Space Exploration 10 Days

Space Exploration 10 Days

Objectives

Materials & Resources

Instructional Procedures

Assessment

1. Warm-Up: On the board, project the question, “Did you get that?” Ask the students to come up with a synonym for the word get, as used in the question, taking care not to tell anyone else the word they have chosen. After students have all come up with a synonym, go around the room and ask each student to share his/her response with the class. Answers may include understand, remember, obtain, retrieve, pick up, and many others.
2. Mini-Lesson: One important reason for being precise in our word choice is for clarity, as demonstrated in the warm-up question “Did you get that?” Depending on how the listener interprets the meaning of the word get, the question could vary in intended meaning from “Did you pick that up?” to “Did you understand that?” to even “Did you record that on film?” However, another important reason for using precise words when we speak and write is for variety.
3. Examples from Student Writing: Show student examples of their own writing in which the same verbs are used over and over. In this lesson, the student examples will be our yearbook Favorite Project Quotesabout our favorite STEM projects this year. In the writing, students used the verb said over and over again, to the point that the writing becomes repetitive and less interesting to read.
4. Writer’s Workshop: In small groups, have students brainstorm for as many variations of the word said as they can. Then, each student in the group will select a quote from the Favorite Project Quotesand add a more vivid, precise verb instead of the verb said.
5. Problem-Spot Prediction: Inform students that in science class today, they will be writing a lab report on the steps of the Engineering Design Process (EDP) used in yesterday’s project day, “Fly Me to the Moon” Rocket Launch. What overly-used, less-precise verbs do student predict are commonly used on EDP reports? Using the six steps of the Engineering Design Process for a guide, have the class brainstorm a list. (For the first class of the day, the teacher may need to help the students begin the list.) Then, brainstorm more precise, vivid verbs for students to substitute instead of overly-used, generic verbs.
6. Closure: Watch the verb song from Grammaropolis: “Lights! Camera! Action Verb!”

1. Warm-Up: “Verbs: They’re Not Really Boring”
2. Students will generate notes: Verb PowerPoint
3. Begin with the End in Mind: Display the “Fly Me to the Moon” Rocket Launch Project Rubric, ELA component, adapted from the word choice column of the TN Informational / Explanatory Writing Rubric. Review expectations with students. Emphasize that for today’s class assignment, students should aim to eliminate linking verbs and boring, overly-used action verbs from their Engineering Design Process science report.
4. Writer’s Workshop:

1. Students take out their first drafts of the Rocket Launch EDP report from yesterday’s science class.
2. Guided practice: Ask a student to airplay his/her EDP report. Walk the class through an example of underlining all of the verbs in the first paragraph. Replace linking verbs and boring, overly-used action verbs with more vivid verbs.
3. Independent Practice: Students individually work to underline the verbs in each section of their Rocket Launch EDP reports and to replace the linking verbs and boring, overly-used action verbs with vivid verbs.
4. Assessment: If time allows, invite students to airplay their progress. Go through the “Fly Me to the Moon” Rocket Launch Project Rubric, ELA component, to determine how student work would be scored if it were turned in today.

1. Closer: Have small table groups discuss the essential question, “Why is it important for me to use precise word choice in my speaking and writing?”
2. Homework: Complete revisions of Rocket Launch EDP Reports, due in class tomorrow.

• Verb Book Chart
• Novels: “Life As We Knew It” and “The Dead and the Gone”

• Moon Enrichment

• Use of thesaurus
• Use of book chart to keep track of verbs and replacement words

• Moon Enrichment

• Verb Book Chart

1. Hook: The teacher will have students turn to a portion of the book that they feel is interesting. Next, the teacher will have students list the verbs that are found within their one-page selection.
2. Once students have listed the verbs, they can pair with their table group and discuss their answers. Then, the teacher will facilitate a class discussion where the students will identify the best verbs used within their selection. Students will begin to understand that vivid verbs make writing more interesting and that fiction writing often uses vivid verbs to describe events and attract the reader’s attention.
3. After the lessons on verbs from previous days and the analysis of verbs used in the novel today, students will replace any “uninteresting” verbs from their novel with more vivid verbs in the verb book chart.
4. Finally, students will work in teams of 3 called book club groups as they read from their novel.
5. For homework, students will continue reading their novel.

• I CAN understand point-of-view.
• I CAN analyze how the differing points-of-view in each novel depicts a different story through the same overall event.

• Novels: “Life As We Knew It” and “The Dead and the Gone”
• Point-of-View Video
• Group Delegation Chart, Appendix A
• Point-of-view exploration, Appendix B
• Writing Closure, Appendix C

• Journal Writing Enrichment, Appendix D

• What is point-of-view?
• How does the differing point-of-view in each novel change the story even though the story was an account of the same event?

• Heterogeneous groups with student roles for each students’ strengths

• Journal Writing Enrichment

• Observations of group discussions
• Exit ticket journal entry

1. Hook: Students will watch the Point-of-View Video to activate their prior knowledge about points-of-view.
2. Then, the teacher will divide students into groups of 3. The students will assign roles to each person in the group. The three roles should be the manager, the recorder, and the speaker. Each role has specific duties that are outlined in the group delegation chart in the resource folder.
3. Students will then begin working on the Point-of-view exploration within their team. The teacher should time each page for about 8 minutes per page. At the end of each page, the teacher should lead a group discussion where the speaker of each group can speak out about the topics that they their group discussed and wrote down.
4. Exit Ticket Closure: After the point-of-view exploration, students will choose a minor character from the book they are reading and write a short journal entry from this character’s point-of-view. They will then write one paragraph about how this journal entry differs from the original text.
5. For homework, students will complete the writing closure.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.10
  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.3
  Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.3
  Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.3.a
  Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.3.b
  Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.3.c
  Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.3.d
  Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.3.e
  Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.