Teaching Science Through Picture Books: A Rainforest Lesson

Overview

From Theory to Practice

OVERVIEW

This lesson introduces third- through fifth-grade students to a study of the tropical rainforest. Prereading activities, which allow students to access and build upon prior knowledge, include listening to sound effects of the rainforest, writing, and drawing. During reading, students use simple note-taking strategies, vary the reading structures, find patterns in text structure, and learn vocabulary in context. During postreading activities, students demonstrate synthesis of the text by writing efferent and affective responses to the text. As an extension to this lesson, students generate a list of questions to be pursued in small group research on the Internet.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Guillaume, A.M. (1998). Learning with text in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 51(6), 476–486.

• It is appropriate for primary and intermediate students to learn from a wide variety of content area texts.
  
  
• Content area texts provide a meaningful context for reading and language arts goals.
  
  
• Content area reading helps children develop the ability to process and analyze information.

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