Creating a Wild Family Album

• PRINT
• EMAIL

Description: Students select and research an animal of interest. An interactive resource finder helps guide them through the “smartest” way to research and a graphic organizer helps them organize all the information they find.

OBJECTIVE

Students will:

1. Complete an interactive Internet activity on research reports
2. Research an animal of their choice using at least three different resources
3. Complete a graphic organizer on important facts about their animal
4. Gather at least five pictures and a map related to their animal using magazines, computer resources, or hand drawings
5. Diagram a food web with their animal as the center
6. Present research information through picture captions
7. Compile all information into a scrapbook style published presentation

MATERIALS

1. Chart paper/markers
2. Wide assortment of animal books you have gathered from your school/local library or from your personal collection
3. Animal Family Album Research Organizer (PDF)
4. Animal Family Album Guidelines with rubric (PDF)
5. Your Family Photo Album
6. 3 x 5 index cards
7. Paper Clips
8. Magazines containing animal photos
9. Scissors
10. 9 x 12 assorted construction paper
11. Paper and pencils
12. Three prong folders - optional (I normally provide three prong folders or construction paper to students who wish to make their covers out of these materials. If anyone wants to use binders or something more costly, it is up to them to purchase the materials on their own.)

SET UP AND PREPARE

1. Visit your school/local library or your personal classroom collection and gather a group of animal or animal-related books for students to use throughout the unit. Check out the booklist accompanying this unit plan to find several titles that I like to use.
2. Copy the printables for each student.
3. Preview and bookmark websites that would be appropriate and child-friendly for animal research. Direct students to use only those sites available on the “Favorites” list.
4. Preview the Online Activity, Writing Workshop: Research Writing.
5. Find some animal pictures you can use for modeling with the students either online or in a reference book.
6. Decide whether you would like the students to complete the project at home after Step 10 or complete the project in class.

REPRODUCIBLES

1. Animal Family Album Research Organizer (PDF)
   
2. Animal Family Guidelines with Rubric (PDF)
   

DIRECTIONS

This project is the culmination to a life-science unit. When Lesson One begins students are already familiar with the terms and concepts used throughout. If you are doing this research report as a stand-alone project, make sure you provide your students with the vocabulary and prior knowledge necessary to succeed.

Day 1

Part One: Getting the Facts Straight

Step 1: Tell students they will soon have the opportunity to learn more about an animal of their choosing. Ask students to share some of their favorite animals with the class. Choose one of the animals and tell the class you would like them to investigate this animal further. At this point, you will begin a KWHL strategy to activate knowledge of animals and help them focus on important research aspects needed to successfully complete this project.

Step 2: On chart paper, write the name of an animal at the top and K-W-H-L in columns underneath. I prefer to choose an uncommon animal so as not to "steal" a favorite that the students would like to investigate. For this example, I use American Bison. Ask students to tell you everything they Know about this animal, such as where it lives, what it eats, from where it may get its water, how it travels, interesting facts, etc. Write their responses in the K column.

Step 3: Under "W," have students give you examples of things they Would like to learn more about this animal. Ideas include who are its enemies, how fast can it travel, how many bison make up a herd, etc.

Step 4: After completing the "W" column, ask students How they could find all the information they wish to learn about the animal. On the chart paper, under the third column labeled "H", generate a list of reference materials students could use to find out information for any research project. Count on some students to say dictionaries, newspapers, and other non-fiction sources that would not be appropriate. Discuss the best ones to use and why.

Step 5: Tell students they will now have the opportunity to look through some resources and choose an animal they would like to learn more about. Discuss criteria they should think about when choosing an animal. Will you be able to find enough information on this animal? Are pictures of your animal readily available? These are important because I have seen students over the years become discouraged from the start if they are having trouble finding facts about an obscure animal.

Step 6: Allow students to spend some time looking through animal resources in order to help them narrow their research topic. This may be done in your classroom or your school's media center.

Days 2-4

Step 7: When all students have selected an animal, refer back to the "H" section on your KWHL chart and discuss how important it is to use the right resources when you want to find information. Distribute each student a blank piece of paper and ask them to fold it into four parts. Students should then unfold and label each section K, W, H, and L. Have students complete their own organizer for K and W for their animal allowing the class American Bison chart to serve as a model.

Step 8: Using your school's computer lab or through centers set up in your classroom, have students work in groups of two to complete the Scholastic's Online Activity, Writing Workshop: Research Writing. Direct students to click on "Get Started" which will take them through helpful mini-workshops. The first mini-lesson, in fact, explains how to find resources for a research paper on zebras. Following this interactive workshop, have students complete the "H" section on how they want to best approach the research for this project.

Days 3-4

Step 9: Distribute copies of the Animal Research Organizer to each student. Review your expectations. Review the rubric which immediately follows the directions. For each section, discuss and help students decide the best resource to use for each area. Model for students how they can skim books, articles, and other reference information to look for important facts.

