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But
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Learning about Lobsters
Charting the Filtering skills and tasks as applied to appropriate learning tasks
See the Learning Tasks Process for a visual guide. Apply the task flow to every general skill task in the chart below. A teacher would not want to include filtering, collaboration and assessment in every learning task, but the more often they are included the more quickly the student will learn the skills necessary for technlogy use in the future. For a good, concise overview of the general role of the teacher in the k-5 classroom, the core years for developing both collaboration and Filtering skills, see The Expertise of Literacy Teachers: A Continuum from Preschool to Grade 5 (requires access to ProQuest full-text databases).
General skill The Student can... The Teacher should... Example Representing and Concept Attainment (Elementary Level) - students internalize the permissions and practice the language and process of filtering, assessment and collaboration.
Structure the learning task.
Create collaborative groups, collaborative opportunities and tasks.
Gather questions. Both closed and open-ended questions are important.
Set permissions:
- Everyone must contribute.
- It is OK to not use all the pieces.
- Every opinion is OK but you need to tell Why.
- Every question is OK and needs to be answered.
- Changing your mind is OK but you need to tell Why.
- If you ask a question, wait for the answer or find it yourself and share it.
Structure assessments.
Main Idea: Learning about the Lobster's Life
Essential Questions might include:
- How can the lobster be described?
- How can the lobster's neighborhood be described?
- In what ways is a lobster the same as and different from its friends in the Intertidal Zone? From other animals you know about?
- How is a lobster like you?
- How does a lobster do some of the things you do every day?
- Is a lobster a fish?
- What can we learn from the lobster about making use of bodies?
Detailing & Sorting
1. locate the concrete representation of a problem/main idea (object, words, pictures) in a data array ( one item in a pile of blocks or buttons, a list, picture set, index, letters, numbers, words, sounds, actions)
2. locate/group a subset of related information from the same data array and ignore the rest, using likeness to the main idea as a criteria
3. construct a statement or picture of literal meaning from the problem/main idea and the subset of related information
4. communicate to another student the concrete details/descriptors of the representations
5. communicate to another student the details of the relationship between the problem/main idea and the selected subset (speak, write, visualize, dramatize, draw)
6. accept concrete feedback (listen to, read, view and understand) and provide feedback to others
7. construct a concrete response (agree, disagree) and sort out feedback relevant to the main idea
8. reevaluate the subset and the ignored array and adjust statement or picture of literal meaning.
9. Apply the same process steps to a different main idea representation (same data array)
1. Provide a problem/main idea/Essential Question. Ask and gather: What do you know? what do you want to know?
2. Provide initial data array for group consideration - multiple sources are best from the start - include pictures, texts, ordered and non-ordered lists, manipulatives, motions, sounds - the teacher models the concrete representation (provides image, spoken or written words, action, sound) and provides an initial context for learning (work bank, image bank, chart, video experience, computer software, reading from text) - this must include essential detail words for the learning task.
3. Provide structure for construction of subset of related and information: matching list, worksheet, note-taking checklist, concrete informational questions, outline to complete, passage or pictures from which to select data, workspace for ordering manipulatives, performance stage. Ask: Choose, Select, Describe, Omit
4. Provide support for filtering/disregarding data items that do not belong in the set - in any, this should be a place to put the omitted items so that they can be accessed later
5. Provide or reinforce a vocabulary for communication of details
6. Provide opportunities for collaboration - monitor this - set standards for reporting success of communication with others (checklist, rubric, model diagram or chart) - listen and assess listening - adjust collaborative groups as necessary
7. Provide/reinforce vocabulary for feedback: What? Which? ? What is? Why is? What do you think? Do you agree?
8. Provide time for evaluation and adjustment.
9.Structure time for process to repeat as necessary.
Vocabulary: tide, seawater, claw, antennae, abdomen, etc. Choose age appropriate vocabulary - if the sequence of the science program is going to use a learning unit like the Classification unit below, do not use scientific classification - let students identify external features with real language, "crusty" "hard" etc.
Concrete representations:
Lobstering video, print resources with pictures of lobsters in their habitat, plastic lobster toys, magnets, etc. Pictures of undersea life in various biomes. Take a trip to an aquarium if possible. Live lobsters can survive a short trip to the classroom (with advice from the lobsterman). Use appropriate online, CD and other resources.
Detailing and Sorting exercises:
1. What does not belong in Robin Hood Cove.
2. Group pictures of sea creatures based upon features (legs, no legs, number of legs, size, shell, eyes, etc. - have students generate the criteria). It is important that students first state their criteria then adhere to it and filter out what does not belong. Groups members must agree. Repeat several times using the same data set. Record. Share results: Ask: What were the criteria? Were they followed? Is there anything to fix?
