READ 3 Required Independent Follow-up Core Activity:
I. As my comprehension strategy I choose Vocabulary Instruction. The article I used came from the website http://www.izzit.org/events/print_commentary.php?ID=1441 entitled “Inconvenient Truths About ‘Renewable Energy’ by Matt Ridley, from the Wall Street Journal published on May 21, 2011.
Goal: Increase students’ knowledge of vocabulary in the article, thus increasing comprehension of the entire article.
Directions:
1. The following words will be pre-taught: solar, hydro, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal, biomass, dung, ecological disaster, exajoules, guano, denitrifying
2. Introduce the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and their responsibilities.
3. Talk about types of energy; solar, hydro, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal, and biomass.
4. Explain the term ecological disaster.
5. Read the first two paragraphs of the article.
Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a thousand-page report on the future of renewable energy, which it defined as solar, hydro, wind, tidal, wave, geothermal and biomass. These energy sources, said the IPCC, generate about 13.8% of our energy and, if encouraged to grow, could eventually displace most fossil fuel use.
It turns out that the great majority of this energy, 10.2% out of the 13.8% share, comes from biomass, mainly wood (often transformed into charcoal) and dung. Most of the rest is hydro; less than 0.5% of the world’s energy comes from wind, tide, wave, solar and geothermal put together. Wood and dung are indeed renewable, in the sense that they reappear as fast as you use them. Or do they? It depends on how fast you use them.
6. Divide students into pairs, with three groups resulting. Assign two paragraphs to each student group to read and look for unfamiliar words as well as summarizing their text for the entire group.
7. Each group reports any vocabulary that was unfamiliar, and the entire group discusses the meanings. Words reported: impoverished, harbinger, sustainable, credentials, generates, hydrocarbons, methane clathrates, exploiting, collapse, phosphate, synthetic, denitrifying, plutonium, breeder reactors, and deduction.
- Pairs were assigned to discuss possible meaning of words. Each pair were given the Word Detective Graphic Organizer from http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/GraphicOrganizers.html to help them work out the meanings.
- Dictionaries, an internet site http:// www.dictionary.com, and the article were used to find the definitions of the words. Pairs wrote the definitions on paper, using the form outlined on their graphic organizer.
- Pairs reported back to the entire group definitions of the words they had researched.
8. Each group then rereads their sections and reports the summary of their assigned section.
- Group 1 Summary: Haiti uses wood to make charcoal to meet 60% of their energy needs. They have cut down 98% of their rain forests, and are now burning tree roots. Wind energy may be renewable, but steel, concrete, and rare-earth metals are used to build the wind farms. We would need 100 times more wind farms than we have now, and that will only provide 10% of energy needs.
- Group 2 Summary: Iron ore and fossil fuels are not likely to run out soon. In the earth’s crust there is 500,000 exajoules of energy. The whole planet only uses 500 exajoules a year, so there is at least a 1000 years worth. Other forms of energy such as blue whales, cod, and passenger pigeons were used to the point of almost disappearing in just a few decades. No non-renewable resource has yet run out.
- Group 3 Summary: The renewable Guano fertilizer was used in the 19th century for farming, but ran out quickly. It can be said that modern fertilizer made from air, and fossil fuels are also renewable; just not as quickly as they are used. Nuclear power is renewable, but it is not a popular idea. The idea that renewable energy is green and clean may not be true.
9. Bring the group back together to answer the following questions about the article:
Why do we call some energy sources renewable and others non-renewable? Why did Matt Ridley question this distinction?
"The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone.” What does this mean? What will end the oil age, if it ends in a similar way?
Why does Matt Ridley say there is a millennium’s worth of fossil fuels left? Why can’t we know for sure whether this is true or not?
End Notes:
This plan may well take several days, depending on your class schedule and student attendance patterns.
Student Reactions:
My students enjoyed this plan, even though it took us three days to finish. The first day I introduced the vocabulary as words relating to the topic renewable and non-renewable energy. The second day I reviewed the vocabulary and then read the first two paragraphs of the article. Pairs were formed to identify words they did not know, or were not sure of. Pairs researched their assigned words to find the definitions and reported back to the group. On the third day, I reviewed all the vocabulary words, reread the first two paragraphs of the article, and assigned each group two paragraphs to read and summarize. Each group reported their summary, and then we ended by discussing their feelings about the entire article. My students enjoyed working together and tackling a subject they may not have normally read.
Sharon Simon, ABE Instructor
Cabell County Career Technology Center