Lesson Plan: Rocks Approximate Grade Level: 3rd Grade Subject Areas: Science and Language Arts Approximate

Time Frame: 90 minutes Pre/Post Knowledge/Skills This lesson is designed to encourage students to think about geology and familiarize them with how geology affects the world around them. The goal is to get them to start thinking about how geologic processes shaped the world and to make observations to do so. To do this, they will examine rocks in an attempt to determine how the rock was made, where it came from, how it got to where it is now, what it is made of, and other important features of rocks. The students will have already been introduced to different types of rocks and have learned about the rock cycle as well as important rock properties. The students have already gone on a field trip and collected several different types of rocks as well as documented their observations on these rocks. The students are very familiar with the rock cycle and have an understanding of how rocks are formed and where different types of rocks are. The students already know how to write complete sentences using main ideas, details, and conclusions to write paragraphs. After this lesson, the students will have learned how to think critically about something they observe and write their findings and thoughts in story form.

Student Objectives Students will examine rocks in an attempt to determine how they were formed using their prerequisite knowledge of the rock cycle and specific types of rocks. Students will use their observations and facts about rocks to write them into a creative story about how the rock was formed and how it got to where the rock ended up. Students will determine which parts of their story could be true based off scientific reasoning and which parts are creative and made up. ELL Modifications All students will be given a list of the words we learned about during our prior rock cycle lesson. All students will need this list with the definition of that word. This will be useful for all students, but

especially English language learners. All students will be encouraged to use these words in their stories. During the discussion about rock properties, I will write them on the board as I am talking about each property so the students have a word bank to use while writing. Students will be encouraged to use their list of temporal words and meanings in their native language that they have made in Language Arts class. English language learners can: -Create original ideas or detailed responses. -Apply information to new contexts. -Find details that support main ideas.

Illinois State Standards 11A. Know and apply the concepts, principles, and processes of scientific inquiry 11.A.1f: Compare observations of individual and group results 11.A.2b: Collect data for investigations using scientific process skills including observing, estimating and measuring CC.3.W.8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories. CC.3.W.3.c Text Types and Purposes: Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.

Materials -all student collected rocks -rock collection provided by curriculum (from different regions with different features) -paper for each student -white board

Lesson Implementation Opening:

Begin by asking students, "Close your eyes and picture 'a rock'. Did you picture a boring, grey stone?" Tell the students to open their eyes and pass around a few sample rocks to your class. Include student samples that were collected as well as your own samples. Your own samples should include: metamorphic rock sample, sedimentary rock sample, and igneous rock sample. The students can examine pictures of these different types of rocks or real examples. Procedures: Tell students that these are examples of a few rocks. Tell the students to turn to each other and describe features of the rocks to their partner. Write some of their responses on the board. Tell students, "Not all rocks look the same, and the things that make rocks look a little different from one another give clues about each rock's 'story'. By making careful observations of a rock, geologists can tell where a rock came from and what has happened to it. Since every rock has a slightly different story, it's important to notice the differences in the rocks." Using their own observations on the board, you can transition into a general discussion of important rock properties and how they translate on the rocks themselves. Remind them of the rock properties that they learned about and ask students to point some of those out on the rocks. When they mention a specific characteristic of a rock, model the idea by giving the students an idea of how that rock might have gotten that characteristic. For example, if a rock has dirt on it, you can give the examples of its story by telling the students that it is possible that the rock traveled down a stream and collected debris on its way.

Tell the students to think about the sequence of events that may have happened to form the features they notice on a rock of their choice out of the collection. Tell the students to be creative and use their knowledge of the rock cycle, rock properties, and different types of rocks to write a story about the rocks life. They are to give their rock a name and tell a story of how he or she was formed and how he or she got to where he or she was found. The students will use their graphic organizer that they created in a previous lesson to help them write their story. The students are to be creative but back the events in their stories up with ideas they have learned in science class. In their creativity, they should use facts to back up their creative story ideas. Tell them to use the temporal words and phrases we have been learning about in language arts in their story to tell about the events order. They should draw a picture after writing the story. Give them 40 minutes to write their story and draw their picture.

Closing: Call the students to the carpet. The children should sit in a circle. Start with a volunteer to read his or her rock story. Allow students to share their stories if they want to. After a student reads his or her story, the class will discuss which aspects of the story are scientific facts and which aspects are creative and made up. The author of the story will specify which parts he or she made up and which parts are based off of his or her facts and observations from the rock. Model this by telling the students to say something such as, I decided to make my rock fall into a stream and be washed all the way down a stream and into the persons boat because I saw the dirt on the rock and knew that it must have collected debris in some way. I was creative with the stream idea part of the story but I knew that it collected debris in some way so that is why I used a stream. The students will share their stories and we will have class discussions after each one to talk about which parts were fact and which were creative. This way, the students will not be misled by some of the science stories. Close by telling the students that there are many things that happen that affect our world and how rocks came to be is just one of the geologic processes that take place and change our world. Student Assessment: Grade students papers using grading rubric: file://localhost/Users/Kara/Desktop/CI 451/rockstory rubric.xlsx

Resource: http://education.usgs.gov/lessons/schoolyard/CoolGeologyActivity.html

How is this lesson literacy? In this lesson, the students are using their literacy skills and skills that they have learned in language arts to write a story about a rock. They are using their knowledge from the science unit in combination with their writing skills to write a creative story based on facts about the rock cycle and properties of rocks. They are using the writing process by brainstorming prior to writing their story. The students are also sharing their stories which incorporates reading, another important

aspect of literacy.