Just Go Wild: An Animal Research Project

Honors English I

Eastern Guilford High School

Context:

Students in English I spend most of the semester immersed in textbook-based literature in preparation for the reading/writing skills-based state end-of-course exam. While the textbook is obviously designed for EOC preparation, it is possible to teach the necessary skills using project-based instruction on a topic that holds global importance and personal interest for the students.

Generally speaking, kids like animals. By researching an animal, its habitat, its behaviors, its potential endangerment, and its relevance to culture, society, and nature, and then writing about, drawing, discussing, and presenting their findings, students meet North Carolina skills standards and learn valuable information about their world.

Curriculum:

This project addresses multiple English I standard course of study (SCOS) objectives, as well as SCOS objectives in science, art and social studies.

From www.ncpublicschools.org*. Students in English I explore the ways that audience, purpose, and context shape oral communication, written communication, and media and technology. While emphasis is placed on communicating for purposes of personal expression, students also engage in meaningful communication for expressive, expository, argumentative, and literary purposes. In English I, students will:

• Express reflections and reactions to literature and to personal experience.
• Explain meaning, describe processes, and answer research questions.
• Evaluate communication and critique texts.
• Make and support an informed opinion.
• Participate in conversations about and written analysis of literary genres, elements, and traditions.
• Use knowledge of language and standard grammatical conventions .

*Please see the DPI website for a complete list of strands and competency goals for English I and other subject areas.

Resources:

·   School media center

·   School computer lab (Internet, Web Quest)

·   Nature-based poetry (link to poetry)

· Ofner, Terry, ed. What on Earth: An Ecology Reader. Perfection Learning: Logan, Iowa, 2001. (Selections include "The Face of a Spider," "The Last Dog," and "A Sound of Thunder.")

·   Science, art and photography teachers

·   North Carolina Zoological Park

Instructional Sequence:

*Indicates a student assignment.

Week One: I ntroduction

·   Teachers will conduct a brief global awareness survey to introduce students to the project.

·* Students will then go to the computer lab and answer a series of questions using a Web Quest.  (see attachment)

·   To reinforce understanding of biomes and biodiversity, we will discuss the Web Quest findings as a class.

· **  S tudents will be divided into groups of three. Each group will choose an animal; all animals up for

  grabs are represented at the NC Zoo. Groups will then spend 45-50 minutes in the media center

  researching basic information about their animals and write a 1-2 page descriptive essay about their

  animal. Groups will also create a drawing of their animal.

·   Students will read the essay "The Face of a Spider." Whole class discussion will include author’s tone, main idea, identification of figurative language, nature themes, and author’s purpose.

·   Class will read and discuss Annie Dillard’s “The Giant Water Bug” after participating in a nature walk ending at a pond/marsh area on the school grounds.

·   * Class will read the short story "The Last Dog." Discussion will include author's tone, mood, theme, plot development, and conflict and resolution. Students will write a personal reflection about what their worlds would be like if something they loved no longer existed.

·   Works cited workshop. Students will learn the MLA documentation process through creating a mock works cited page.

Week 2: I mmersion

·   ** Groups will spend the entire class period in the media center and computer lab researching specific details about their animal’s habitat. Their findings should include geographic location(s), biome identification, habitat description, adaptations the animal has made over time, cohabitation/herd/flock behaviors. Groups will produce a 1-2 page descriptive/expository essay about their animal’s habitat. A sketch of a typical habitat will also be included.

· * Students will read several examples of nature poetry. Whole class discussion will include identification of figurative language (simile, metaphor, etc.), poetic form, and nature as inspiration. After exploring various poetic forms (both prescriptive structures and free verse), students will write their own nature poetry based on their animal and its habitat.

·   * Using the Internet and print resources, including newspapers and periodicals, individual students will find articles about current news events involving their animals. Students will also research current legislature, both national and international, that involves their animals and habitats (i.e. are there laws protecting the animal due to endangerment?). They will compose written reactions to and a summary of their articles.

·   The photography teacher will conduct a brief seminar on photographing animals and nature to prepare students to create a photo essay.

·   ** The class will journey to the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro to collect more information, observe their animals, and photograph them. Each student will compose a field report based on his/her observations of their respective animals at the zoo.

Week 3: I llumination

· * Students will use their pictures from the NC Zoo to create a photo essay of their animal and its habitat, as well as compose a field report that details their observations of their animal and its habitat throughout the day.

