Title: Watching in the Wild
Harcourt Storytown 2009Grade 2
Theme 5 /Lesson 24
Title: “Watching in the Wild”
Suggested Time: 5 days (45 minutes per day)
Common Core ELA Standards
RI.2.1, RI.2.2, RI.2.4, RI.2.5,RI.2.6, RF.2.4,W.2.2, W.2.8, SL.2.1, SL.2.2, L.2.1, L.2.2, L.2.3, L.2.4
Teacher Instructions
Refer to the Introduction forfurther details.
Before Teaching
- Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and theSynopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers, about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task.
Big Ideas and Key Understandings
The students should understand that Jane Goodall ‘s work with chimpanzees changed the way people think about chimpanzees. Due to Jane Goodall’s work in studying these animals, we now know that chimpanzees are a lot like people.
Synopsis
The selection is about Jane Goodall, a scientist who studied chimps in the wilds of Gombe, Africa for more than 40 years. The selection spans from the time when Jane first went to Gombe, to her experiences in beginning to observe the chimps and her developing relationship with them, to the time when Jane started sharing the information and experiences she gathered, through her observations, about chimps with the rest of the world.
- Read entire main selection text, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings.
- Re-read the main selection text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Vocabulary.
During Teaching
- Students read the entire main selection text independently.
- Teacher reads the main selection text aloud with students following along.
(Depending on how complex the text is and the amount of support needed by students, the teacher may choose to reverse the order of steps 1 and 2.)
3. Students and teacher re-read the text while stopping to respond to and discussthe questions and returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e.: whole class discussion, think-pair-share, independent written response, group work, etc.)
Text Dependent Questions
Text Dependent Questions / AnswersReread and look at the picture on page 286. Who can the reader expect to learn about in this story? What did she do that no one else had ever done? Where did she work and for how long? / The story is about Jane Goodall,and she was the first person to study chimpanzees in the wild. Goodall has worked watching chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park, Africa; for more than 40 years.
Goodall did not see what she was looking to study when she first arrived in the national park. How did she observe the chimpanzees’ presence instead? Why couldn’t Jane see the chimpanzees? (page 287) / When Jane arrived in Gombe, she could hear the chimpanzees calling to each other and she found half-eaten fruit under trees. The chimpanzees were shy and would run away whenever Jane got close.
Which details in the story on pages 288, demonstrate how Jane was able to observe the chimps from a distance? What did she observe? Use details from the text in your answer. (page 288) / Jane was able to observe the chimps from a distance because she woke up before dawn, wore clothes that blended in with the jungle, climbed to a high, rocky ledge, and used binoculars to watch them for hours at a time. Jane watched the chimps feeding in fig trees and drinking from streams. She saw how the chimps greeted each other with hugs and kisses, how baby chimps perched in their mother’s laps. Jane watched the chimps make nests high in the treetops at night by bending branches and tucking in smaller twigs. She saw them make pillows out of a handful of leaves.
What did Jane Goodall do when the chimps left their nests in the morning, and why? (Page 289) / Jane climbed up to try the nests for herself because she wanted to see for herself how the nests looked and felt.
Reread pages 288 to 289. What did Jane do that disagreed with scientists at the time? Why? / Jane gave the chimpanzees real names instead of numbers. She gave them names because she felt they had real personalities and that it made sense to name them.
Based on the information on page 290, what conclusions can you draw about the relationship between Jane and the chimpanzees after she had studied them for a while? / The chimpanzees slowly became used to Jane and let her get closer and closer to them. They had a more comfortable and trusting relationship than in the beginning.
What did Jane observe that was very exciting on pages 292 and 293? Why was it so exciting? Give details of her observations in your answer. / Jane was excited because she observed the chimps using items as tools and at the time scientists thought that only people used tools. She saw chimps use a grass stem to pull termites out of their mound, use a handful of leaves to wipe noses, and crumpled leaves as sponges to soak up water to drink from hollow logs.
Answer the following questions using the timeline on pages 294-295:What does the timeline show? What happened in 1942 that may have influenced Jane to study chimpanzees? / The timeline shows important facts about Jane’s life in time order so that it is easier to understand what she has done in her life and when she did it. Jane was given a book about a doctor who went to Africa to help monkeys.
Reread page 294. What else did Jane do to help the chimpanzees other than watching them in the wild? Use the timeline and the section titled “Telling Her Story”. / Jane Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute to help protect chimps and the forests and she told people all over the world about the needs of chimps. She wrote books about her exciting discoveries.
TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
not enough contextual clues provided in the text / Page 286: Scientist
Page 288: Blended
Page 291: Personalities
Page 292:Termite Mound
Page 294-295Time Line / Page 286: watch
Page 287: Calling to each other (as in chimps), Valleys,
Page 288: discouraged
Page 290:“Used to”, Recognized, ,
Raggedy, Reminded, Gardner
Page 291:Made sense
Page 293: Hollow (as in hollow log), Amazed
Page 294: Discoveries, Carefully
TUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING
sufficient context clues are provided in the text / Page 286 & 288: Binoculars
Page 288: Distance
Page 293: Tool / P:age287: Shy, Close
Page 288: Rocky ledge, , Dawn, Streams
Page 289: Cradled, perched, Greeted, Notes, Cozy,
Nests, Bend, Tuck
Page 290: Silvery- beard, Calm, Manner
Page 292: Poked, Stem, Clung
Page 293: Crumpled, , Grabbed,
Wipe
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING
Words addressed with a question or task / WORDS WORTH KNOWING
General teaching suggestions are provided in the Introduction
Culminating Task
- Re-Read, Think, Discuss, Write
Students should use facts and information contained in the story to write a paragraph on how Jane Goodall’s research was different from other scientists and how her findings changed what the world knows about chimpanzees.
Answer: Jane Goodall’s research was different from other scientists at the time because she was the first scientist to study chimpanzees in the wild and observe their interactions in their natural environment. She was also the first scientist to name the animals she was studying instead of referring to them as numbers. Goodall’s findings changed what the world knows about chimpanzees because of the behaviors she observed in the chimpanzees, such as using tools and caring for each other, showed the world that chimpanzees were more like humans than we had ever known.
Additional Tasks
- The teacher should present a map of Africa and help students to locate the continent of Africa and, more specifically, the Gombe National Park region in Africa. The teacher could further use this as an opportunity to study climate and characteristics of the rain forests.
Answer: Varies with activity chosen.
- View a Discovery Education video on Jane Goodall and her study of the chimps in Gombe National Park. (Meet Jane Goodall 6:18)
Answer: You could even have students watch the video and then ask them to compare/contrast the information contained in the video with the information contained in the story.
- For a fluency activity, have students partner read “Watching in the Wild” aloud, one page at a time. Tell students to read each page several times, each time increasing their reading rate. Teacher will circulate among the pairs, providing feedback and encouraging them to increase their speed with each reading, until they are reading at a fluent pace. The teacher should model the expected fluent pace for students before allowing them to begin reading on their own.
Note to Teacher
- Be sure to point out that this is a non-fiction, informational text. This means that the story includes headings to help readers locate information quickly and easily. This also allows readers to make inferences and predictions about what information each section will contain. The selection also includes graphic aids in the form of pictures with captions and a timeline located at the end of the story. Ensure that students understand the importance of looking at these graphic aids and their captions to fully understand the information contained in the story.
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