Wheatley Lesson Plan

Lesson:
Date:
Focus/Objective:

Module 2, Lesson 5
Monday, March 14, 2016
Reading:
Students will read through The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau,
stopping to ask and answer as they read to indulge curiosity and monitor
comprehension.
Students will respond to the question Why did Jacques Cousteau observe sea
animals?
Writing:
Students will identify topic sentences in informational/expository paragraphs, and
extrapolate criteria of strong topic sentences (what, why).

Connection to
Achievement Goal:

Prerequisite Skills:

Diagnostic:

Assessment:

Students will write an expository paragraph about how/why Jacques Cousteau

observed animals.
Our school Big Goal for the year is 100 Steps of Reading Growth. We measure
students reading growth using F&P steps and set a goal that each classroom will
make 100 steps, on average each student is growth 4 reading steps throughout the
year. The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau will give students access
to a complicated, interactive text that will push them to discuss with one another,
verbalizing their thoughts and ideas and then create an expository paragraph in
summation of the lesson.
Reading:
Keeping a focus question in mind
Using pictures/illustrations and context clues to locate relevant evidence
and draw inferences
Writing:
Understanding that we use different types of writing when we want to
convey different types of information
After watching the video on Jacques Cousteau, together the class will have an
opportunity to share their knowledge about him, sea animals and make
connections to Jane Goodall by filling in a KWL. This will give me an opportunity to
see what knowledge students hold already, as we begin to read the story and
answer the key question for the lesson.
Reading:
Students discussion responses to why did Jacques Cousteau dedicate his
entire life to studying and observing sea creatures? (Use teacher tracker to
evaluate student responses)

Learner Variance:

Writing:
Students will write their own informational paragraphs about how Jacques
Cousteau observed animals. Paragraphs must include a topic sentence
that tells us what the paragraph is about.
Strengths/Preferences/Interests:
Among so many of my students there is a natural curiosity for underwater
life and sea creatures. We saw this while reading about Jane Goodall and
this interest connects to our upcoming field trip to the aquarium.
This book is also written very accessibly, with beautiful illustrations to
support understanding.
Students are able to engage orally with high proficiency, openly and
excitedly, which will translate well into their writing in the second portion of
the lesson.
Students are also getting used to (or helping the teacher) finding textual
evidence.
Needs/Challenges:
One challenge will be getting students to key into Cousteaus motivations.
The answer is very inferential, more nuanced and not mentioned explicitly
in the text.
The focus of this writing lesson is about topic sentences and many
students have not seen many examples of these yet.

Key Points:

Strategies for Differentiating for Readiness:

Every student will have their own copy of the text in front of them, to help
with following along, giving evidence, using illustrations to aid
understanding and building context.
I will use strategic student-to-student pairings and carpet seating
arrangements to give students access to different ideas, without reading
level to be a barrier.
Some students will also have the option to represent their informational
paragraphs orally and/or with sentence frames.
Reading:
Jacques Cousteau faced many challenges in life but he used the ocean to
regain his strength and achieve his dream.
Because of this, when he became a scientist, he used his entire career to
study sea creatures, find new ways to move about the ocean and preserve
sea creatures and the oceans of the world.
No matter what challenge Cousteau faced, he never gave up and tried to
find a solution to his problem.
Writing:
A good informational paragraph includes:
o It teaches us new information

Agenda:

o It has a topic sentence that tells us what the paragraph is going to

be about.
o It has at least relevant 3 facts or details
o It has a concluding sentence
Your topic sentence is what well be working on today remember a topic
sentence tells your readers what the paragraph is going to be about.
Reading:
Introduction & Video (10)
Read The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau (10)
Class Discussion (15)
Writing:
Framing/Intro to Informational Writing (5)
What Makes a Good Informational Paragraph (10)
Topic Sentences Practice (15)
Independent Writing (15)

Materials:
Response Sheet
Anchor Chart with Different Types of Writing (Narrative/Story, Descriptive Paragraph)
Apple Paragraph (Missing Topic Sentence)
Clean Up The Sea Paragraph
Writing Page with Sentence Stems

