Lesson Plan # 2- Poetry of the Elements

Subject Area: Physical Science, English-Language Arts

Grade Level: Grade 8

Unit Title: Periodic Table

Lesson Title: Poetry of the Elements

Connection to State and National Standards:

From the Californian Science Content Standards:

·         8.7: The organization of the periodic table is based on the properties of the elements and reflects the structure of atoms. As a basis for understanding this concept:

o   8.7.a: Students know how to identify regions corresponding to metals, nonmetals, and inert gases.

o   8.7.b: Students know each element has a specific number of protons in the nucleus (the atomic number) and each isotope of the element has a different but specific number of neutrons in the nucleus.

o   8.7.c: Students know substances can be classified by their properties, including their melting temperature, density, hardness, and thermal and electrical conductivity.

From the National Language Arts Standards:

·         Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

·         Standard 5: Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

·         Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

Objectives:

Upon completion of this lesson, the student will be able to...

·         Be able to identify elements on the Periodic Table.

·         Have an understanding on specific information of the elements.

Materials:

·         Book:

o   Science Verse. Scieszka, J. & Smith, L. (2004) New York, NY: Viking Books. ISBN: 0670910570

·         Construction Paper

·         Markers

References:

Components of this lesson were inspired by Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award Nominee2007 Grade 3-5 write up about “Science Verse.” (Retrieved from http://www.state.lib.la.us/empowerlibrary/SCIENCE%20VERSE.pdf).

Preparation:

·         Students will be assigned one or two elements and asked to research about the element in preparation of presenting the information.

·         Instructor will gather a list of popular songs and poems for students to use as a rhyme guide for assignment.

Presentation:

·         Students will be read a selection of poems from Science Verse in class to teach about different topics in science for inspiration.

Application:

·         Students will write a poem about their assigned elements in styles similar to the poetry found in Science Verse.

o   Using the material provided students will draw pictures of the element to accompany the poem they write.

Evaluation:

Upon completion of:

·         The poetry written by the students about their assigned elements, students will be evaluated by the information about each element they put in the poetry

·         The illustration of the elements, students will be evaluated on the accuracy of how they drew the makeup of the elements.

Closure:

·         Students will present poetry to class.  A brief discussion of the information the students researched about the elements will occur with class and instructor.

·         The illustration and poem will be put on display throughout the classroom.