Lessons & Units :: Vocabulary in Context 3rd Grade Unit

Lesson 2: Appositives

Lesson Plan

The Life Cycle of a Beetle

The Life Cycle of a Beetle
Learning Goal
Use appositives to determine the meaning of an unknown word.
Duration
Approximately 50 minutes
Necessary Materials
Provided: Independent Practice Worksheet
Not Provided: The Life Cycle of a Beetle by Bobbie Kalman

  • Teacher Modeling

    will explain that another strategy that is helpful in determining the meaning of new vocabulary words is to read on and look for appositives. An appositive is when the author defines the vocabulary word within the sentence. I will read the section, “Bunches of beetles” (pages 4–5) in The Life Cycle of a Beetle by Bobbie Kalman. I will model how to read on after the bold word, “species” and find the appositive (types) right after the word “species.” I will explain that this is another strategy used by authors to help the reader understand new vocabulary, especially in nonfiction texts and passages.

  • Think Check

    Ask: How did I determine the meaning of unknown words? Students should respond that you read the sentence and looked for appositives that gave the meaning of the word.

  • Guided Practice

    will read the section, “What is a life cycle?” (pages 8–9 in The Life Cycle of a Beetle by Bobbie Kalman) and use the strategy of reading on to find the appositive to help us understand new vocabulary words. We will discuss the strategy we used to determine the meaning of each bold word in this section.

  • Independent Practice

    will read the section, “The cycle begins” (pages 10–11 in The Life Cycle of a Beetle by Bobbie Kalman) and use the strategy of reading on to find the appositive to determine the meaning of the bold words. You will write the meaning of each bold word and explain how you determined its meaning on the Independent Practice worksheet. (Student Independent Practice is provided below in Teacher and Student Materials.) Note: You will have to provide students with pages 10–11 of The Life Cycle of a Beetle so that they can read the pages and use them with the Independent Practice worksheet.

Build Student Vocabulary hatch

Tier 2 Word: hatch
Contextualize the word as it is used in the story The beetle’s “eggs also need to be laid near a food source so that the larvae will have enough to eat when they hatch from the eggs.”
Explain the meaning student-friendly definition) To hatch means to come out of an egg. When larvae hatch from the beetle’s eggs, they break out of the eggs and are born.
Students repeat the word Say the word hatch with me: hatch.
Teacher gives examples of the word in other contexts The chicks hatched from the chicken eggs. Birds and reptiles hatch from eggs.
Students provide examples What happens to the beetle larvae as soon as they hatch from their eggs? Start by saying, “As soon as the beetle larvae hatch from their eggs they ____________.”
Students repeat the word again. What word are we talking about? hatch
Additional Vocabulary Words species, sheds

Build Student Background Knowledge

After completing the Guided Practice, explain that human beings also experience a "life cycle." Draw a life cycle on chart paper that explains how humans change and develop fully. You may want to include the egg, fetus, baby, child, adolescent/teenager, adult, and elder. Have your students help you describe characteristics of each stage (for example, teenagers may develop acne because they have excess hormones, or older people become wrinkled, because the skin loosens and loses its ability to bounce back).

Texts & Materials

Standards Alignment

(To see all of the ReadWorks lessons aligned to your standards, click here.)

User Comments

great section will use with virtual classroom like google class

Submitted by otoons_2441447 on 11/20/16

great lesson

Submitted by cgoggin on 2/2/16