Reading
Introduction & Video (10)
- Last week we learned about Jane Goodall, a woman who loved studying animals so much that she
turned her dream of living among the animals in Africa into a reality. Today, we are going to begin
learning about another person who loved studying a different type of animal, Jacques Cousteau.
We are going to watch a short video and I want to see if you can figure out what kind of animals
Jacques Cousteau studied.
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvzrVD6xww
- What animals did Jacques Cousteau study? Sea/underwater creatures!
- I also know that so many of you have so much knowledge about sea creatures already. Were
going to quickly fill in our KWL chart to share our knowledge but also point out some things were
wondering before we read.
- Before we share whole group, take 1 min. to turn-and-talk to your partner about what you already
know about sea creatures. Remember, were at a level 1, bananas share first.
- Differentiation Strategy: Using the video as an introduction not only served as a hook but also gave
my ELL students the opportunity to see and hear some background on Cousteau before reading

the book and sharing out during the KWL. During this block of the day, I also strategically seat
students on the carpet and partner them heterogeneously to increase engagement in sharing.
Sharing with a partner also gives every student the opportunity to share verbally and gives them a
first run at their ideas before sharing whole group. To manage this process more smoothly, each
partner has a banana and apple and this allows me to quickly tell students who is sharing first.
The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau (10)
- We are going to read a book about Jacques Cousteaus life. While Im reading, I want you to be
thinking about why Jacques Cousteau spent his life studying underwater creatures.
- With your copy in front of you, I want you to make sure youre holding our key question in mind,
following along and using the illustration to help you better understand the story.
-

Post-reading: This book has so many interesting ideas and facts about Jacques Cousteau in this
bookIm wondering if anyone has any questions about the text. It might be about what
something means, or a wondering you havewhatever questions come to your mind! Allow a few
students to answer questions about the text, and work together as a class to answer them using
the text (if possible, of course). You can also use this time to clear up any student
misunderstandings or misconceptions. If students are struggling to ask questions on their own,
feel free to model for them a question that naturally comes to you while reading.
Differentiation Strategy: In order to ensure all students have access to activity, I also offered
question stems to help particular students (Tyrone, Siniyah, Nicholas) put language around their
thoughts and curiosities. To manage this process, I have the question stems written out on post-it
notes beforehand and can quickly pass them to students while others are called on the share
whole group.

Class Discussion (15)

- Jacques Cousteau dedicated his entire life to studying and observing sea creatures. Why did he
do this? Youre going to have 10 minutes to respond to the question, Why did Jacques Cousteau
observe sea animals? and provide as much evidence from the text as possible to support your
answer. Im going to have the book right here on the docucamif theres any evidence youd like
to see, just raise your hand and ask.
- During this discussion, we will again use our 2 cents everyone will have 2 pennies and have the
opportunity to share with the class twice. Remember this is also an opportunity to hear from
everyone on our team so no one can share more than twice until everyone has used both their
pennies
- Make sure students are following along with their own texts as students pick out and share
evidence.
- Differentiation Strategy: Students sit in a circle with two cents in front of them during a discussion.
During the discussion, everyone two cents to give, meaning that everyone needs to participate at
least twice. Once a student speaks, they throw one cent into middle to indicate to the team that
they have spoken. Students must look during the discussion to pass the talking piece to someone

who still has their two cents to offer. While others are speaking, students must be tracking and
attentively listening because they have to inform their teammates that they have something to say
or add to the discussion by showing the symbol for evaluate your teammates answer or build on to
your teammates answer. To manage this process, we have aligned seats around the carpet, based
on strategic pairing, and then the person in the front left corner (Jayvon) immediately starts by
passing around the jar of coins, where everyone takes 2 pieces.

