close their eyes and imagine they are camping in the woods. Describe how it starts to thunder lighting and downpour. Ask how they would adapt to their situation and discuss.
This activity would activate background
knowledge in students who may have experience with camping, heighten salience of autonomy, relevance, and choice as they decide how to take action given this situation.
Ask student to restate goal of lesson during
introduction while displaying on the board
This would heighten the salience of
goals and objectives by having students physically and orally review the lesson goals as well as having it on the board to refer to. This will offer multiple ways of displaying the information and can incorporate the use of prompts or scaffolds for visualizing the desired outcome.
When students become frustrated with
multiple resources or tools for representation, encourage them to selfregulate and focus on the task at hand by taking it one step at a time.
This will help students manage their
emotions during the bulk of the lesson as well as seek external emotional support and develop coping skills throughout the lesson.
Representation Activity
How would this help students meet the
goal?
Have student view video of a giraffe
eating. Have them note what they find
Students will be able to view the video
while noting what they find interesting
interesting about the video and let
students share important points while noting adaptations
which will get them thinking about
adaptation specific characteristics related to animals. This allows for the customization of displaying information in a fun way.
Decode key terms and vocabulary while
promoting understanding across languages by offering multiple media to facilitate decoding of text and visuals.
Students will decode key terms by
looking at root words or context clues within the vocabulary. Also including visual representations for defining the text will foster comprehension for ELLs.
Not only use examples of adaptations in
animals but include adaptations in plants and humans, etc
This will highlight patterns and big ideas
within the lesson goals. Students will be able to use graphic organizers to emphasize key relationships as well as use multiple examples to explain the lesson objectives.
Action and Expression
How would this help students meet the goal?
How would this help students meet the
goal?
Offer a bird beak adaptation lab for the
students in which they explore how different bird beaks (utensils) work better for different kinds of bird foods (beans, rice, etc)
This provides a physical activity to get
students familiar with adaptations and how they actually affect some animals. Students are able to participate handson within the lesson and lab activity.
Provide checklists for students to complete
as they research and explore resources while preparing for assessment and presentation
This will guide appropriate goal setting
in students which will keep them on task and on schedule while scaffolding expected appropriate behavior.
Provide students with helpful feedback
throughout the lesson by asking questions to guide in the self-monitoring and
This will scaffold the students learning
and keep them on task as they will realize the teacher is paying attention
reflection process
to detail and what is being
accomplished. The students will be able to take this opportunity to ask questions, get help, and clarify lesson goals and objectives while selfassessing and reflecting upon their work.
(Psychology of Emotions, Motivations and Actions) David A. Contreras-Psychology of Thinking (Psychology of Emotions, Motivations and Actions) - Nova Science Pub Inc (2010)