Oakland Public Schools English Language Arts Literacy Curriculum 3rdgrade the Stories Julians Tells

Equally a child growing upward on a small lake in the Midwest, I spent my summertime days in a footling wooden dinghy exploring and learning about my wild neighbors: the muskrats, sunfish, bass, snakes, minnows, turtles, waterfowl, snails, and more. Those years of feeling continued to, and part of, the natural world influenced so much of my life.

As an developed, I accept spent my career in school classrooms and hallways, but the summers of my youth at the lake have stayed with me and kept me grounded in the natural earth. One of my contempo schoolhouse-related assignments has been equally a member of the California State Board of Education, on which I currently serve. Early in my first appointment, I had the privilege to vote for the state'south adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). One of the reasons I felt such enthusiasm for the NGSS is considering I saw how clearly and powerfully environmental content would support the NGSS. California is condign a leader in K–12 science and environmental pedagogy. With the adoption of the NGSS, the integration of California'due south Ecology Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs) into the new science framework, and the implementation of the Design for Environmental Literacy, California is helping students and teachers understand that science education and environmental literacy are essential for our future.

After years of school career assignments, I had the good fortune to bring together the squad at Wildlife Associates, whose tagline is, "Where animals are the teachers." At Wildlife Associates we support students and teachers by bringing science and environmental literacy alive with our educational programs featuring the astonishing, non-releasable wild animals that live at our sanctuary outside Half Moon Bay. Each solar day, the staff of Wildlife Assembly is reminded of the effectiveness of environmental education in schools. Recently, a 4th course teacher told us:

"The students are so intrigued and engaged by the birds and their stories. They have been invested in the lessons and wanting to help these birds. We have been so pleased with the students' work on this unit that we are sending out invitations to parents to come bring together u.s.a. at the presentations because we are hearing from them that their kids are so inspired by this unit. We have also invited the Board of Education to come for the presentations because we retrieve they will be impressed with the caliber of work the students are doing on this unit of measurement."

Mayhap this student said it more succinctly: "Meeting those animals and learning we tin can assist them was the most amazing experience of my life!"

The piece of work is gratifying. Today'due south students are the future leaders and stewards of the planet. Wildlife Associates' educational programs for uncomplicated schools help students sympathize the how and why of real-world environmental problems, just information technology is our animals that touch on the hearts of the students. The stories of injury and fail of so many of our non-releasable animals inspire empathy and assist children understand how connected nosotros are with all living creatures.

Our approach is three-fold. For young people to make wise decisions nigh the environment:

• they need to know the scientific facts. We make learning scientific discipline engaging and relevant, while ensuring that students take the scientific knowledge they need.
• they must feel a connectedness to the World and all its life. We help students empathise how directly the environment affects them each day, and nosotros teach them how scientific facts are connected to their everyday lives.
• they must care. Equally children begin to understand of import life science concepts, they can begin to understand environmental stewardship and empathy for all life.

Wildlife Associates offers iii NGSS environmental science units for 3rd, 4th, and fifth grade classrooms beyond the state of California. Each unit engages students to help solve real-world ecology issues. For instance, the 3rd grade unit focuses on species displacement and how ecosystems fall out of balance. Students learn how valuable each species is to a balanced ecosystem, and they learn to care.

The online curriculum guide shares videos, research links, lesson plans, curriculum maps, outside resources, and everything that a teacher needs to consummate the unit successfully with students. As with a thoroughly-developed NGSS unit, connections are drawn between NGSS and Mutual Cadre Standards in Mathematics and English language Arts. Scaffolding strategies are described in detail to help teachers run across students where they are in their cognition. In all grades, across all disciplines, environmental content engages students and promotes successful learning. Equally 1 parent said:

"I just wanted to say thanks and share that this is all that my son has talked about for the by three weeks. Commonly, if I asked what he was learning at school, I would have to push to get any information. Not these past few weeks. He would come habitation every nighttime, excited to teach us about what he learned about the birds, about these machines, about electricity. He spent time looking into these subjects, on his own, on the reckoner. This wasn't part of an assignment. It was because he just wanted to know more and to actually empathize it. Every bit a parent, it was exciting for me to see him so engaged and to see him so motivated to acquire."

A really great fashion to larn about the importance of the natural world is to row a small wooden dinghy along the shoreline of a pristine lake. Simply this is just one of many pathways to environmental literacy. In order to reach all of California'southward students, interweaving the NGSS and environmental content are certainly a powerful way to engage, teach, and inspire immature people in and out of the classroom.

boannovence87.blogspot.com

Source: https://tenstrands.org/environmental-literacy/when-animals-are-the-teachers/