Content Standards

Content Standards

Islands Explorations

Content Standard(s): What specific standards will this project meet?
Earth Sciences
1. Water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of evaporation and condensation. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Most of Earth's water is present as salt water in the oceans, which cover most of Earth's surface.
b. Students know that the amount of fresh water located in rivers, lakes, under-ground sources, and glaciers is limited and that its availability can be extended by recycling and decreasing the use of water.
c.. Students know the origin of the water used by their local communities.

2. Energy from the Sun heats Earth unevenly, causing air movements that result in changing weather patterns. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the influence that the ocean has on the weather and the role that the water cycle plays in weather patterns.
b. Students know the causes and effects of different types of severe weather.

Investigation and Experimentation
3. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Classify objects (e.g., rocks, plants, leaves) in accordance with appropriate criteria.
b. Develop a testable question.
c. Plan and conduct a simple investigation based on a student developed question and write instructions others can follow to carry out the procedure.
d. Identify the dependent and controlled variables in an investigation.
e. Identify a single independent variable in a scientific investigation and explain how this variable can be used to collect information to answer a question about the results of the experiment.

Literacy Standard(s): What specific literacy standard(s) will this project meet?
Reading
1.0 Word Recognition

1.1 Read aloud narrative and expository text fluently and accurately and with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression.

2.0 Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials)

2.1 Understand how text features (e.g., format, graphics, sequence, diagrams, illustrations, charts, maps) make information accessible and usable.
2.2 Analyze text that is organized in sequential or chronological order.
2.3 Discern main ideas and concepts presented in texts, identifying and assessing evidence that supports those ideas.
2.4 Draw inferences, conclusions, or generalizations about text and support them with textual evidence and prior knowledge
2.5 Distinguish facts, supported inferences, and opinions in text.

Writing
1.0 Writing Strategies

Organization and Focus
1.1 Create multiple paragraph narrative compositions

a. Establish and develop a situation or plot
b. Describe the setting.
c. Present an ending

Research and Technology

1.2 Use organizational features of printed text (e.g., citations, end notes, bibliographic references) to locate relevant information.
1.3 Create simple documents by using electronic media and employing organizational features (e.g., passwords, entry and pull down menus, word searches, the thesaurus, spell checks).

Evaluation and Revision

1.4 Edit and revise manuscripts to improve the meaning and focus of writing by adding, deleting, consolidating, clarifying, and rearranging words and sentences.

Using the writing strategies of grade five outlined in Writing Standard 1.0, students:
2.1 Write narratives:

a. Establish a plot, point of view, setting, and conflict.
b. Show, rather than tell, the events of the story.

2.2 Write responses to literature:

a. Demonstrate an understanding of a literary work.
b. Support judgments through references to the text and to prior knowledge.
c. Develop interpretations that exhibit careful reading and understanding.

2.3 Write research reports about important ideas, issues, or events by using the following guidelines:

a. Frame questions that direct the investigation.
b. Establish a controlling idea or topic.
c. Develop the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations.

2.4 Write persuasive letters or compositions:

a. State a clear position in support of a proposal.
b. Support a position with relevant evidence.
c. Follow a simple organizational pattern.
d. Address reader concerns.

Written and Oral English Language Conventions
1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies

1.1 Ask questions that seek information not already discussed.
1.2 Interpret a speaker's verbal and nonverbal messages, purposes, and perspectives.
1.3 Make inferences or draw conclusions based on an oral report.

Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication

1.4 Select a focus, organizational structure, and point of view for an oral presentation.
1.5 Clarify and support spoken ideas with evidence and examples.
1.6 Engage the audience with appropriate verbal cues, facial expressions, and gestures.

Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications

1.7 Identify, analyze, and critique persuasive techniques (e.g., promises, dares, flattery, glittering generalities); identify logical fallacies used in oral presentations and media messages.
1.8 Analyze media as sources for information, entertainment, persuasion, interpretation of events, and transmission of culture.

2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
2.1 Deliver informative presentations about an important idea, issue, or event by the following means:
a. Frame questions to direct the investigation
b. Establish a controlling idea or topic.
c. Develop the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations.

2.2 Deliver oral responses to literature:

a. Summarize significant events and details.

b. Articulate an understanding of several ideas or images communicated by the literary work.
c. Use examples or textual evidence from the work to support conclusions.

English Language Development Standard (optional)
ELD Standards for content areas of Science and L.A. are the same as above. Strategies for ELD students include:

SADIA
Sheltered Lessons
Comprehensible Input
Collaborative Grouping