New York City Department of Education
Magnet Program District 25 & 28
The Green Magnet School M. S. 217
Course / Unit
7th Grade English Language Arts:
Nature – Friend and Foe
Essential Questions:
• What’s so good about the wild?
• How do we balance human and non-human needs?
• How do we use our senses, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction to understand, make sense of, and envision the world around us?
• Protagoras of Abdera (c. 480-410 B.C.) wrote that “Man is the measure of all things.” Is this true?
Suggested Time Frame: 6 Weeks
Theme: Stewardship, Endurance, Diversity
Graphic Overview of Unit
Suggested Time Frame: 8 Weeks
Essential Question:
What’s so good about the wild?
Unit’s Culminating Project: (briefly explain in 2-3 sentences): Students will create a powerpoint , PSA idoc, website or wiki on:
· History of the Everglades – geological, early inhabitants, Seminole Indians
•Everglades Ecosystem – Flora, Fauna, keystone species
•Dangers to the Everglades: Pollution, Invasive Species*, Habitat Destruction, Endangered Species
•Restoration of the Everglades
Plan and implement a videoconference with Cypress Palm Middle School, Naples, Florida.
Stage 1- Desired ResultsStandards-Based Learning Goals:
Magnet Sustainability: Students explore how nature sustains life on earth. Students describe nature’s processes mathematically. Students explore ways to balance our personal development and human needs with nature's laws. Students investigate how to create comfortable lifestyles, so we sustain resources and culture for future generations. Sense of Place. Students develop connections to their every day environments by participating in authentic projects in their natural, cultural and social worlds. • Literacy: Students explore how authors use landscape, how a landscape can shape the imagination, and how imaginations can shape a landscape. Science: Students investigate how natural laws and processes shape ecosystems and biomes.
Activism: Students research issues and determine actions that can make a difference. •Students take actions that affect their local and global communities. Inquiry. Students explore by closely observing, formulating questions, analyzing systems, drawing conclusions. Technology. Students use technology to communicate locally and globally. Careers. Students connect classroom studies with future careers.
NYS Common Core State ELA STANDARDS (RL = Reading Literature; RI=Reading Informational Texts); W=Writing)
KEY IDEAS & DETAILS
RL. and RI.7.1. Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL.7.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.7.3. Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
RL.7.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
RI.7.2. Determine two or more central ideas in an informational text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CRAFT & STRUCTURE
RI.7.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
RESPONDING TO LITERATURE
RL.7.11. Recognize, interpret, and make connections in narratives, poetry, and drama, ethically and artistically to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, personal events, and situations. (NYS addition)
INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE & IDEAS
RI.7.8. Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
RI.7.9. Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
a. Use their experience and their knowledge of language and logic, as well as culture, to think analytically, address problems creatively, and advocate persuasively.
Writing – Text Types and Purposes. W.7.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. W.7.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. Production and Distribution of Writing. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. Research to Build and Present Knowledge. W.7.7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation. W.7.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Concepts
Macro-concept: Big idea
Diversity, Stewardship, Endurance / Magnet School Theme:
Sustainability, Inquiry, Activism, Careers, Technology
Enduring Understandings
Diversity. Diversity is essential for human life, and wildness is essential for diversity.
“In wildness is the preservation of the World” by Henry David Thoreau
Stewardship. As humans, we are responsible for the health of our world. “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964
Endurance. To endure, we have to know, care and act. “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” ~Edward O. Wilson / Essential Questions:
§ What’s so good about the wild?
§ Why is human life dependent on wildness?
§ How do we balance human and non-human needs?
§ Protagoras of Abdera (c. 480-410 B.C.) wrote that “Man is the measure of all things.” Is this true?
Content and Skills
Content - Part I
•Noticing/Describing details in Images
•“The Alligator Poem” by Mary Oliver
•Predictions
•Sensory Details
•Similes
•“Some Rivers”
•Fluency
•Comprehension Strategies
•Theme
•Inferencing
•Sensory Details
•Similes,
•Metaphors,
•Vocabulary
•Exposition: Setting
•Characterization
•Conflict / Skills - Part I – Poetry/Fiction
•Visualize
•Identify Details
•Identify Literary Devices
•Inference
•Determine - Main idea/Theme
•Pt. of View
•Meaning of words in context
•Relate to own experience
•Compare and contrast
Skills - Part II – Non-Fiction
•Take Notes on flora and fauna, history
•alligators
•Determine Relevant Info
•Navigate GoogleEarth
•Use Track Star
•Use searchme.com and search-cube.com
Skills – Part III – Presentations
PowerpointsIdocs, Wiki, website
Stage 2- Summative Assessment Evidence
If students understand, know and are able to do the items in Stage 1, they should be able to show their understanding by completing an authentic task found in the world beyond the classroom.
G- (goal). Students will research the Everglades and determine if the wildness of the Everglades should be restored and sustained. Students select a way to advocate for the Everglades.
R- (role). Students will be “Everglades Stewards” and be part of the Everglades Stewardship Program.
A- (audience). Students will present their products to classmates, school administrators, a school community in the Everglades, and government officials.
S- (situation). We have to determine if the Everglades should be in part restored to its historic dimensions. Students will research the pros and cons.
P- (purpose and product).
