Storms that was read as a read aloud to discuss
the following text features:

Table of Contents

Subheadings

Keywords

Photographs

Captions

Glossary

During the teachers discussion she will model how to use the text features. This aspect of
modeling is very important to the learning process and will help the students have a visual
example of how to use the feature. The teacher will also ask for student help and input as
she discusses the features, making sure to keep the students engaged, and confirming
understanding.

Introduction of Project
After introducing and discussing extreme weather and text features, the teachers will
begin to explain the project the students will be completing. The students will be given
general directions at first:
Now we are going to break out into our groups to do research on our individual storms.
Each group will be given a book about your extreme storm. You will be creating a poster
about your storm with your group to present to the class, teaching them about your storm.
Remember that these books are not meant to be read all the way through, and might be too
hard to read. That is why we are going to use the text features we learned about to find
little pieces of information that will help us learn more about our storms.
The students will then be broken into their interest groups and await further
instruction. The purpose of breaking students into groups is to teach students collaboration
and cooperation and to form a classroom community. By breaking students into various
groups, students are required to work together, communicating and compromising along the
way. Collaboration is not something that comes naturally to students and it is important to
allow students the opportunity to experiment with it. On top of these reasons, it is also
simply fun. Most students really enjoy working with their friends, and the social aspect of
the project brings about new ways for the teacher to see their students and their students
strengths. Lessons that use group work are not always the easiest, the quietest, or the
most manageable, but they are very beneficial for the students.
After the students have been put into their groups, further explanation about the
project will be given:
On your poster you must include a title. Then you will search for three subheadings in the
table of contents that you find interesting. Go to those subheadings, and find one
interesting fact about your storm under that subheading. Then go to the glossary in the

back of the book and find three key words related to your storm, write them on your poster,
with the definition of the word next to them. Finally, create a picture of the storm, and put a
caption at the bottom of the picture, explaining what is happening in the picture.
The teacher will write these components on the board and then show the class an
example of what their poster might look like so that they have something to base their
posters on. The students will then spend a significant amount of time engaging in research
on their storms and completing their poster as a group. During this time the students will
have the opportunity to explore and discover new information. This discovery time is
something that the students do not regularly have. It is important to give the students ample
time to discover and be surprised by what they find. If the students are researching their
interests, this should be an even more engrossing investigation for them. As students use
their natural curiosity to discover new information, this more authentic way of learning will
hopefully allow them to not only learn but also have fun doing so in this meaningful activity.
Once the students are finished creating their posters, they will be asked to come up
one at a time and present the information that they found. This sharing time will help to
foster an even greater sense of community as the students share their knowledge with and
listen to one another.
Day Two:
Introduction
The second day will start with us reminding the students what we talked about the
day before, starting by asking students to tell us what they remember. This will get the
students thinking about storms again. We will then pose a series of questions to help
students start thinking about how people forecast storms.

How do you know if extreme weather like this is coming to your town? How do you
or your parents check what the weather is going to be like each day? Why do you need to
know what the weather is going to be like?
After having this discussion with the students, eliciting their background knowledge,
we will show a short video clip. This video clip will show a weather forecast of extreme
weather, specifically a hurricane. This clip will allow students to see a real life example of a
weather forecast. This clip will connect the content to real life, and will get the students
brainstorming and beginning to understand what a storm forecast looks and sounds like.
After the students view the clip we will ask the students to discuss some of the
essential parts of a weather report and what important information the weather reporter
should include in their report. We will then give the following prompt:
You are a weather reporter in the middle of a huge storm. Write about what you
see, what you hear, how does the storm make you feel, what should people be doing to stay
safe, and any other things you think people might need to know about the storm.
Students will then be given a graphic organizer asking what do you see? what do
you hear? How does the storm make you feel? What should people be doing to stay safe?
After the students have completed the graphic organizer, they will be allowed to free
write their weather report. This is really where that element of unpredictable productivity will
come into play. As students write about whichever storm interests them the most, they will
have the freedom to take this creative writing assignment any direction they want. In the
past we have seen very good examples of creative writing and we hope to see the students
stretching and having fun with this prompt.