Interdisciplinary Unit: We Can See Change
Name: Miss Brandle
Unit Overview
DAY #1—Read Aloud
Lesson
Beginning, Middle, and End
via The Bad Seed by Jory
John
Objective
→Students will differentiate
between the beginning,
middle, and end of a story.
→Students will pair scenes of
the story with one of the
following labels: “beginning,”
“middle,” or “end.”
Standards
IAS: 2.RL.2.2—Recount the
beginning, middle, and
ending of stories, including
fables and folktales from
diverse cultures, and
determine their central
message, lesson, or moral.
Materials
→The Bad Seed by Jory
John/Pete Oswald
→sunflower seeds
→anchor chart
→construction paper (colors
matching the colors used on
the anchor chart)
→MacBook & AppleTV
projection screen (in
classroom)
→Accompanying PowerPoint
for illustration slides
Managem
ent →30-40 minutes
→Students seated on the
floor, around the chair where
I will read the book from.
Then, students will be seated
in their seats.
→Behavior Management—
expectations set with
students
Anticipato
ry Set I will hand out sunflower
seeds and ask students to
make observations and think
about the life of a seed—
emphasizing the differences
between the same type of
seed.
Purpose
“[Today], we will discover
DAY #2—Social Studies
Lesson
Past and Present
→Students will sort pictures
by their place in time (past,
present)
→Students will identify select
vocabulary with their
definitions.
→Students will recall
examples of things from the
past, things in the present,
and predict a change that
might happen in the future.
NCSS: Time, Continuity, and
Change
IAS: 2.1.2—Explain changes
in daily life in the community
over time using maps,
photographs,
websites…images, etc.
→Family photo(s)
• One of me
• One of
parent/grandparent
(significantly older
looking preferably)
→PowerPoint of examples of
then and now:
• Movie examples
with silent film
example (Charlie
Chaplin)
• Images of
transportation
comparison
• Images of Gas City,
old and current
→Print-outs of “artifacts”
from the past or from the
present (for sort)
→Whiteboard/Marker and
post-it notes (for sort)
→Magnets or tape (for sort)
→Worksheet
→Time: 25-30 minutes
→Students in seats/desks
→Behavior Management—
expectations set with
students.
Display family photos and
spark conversation on change
and whether the people
pictured look the same now
as they did at the time of the
photo.
Today, we are going to talk
DAY #3—Science Lesson
Plant Growth
→Students will generate
questions about plants and
what their basic needs are to
grow and develop.
→Students will plant seeds
and place plants according to
their hypotheses about the
plants’ needs.
→Students will work together
make predictions and draw
conclusions.
2.LS.2 Compare and contrast
details of body plans and
structures within the life
cycles of plants and animals.
SEPS.3 Constructing and
performing investigations
SEPS.6 Constructing
explanations (for science)
2.W.1 Write routinely over
brief time frames and for a
variety of tasks, purposes, and
audiences; apply reading
standards to write in response
to literature and nonfiction
texts.
2.W.3.2 Write a paragraph or
paragraphs on a topic that
introduce a topic, provide facts
and details about the topic,
and provide a concluding
statement.
→Potted plants
• One dead/dying
• One alive/blooming
• Seeds
• Pots
• Soil
• Fertilizer
• Watering Can
• Window
→Plant Observation Journals
→Anchor Chart(s)
→Markers
→3-4 weeks
• Anticipatory Set: 2
min
• Mini Lesson: 5-10
min
• Observations 1-3
times a week,
depending on plants’
development. For
each major change,
they will write a
journal entry.
• Closure: 10-15 min
I will bring in two potted
plants, one alive and blooming
and the other dying and
shriveled.
I will elicit their help in
discovering why one of my
plants grew and why the other
didn’t.
“Today we are going to be
DAY #4—Social Studies
Lesson
Good Citizenship
→ Students will identify
and describe a good
citizen and relate those
characteristics to their
own citizenship.
→IAS: 2.2.5—Identify
people who are good
citizens and describe the
character traits that make
them admirable.
→NCSS: Civic Ideals and
Practices
→ISTE: Digital Citizen:
Students recognize the
rights, responsibilities
and opportunities of
living, learning and
working in an
interconnected digital
world, and they act and
model in ways that are
safe, legal and ethical.
→Anchor Chart (for ant.
set & closure)
→Scenario(s) printed,
easy to read font
→Vocab Cards (Color and
Cut)
→I Can Be a Good Citizen
Graphic Organizer
→Time: 25-30 minutes
→Students in seats/desks
to work independently
→Students called to
center by groups
→Behavior
Management—
expectations set with
students.
I will begin the lesson by
inquiring about students’
role models; a discussion
will ensue regarding the
characteristics we see in
our role models,
specifically those they all
have in common. Then,
we will use an anchor
chart to compile
descriptive words.