Powerpoint, PSA iDoc, Website, or Wiki on:
· History of the Everglades – geological, early inhabitants, Seminole Indians
•Everglades Ecosystem – Flora, Fauna, keystone species
•Dangers to Everglades: Pollution, Invasive Species, Habitat Destruction, Endangered Species
•Restoration of the Everglades
Culminating Event: Videoconference with Cypress Palm Middle School, Naples, Florida.
Sharing of work with Cypress students.
S- (standards for performance). See See ELA and Magnet Standards above Common Core Standards-Based Learning Goals: Literacy in Science
READING: Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.
2. Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
READING: Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6–8 texts and topics.
5. Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic.
6. Analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text.
READING: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
8. Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text.
9. Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
WRITING: Text Types and Purposes
1. Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
a. Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources.
c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
d. Establish and maintain a formal style.
e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
GRASP: Stage 2- Summative Assessment Evidence
If students understand, know and are able to do the items in Stage 1, they should be able to show their understanding by completing an authentic task found in the world beyond the classroom.
Design the Culminating/Summative Project:
G- (goal): / Students will research the Everglades, one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth. The Everglades is a national park and the park has been designated a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, and a Wetland of International Importance. Students will determine if the Everglades can sustainably be restored, to a greater part of its original state. Students select a way to advocate for or against the Everglades restoration.
R- (role): / Students will be environmental engineers, community activists, sugar cane businessmen, and workers. Students will advocate for and against the restoration of the Everglades. Students will be “Everglades Stewards” and be part of the Everglades Stewardship Program.
A- (audience): / Students will present their products to classmates, school administrators, a school community in the Everglades, and government officials.
S- (situation): / Humans reduced the size of the Everglades, destroyed habitat for flora and fauna, and now must decide if it is in humans’ best interest to, in part, restore the Everglades.
P- (purpose and product): / Powerpoint, PSA iDoc, Website, or Wiki on:
History of the Everglades – geological, early inhabitants, Seminole Indians
•Everglades Ecosystem – Flora, Fauna, keystone species
•Dangers to Everglades: Pollution, Invasive Species, Habitat Destruction, Endangered Species
•Restoration of the Everglades
Culminating Event: Videoconference with Cypress Palm Middle School, Naples, Florida. Students share work with Cypress students.
Student Task. In the space below, write the task exactly as students will see it.
You should give this task to them on the first day of the unit. This way they know where they are going.
The Everglades Stewardship Program - Everglades National Park
2009 Crocodile Row. Everglades, Florida 21709
Dear Student:
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted as a fellow in the elite Everglades Stewardship program. As an Everglades Steward, you join a community of scholars, social scientists, artists, and activists whose research and advocacy are saving the American alligator and the Everglades, one of the most unique ecosystems on Earth.
In addition to reading non-fiction, you will be exploring poetry and fiction about the Everglades. We want you to wonder,
• What’s so good about the wild?
• How do we balance human and non-human needs?
• How do we use our senses, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction to understand, make sense of, and envision the world around us?
Your mission is to advocate for the Everglades by researching and publishing one of the following:
•History of the Everglades – geological, early inhabitants, Seminole Indians
•Everglades Ecosystem – Flora, Fauna, keystone species
•Dangers to the Everglades: Pollution, Invasive Species*, Habitat Destruction, Endangered Species
•Restoration of the Everglades-plans & progress
You will publish your research through one of the following Culminating Projects:
Powerpoint Brochure
Persuasive PSA
Class Website www.ning or Wikispace on one of the following:
Please read and return the enclosed contract, so you can start your work as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
1
Eco- Brochure / Tourist1 / Eco-Tourist
2 / Wildlife
Intern
3 / Wildlife
Manager
4
Notetaking / •Identifies 0 essential details.
•Does not synthesize information
Does not condense, combine, or categorize data, facts, and ideas
• Note and graphic organizers do not record and organize information / •Identifies 1-2 essential details.
•Synthesizes information from 2 sources. Condenses, combines, or categorizes data, facts, and ideas
•Notes and graphic organizers record and organize info from 2 sources information / •Identifies 3 essential details.
•Synthesizes information from 3 sources by condensing, combining, or categorizing data, facts, and ideas
•Notes and graphic organizers record and organize info from 3 sources information / •Identifies 4-5 essential details.
•Synthesize information from 4 sources by condensing, combining, or categorizing data, facts, and ideas
•Uses note and graphic organizers to record and organize information
Eco-Facts
Subject Knowledge / Information is cursory or incorrect. Student does not show understanding. / Some solid information is presented; however, some information is incorrect or cursory. / Information is clear and correct throughout the presentation. / Information is well presented, clear, complex, and correct throughout.
· Presentation
· Overall Idea
· Supporting Details
· Sequence of Ideas / Student uses irrelevant graphics / Student uses some graphics that don’t support the text and presentation / Student uses graphics related to the text and presentation. / Student uses graphics that reinforce and enhance the text and presentation.
· Grammar, Mechanics / Presentation has 6 or more spelling, grammatical, or usage errors / Presentation has 4-5 or more spelling, grammatical, or usage errors / Presentation has 2-3 or more spelling, grammatical, or usage errors / Presentation has no more than one (1) spelling, grammatical, or usage error.
1