Cause and Effect: The Story of Wangari Maathai
Students will be able to identify cause and effect relationships using an expository text.
Utilize Strip Diagrams to Solve Multi-step Multiplication and Division Word Problems
Students will utilize manipulatives to create concrete and pictorial strip diagram representations in order to solve multi-step multiplication and division word problems.
"C" to the "E" Can't Conquer Me
Students will explore cause and effect relationships by creating different representations of a cause or an effect from a given scenario.
Teacher introducing lesson
Tackling Expository Text
The students will read and summarize expository text using a graphic organizer to aid the process.
Solving Rational Equations
Students will discuss and formulate an equation to solve an engaging real-world problem. They will use manipulatives to describe how to find the common denominator they need to solve the equation. They will break up into groups and solve for a more complicated problem.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Write, Revise, Repeat!
Students develop their perseverance skills as they continue to revise their writing for coherence. The teacher focuses on providing students with three tools to develop the students’ paragraphs for sentence-to-sentence connectedness and clarity.
Inferring the Message in Poems
Students look for meaning in poems using poetry tools and work in groups to identify how parts of poems fit together to give a message. They then independently infer the message from a poem their teacher reads.
Models of Multiplication
Students will solve one-step multiplication problems using various multiplication strategies such as objects, pictorial models, arrays, equal groups, repeated addition, and number lines.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Distributive Property
Students break an array apart to represent the sum of two multiplication facts, showing the distributive property.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
As we looked at the vertical alignment document available to teachers through the Texas Education Agency and regional TEKS resource pages, it became evident why students struggle with this standard. The skills and knowledge within this standard are not addressed in the second-grade TEKS. Students are also required to use multiple skills to correctly calculate the answer using the distributive property. The chosen standard is identified as a third-grade readiness standard, which means that the intent is to help students develop a deep understanding of how to effectively use these skills in mathematics. This deep understanding is desired to help students at the fourth-grade level since the standard is identified as a supporting standard.
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to this unit.
Summarizing Expository Text
The students will watch the teacher model how to create a summary, and then work in groups to create a summary from an expository text.
Teacher with students in small group
Analyzing Data Using a Dot Plot
Students will construct a dot plot using data collected on the faces of a cube after it is rolled. Students will then use a key to change the data to represent a larger population.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
From Dogs/Not Dogs to Prisms/Not Prisms
Students will work in pairs, groups, and independently to sort and classify 2D and 3D shapes using formal geometric language. Students will have opportunities to explore the work of other groups to expand their thinking and find new ways that shapes can be sorted and classified. Students will engage in multiple conversations using accurate geometrical language to ask questions, explore a variety of reasonings, and share generalizations about shapes.
What Goes In, Must Come Out
Students will learn how to use an input-output table using real-world examples.
What’s the Big Idea?
In cooperative groups, students rotate through stations to identify the main idea of selected passages while making inferences using expository text.
Poetic Inferences
In learning stations, students use textual evidence and personal schema to make inferences about the structure and elements of poetry, and provide textual evidence to support their understanding.
Decoding Word Problems
This lesson focuses on multi-step word problems involving division along with addition or subtraction. The students chunk word problems into each individual step and learn how to choose a familiar strategy.
Problem-Solving Pet Store
Using a pet store theme, students will work in groups to solve real-world problems to grasp the concept of multi-step multiplication and division word problems.
Unlocking Strategies to Multiply and Divide within 100
Students will work in cooperative groups to confidently solve one and two-step multiplication and division problems up to 100 using arrays, strip diagrams, and equations.
Multiplication at the Market
Students will solve one-step multiplication problems using concrete objects, pictorial models, arrays, and equal groups.
Making Inferences to Solve a Mystery
In learning stations, students use textual evidence and personal schema to make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry, and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.