Feathered+Friends-+A+lesson+About+Birds+for+Grades+1+and+6-+Danielle+Malbone

=    **Feathered Friends** = = =

**Standards for Learning**
This lesson focuses on the Indiana content area standard:


 * The Living Environment, 1.4**- Students ask questions about a variety of living things and everyday events that can be answered through observations. They become aware of plant and animal interaction. They consider things and processes that plants and animals need to stay alive.


 * 1.4.2** Observe and describe that there can be differences, such as size or markings, among the individuals within one kind of plant or animal group.
 * 1.4.3** Observe and explain that animals eat plants or other animals for food.
 * 1.4.4** Explain that most living things need water, food, and air.

Though this lesson addresses many standards, some key standards pointed out are as follows:
 * 1.3.3** Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information.
 * 2.1.2** Organize knowledge so that it is useful.
 * 2.1.4** Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information.
 * 2.1.6** Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings.
 * 4.1.8** Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.

**Inquiry Skill**
This lesson uses the information skills: Location and Access, Use of Information, and Synthesis. This lesson will stress the importance of literal location and access in a real-world setting along with hands-on synthesis of this information. The student will evolve from scientist to expert as they progress through the various stages of their lesson and begin to think independently and create their own methods of obtaining and synthesizing information.

**Student Audience**
This lesson is created for a first grade class and a sixth grade classroom with similar demographics. Average class size is approximately 15 students, in a small, middle-class; rural elementary school that houses grades K-6 in one building. Due to the small rural nature of the school, we are able to take part in outdoor activities more easily than our urban counterparts would be able to. The first graders have minimal experience information literacy, but the sixth graders have a bit more experience, though are much more familiar with the experiences of reading books and writing reports. Since this is a rural population, many of the students have experience and interest in the outdoors. Nature is a topic that can be used between both grades with equal interest across ages and genders. Many of the children come from farming families and have experience with the outdoors, but may not have specific experience with this lesson. This is a good thing and hopefully a way to expand their interests while touching on subjects that they are familiar with. This lesson will be “real world” in the most literal sense. They will be out in nature interacting hands-on with this lesson and project.

**Collaboration**
This lesson will create collaboration between the classroom teachers, school librarian, and possibly local parks and recreation education specialists. Students will be visiting the local nature preserve and will have the opportunity of involving the naturalists.

**1st Grade** The first grade project is a 2 part lesson. During the first part the students will begin by brainstorming what they already know about birds as a group. During the first part of the lesson students will make bird feeders in class and explore why certain birds eat different kinds of food. This project will stimulate free inquiry and help them create their own questions. They will use the information we brainstormed in class to help create their own birdfeeder. During the second and larger part of the assignment the students will create initial questions and expectations about which birds they will see at the park, hopefully spurred on and enthusiastic after seeing the birds at their feeders. The end result of the second project will be a group field journal with contributions of 5 pages per student. Each page will be created using bird identification information from a field trip to a nature park. Throughout the project, students will be continuously questioning, identifying, working as a group, and compiling information. A key part of the final assignment (individual journal page creation) is the creation of their own questions and answers about the individual bird species. This will show the ability to synthesize the information they have learned up until this point and show the ability for information inquiry and self-guiding their own research. The 6th grade lesson addresses the same information inquiry skills, but also stresses the importance of evaluation. Being a small school, the sixth grade glass is in a prime position to interact with the 1st grade. The sixth graders will begin their project with an introduction to general bird information, followed with an analysis of the activity at the first graders feeding station. They will use this information to analyze which feeders and feeds are attracting birds and how well the feeding station is attracting birds. They will create daily logs to keep track of the activity. This will encourage them to analyze and make inferences about the success of the feeders and what variables they can change to increase activity. Sixth grade students will also create journal pages, but will have more of an emphasis on inquiry and deeper investigation. They will also be required to ask their own questions and delve deeper into the information. Like the younger class, they will also have websites provided as a starting point for their inquiry. By creating their journal pages in an electronic format, not only will they be able to express their inquiry in a creative way, they will also be utilizing technology to synthesize information.
 * 6th Grade**

**Educator Teaching Materials**
See 1st grade here See 6th grade here

**Student Learning Materials and Performance**
See 1st grade here See 6th grade here

**Student Models or Products**
See 1st grade here See 6th grade here

[[file:Sixth Grade Project Examples.pdf]] **Feedback Or Field Test**
Success will be determined by the evidence of the physical product produced. In the case of the 6th graders, this will be focused on their interpretation of the 1st graders outcomes and using this to create their own product. Both classes will use student evaluations and group discussions to come to a solution about which product yielded the best results. The 1st and 6th grade teachers will evaluate the units together. Discussion should include how much each class used the other’s information. Did the 1st graders enjoy creating the feeding station? Did they like the fact that it was being studied by the other students? Maybe there is a way that the 1st graders could also use the 6th graders information if they felt too much like they were being “graded” by the older kids

**Lesson Comparison**
The 1st and 6th grade lessons were both based on a very closely related topic, but the 6th graders were able to take their assignments a little farther due to technical skills. Both lessons were geared towards finding information and synthesizing it. Both lessons were created to build upon themselves, though in the case of the 6th graders, they were also building upon the work that the 1st graders created. For example, in the case of the first graders, introducing them to the lesson with a thought-provoking discussion about the differences between bird food and people food then evolves into creating a bird feeder using their judgment about what foods they think will be successful. By monitoring the birdfeeders, they are able to see if their choices were successful or not. The students are then introduced to up close analysis of the birds, which then encourages them to learn more about the specific birds. By involving them in the attraction of the birds, they are able to see how their experiences and knowledge affect their product. This then translates into using their own inquiry and knowledge from the bird feeders to find birds and create their journals. Throughout the process, they are guided by questions, but encouraged to create their own- of which they will turn in 15 questions at the end to ask other students. This not only makes them create questions of their own and find the answers, but to also be involved directly as the “teacher” while presenting their questions to the other students. The 6th graders have a similar lesson, but are building their information scientist skills upon what the first graders created. They are literal scientists by analyzing data, but instead of just turning in a sheet with hard numbers and facts, they design a bird feeder using and processing this data to help spur their creativity and make informed decisions about ways to better the process. These students then progress onto a more independent bird watching expedition guided by the results that they found at the feeding station. They utilize their locating information skills by understanding and comprehending the results of the feeding station and building upon those. By using the information that they observed they are able to locate even more information (locating their 5 birds and information) and create a new project. As a culmination, they synthesize this information and create an E-journal that stresses technological skills as well. By then entering their information on E-Bird they see that their information and science activities make a real world impact.