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Rocks and Their Properties: Day 5


Lesson Overview | Unit Description | Lesson Description for Day | State Standards
Goals | Methods | Wrap-Up | Assessment | Materials

Lesson Overview

Title: Rocks and Their Properties: Day 5
Author: CAST
Subject: Science
Grade Level(s): 3–5
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Unit Description

In this unit, entitled Rocks and Their Properties, students will engage in cooperative research projects in order to learn about the properties of the three basic rock types and the processes that form them. In order to ensure that students can express what they learned as accurately as possible, a variety of options will be available for communicating their new knowledge.

This investigation of the properties of rocks should take 6–7 class periods. The UDL approach used in this unit provides the following:
  • presentational options to make information accessible to all students
  • varied strategies and techniques to reach all students
  • motivational options to ensure that all students can be engaged
  • flexible classroom management techniques that increase opportunities for all students
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Lesson Description for Day

Students will share their final products with the rest of the class.

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State Standards

Massachusetts State Standards for Science and Technology/Engineering, Strand 1: Earth and Space Science

  1. Massachusetts Science Standard 1.3: (Rocks and Their Properties) Identify three categories of rocks (metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary) based on how they are formed, and explain the natural and physical processes that create these rocks.
  2. Massachusetts Science 1.6: (Earth's History) Describe and give examples of ways in which the Earth's surface is built up and torn down by natural processes, including deposition of sediments, rock formation, erosion, and weathering.
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Goals

Unit Goals:
  1. Students will describe the natural and physical processes that create metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks.
  2. Students will successfully complete a cooperative research project that refines their basic understanding of rock formation processes.
  3. Students will apply their understanding of the processes that create sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks to making predictions about how the rock cycle could be impacted by changes in the forces that contribute to rock formation.

Lesson Goals:
  1. Students will successfully demonstrate their knowledge of rock formation processes in varied ways by sharing their cooperative research projects with the class.
  2. Students will generate well-framed questions in response to each presentation.
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Methods

Anticipatory Set:

None for this lesson.


Introduce and Model New Knowledge:

None for this lesson.


Provide Guided Practice:

None for this lesson.


Provide Independent Practice:

Allow each small group ample time to share their products with the class. Encourage students to ask at least three questions of each group. Celebrate students' achievements in completing their projects.

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Wrap-Up

None for this lesson.

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Assessment

Formative/Ongoing Assessment:

None for this lesson.


Summative/End Of Lesson Assessment:

1. As each group shares their final products, use the attached assessment rubrics to begin evaluating them. You will need to complete your evaluations after the students have left school for the day, when you'll have additional time to study them in-depth.

2. After each group's presentation is complete, have the class either write, record, or draw and label a summary of the three basic processes through which rocks are formed. In combination with their final products, use these summaries as a way to evaluate the depth and quality of students' learning.

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Materials

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Print

UDL Connections
UDL Connection
UDL Feature:

Strategic Network – Provide flexible opportunities for demonstrating skill. (e.g., written, oral, or visual presentation, explanations, word process).

Listen

UDL Reflection:

By offering options for expressing new knowledge about the rock formation process, I'll be able to capture information about the learning of a greater variety of students. Not all students perform best in one medium, so the options I provide will allow more students to maximize their performance.

Listen

Note: If you do not get sound when you click on the audio Listen button within a UDL connection, simply close and reopen the UDL Connection, and click on the audio Listen button again.

UDL Connections
UDL Connection
UDL Feature:

Strategic Network – Provide flexible opportunities for demonstrating skill. (e.g., written, oral, or visual presentation, explanations, word process).

Listen

UDL Reflection:

By providing flexibility in the ways students share what they learned from the class presentations, I'm getting a more accurate assessment of their learning. To have only allowed one way for students to respond would have raised barriers to expressing knowledge for many of my students.

Listen

Note: If you do not get sound when you click on the audio Listen button within a UDL connection, simply close and reopen the UDL Connection, and click on the audio Listen button again.