Biology English Project 1St Years Bilingual

Biology English Project 1st years Bilingual – Teacher handout.

Some remarks This project was done in November. So kids only had three months of bilingual education. But they were really up to the task. The biology book used in our school is: Stuart, A and Webster, S. Biology, Heinemann Coordinated science – Foundation. Prior to the project the children read the oxford Graded reader called: Endagered Animals in class. Most of the material needed was found on internet. We’ve used our own made rubric for the grading. It might need some adjustment. Feel free!

Feedback or questions will be appreciated: Please mail to [email protected] Annelet Lykles - English teacher at the Hermann Wesselink College

Objectives:  Students show they are able to look at a habitat, describe its environment and describe how an animal in that particular habitat adapts to it. They are aware of the dangers threatening the habitat and can explain the effect it has on the animal they chose to focus on.  Students can read information, process it and retell/summarize it in their own words.  Students can present information on a poster  students can present information orally to their peer group  Students can work together on a project.

In groups students work on a poster presentation. They choose their animal, find information on its habitat, on the way animals adapt to it, the dangers threatening the habitat and the animal and possibly solutions to the problem. All information is put on a poster and the students give a presentation in front of their class. The posters are then peer reviewed (which poster is best and why).

Grading: Their group effort will be graded for content, language, poster presentation and how well they’ve worked as a group in class time. (you could give them a group grade which students then divide among themselves, giving them the possibility to honour the hard workers in their group). For the grading a rubric is used. The language is graded by the English teacher, the content by the biology teacher. The other two categories are graded by both teachers.

Information sources: Animals in danger – Oxford graded reader (a minimum of three lessons are needed to read/study it) Biology course book Encarta Encyclopedia in Mediatheek. Britanica Encyclopedia on line Internet (should we not give them some sources (URL links?) National Geographics

Group work Suggestion:  groups of four students, every student concentrates on a different aspect.  Roles to stimulate positive interdependancy: o Questioner – only one in the group to ask teachers for help. This stimulates them to first solve the problem within their group o Organizer – the one responsible for making sure the group has all the material needed to work in class. S/he is responsible for group folder. o Time keeper – the one who keeps track of the time, the one who makes a planner. Teacher can check group progress with timekeeper. o Spelling/language checker – the one who corrects all written work.

Students get two handouts: One explaining the assignment One guiding them in their group and planning process. Rough Planner: This is a rough planner. It depends on when the different classes have biology. René Wolbers is not as flexible as we are, since he only sees them once a week for a block period. I think the poster project should be first introduced in biology class. So if your class has biology on a Friday, I guess he would want to introduce it in week 44. week 44 English 1 English 2 English 3 Read Animals in danger (group reading out loud to practice pronunciation). Important factor is to read and understand information. doing the exercises at the back of the book is of secondary importance. English 4 Read Animals in danger English 5 Read Animals in danger week 45 Biology 1 Start poster project. Biology 2 collect information English 1 collect information English 2 Work on poster in class English 3 Work on poster in class English 4 Work on poster in class English 5 week 46 English or Presentations. Biology teacher Rene Wolbers and English teacher biology class. should come to an agreement about when the kids should do their presentation.

Time needed for presentations:  on average 24 kids in class => 6 groups of 4 students.  a presentation should take 5 minutes + 2 minutes feedback.+ 2 minutes in between presentations  6 x 9 minutes: 54 minutes  Peer review of posters: 15 minutes. So: 1 block period of English/Biology for presenations and peer review

What handouts do kids need to be able to do their work?  One stating the assignment (contect wise) specifying what every poster should have.=> René Wolbers  A planner, so students are able to note the different roles, keep track of what they’ve done and still need to do. => Annelet and Rene  A short evaluation sheet on group work. => Annelet  The rubric so they know how their work will be assessed.  One or two A3 sheets for the posters => Annelet  Group folder to stick paper cuttings, pictures etc in. => students