Step 10: Provide two to three class periods for your students to research and complete their organizer. At least one of those class periods should be spent using the computer for research. Have students visit the sites you have bookmarked. Monitor students' work to ensure they stay focused and on track with their research.

Day 5

Step 11: Share your family photo album/scrapbook with your students. Discuss what types of photos people put in these albums and why. Following the discussion, tell students they are about to create their very own family album, but it is going to be an Animal Family Album!

Step 12: Using the Project Guidelines printable as a guide, explain to students everything they will need to include in their album. Tell them it will be a series of photographs with captions that present all of the research information they have gathered. Model what several different types of captions would sound like and what types of pictures would go well with them. Tell students how they can creatively put together their album using binders, folders with tabs, construction paper, and more. Establish a reasonable due date; usually two weeks from this step is what works well for me.

Step 13: At this point, allow your students time to begin looking through magazines for animal pictures, habitat features, predators or prey, etc. Tell them they need to find at least five pictures and may want to check off picture types they have already found to help keep them focused on what they still need. Many students will spend their time finding 10 pictures of adorable tiger cubs, but realize later they have nothing for food or shelter.

Days 6-7

Step 14: For the next two days, students can continue to search for pictures and begin to write matching captions on 3 x 5 index cards. I have them paperclip their pictures to the cards to keep them together until it is time to publish in the album. Make sure to model what a completed page should look like for students. A visual image created step-by-step in front of the students is always a great teaching tool.

Day 8 through due date:

Step 15: If you have decided you would like the students to finish the project outside of school, you are ready to send it home with them at this point. Be sure you keep parents/guardians up to date on what is expected and when it is due through notes or newsletters. I always send a note home reminding parents that this is the child's homework, not theirs, and although their support and guidance is appreciated, the work needs to reflect the efforts of their child.

If students are completing the project in school, provide class time each day to allow them to work on putting their albums together.

Step 16: When the albums are finished allow students to show them to their classmates. It normally takes me several days to get through all the album presentations, but the children are so proud of what they have accomplished that it is time well spent. Whenever a student shares in my classroom, I always follow up by taking three questions and three compliments from the class. Students are so eager to share what they know and receive positive feedback in return.

Step 17: After students have shared, provide them with a self-assessment rubric they can use to score themselves on the criteria established earlier. Also, instruct students to revisit their original KWHL organizer and write a list or paragraph describing what they Learned about their animal and about research projects.

SUPPORTING ALL LEARNERS

Authentic Assessments, such as this one, are the easiest way to make sure you have something for everyone. Nearly all children have an interest in animals and this is a great way to get them using research tools and resources. I have had great success using this lesson with very diverse groups of students because it goes beyond the standard five to ten paragraph research report. When pairing students for group work, keep both ability and compatibility in mind, and appeal to the multi-intelligences whenever possible.

LESSON EXTENSION

1. Invite a parent who scrapbooks as a hobby. Have him or her share tricks or techniques for creating a comprehensive scrapbook. They may even bring in tools that students can use to make their final product even sharper, such as scissors with decorative blades, stickers, stencils or stamps.
2. Have students make a high tech family photo album using Power Point. Add a music track that matches the pictures throughout the album.

ASSESS STUDENTS

1. Did students come prepared with prior knowledge they should gained before the lesson began?
2. Were students able to take notes on important animal facts?
3. Were students able to transfer the information on their notes to their captions?
4. Was the material organized and presented effectively?
5. How did students score on the rubric? Use the rubric that is provided to help you score students. I normally score the rubric then ask students to do a self assessment of how they feel they did and what they learned. You can always make your own rubric in the Rubrics section of Scholastic’s Teacher Tools.

ASSIGNMENTS

1. Complete an interactive Internet activity on research reports
2. Complete graphic organizers detailing important facts about their animal and resources for further research
3. Gather at least five pictures and a map related to their animal using magazines, computer resources or hand drawings
4. Diagram a food web with their animal as the center
5. Write informative captions to match pertinent pictures
6. Compile all information into a scrapbook style published presentation

HOME CONNECTION

Keep parents informed of what you are doing in class in science and in all other areas of the curriculum. As indicated before, ask parents to support and guide their students while resisting the parental urge to "take over."

EVALUATE THE LESSON

Did students have a clear understanding of what information they were looking for while researching? Were there enough informational and picture resources available? Were students able to write appropriate captions? Did you model enough? Were the finished products what you expected? What would you do differently next time?

I Just Drank George Washington’s Water!
Students learn about the water cycle through a lesson emphasizing the continuity of this process by claiming we may use the same water as George...

A Trip to the Homeland
Children learn about their countries of heritage by developing a travel log and booking mock travel reservations.

A PowerPointT Geography Report!
Students are taught a multi-step process for preparing geography reports and slide presentations.

ARTICLE	Write a Winning Research Report Keep big assignments from becoming overwhelming.
UNIT PLAN	A Wild Family Album! Prompt students to perform extensive Internet and book research on animal classification, organize their findings, and create an animal family...