Special Selection
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SPECIAL SECTION- DIFFERENTIATION
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "There is nothing so American as our national parks... The fundamental idea behind the parks...is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in the process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us." Enrichment of our lives can involve many different facets, including educational enrichment. For a group of third graders in rural Northwest Colorado where I teach, the National Parks provide a window to a world much greater than their 2,500-person town.
Located within an 8-hour drive of 11 different National Parks Rangely, Colorado’s location is as unique as the town motto, “Way Outside of Ordinary.” The students in this small community are primarily White, middle class, and rarely travel outside of their 80 mile-radius of shopping. How could I, their teacher, expand their outlook on the United States, while still addressing important English Language Arts Standards? In an effort to address research, writing, and speaking and listening standards, I developed an 8-10-day unit on National Parks.
Introduction to National Parks
I started the unit by providing students with a handout about Arches National Park. The handout was an excerpt from Your Guide To the National Parks by Michael J. Oswald (2012). I chose Arches because it is one of the closest parks to Rangely and some of the students have visited the park previously. I read aloud the handout, as most of it was too difficult for some students to read. I focused on the headings and format Oswald used to help share information about the park. Students quickly recognized the importance of headings such as, “Camping,” “Hiking” and “Photography.” Students also identified captions throughout the section of landmarks throughout the park, such as Delicate Arch. All of these text features have been addressed throughout the year while reading informational text.
Park Selection
Now that I had tapped into their excitement and intrigue, it was time for students to select the park they would like to research. This is one of my favorite parts of the project because outside of Yellowstone, the students know very little about the National Parks, even though the parks are very close to Rangely. I met with students one on one and let them select a park out of the guidebook. Since the book has many photographs, it was easy for the students to find a park that appealed to them. I loved the inquiry and questions just looking through the book brought from the students: “Where is this park?” “This park looks really cool, have you been there?” “Look at that cool bird!” I was just as excited as they were to start the research process.
Learning How to Do Research
The second day started with a discussion of the research process. I taught a short mini-lesson, about how to pick a topic, select sources, and gather information. I chose to create a graphic organizer on Google Docs to help the students organize their information. Creating headers such as Basic information, History, Science, Visitor Guide, and Conclusion helped the students write their essay at the end of the project. See Figure 1 for the graphic organizer.
Using the National Park Service website, www.nps.gov students were able to quickly gather specific information about their park. Every park website has a section called “Learn about the Park” which then has headings for Nature, History and Culture, Photos and Multimedia, and Kids and Youth. These pages were the gateway for discovery.
Science Connection
Ecosystems, conservation, lifecycles, geology, climate, geothermal activity, oceanography, and the study of caves are just a few of the many science topics covered by the National Parks. I do not have the time to teach all of these science topics at the depth I would like, so this project gives students a glimpse into some of each of these topics. Students become experts on their park by learning the most important science information for their park. For example, one student learned how the Carlsbad Caverns were formed and why so many bats live in the caves. Another learned about the dormant volcano at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California.
Social Studies Connection
Social studies is also a key element of this project. Students learned geography, how to use a map, the unique history of their park, and how the government manages the parks. Students used the resources on nps.gov, as well as Google Maps to get a precise location of their park relative to Rangely. One student discovered it would take 28 hours to drive from Rangely to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Many parks tell the story of Native American tribes and how they have a large connection to Native American culture.
Presenting the Research
Once the research section of the project was completed, students constructed an informative essay and a Google Slides presentation to share their information. Since the graphic organizer helped to structure their essay, this portion of the project went much faster than normal essays. The students knew what they wanted to say, and all I had to do was guide them and help with some sentence structure. Building the Google Slide presentation was by far their favorite portion of the project. Creating different slide layouts, designs, and transitions were some of their favorite activities. Students were also able to add photographs and captions to their presentation which helped improve their understanding of those features.
Theory and Research
The idea for this project started almost two years ago when I was taking a standards based integrated curriculum class. The class focused on the theory, research, and design of interdisciplinary thematic units (ITU). Specifically, I focused on integrated curriculum, which Roberts and Kellough (2008) define as:
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