I chose to focus on both weather and climate simultaneously in order to both fill gaps in knowledge and meet third-grade standards. In order to accomplish this, I will spend the first two lessons of this unit going over base-level information that students may or may not have acquired from previous grades. I have noticed in other lessons that students’ base level of scientific vocabulary and knowledge varies significantly. I know that most of my students had four different teachers and long-term substitutes last year, and were impacted significantly by this in terms of their learning – particularly because it was their first year of in-person school since the pandemic hit when they were in kindergarten. Ensuring that all are exposed to the vocabulary I want them to use to describe the weather will ensure that all students are able to access the content later in later lessons.
In this unit, I will draw upon the wealth of knowledge that students have about living in different climates. A significant portion of our class has moved back and forth between Brazil and the Dominican Republic – which is a very different climate than Worcester. In planning this unit, I wanted students to see their identities and life experiences reflected in their learning. When planning activities for this unit, I carefully considered what skills I was assessing. All the activities planned for this unit were chosen specifically to meet the needs of my specific students in terms of their linguistic, writing, and developmental abilities.