Building Background Knowledge: Challenges Related to Clean Water For Everyone | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G3:M4:U2:L1

Building Background Knowledge: Challenges Related to Clean Water For Everyone

In this Lesson

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
  • RI.3.4: Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.
  • SL.3.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
  • SL.3.1b: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
  • L.3.4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can find the gist of an informative text. (RI.3.4, L.3.4)
  • I can find specific details in images that highlight a challenge to having clean water for everyone. (RI.3.1, SL.3.1)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Finding the Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: One Well, Page 26 (RI.3.4, L.3.4)
  • Observations during Poster Walk (RI.3.1, SL.3.1)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Say Something: Water Quote (10 minutes)

B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Reading for Gist: One Well, Pages 26-27 (15 minutes)

B. Poster Walk: Challenges to Having Clean Water (20 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Debrief (10 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards: 

  • This lesson serves as a bridge between Unit 1 and Unit 2. Students work with texts and images leading to the idea that we must act now to protect our water supply. In the Opening, students activate their background knowledge around issues related to water by discussing a quote using the Say Something protocol (SL.3.1). They then read a new page from One Well for the gist and think about why we need to conserve water (RI.3.4, L.3.4). Students build on this understanding through the Poster Walk protocol in Work Time B, discussing the challenges related to clean water represented in the images on the posters (RI.3.1, SL.3.1). Finally, they connect their thinking to the module guiding questions and are introduced to the writing prompt that they will work toward throughout the unit.
  • Students practice their fluency by following along and reading silently as the teacher reads One Well aloud during Work Time A.
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become effective learners by collaborating as they work in groups to discuss the images on the Poster Walk posters.
  • The research reading that students complete for homework helps build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to water. By participating in this volume of reading over time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

How this lesson builds on previous work:

  • In Unit 1, students built background knowledge about water and researched the three main issues related to water discussed in this lesson: access to water, water pollution, and demand for water.
  • Continue to use Conversation Cues to promote productive and equitable conversation.

Areas in which students may need additional support: 

  • Students may need additional support in their discussions during the Say Something and Poster Walk protocols. Consider providing sentence stems or frames for students to reference during these discussions.

Assessment guidance:

  • Consider using the Speaking and Listening Informal Assessment: Collaborative Discussion Checklist during students' partner discussions in Opening A and group discussions in Work Time B (see the Tools page).

Down the road:

  • In the next several lessons, students will read new texts about water, thinking about what the author is trying to tell the reader about challenges related to water and how that compares to their own point of view about those challenges.

In Advance

  • Prepare the Poster Walk posters (see supporting materials). Note that this preparation will take time.
  • Pre-determine student pairs for work in Opening A and group students into groups of three or four for the Poster Walk protocol in Work Time B.
  • Review the Say Something protocol (see the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol).
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1-3 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 3.I.A.1, 3.I.A.3, 3.I.A.4, 3.I.B.5, 3.I.B.6

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with opportunities to return to the familiar text One Well and read a new section for gist; make connections between their learning from Unit 1 and the work they will do in Unit 2; and build on their knowledge of the issues of water access, water pollution, and demand for water during a Poster Walk discussion.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to describe challenges related to water based on the photographs in the Poster Walk. Model the process for students and consider working closely with those who need additional support (see levels of support and the Meeting Students' Needs section).

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • Challenge students to make connections between the information in the water quote introduced in the Opening and information they learned about water in the previous unit. Invite them to identify specific details in any Unit 1 texts that relate to the author?s message to readers in the water quote.

For heavier support:

  • During Work Time B, consider adding a language bank--specific to the photograph--underneath the sentence frame provided at the top of each poster of the Poster Walk. (Example: Consider adding words and phrases such as the following to Poster 1: child, container, bowl, collecting,dirty water, puddle.) When discussing each photograph, students can use the language bank provided on each poster to complete the sentence frame

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): In this lesson, support comprehension by activating prior knowledge. Consider a brief review of Unit 1 to highlight relevance and scaffold connections for students. Additionally, provide questions visually as well as verbally. (Example: Display questions on chart paper or on the board during discussions.)
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): Recall the importance of supporting self-monitoring and executive function skills. In this lesson, facilitate student management of information and resources by allowing students to identify unknown words and record them in their vocabulary log. Also, consider offering scaffolds when reading for gist in the informational text One Well.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Throughout this unit, sustained engagement and effort is essential for student achievement. Continue to remind students of the goal for the work they are doing with the texts in this unit.

