Lessons & Units :: Classify and Categorize 3rd Grade Unit

Lesson 2: Organizing Information into an Outline

Lesson Plan

Animal Homes | 890L

Animal Homes
Learning Goal
Classify and categorize information into an outline form.
Duration
Approximately 50 minutes
Necessary Materials
Provided: Direct Teaching Example Chart, Guided Practice Notetaking Chart, Independent Practice Worksheet
Not Provided: Animal Homes by Ann O. Squire, chart paper, markers

  • Teacher Modeling

    will explain that good researchers classify their information by organizing it into an outline. I will model transferring our notes from Lesson 1 into an outline. (Direct Teaching Teacher Example Chart is provided in Teacher and Student Materials below.) I will explain how text features such as table of contents and headings help me categorize the information I learned into an outline. The outline provides more structure and organization to the information I have gathered from the text. I can organize the outline using Roman Numerals and then letters to show the relationship between information and how it is related. For example, a new paragraph or topic would start a new Roman Numeral. I will present the class with our next research question, “Why do animals need homes?”

  • Think Check

    Ask: How did I categorize information into an outline? Students should respond you used Roman Numerals, numbers, and letters to categorize information into separate topics that all answer the same question.

  • Guided Practice

    will read Animal Homes by Ann O. Squire, stopping at page 16. While we read, we will take notes on why animals need homes and examples of animal homes. (Guided Practice Teacher Example Chart is provided below.) We will begin to classify and categorize our notes into an outline form.

  • Independent Practice

    will finish classifying and categorizing our notes to develop an outline. (Student Independent Practice is provided below.)

    TIP: Support your students with developing outlines by having them use index cards to record their notes. Students can write one sentence or phrase on each note card and then classify the note cards into categories based on the main topic. Using this categorization, they will then write their outline.

Build Student Vocabulary shallow

Tier 2 Word: shallow
Contextualize the word as it is used in the story On a hot day, a tortoise will dig a shallow hole to stay cool.
Explain the meaning student-friendly definition) Shallow means not very deep. When a tortoise makes a shallow hole, he is digging a hole that is not very deep.
Students repeat the word Say the word shallow with me: shallow.
Teacher gives examples of the word in other contexts When it rained, my dog splashed around in the shallow puddles. When I was little, I liked to swim in the shallow end of the pool. The water at the deep end of the pool scared me.
Students provide examples Can you think of a time when you were in shallow water or saw shallow water? Start by saying, “Once I saw shallow water _______________.”
Students repeat the word again. What word are we talking about? shallow
Additional Vocabulary Words invades, humid

Build Student Background Knowledge

Pause while reading page 6 and explain that when we think about endangered animals, we often think of big beasts of the sea and land. We do not think of honeybees; however, they are endangered as well. The homes and habitats of honeybees are impacted by climate change, parasites, and pesticides. This is important to humans because honeybees pollinate 90 different kinds of important crops, from carrots to the cotton that we wear on our backs. Protecting honeybees is very important, even if they sting.

Texts & Materials

Standards Alignment

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User Comments

Thank you for this great lesson. Have not used it yet but looks wonderful.

Submitted by Cynthia Williams on 8/21/14

As a retired teacher, a mother of a teacher, and a grandmother helping another grown daughter homeschool her children, I can only say thank you for this wonderful resource. I have been working with basal readers, individualized reading programs, whole language programs, and more in the several years I have been in education and these materials are excellent. I rewrite some of the language to "script" it for my homeschooling daughter, but that is all I do in the way of changing these materials.

Submitted by Linda Grabill on 12/15/12