"Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad"
Sample Lesson Plan
Step 3: Group Projects: Research Stage
Target Objectives
- Students will deepen their knowledge of the Frog and Toad books by applying
research skills to gather information for group projects.
- Students will generate ideas for original poems by exploring poetry written
by other children.
- Students will contribute to group projects and practice team collaboration
skills.
Student Activities
- Children divide into cooperative learning groups to develop a project related
to the book. Project options are:
- Illustrated compositions (such as stories, poems) based on the literary
themes presented in the Frog and Toad books.
- Illustrated non-fiction reports (such as information booklets, charts,
slide show presentations) focused on scientific information about frogs
and toads.
For the Fiction Writing Groups:
To stimulate ideas for poetry writing, children should explore Erin's Children's Poetry Page!! Students should pick one poem
that they like the best, and describe why they like it. Picking up on the themes
in the Frog and Toad books, students should brainstorm ideas for poems about
"What to do if you are a frog", "What to do if you are a toad", and "How to
be a great friend."
For the Non-fiction Writing Groups:
To learn more factual information about frogs and toads, children will explore
several web sites that were collected and annotated by teacher Cristie Wooten
using a tool called TrackStar. The collection is called The Wonderful World of Frogs and Toads . Students should take notes
about the information they learn from these web sites, so they can include them
in their final reports.
Electronic Resources
- Erin's Children's Poetry Page!!
- TrackStar "The Wonderful World of Frogs and Toads"
Assessment
- Children's notes about frogs and toads (information they learn from the
web sites), and their poem ideas, will be included in their portfolios.
Impact of Technology: In what ways (if any) will technology enhance students'
learning experiences in these activities?
- Children will explore suggested web sites to learn more about frogs and
toads or to read and respond to the writings of children from all over the
world.
- Children will supplement their traditional classroom sources of information
with web resources. TrackStar provides scaffolding so children will
search only on web sites that have been previewed and selected. Since this
"Track" was created several months ago, I might have to modify it before I
use it, to clean up any links that have become out of date.
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