1. Dr. Queen Ogbomo Dr. Stephanie Wendt Tennessee Tech University
Grand Canyon
Dr. Queen Ogbomo
Dr. Stephanie Wendt
Tennessee Tech University

2. A second possible ELA standard that relates to our Earth’s Surface Systems PE is Informational Reading 4.9.
Here students are to integrate information from two text on the same topic.
One resource I have discovered is Picture Perfect Science Lessons by Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan. The lessons provided in this resource book help teachers guide students through engaging, hands on inquiry experiences. The lessons embed reading strategies that help students learn to read and read to learn all while experiencing science!
You could use one of the strategies mentioned in PPS Lessons resource book or use the text along with a specific reading strategy you feel better addresses the needs of your students.
This lesson on the Grand Canyon provides content information related to our chosen PE. If it weren’t for weathering and erosion, this marvelous landmark would not exist!

3. Erosion by Virgina Castleman
The detailed lesson plan created by Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan follows the 5 E Instructional Model for guided inquiry. In this lesson on the Grand Canyon, the authors include reading comprehension activities aligned with inferring, determining importance, and questioning yet you could easily create learning experience encourage students to integrate the information found in these two test in order to write or speak about the subject of the Grand Canyon.
Erosion by Virgina Castleman
Summary: Tells how water, wind, and ice change the surface of the Earth through Erosion
Grand Canyon: A Trail Through Time by Linda Vieira
Summary: Describes the deep trench as the Grand Canyon and activities of visitors to the national park.
Here are the two text suggested in the Picture Perfect Science lesson on the Grand Canyon.
One text is non narrative. Non narrative text are factual text that introduce a topic, describe an attribute of the topic or describe typical events that occur.
The second text is a narrative. It provide an engaging format for factual information and communicates a sequence of factual events over time.
Both provide good information for student to read as they practice close reading techniques or the practice of comparing two text on the same content.

4. Lessons to Develop Big Idea
Day 1
ENGAGE: Pass out pictures of the Grand Canyon (several views per table, all same pics per table) and the Grand Canyon Student Page. Have students work in teams and discuss and answer the questions on the Grand Canyon Student page.

5. Day 2
EXPLORE: Use non-fiction text on the Grand Canyon to introduce the formation of the Grand Canyon. Then students will complete in groups the Wind and Water Checkpoint Labs A – D (From Picture Perfect Science Lessons).
A: How does water carry rocks and soil?
B: How can water causes changes in rocks?
C: How can wind cause changes in rocks?
D: How does water carry rocks and soil?

6. Day 3
EXPLAIN: Students will make vocabulary connections using their lab results and the remainder of the non-fiction text.

7. Addressing Misconceptions
Changes to the Earth’s surface only happen quickly
Weathering and erosion are the same thing
Rocks are here to stay
Earth’s forces can only destroy
Truths
Changes to the Earth’s surface can happen fast or slow (addressed in non-fiction reading)
Weathering and erosion are both processes that change the Earth’s surface, but weathering is the process of breaking rock into sediment while erosion is the process of carrying that sediment away (addressed in labs)
Rocks are subject to weathering, destructive processes and the rock cycle (addressed in labs and non-fiction reading)
Earth’s forces can be constructive, destructive, or both (addressed in reading, discussion, and later in unit)

8. Cross-Curricular Integration
Literacy: Reading two non-fiction texts to support science standards and address text features of the books while introducing or using them in accessing information
Technology: Students will create brochures on Microsoft Publisher. Students will use I Pads or cameras to collect pictures of weathering and erosion around the school and create a video.

9. Cross curricula integration Cont’d
Social Studies: showing the Grand Canyon’s surface feature changes over three decades; explain what decade means.
Math: folding sheet into thirds, discuss what thirds are while folding occurs, what things come in thirds

10. Unit Assessments
Pre-assessment: the unit pre-assessment will be the Earth’s processes sort to determine where students are in the understanding of what constructive and destructive processes are.
FA: New Vocabulary Words sheet will assess student’s pre and post knowledge of vocabulary.

11. Assessments
FA: Correcting or adding more detail to the questions originally asked on the Grand Canyon Student page.
SA: Grand Canyon brochure will assess how students apply weathering and erosion to the formation of the Grand Canyon, as well as changes that may occur every day in the Grand Canyon as a result of weathering and erosion.

12. Resources and Lesson Plan for This Unit
5E Model Lesson plan covering 6 days
Formative Assessment Student Questions
Formative Assessment New Vocabulary List
Checkpoints Lab A and B
Checkpoints Lab C
Checkpoints Lab D
Summative Assessment Grand Canyon Brochure
Summative Assessment Rubric
Picture Sort for all landform sorts
YouTube Video for quick teaching a decade
List of things that come in three’s for quick teaching thirds
Pre-Assessment Sort, Day 1

13. Compare and contrast
Consider providing a graphic organizer to help students gather and organize information. By using this type of organizer, students are able to integrate and synthesize a large amount of information on a single topic.
Providing students with graphic organizers as well as guided practice when comparing two texts supports comprehension of the content.
Graphic organizers help students learn concepts through the organization of attributes that makes the information memorable.
This graphic organizer was created by Janet Allen and can be found in her guide titled “Tools for Teaching Content Literacy.” It can be used in several different ways as it is left open for you to manipulate to meet the needs of your students or the goal of your lesson.

14. Elementary Resource page
A Framework for K-12 Science Education -NRC
Tools for Teaching Content Literacy by Janet Allen
Text and Lessons for Content –Area Reading by Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steineke
Picture Perfect Science Lessons: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry, 3-6 by Karen Ansberry and Emily Morgan
Next Generation of Science Standards:

15. Links/Credits to Materials
Materials found in Picture Perfect Science Lessons by Karen Rohrich Ansberry and Emily Morgan
Show Grand Canyon’s surface changes over 3 decades via satellite:
Weathering and Erosion Rap:
Real pictures of landforms affected by erosion: