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The majority of my students are the lower level to middle of the road students.
They are not very science minded and they have no intentions on entering a field
where science is a priority. My students do succeed because they try hard, but they
Due to state testing at the end of the year, Earth and Space is designed as a
content knowledge course. Similar to the concerns in the article by Vacca, we focus
so much on content that we push reading skills aside. Now that state testing is a
week away from being over, I have the chance to put reading at the forefront of my
students’ learning.
warming. Since global warming is a hot topic with many different views, we will not
be focusing on one text. We will use several articles and web sites to reach our
Objectives:
• Students will be able to state the viewpoints of both sides of the global
warming debate
• Students will use pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading activities to
• Students will state their reason(s) for choosing the side they will defend
Day One:
Learning activity one: Quote of the week (Stephens & Brown, 2005 pg. 66) {Pre-
reading}
Upon entering the classroom, students will observe this week’s “quote of the
“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that
man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American
Students are to put this quote into their notebooks and then write a
paragraph to try and answer the question within. The students will then get into
small groups of 2-4 people and discuss their thoughts on the quote. These early
thoughts will eventually lead to the entire class debate. After group discussions, we
will have an entire class question and answer session about the quote.
Students will be given a copy of the article “Forget Global Warming, Welcome
to the New Ice Age” at the end of class. Their homework assignment will be to skim
the article and highlight all of the scientific organizations that are mentioned in the
text.
Day Two:
reputable. Using the homework assignment as an admission slip will begin to show
the students that they need to look where their information is coming from.
Today’s lesson will be to focus on sources of information that are reputable versus
After a short five to ten minute discussion on all of the sources from the
article, the class will go to the library for a presentation from the librarian. She will
show the students the school’s online research website where they can go to do
research without having to use the internet. It’s very similar to ERIC where they can
Students will be given several articles to read and review. Some articles are
are:
5. Global Warming
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html
Students will use the Cornell Note system to gain knowledge for their
debate. They will then be able to review their notes when it comes time for them to
Activity four: Reading Response Logs (Tovani, 2004 pg. 110) {During Reading}
Students can begin to do their own research on the side they wish to debate
for. As they read and review the information they find, they are to write down the
title, author, summarize the readings, and provide a response to what they found.
Day Seven:
gathered over the first six days and work on comparing and contrasting the two
sides. In any good debate, the people participating know what the other side has to
debate with. By comparing and contrasting the topics, the students will be able to
Day Eight:
After the final day comparing and contrasting debate topics, students will
provide an exit slip answering the following question: “How will you know that you
mastered this topic?” After eight days of research and review, the students have
read several different sources of information about global warming. Global warming
is a topic that presently is a hot debate and has been for years.
Days nine and ten will allow the students to work together in groups to put
their main ideas together for the debate. After the weekend, day eleven will bring
the debate where the two groups will present and defend their arguments.
Bibliography
Allen, J. (2004). Tools for teaching content literacy. USA: Janet Allen.
Stephens, E.C. & Brown, J.E. (2005). A handbook of content literacy strategies: 125
practical reading and