Lewis Muehe

Theme: Sustainability
Grade Level: 10th Grade
Language level: Intermediate Fluency

Subject Area 1: Social Studies

Possible Learning Activity: Students will conduct research in small groups and discuss the
results of human “recklessness” and how sustainability could be more accessible.
Relevant standard (from ODE web site): HS.20. Analyze the impact on physical and human
systems of resource development, use, and management and evaluate the issues of
sustainability.
Content Objective: Students will be able to learn how to access written materials and the
internet to find information based on their topic of sustainability. Through this, they will
develop a skill to locate the information they’re looking for, as well as being able to evaluate
what they find.
Language Objective: Students will be able to recount their findings with their group to
develop and compile their information as well as read the information that has been written
down.
Prior Learning: Students have watched two films about the impact of what happens when
people don’t recycle and excessively use single use items.
Background building: Whole class discussion of asking the students questions like if they
have ever seen trash in the street, if they saw anyone pick it up, if they’ve ever picked it up,
do they have a recycling bin at home?
Content-related vocabulary: Students will be broken up into small groups and they will be
given a hint of what the vocabulary word, in their groups they will have a low number of
pieces puzzle that they will assemble to reveal the word.
Comprehension:
 Use visual aids to help with understanding words.
 Use call and response to ensure that students understand definitions.
 Circulate to assist students in reading and understanding words found in research.
 Use simpler synonyms when possible to connect with larger, more difficult words.
Learning Strategies:
 Lewis Muehe

1. Cognitive: previewing a story or chapter before reading (research articles, news

articles). Explaining to students what the content will be about to assist in absorbing
the information.
2. Cognitive: identifying key vocabulary (recycled, sustainable, single-use). Find and
define key vocabulary in reading as a group before reading to gauge understanding of
the vocabulary.
Verbal Scaffolding: I will paraphrase the student’s understandings of the readings after they’re
read as a whole group. Students will be asked questions on what they have read such as “Do we
see a sustainable use of materials here or not?” After student answers, eliciting more language
and information by asking them to explain why they think that way, as well as asking other
students if they agree and why or why not?
Procedural Scaffolding: By grouping students to reread the text after initially reading as a
whole group, I can have the students look for things they might have missed in their first read.
Through this, they can also determine if they still agree with their original thoughts. This will
also develop their ability to discuss among themselves.
Higher Order Thinking:
1. Understand: Why is the use of single-use plastics so damaging to the earth?
2. Apply: Why might people prefer using plastics over other single-use options?
3. Evaluate: Where are some places you have found plastic substitutes?
Application: At the front of the classroom I’ll have a small fishbowl of water. I will have the
students come up and put a spoonful of cooking oil mixed with black food dye into the bowl.
The students will then discuss whether or not the water is still clean and what could be done to
make it clean again. The students will then read a small paragraph on how oil effects our oceans
and drinking water. They will then record their findings in groups.
 Lewis Muehe

Theme: Sustainability
Grade Level: 10th Grade
Language level: Intermediate Fluency

Subject Area 2: Art

Possible Learning Activity: Students will work together in small groups to apply the
research they conducted to an informative arts-based poster made out of recycled materials to
exhibit sustainability to share with the rest of the class.
Relevant standard (from ODE web site): MA.2.CR2.HS2 Apply a personal aesthetic in
designing, testing, and refining original artistic ideas, prototypes, and production strategies for
media arts productions, considering artistic intentions, constraints of resources, and
presentation context.
Content Objective: Students will be able to compile a collage of recycled materials to show
how they can be repurposed.
Language Objective: Students will be able to assess an item and use reading skills to identify
if the item is or can be recycled. Following that, students will write two lists of the items that
are and aren’t recyclable.
Prior Learning: Students will have gone to an art museum that features items made out of
recycled materials, as well as doing some light research work as a group on other artists
worldwide that have made recycling a big part of their craft.
Background building: Students will be asked questions like, why do you think “normal” art
is not sustainable, why is it bad that artists make huge pieces they never finish, what is one
way that we can make art more sustainable, are there any sustainable artists you can think of?
Content-related vocabulary: I will make a large word wall that is made up only of the
definitions of the words. Students will be tasked with cutting up old magazines to “collage”
the vocabulary words and then as a group, match them to the definitions on the wall.
Comprehension:
 Model the steps to make a collage.
 Walk students through making a whole class poster before making individual ones.
 Supply tutorial videos for extra assistance for students to watch.
 Create a step by step handout with visuals.
 Lewis Muehe

Learning Strategies:
1. Metacognitive: making mental images (visualizing). Asking students to visualize
what the mentioned vocabulary is (plastic, metal, wood, recyclable).
2. Cognitive: using a graphic organizer. Students will use images of key words and put
them under titles such as “recyclable”, “sustainable”, “single-use”, and “harmful to
environment”. Students will have several of each image as many of the vocabulary
words fall under multiple titles.
Verbal Scaffolding: As many of these vocabulary terms are difficult, I will provide correct
pronunciation by repeating the terms after students say them to me. I will encourage the use of
think-alouds to have the other students respond when one is explaining something they have
learned. This will help me know that the students are understanding what one another has learned
from the lesson.
Procedural Scaffolding: The use of small-group instruction to have the students work together
to create their sustainable pieces will allow the students who fully understand the task to help
those who may still be confused after instruction.
Higher Order Thinking:
1. Apply: What are some other materials that single-use items can be made of?
2. Evaluate: How can making a single-use item out of wood be more beneficial for the
environment?
3. Create: Can you make a design to make a single-use spoon out of a more sustainable
material?
Application: With the students I will make a butcher’s paper cutout image of trees. I will then
have the students “cut down” a tree or part of a tree with scissors. When there are no more trees,
we will discuss what we can do to preserve our forests and use trees more sustainably. After that,
I will have them read with me a short passage about how many trees are cut down versus planted
each year. I’ll then ask the students questions like “do we plant more trees than we cut down?” or
“what would happen if we cut down all of our trees?” and have them write short answers which
we will then compile on a tree cutout that will be posted on the wall.