Lesson Plan Modification

Lesson Plan Modification

Science and experiments have always been interring to me so I decided I would look for a lesson plan about science. I found many on the World Wide Web, I read through a many of them over the last couple weeks and decided to go with one on pumpkins. This lesson was developed for Beginning, advanced beginning ESL students grades 2-6. Within this paper I will state the selected lesson plan, identify the effective strategies, add modification, explain how both these modification support research and theories from our text, Analyze how the modification address interrelationship between culture and language.

The selected lesson plan:

"Pumpkin Science"

Lesson topic: How plants grow; experiments with pumpkins.

Proficiency / Grade level: Beginning, advance beginning ESL students grade 2-6.

Content Concepts and Skills: vocabulary on plant growth; how pumpkin seeds grow into plants; floating and sinking; predicting, estimating, and sequencing.

Vocabulary: Soil, seeds, cover, water, sunlight, roots, shoots, ground, sprout, vines, leaves, buds, flowers, green, yellow, orange, pick seeds, pulp, estimate.

Materials or Resources:

It's Pumpkin time by Zoe Hall

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll

Pumpkin Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace or other pumpkin books developmentally appropriate for the age and English language ability.

Small and different shaped pumpkins. A tub of water.

Instructional Sequence:

When reading a pumpkin book, highlight the vocabulary word you want the students to know and teach students the words they need to know. Make flash cards of the definitions have students read the definition and state the vocabulary word. Provide a word blank when students are learning new vocabulary.

Have students put pictures or sentence strips to together to sequence how pumpkins grow, having student orally tell the story using the correct vocabulary of the pumpkin plant.

Give labels for parts of the pumpkin plant have students to correctly place them on a large drawing of the pumpkin plant, or create a book by drawing pictures about each stage of the pumpkin development.

Sink or float experiment:

Have students predict whether their pumpkin will sink or float have students write their prediction on the provided worksheet.

Have student measure around the pumpkin using yarn and place yarn on a yardstick to find out the circumference and use the same process for the height. Write the findings on the provided worksheet.

Cut top off of pumpkin scoop out the pulp, have students feel and describe the pulp.

Use