Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking connection)

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Teacher:
Content & Title:
Grade Level:
Laura Wagner
Writing/Science
6th
Standards:
PO 2. Formulate questions based on observations that lead to the development of a hypothesis
W.6.1a Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
The students will introduce a claim in an opinion piece, with evidence (support), to show the
observations that have lead to their hypotheise of the pros and the cons, and how they want the
future of non-renewable and renewable resources to look like.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
(formative) An opinion piece about what they want the future of the renewable and non-renewable
resources to look like and the pros and cons with supporting evidence.
(summative) Students will start with the pre-test by putting renewable and non-renewable
resources under different categories on the first day of the lesson. They will not have knowledge
about what these resources are, or what they mean. They will make educated guess in order to put
them on the poster boards. On the last day of the lesson students will walk in to the same thing before
starting their work. They will have five minutes to put the correct resources in the correct category,
this being the post-test. This shows the students have learned what these resources are in the weeks
lessons.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from simple to more
complex):
Students will identify what their claim is and have supporting evidence.
Students will use relative evidence to support their claim.
Students will know the structure to organize their ideas.
Students will determine how to organize reasons and evidence to logically support their claims.
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what students are
doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)
Students will be learning about renewable and non-renewable resources. They will be using future
thinking and systems thinking in order to determine how they want the future of our resources to look
like, and what will happen if we keep going down the path we are on. Students will be able to identify
the pros and the cons of the resources, the advantages and disadvantages of these resources. The
students will be able to make a claim about these resources and use evidence from the weeks lessons to
support their claim. Students will learn about the importance and values of this topic.
This topic is being taught in order for students to see the values and importance of how resources
affect our daily lives. Students need to know what happens if we run out of these resources and what
happens if we dont make neccassary changes.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this lesson)
Students will need to know what a claim is.
Students will need to know what supporting evidence is.
Students will need to know the definitions of pros and cons.
Students will need to know what renewable and non-renewable resources are. (Which we have
discussed in days 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this unit).
Students will need to know what an opinion piece is.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)

Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)

Future thinking. Systems thinking.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your lesson plan connects
to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of thinking you selected and used in
this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included meaningfully in the lesson plan.)
My lesson will connect the students to use future thinking and systems thinking. My lesson will use
future thinking as they will have to think about how they want their future to look like with these
resources. They will have to think about the past and the present and figure out where to go from here.
They will have to thinking about all the different ways that we use our resources and how they will be
affected if we keep using them the way that we do. This will cause them to use systems thinking as they
have to see the way that resources affect different systems in our lives.
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)
Students will be reminded of the safety rules, and how to work in groups of students.
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. (to explore)
2. (to elaborate)
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
Materials: (list item and possible quantity)
1. Non-renewable
1. Worksheets.
2. Renewable
2. Youtube.
3. Resources
Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student attention, pose a question
(IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
To start the days lesson, the teacher will have poster The students will walk in to class and have a
boards labeled Renewable Resources and Nonseat. Once asked to do what they did on the first
renewable Resources. The students will then be
day, the students will get up and put their cards
asked to put the resources under the correct
on the correct poster board. The students will
catergory. The students will remember this from
then have a seat and listen for future
day one of the lesson, and be interested in why they instruction.
are doing it again. Once all students of put their
The students will answer questions asked by the
resources in the different categories, the teacher will teacher.
then ask if the students had fun during the week
The students will think about how they want
and learning about the resources. Once the class
the future of these resources to look.
responds, the teacher will review what has been
placed on the poster boards. The teacher will say,
look at everything you all have learned this week.
The teacher will say this as she is reading off the
charts of the correct answers. The teacher will ask if
the students can tell her what different things they
learned during the week. She will ask the question,
knowing all that you know now, how do you want
your future of these resources to look?.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials to discover information
that will help them answer the question posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow,
especially for younger students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of
the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)
Students Will: (list all steps)
The teacher will offer the students to use their notes, The students will use their phones or their notes
or use their phones to look up different things they
in order to answer the question.
might want, (for example: students may want to
The stundents will create a graphic organizer to

look up renewable resources that they want to use to plot out their claims and supporting evidence.
replace non-renewable resources).
The student will follow along to the teachers
The teacher will tell the students to begin working
examples, while creating their supporting
on a graphic organizer to plot out their ideas/claims. evidence.
The teacher will give example of what she expected
from their opinion piece. (Shell do an example of
her favorite candy, and why its her favorite).
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects student discoveries to
correct content terms/explanations, students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the
lesson sub-objectives by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
The teacher will have students talk to their neighbor The students will talk to their neighbor about
and share some ideas they have. The teacher will
ideas they have for their paper.
then have the students share with surrounding
The students will talk to surrounding groups
groups. Eventually the teacher will have the
about what their neighbor and them talked
students say a few ideas out loud to the entire class. about.
The teacher will also ask questions about what a
The students will share ideas with the entire
claim means, and what supporting evidence is.
class.
The students will answer questions that are
based on prior knowledge.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and clarified in Explain
and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of this learning at a deeper level. Students
should be using higher order thinking in this stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If?
question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
The teacher will ask what if we run out of nonThe students will use what if thinking, future
renewable resources, and then call on a few students thinking, and system thinking in order to
to give answers. The teacher will have the students
determine what their claim and supporting
use this type of qurstioning to start their paper.
evidence are for their paper.
They will use what if thinking, future thinking, and The students will need to organize their ideas.
system thinking to decide how they want the future
The students will work independently on their
of the resources to look, the pros and the cons, and
paper.
supporting evidence.
The teacher will walk around while the students
work independtly on their paper, and answer any
questions that may be asked.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps not
mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also serves as a closing, students should also have a chance
to summarize the big concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
The teacher will collect the papers ten minutes
The students will turn in their papers.
before class ends. The teacher will ask the
The students will answer the closing questions.
students what they learned this week, and what
they want to do differently to ensure a sustainable
future.

Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)

The teacher will reenstate the obectives and remind the students that knowing about renewable and
non-renewable resources are important because we use them in our daily lives. She will remind the
students that they have value, and that we need to start saving the non-renewable resources in order to
keep from running out.
**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance the learning outcomes. In
each section where prompted, list the best practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.