Oceans Alive!

Objective: SWBAT research an animal and give an oral presentation. They will then self-evaluate while watching the oral reports in a movie created by the teacher. Subsequent oral reports will show progression due to the self-evaluating piece of this lesson.

Procedure: First create interest in the earth's oceans by watching a Brainpop, Jr. clip on the ocean. Next, have class create an ocean mural, depicting all the layers. This becomes the backdrop for the taped oral reports. Give students assignment to research an animal of choice on the internet at home. Use computer lab time to take them to sites that are age appropriate for the grade level. Students then write five to seven sentences on the animal, using topic and concluding sentences. They must practice the oral portion of this report at home. They also create an artistic rendition of their animal to be placed onto the mural. Finally, each student is taped while report is being given. Students watching must be active listeners and capture one to three facts about each animal in a report notebook. Teacher then makes the taped reports into a movie using iMovie. Each child is given a copy of the movie to view at home to self-evaluate. They will learn not only from watching their own report, but also the reports of their peers. Additionally, educational clips are included in the movie to break up the oral reports and to provide further instruction.

Evaluation: Subsequent reports show growth in oral presentation. Students' notebooks show active listening with one-three facts written about each animal.

One crucial skill that our students do not get enough practice with is presentation. Taping a student's oral presentation is key in helping them to self-evaluate and make improvements. The students in my class show tremendous improvements from the three taped oral reports that we do in first grade. We start with the planets in March, go to the rainforest in April, and end with ocean animals in May.