February 28, 2017
"Name that Landscape Feature" Activity
Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Content Area: Social Studies
Standard 2: Geography
Evidence Outcome:
- Identify the factors that make a region unique including landforms
- Characterize regions using different types of features including physical features
WIDA Standard:
- English Language Learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in content area of Social Studies
Activity Description:
First, students will be put into small groups of three. Each student will receive a handout with clear directions on what their assigned task is within their group. Member 1 will be given a handout that has 14 pictures of specific and unique landscape features. Some pictures may contain two or three specific land from aspects. Member 2 will be given a handout with 20 definition of geography vocabulary terms, and member 3 will be given 20 vocabulary words. Each student should cut out parts from their assigned handouts and work with their group members to organize and match items together.
Once each group has matched all vocabulary terms, definitions, and pictures together the entire class will participate in a "classroom group mingle". During group mingle students will check and assess others work. In assessing, groups will be required to come up with at least two differences between their work and others, and will be asked to explain their reasoning of why or how something, in their own work or others, could be changed and rearranged.
Finally, after agreeing on the matched items, each group will be given a poster board and will be asked to glue items down into their matched categorizes. Posters should be hung somewhere in the classroom that is visible for students to refer back to often.
Down below is an example of classroom handouts that include pictures, definitions, and geography specific vocab terms.
First, students will be put into small groups of three. Each student will receive a handout with clear directions on what their assigned task is within their group. Member 1 will be given a handout that has 14 pictures of specific and unique landscape features. Some pictures may contain two or three specific land from aspects. Member 2 will be given a handout with 20 definition of geography vocabulary terms, and member 3 will be given 20 vocabulary words. Each student should cut out parts from their assigned handouts and work with their group members to organize and match items together.
Once each group has matched all vocabulary terms, definitions, and pictures together the entire class will participate in a "classroom group mingle". During group mingle students will check and assess others work. In assessing, groups will be required to come up with at least two differences between their work and others, and will be asked to explain their reasoning of why or how something, in their own work or others, could be changed and rearranged.
Finally, after agreeing on the matched items, each group will be given a poster board and will be asked to glue items down into their matched categorizes. Posters should be hung somewhere in the classroom that is visible for students to refer back to often.
Down below is an example of classroom handouts that include pictures, definitions, and geography specific vocab terms.
Benefits of this Activity
This type of activity requires cooperative learning to take place among group members. Students must work together in their small groups to complete a specific task through clearly communicating, negotiating, and analyzing pictures, terms, and definitions with one another. This is an effective activity for the task is made clear and each student was clearly given a defined role within the group that requires them to talk to each other. When giving this activity we are assuming that students have been exposed to the words in earlier lessons, therefore the words should be fairly familiar to each student.The cooperative learning activity above is an especially effective strategy for helping ELLs to learn both language and academic content, because scaffolding is provided to ELLs students through their classroom peers and the discussions that take place. In other words, small group activities require that students talk and listen to each other in order to complete the task, thus developing oral language development of ELLs. Furthermore, working within small groups, rather than being cold called on to speak in-front of the entire class, may lead ELLs to have a lower affective filter and to feel more comfortable in actively engaging in talk and classroom discussion later on. The hands-on-learning that is occurring within the activity provides context and visual support to help make the language more comprehensible for ELLs (and all students as well). Lastly, this type of activity allows the teacher to check for understanding of the content by observing if the students are correctly using the vocabulary words, and are able to identify authentic visuals that go along with the vocabulary words. If the students are correctly pronouncing vocabulary words and are able to easily able to sort & match items then the teacher may determine that the students are ready to move on to something more challenging.
This type of activity requires cooperative learning to take place among group members. Students must work together in their small groups to complete a specific task through clearly communicating, negotiating, and analyzing pictures, terms, and definitions with one another. This is an effective activity for the task is made clear and each student was clearly given a defined role within the group that requires them to talk to each other. When giving this activity we are assuming that students have been exposed to the words in earlier lessons, therefore the words should be fairly familiar to each student.The cooperative learning activity above is an especially effective strategy for helping ELLs to learn both language and academic content, because scaffolding is provided to ELLs students through their classroom peers and the discussions that take place. In other words, small group activities require that students talk and listen to each other in order to complete the task, thus developing oral language development of ELLs. Furthermore, working within small groups, rather than being cold called on to speak in-front of the entire class, may lead ELLs to have a lower affective filter and to feel more comfortable in actively engaging in talk and classroom discussion later on. The hands-on-learning that is occurring within the activity provides context and visual support to help make the language more comprehensible for ELLs (and all students as well). Lastly, this type of activity allows the teacher to check for understanding of the content by observing if the students are correctly using the vocabulary words, and are able to identify authentic visuals that go along with the vocabulary words. If the students are correctly pronouncing vocabulary words and are able to easily able to sort & match items then the teacher may determine that the students are ready to move on to something more challenging.
Works Cited:
- Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory. Policy and Practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing
- Colorado Academic Standards. (2017). Third Grade Social Studies. Retrieved from: https://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/documents/cosocialstudies/documents/socstudies_3rd_grade.pdf
- WIDA Can Do Discriptors. (2014). Retrieved from: https://www.wida.us/standards/CAN_DOs/