Writing
Framing (2)
Today, were going to start a new type of writing. Before this, weve been writing stories that came
from our lives or our imaginations. Last week, we wrote descriptive paragraphs to capture exactly
what we observed. Today were going to write informational or explanatory paragraphs in order to
teach the reader something new.
Exemplar Analysis and Criteria for Excellence (5)
Lets look at this informational paragraph:
o Jacques Cousteau never gave up, even when he faced challenges in life. When he was
young, he was weak and sick. But that didnt stop him. He swam to build up his strength.
He was also hurt in a bad car accident and doctors told him he would have to wear arm
braces for his whole life. But, that didnt stop him. He swam in the sea to build up his
strength. When he became a scientist, he wanted to stay under water for long periods of
time and move about the ocean. The diving suits didnt allow him much freedom of
movement, so he invented the aqua lung. No matter what challenge Cousteau faced, he
never gave up and tried to find a solution to his problems.
Now, were going to turn-and-talk to share with our partners What does this paragraph teach us?
Remember were at a level 1 and apples go first this time.
As you move from pair to pair, look for answers like, Jacques Cousteau was a brave and
determined. He always kept working until he found a solution.
Now were going to share our ideas whole group. I heard some really interesting conversations as I
was walking around. I want to share those ideas whole group now. Yes, this paragraph informs, or
teaches us, something new. What does this make you think about Jacques? Can you relate to him
in anyway?
What are the characteristics that make this paragraph easy to understand?
With colored markers, underline the different criteria of an excellent informational paragraph and
draw a picture next to each to symbolize the message:
o It teaches us new information
o It has a topic sentence that tells us what the paragraph is going to be about.
o It has at least relevant 3 facts or details

o It has a concluding sentence

Differentiation Strategy: In order to ensure everyone had access to the messages within these four
components of an excellent expository paragraph, I want to include pictures to symbolize these on
the anchor chart. To ensure drawing these images doesnt cost us time, Ive printed them out and
will stick them up as we go through each component.
Today, were going to focus on writing topic sentences that tell us what the paragraph is going to be
about. Topic sentences are important because they help the reader understand the most important
ideas of the paragraph, so they dont have to go searching around for the most important
information. They get our brain ready because we know whats coming.

Guided Practice (15)

Example 1:
Lets practice creating a topic sentence for this paragraph about a familiar topicapples. Topic
sentences go at the beginning or top of the paragraph because it tells us what the paragraph is
going to be about.
Read/introduce the apple paragraph.
o Have students talk in partners about the big idea of the paragraph. Hmm. Lets look to see
what all the sentences have in common.
o I heard many of you mention the words apples as well as different sizes and colors.
Lets write a topic sentence to tell the reader what this paragraph is about.
o Shared writing: Together, add a topic sentence something to the effect of, There are many
different types of apples.
Example 2:
Im going to read you another informational paragraph thats missing a topic sentence. Lets create
a topic sentence for this paragraph to tell the reader what this paragraph is about. In this
paragraph, the author Dan Yaccarino, is explaining to us why Jacques Cousteau worked on
cleaning up the sea.
o Read/introduce the paragraph on chart paper.
o Have students talk in partners about the big idea of the paragraph. Hmm. Lets look to see
what all the sentences have in common.
o Have students share. Together, write a topic sentence something to the effect of: Jacques
Cousteau decided he had to help clean up the sea.
Independent (15)
Now, were going to write our own informational paragraphs about how Jacques Cousteau
observed animals. These are some of the details we discussed during reading.

Some students will be given sentence frames, like those below:

Jacques Cousteau________________________________________. He ________________________

and ________________________ and__________________________________. He observed animals
because ________________________________________________.

In order to tie the lesson together and allow students to share their work, we will come back
together on the carpet 5 minutes earlier to allow students to read their paragraphs out loud. This
would not only have modeled exemplary work for my class but would have also given them the
chance to be proud of and share their work and also work to enrich their verbal skills.
Differentiation Strategy: During this independent time, I will be conferencing with students orally
who can explain their ideas verbally more easily than in writing. This will give those students the
opportunity to highlight their thinking while not feeling frustrated by having to share their thoughts in
writing only (Brent, Tyrone, Euriel, Taamil). These students, in addition to a few others (Siniyah,
Nicholas), will receive sentence frames to help with their writing of the paragraph. To manage this
process, I have copies for these students made already and will go to them first to give them the
writing paper with the sentence frames. I will use the remainder of the independent time to
conference with my strongest writers to see if they want to share (Victory, Lundynn, Emilio, Quran)
whole group as an enrichment opportunity.