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T); Vocabulary Used in Writing (W)

  • demand, pollution, access (L)
  • take for granted, sprout, provide, energy, basic, reducing, ensure (T)

Materials

  • Water quote (one per student and one to display)
  • Academic Word Wall (begun in Module 1; added to during Opening B)
  • One Well (one per student and one to display)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • Finding the Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Page 26 of One Well (one per student and one to display)
  • Finding the Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Page 26 of One Well (example, for teacher reference)
  • Poster Walk posters (new; teacher-created; see supporting materials)
  • Directions for Poster Walk (one to display)
  • Working to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • Markers (one different-colored marker per group)
  • Module Guiding Questions anchor chart (begun in Unit 1, Lesson 1)
  • Opinion Essay: Water Pollution Prompt (one per student and one to display)

Assessment

Each unit in the 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Say Something: Water Quote (10 minutes) 

  • Distribute and display the water quote and read it aloud.
  • Ask students to reread the quote aloud together.
  • Tell students they are now going to use the Say Something protocol to discuss the quote.
  • Move students into pre-determined pairs.
  • Tell students that they will reread the quote with their partner, stopping at each stop sign to discuss the following question:

"What is this author trying to tell us about water?"

  • Model briefly by reading aloud the quote up to the first stopping point. Provide one or two examples of what a student might say at this stopping point. Ensure that the modeled statements or questions are succinct, thoughtful, and related to the text. (Example: "The author is trying to tell us that sometimes people take water for granted.")
  • Have students begin rereading the water quote, stopping at each stopping point to "say something" to each other about the quote.
  • After 5 minutes, invite students to return to their seats. Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What do you think 'take for granted' means?" (to use, accept, or treat in a careless or indifferent manner; to not appreciate something)

"What is the author trying to tell us about water?" (Responses will vary, but may include: The author is trying to tell us that there are a billion people without clean water, or that water is really important, but not everyone can get clean water.)

"What does this make you wonder?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Record students' questions at the bottom of the displayed water quote for future reference.Tell them that in the next few weeks, they should have answers to many of the questions they posed.
  • For students who may need additional support with comprehension: Provide copies of the quote with visual cues above key words or phrases to scaffold understanding. (MMR)
  • For ELLs: (Sentence Frames: Heavier Support) Provide sentence frames for students who need heavier support to use during the Say Something protocol and subsequent class discussion. (Example: One thing the author is trying to tell us about water is ________. The author wants us to know that ___________.)

B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes) 

  • Direct students attention to the posted learning targets and read them aloud:

"I can find the gist of an informative text."

"I can find specific details in images that highlight a challenge to having clean water for everyone."

  • Turn and Talk:

"What do you think you will be doing in this lesson based on these learning targets?"(reading and analyzing texts and thinking about challenges people face with water)

  • Add any new vocabulary to the Academic Word Wall. Invite students to add translations of the words in their home languages in a different color next to the target vocabulary.
  • Remind students that in Unit 1 they learned about access to water, demands on water, and water pollution. Tell students that in this unit they will learn more about the challenges people face with water.
  • For students who may need additional support with activating prior knowledge: Invite students to share one thing they learned in a previous lesson about finding the gist of an informational text. (MMR)
  • For ELLs: (Summarizing the Target) Check for comprehension by asking students to summarize and then to personalize the second learning target

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Reading for Gist: One Well, Pages 26-27 (15 minutes) 

  • Invite students to retrieve their copy of One Well and turn to page 26. Remind them that they began reading this text in Unit 1.
  • Display page 26 and invite students to follow along, reading silently in their heads as you read the text aloud.
  • Turn and Talk:

"What is the text about?" (It is about saving Earth's water.)

  • Share that today students will read this text for the gist and think about challenges people face related to clean water.
  • Direct students' attention to the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart and review as necessary.
  • Remind students that being willing to struggle is one key to being a strong reader of difficult texts.
  • Distribute and display Finding the Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Page 26 of One Well.
  • Display the first paragraph on page 26 and read it aloud.
  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What is the gist of this part of the text?" (It describes the power of water.)

  • Invite students to use the vocabulary strategies listed on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to help determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
  • Repeat this process as you read the remainder of the text. Refer to Finding the Gist and Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Page 26 of One Well (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"What is the author trying to tell us about water?"(We must act now to protect our water supply.)
  • For students who may need additional support determining the gist: Consider highlighting or underlining key phrases in their individual copy of One Well in advance. Recall that this lifts the gist up for them as they read along. (MMR)
  • For ELLs: (Recounting) Before reading, invite students to recount the main ideas from the previous sections of One Well in 30 seconds or less (with feedback) and then again in 20 seconds or less with a partner.
  • For ELLs (Modeling and Thinking Aloud: Determining Gist) Consider modeling and thinking aloud the process for determining the gist of the first section and recording it on the note-catcher before inviting students to do it for the remaining sections.