Today we are going to talk
 Interdisciplinary Unit: We Can See Change
Name: Miss Brandle
how the beginning, middle,
and end of a story work
together to show us the main
idea!”
Lesson
Presentati →Grand Conversation
on following the reading of the
book.
→Questions regarding the
way(s) our main character
changed in the story.
Emphasis on how we could
see the changes in our
character through his
thoughts, actions, and even
facial expressions.
→Anchor Chart presentation
of Beginning, Middle, and
End &each accompanying
characteristics.
Closure or
Conclusio Friends, as you keep working,
n I want you to take a look up
here at the list we made
earlier. You did such a good
job—look how much we
learned together! Go ahead
and take a few more minutes
to finish up and then we will
get ready for a bathroom
break.
Formative
Assessme →“List 10 Things” will give
nt me an idea of what the
students took away from the
lesson thus far. It will give me
the opportunity to refocus
their attention to something
important they may have
missed.
→The whole-group activity
where students hold up B, M,
or E will also give me insight
into the learning of the class.
Adaptatio
ns →For two of my students
who are hard of hearing, I
will make sure I enunciate
and that these students have
a clear view of my lips while
I’m speaking, especially when
I’m giving directions.
→For a handful of students,
they might need to be moved
while they work to minimize
distractions.
→While this lesson is
intended for second grade,
my class is largely lower-
ability. Thus, the difficulty
level of tasks has been
adjusted accordingly.
Summativ
e →Students will complete a
Assessme worksheet with which they
nt will recall the story—a scene
(as for each part of the story
needed) (beginning, middle, end).
They will draw a picture of
the scene and write a
sentence about what that
part of the story
taught/informed them.
about change and how things
are different now than they
were in the past.
→PowerPoint presentation
and discussion. Emphasis on
differences and similarities
between past and present.
→ Introduction and
explanation of key vocabulary
(As time allows)
→ Talk through vocab section
(whole group)
→Allow students to share
drawings.
→ Questioning
→Whole Group Picture Sort
→Worksheet with vocabulary
matching and drawing
depictions of past and
present.
→ enunciation for students
hard of hearing
→ possibly strategic
placement of certain students
→Inclusion of students
somewhat separated from the
whole group
→ post-it notes instead of
calling out (due to school
testing)
→ Social Studies mostly does
not use summative
assessment until lesson or
unit tests.
learning about what plants
need to grow! This is important
so that we can help the plants
around us survive and
blossom!”
→Mini Lesson: What do plants
need to grow and develop?
→ We will plant 4 potted
seeds; one placed in the
window, one in a closet or
dimly lit area, one with
fertilizer in a neutral area, and
one without fertilizer in a
neutral area
→Student will determine
primary needs of a plant and
will use these to record
predictions.
→Students will track the
changes that occur to the
plants in journals.
At the end of the final week, I
will lead a discussion with our
original anchor chart on hand
and we will explain our
findings.
Compare hypotheses with
results.
→ I will use questioning to
assess the progression of
students’ understanding.
→The plant observation
journals will be an ongoing
formative assessment of
students’ progression and
understanding.
→If necessary, I will provide
further prompting for
answering my questions.
→For writing, sentence clozes
and prompts will be used to
better enable students with
writing difficulties to
participate in the journaling
activities.
→For some students, I might
walk them through the
questions one by one so that
they can articulate their
answers directly to me,
considering they may not be
able to communicate it well in
writing. If necessary, they
could also use a program like
Clips to record their answers.
→ Students first and final
journal entries will be written
on their hypotheses and
conclusions of what exactly
plants need to grow and
develop. These entries will
help me to assess students’
growth and ultimate
understanding by the end of
the investigation.
about what it means to be
a good citizen!
→introduction of
vocabulary
→Ask: how would you
define/describe a GOOD
citizen? What makes a
citizen good?
→Centers
-----Center One: Vocab
Cards
-----Center Two: Graphic
Organizer
-----Center Three:
Discussion led by Miss
Brandle
→Refer back to anchor
chart; is your role model a
good citizen? What does
that make you want to be?
→I will instruct students
to keep their vocab cards
and turn in their graphic
organizers.
Much of my formative
assessment will occur via
questioning throughout
the lesson, especially in
the center I lead.
Ultimately, students’
application of a “good
citizen” to their own lives
via the graphic
organizer will be my
primary assessment.
→ enunciation for
students hard of hearing
→ possibly strategic
placement of certain
students
→Inclusion of students
somewhat separated from
the whole group
→carefully consideration
of grouping, per the
discussion with my
cooperating teacher
→ Social Studies mostly
does not use summative
assessment until lesson or
unit tests.