Science; What Causes Earthquakes

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Science; What Causes Earthquakes Powered By Docstoc
					Kiley Heck

                                 The Department Lesson Plan
Title of Plan: Earthquakes
Grade Level: 4th Grade
Subject Area: Science
Concept/Skill: Remembering facts about the Earth’s plates and how they move. Also reading
and completing a worksheet about earthquakes
Target Audience: The students will be working as a regular class.
Time Frame: One class period

  I.   Preparing to teach
           a. Goals:
                    i. State:
                           1. 4.A.1c Follow oral instruction accurately.
                           2. IL.12.E STANDARD: Know and apply concepts that describe the
                              features and processes of the Earth and its resources.
                           3. IL.17.B.1a Identify components of the Earth's physical systems.
           b. Objective:
                    i. The students will understand that the surface of the Earth changes.
                   ii. The student will be able to successfully complete the worksheet with 100
                       percent completion.
           c. Materials:
                    i. Earthquake PowerPoint (made by teacher)
                   ii. What Causes Earthquakes? Worksheet
                  iii. Harcourt Book Packet Pages C12-C15
           d. Resources:
                    i. YouTube- Earthquake Destruction . (n.d.). YouTube- Broadcast Yourself. .
                       Retrieved November 8, 2010, from
                   ii. Google Earth
 II.   Instructional Sequence:
           a. Focusing Activity: The teacher will ask the students if they remember what
              they discussed yesterday in class? The students will respond with the layers of
              the Earth. The teacher will ask the students what happens when two plates slide
              past each other? The teacher will tell the students that they will be looking at a
              PowerPoint of video and pictures of what causes and happens during an
              earthquake. After the PowerPoint is done the teacher will show the students
              how to find earthquakes on Google Earth. This will give the students another
              visual example of what and where earthquakes occur. The teacher will show and
   explain what the lines indicate on the screen. The teacher will explain how the
   arrows on the screen show how each plate is moving. The teacher will show the
   San Andreas Fault Line and ask the students why so many earthquakes occur

b. Purpose: The students will be able to review what was taught yesterday and
   learn about earthquakes occur. The students will be able to have a visual of what
   and where earthquakes occur.

c. Instructions: Once the students have finished the PowerPoint, the teacher will
   have the students take out the “What Causes Earthquakes?” worksheet out of
   their science folders. This worksheet has the students using the correct word
   from the list to fill in the blanks. The teacher will read allowed the directions to
   the class. Then the teacher will pass out the Harcourt book packets and have the
   students turn to page C12. The teacher will read the first two sentences of the
   worksheet and ask the students if they remember from yesterday’s lesson what
   Earth’s crust is broken into. The teacher will then continue to read each
   paragraph one at a time. After each paragraph the teacher will ask the students
   if they have found any of the answers to the worksheet. The students and
   teacher will be flipping back and forth between the two.

d. Modeling: To ensure that the students have a clear understanding of how to
   complete the worksheet the teacher will work through each step. The teacher
   will be checking for understanding by asking the students questions about what
   they will be doing. The teacher will also be seeing how long it takes each student
   to answer. This will give the teacher an idea of how long it takes the student to
   process the question and give an answer.

e. Checking For Understanding:            While the teacher is asking the questions
   they will be monitoring to see who is grasping what is going on and who is clearly
   not paying attention. The teacher will find a student without their hand raised
   and ask them to answer a question. This is a way for the teacher to see if that
   student isn’t paying attention or if they do just not understand what is being

f. Task/ Guided Practice:     The teacher will tell the students that they will be
   graded on how well they understood the questions that were asked on the
              worksheet. The students will also be informally assed on how well they helped/
              worked with other students who were having trouble.

III.   Conclusion: Once the students have finished the worksheet the teacher will collect
       them to check the students work for a grade. The teacher will end the lesson by asking
       the students when a plate is sliding past each other what does that cause? An
       earthquake. The teacher will tell the students that on Friday they will be watching a
       video about earthquakes!!!
IV.    Evaluation:
           a. Student Evaluation: The students will be both informally and formally
              evaluated. The teacher will be observing the room and asking various questions
              to see if the students understand. The teacher will also be collecting the
              worksheet that the student worked on. The student will be able to successfully
              complete the worksheet with 100 percent completion. This will help the teacher
              to see if students are really understanding or just saying they do.

          b. Teacher Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate themselves once they are done
             teaching the lesson.

                    i. They will ask themselves how well they related the material to the
                   ii. What worked? What didn’t work? How could you fix what didn’t work?
                 iii. Were the students bored at anytime?
                  iv. Was the teacher able to keep them excited about the material?
                   v. Did I mess up while giving the lesson? If so, how can I fix it?
                  vi. Were there parts of the lesson that I lost students attention? If so, how
                       did I get it back?
                 vii. How well was I able to tie this into tomorrow’s lesson?
                viii. Was I able to use all learning styles to please my students?
                  ix. How was my classroom management?
                   x. What worked best?

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