· * Using Internet and print media resources, students will explore wide social topics involving their animals—how the animal is perceived and perhaps revered by other cultures, what the animal contributes to culture, society, agriculture, etc., whether or not the animal has historical relevance or is associated with particular myths, folk tales, or legends. Using this information, as well as information gathered during other research sessions, groups will create an educational advertising campaign underscoring an important fact or issue about their animal. The ad may be for simple informational purposes—enlightening a larger audience about their animal and its habitat and characteristics—or it may attempt to alter public behaviors toward their animal and/or its environment. The finished product could take one of many forms: t-shirt logo, billboard ad, flier, radio spot, or television commercial.

·   * Individual students will explore animal-related careers using Internet and print media resources. Students will choose a career and determine the following about it: how much education is required, what (if any) field research or experience is required, where people with this job are potentially employed, and what the current employment outlook is for the job. Students will then reconvene as groups and create a graphic representation of their chosen careers using Inspiration software.

· * Groups will create a scientifically accurate children’s book about their animal. Books will be illustrated, and must adhere to the fiction plot model (exposition, narrative hook, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution). The story’s conflict must be based on an actual peril or struggle facing the group’s animal; the setting must be accurate; the narration must be easily identified as first person (from the animal’s POV) or third person, either limited or omniscient.

·   Media specialist will conduct a Power Point workshop in the computer lab to teach students to use the program.

·   * Groups will spend a class period in the computer lab creating a Power Point presentation. The presentation will include all factual research the students have gathered, as well as enhancements and additions per each group.

Week 4: I ndoctrination

·   By this point, all research will be complete and all projects finished. Students will be given a final day to fine tune their final products: a Power Point presentation; a portfolio that includes current events, personal reactions, poetry, small research papers, drawings, photo essay, (if size allows), and ad campaign (if size allows); the children’s book; and a project display containing any products that the portfolio cannot accommodate.

·   Groups will present their findings, opinions, and finished products to their classmates, teachers, media staff, parents, community members, and invited guests.

Products:

·   Portfolio containing the following:

• Biome Web Quest
• Basic descriptive essay—animal
• Sketch—animal
• Basic descriptive essay—animal’s habitat
• Sketch—habitat
• Current event, summary, and personal reaction (1 per group member)
• Five poems about animal (per group member)
• Career graphic
• Photo essay~
• Educational advertisement~

·   Power Point Presentation

·   Children’s storybook

~Students will have the option of putting larger products onto a project board if a portfolio cannot accommodate them.

Extensions:

·   Burn Power Point presentations to CD to save and/or share with other classes

·   Offer the storybooks to the local elementary schools, and possibly allow students to travel to the schools to read their books aloud

·   Adopt an animal or habitat at the zoo

Assessment:

·   Rubrics

·   Panel assessments of all finished products, including presentation; panel will consist of peers, other teachers, and invited guests.

Vocabulary:

·   project-based instruction: using projects—rather than just lectures, tests, and worksheets—to engage students in the learning process (Co-nect, 2002).

·   SCOS: standard course of study; objectives set forth by the state of NC to guide teachers in pacing and instruction.

·   EOC: end-of-course test; state examination testing students on skills and/or information acquired in a high school course.

·   Web Quest: an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (http://webquest.sdsu.edu).

·   descriptive essay: type of writing that “paints a picture” for the reader using words.

·   tone: an author’s attitude toward his or her subject matter

·   figurative language: imagery; devices such as simile and metaphor that appeal to a readers senses

·   reflective essay: type of writing that examines how something affected the author emotionally or spiritually.

·   works cited: literally, sources used in research; MLA term meaning “bibliography”

·   prescriptive poetry: verse that follows a specific structural format (i.e. haiku, tanka, sonnet)

·   free verse: poetry that has no set structure or rhyme scheme

·   photo essay: a visual representation of a limited subject accompanied by brief text.

·   expository essay: an essay that explains a process or specific topic.

·   exposition: the beginning of a story; introduces characters and setting

·   narrative hook: statement or event that grabs a reader’s attention

·   conflict: struggle that drives the action of the story

·   rising action: events that happen as a result of the main conflict and lead to the story’s climax

·   climax: the turning point or most intense moment in a story

·   falling action: events that lead up to the resolution of the main conflict

·   resolution: the main conflict is ended in some way

·   setting: where a story takes place

·   narration: how an author chooses to tell a story