B. Poster Walk: Challenges to Having Clean Water (20 minutes) 

  • Tell students they are now going to do some thinking about why we must act now to protect our water supply.
  • Point out the Poster Walk posters around the classroom. Tell students they will use this protocol to discuss the following question:
    • "Which challenge related to having clean water can be seen in this image/text?"
  • Turn and Talk:

"What issues related to water have we been learning about so far in this module?"(demand for water, water pollution, and access to water)
"What does demand mean?" (to need or require)
"What does pollution mean?" (harmful or poisonous substances in an environment)
"What does access mean?" (able to use or get)

  • Point out that pollute is the root word and -tion is the suffix added to the word.
  • Note that access is the base word for another word they might see in places with a wheelchair sign: handicap accessible.
  • Tell students they will use the Poster Walk protocol to think more about these three challenges. Their job is to find details in the images that tell them something about each of these challenges.
  • Tell students that there isn't a "right" category, but what is important is that they look closely at the details in the images and the quotes to think more carefully about the three challenges presented. Explain that some images might seem to fit in more than one category.
  • Focus students on Poster Walk Poster 1 and provide a brief model of what they might discuss. Example:
    • "I am looking at this image of a boy scooping up water from sand. A detail I see is that this is a small puddle of water in the middle of a lot of sand. I'm going to write that here in the 'Poster 1' column. I think this is about access, because I can see that the little boy is getting water from a puddle to put in a container. It seems that he is trying to get water from anyplace he sees it. So I am also going to write 'access' in this column."
  • Display and briefly review the Directions for Poster Walk, reminding students about the expectations for group work and discussion.
  • Focus students on the Working to Become Effective Learners anchor chart and specifically on collaboration. Tell them that because they will discuss the images on the posters in groups, they will need to collaborate.
  • Group students and indicate where each group will start. You may leave this open-ended and allow groups to visit as many posters as time allows or assign particular posters to each group.
  • Distribute markers and ask each group to choose one recorder.
  • Ask students to begin.
  • After 15 minutes, invite students to go back to the poster where they began and read through the comments on their assigned poster. Explain that they should be thinking about what they notice and wonder about what has been written on their poster.
  • Ask, and then invite each group to share out round-robin style what they noticed and wondered until all posters have been shared:

"What patterns or themes did you notice in all of the comments on your assigned Poster Walk poster?" (Responses will vary, but may include: I noticed that many of the groups thought this picture showed the challenge of access to water.)

  • Use a checking for understanding technique (e.g., Red Light, Green Light or Thumb-O-Meter) for students to self-assess against the learning targets.
  • For students who may need additional support with motivation and engagement: Activate background knowledge by inviting students to recall and share with an elbow partner a previous experience with Poster Walks. (MMR, MME)
  • For ELLs: (Displaying and Reviewing Water Issues Note-catchers) Before inviting students to begin the Poster Walk, consider displaying and reviewing the research note-catchers from Unit 1 to build confidence and remind students of all they've learned about the three water issues--or challenges--so far.
  • For ELLs: (Parts of Speech: Noticing) When discussing the words access and accessible, ask:

"What is the difference between the words access and accessible?" (Access can bea noun that means the ability to obtain something or a verb that means to get or obtain something. Accessible is an adjective that describes something that is easilyobtained.)

  • For ELLs: (Modeling and Thinking Aloud: Poster Walk) Invite two confident students to role-play the Poster Walk with you. Model and think aloud the Poster Walk protocol with one poster, including recording your group?s response to the question using details from the picture or text to support your answer. Use the sentence frame and language bank (see "For heavier support") provided at the top of each poster in your response.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Debrief (10 minutes)

  • Turn and Talk:

"Why must we act now to protect our water supply?" (Responses will vary, but may include: We must protect our water supply because there is not enough clean water to go around. Water is the most basic and important need for everyone.)

  • If productive, cue students to repeat or paraphrase what their classmate said:

"Can you repeat what your classmate said?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Directstudents' attention to the Module Guiding Questions anchor chart and read the questions aloud. Remind them that they are working toward creating a PSA about the importance of conserving water.
  • Tell students that throughout this unit, they will think about how people can persuade others to take action to contribute to a better world.
  • Distribute and display the Opinion Essay: Water Pollution Prompt and read it aloud.
  • Turn and Talk:

"In your own words, what will you be doing throughout this unit?" (writing an opinion essay persuading others to take action about conserving water by explaining how water conservation affects us all and why we must protect our water supply)

  • Answer clarifying questions.
  • For students who may need additional support with expressive language, facilitate communication by providing sentence frames to help them organize their thoughts. (MMAE) 
  • For ELLs: (Revisiting Learning Targets) Revisit the learning targets introduced in Opening A. Ask students to give specific examples of how they worked toward achieving them in this lesson. Invite students to rephrase the learning targets now that they have more experience writing complete sentences and writing introductory paragraphs.

Homework

HomeworkMeeting Students' Needs

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.
  • For ELLs: (Oral Response) Read aloud, discuss, and respond to your prompt orally, either with a partner, family member, or student from grades 2 or 4, or record an audio response.

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