Lesson+1

= = = Fossil Formation, Keyword Selection, and Boolean Searches =

Subject: 3rd grade science--fossil formation  Class size: 24 students  Duration of lesson: 3 days--50 minutes each day

 Lesson Overview: Students will use keywords to select books and articles to aid in research on fossil formation.

 What do we want students to be able to do:
 * Learn about the different kinds of fossils and the processes by which each kind of fossil develops
 * pull keywords from a sentence
 * use key words to conduct an effective search in a database
 * use Boolean logic to widen or narrow a search
 * use a wiki as a tool to record and organize data

Standards: Georgia Performance Standard Addressed: as evidence of organisms that lived long ago
 * **Standard** || **Performance Indicator** ||
 * S3E2.Students will investigate fossils

b. Describe how a fossil is formed. || Students will select quotations about fossil formation from various resources ||

AASL 21st Century Learner Standards addressed:
 * **Standard** || **Performance Indicator** ||
 * 1.1.4

Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. || Student will use electronic and print media to access information. Student will decipher between fiction and non-fiction. ||
 * 1.1.8

Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information and pursuing inquiry. || Student will use effective keywords to search the library catalog as well as GALILEO Kids. Student will be able to navigate through these databases to access information. || Demonstrate confidence and self direction by making independent choices in the selection of resources and information. || Student selects resources from the school media collection and from GAILIEO Kids to pull quotations. ||
 * 1.2.2
 * 2.1.2

Organize knowledge so that it is useful. || Student will enter information into appropriate section of the worksheet. ||
 * 2.1.4

Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information. || Student will enter information from worksheet into student's wiki page. ||
 * 2.1.6

Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings. || Student will create his/her own caveman summary of the selected sentence. Student will use quotation marks to indicate quotation and underline or quotation marks to indicate a title. ||

Activities: Day 1 The classroom teacher talks with students about fossil formation and uses pictures to illustrate the process by which different kinds of fossils are formed. She refers back to the rock cycle discussed in the previous unit. The teacher introduces the unit's vocabulary words, and distributes the vocabulary word crossword puzzle to the class for homework.

Day 2 30 min
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Class gathers in media center to review summarizing from the media specialist. Using a smart board, the media specialist guides class through creating a "caveman summary" (selecting key words from a sentence) of the following sentences:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Fossils are the remains or evidence of animals or plants that have been preserved naturally."
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"The process of changing from a living organism to a fossil takes place over millions of years."
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students take turns going up to the smart board to write down a key word from the sentence, forming the "cave wall" (ideally the background of the smartboard is a picture showing the texture of a cave wall.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The keywords are recorded and will remain on the smart board while the students move on to the next step of the lesson

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">20 min
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The class then gathers at the computers, and the school's OPAC is opened
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The media specialist walks the students through using the keywords from the "cave wall" as search words in the catalog (this is done together as a class, with each student using his/her own computer
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The media specialist describes how Boolean search rules can help narrow or broaden the search results. The media specialist uses the "Blue Shirt and Jeans" exercise to illustrate how Boolean logic can broaden or narrow a search.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students make suggestions of books they can access from the library to learn more about fossil formation
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students record the details of their search on their worksheets (see Rubric and Assessment).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Day 3 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">10 min
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The media specialist reviews the previous day's lesson on boolean seaches. He/she then describes the day's activities to the students.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">40 min
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The media specialist has pulled the books the students selected in the previous day's keyword search. One book is laid out on a separate table in the media center. As tables become available, students take turns visiting an available table to select a quotation from a book and record it on his or her worksheet. The student then creates his or her own caveman summary of the selected quote.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students use their remaining time at the library computers to conduct searches about fossil formation using GALILEO for Kids. The Media Specialist, clerks, and the teacher assist students in using boolean search rules to aid in their search. Students will select a quotation from one article accessed through GALILEO to add to his or her worksheet and will create a caveman summary for the selected quotation.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Each student's caveman summaries about fossil formation will be recorded on the worksheet and will later be added to his/her page on the class wiki (see lesson plan 2).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Assessment:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Worksheet in which students record the details of their search on the school's OPAC and GALILEO
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Caveman summaries created by the students
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Contributions to the class wiki

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Resources needed:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">24 computers with access to the school's OPAC and internet access
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Smartboard
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">24 copies of worksheets and a writing utensil for each student