3. What are the Rules? Present students with sea life already sorted. Ask them to define the "rules" of organization. Follow up by challenging them to come up with their own challenge for fellow students. Encourage them to filter out what does not follow the rule set.Share the records - encourage questions and discussion.
Describe the underwater neighborhood called Robin Hood Cove. Collect the language of the details. Provide specific common names of plants and other life. Discuss: food, shelter, movement, seeing
Draw or represent this neighborhood and its parts as a group exercise. Ask: Which house would M. Lobster like best? Why? Collaborate on a "better house"
Ask questions such as: What color? Larger? Smaller?
Have students circulate to share constructions. Collect comments and questions. Allow time for revision.
Creative project: If you were a lobster exploring your classroom, what would you see? Have students physically act out this explanation. What is big? What is small? What is too hard to do? What is easy to do? Digital cameras can be used to record and share the "lobster eye view."
Sequencing: items
1. place multiple data elements in a sequence with a given reference point (this may be a pattern) and create a literal representation of the sequence (object pattern, picture, chart, sound pattern, movement pattern)
2. communicate to another student the nature of the sequence (descriptors)
3. resequence the same data differently with a different reference point, omitting elements/items that do not belong in the sequence (eg. turn paper 90† , mirror sequence, skip count, change a letter in rhyme phoneme)
4. repeat with a different set of data elements
1. Provide opportunities to collaborate with others.
2. Model vocabulary for sequencing: Then, First, Second, Before, After, Comparatives (smaller, larger, brighter, darker), Descriptors (colors, shapes, directions, numbers) - require students to use the vocabulary to explain results of activity to groups and to assess the sequences - enforce permissions
3. Provide opportunities for repetition of sequencing activity.
4. Provide opportunities for recommunication of sequence from different reference points.
5. Provide opportunities for discussion of differences and similarities between one individual's sequences and within group.
Have students place identified animal life in sequence based upon a simple criteria (such as size or age/place in life cycle).
Have them resequence with a new criteria, filtering out the items that do not "fit."
As before, collaborate on criteria for sequencing and require that decisions be explained. Allow time for revision.
Extensions: measurement (ruler, other guides created by students)
Spinning - Combining into events
1. understand that a problem/main idea does not occur in isolation from other problems/main ideas
2. understand that problems/main ideas are parts of events; communicate understanding to collaborative group, assess and refine it
2. create from details a concrete representation of an "event" that may contain the problem/main idea (picture, map, timeline, outline, storyboard, diorama, tableau, word or sentence) and that omits unrelated events
3. communicate this representation to other students
4. assess and adjust the concrete representation of the event.
1. Make the main idea available again - review it with class
2. Create opportunity again for sharing of constructed literal meanings
3. Model vocabulary for spinning: Why does? When does? How does? What is happening? What happens when...?
4. Provide opportunities to communicate events fully and concretely in cooperative groups: telling, drawing, imaging, acting, writing
5. Provide opportunities to evaluate, adjust and recommunicate fully or in part - this should be the responsibility of the collaborative groups
6. Validate the creations of each individual
Using the learning from the previous unit, have students draw a picture of a lobster in Robin Hood Cove, adding "speech bubbles" to the lobster and other animal characters. Give them guides such as: A mad lobster, a sad lobster, a tired lobster, a lonely lobster, a happy lobster, a frustrated lobster
Share spins. Encourage questions - allow time for adjustment or change. Discuss how the pictures are different. Ask: What is not in the picture? What is was it left out?
Collaborate on the a Combining Activity (below)
Relating & Gathering - Combining Events 1. identify events and representations that relate to one's own by virtue of details
2. disregard events and representations that do not relate to one's own
1. Provide vocabulary for relating: Is like, Is different, Shares, comes before, comes after, is happening at the same time
2. Provide concrete models for relating: tables, charts, diagrams, word lists, image gathering, webbing
3. Assess with words like: Does this make sense? What more is needed? What does not belong?
4. Provide opportunites for collaborative groups to gather additional data (guided book or media searching, interviews, surveys, measurements)
Have students compare their pictures to those of their classmates. Encourage them to group those pictures that share: content, colors, viewpoint, shapes and sizes.
Create tables or lists of elements used in the pictures: lobsters, sea kelp, clams, mussels, sea urchins, sea gulls, etc.
Collaborate by creating a story around grouped pictures, using Then, Next, And
Sequencing: Events
1. place multiple events in a sequence with a given reference point.(a place, an action, event, a punctuation mark, a sensation)
2. communicate to another student the nature of the sequence (descriptors) - oral, physical activity, connected timelines, linked concept maps or storyboards, timeline
3. resequence events differently with a different reference point, omitting events and details that do not belong in the sequence (eg. redraw food chain map from the point of view of one animal in it)
1. Provide opportunities to collaborate with others.
2. Remodel vocabulary for sequencing: Then, First, Second, Before, After, When did? What happened next?
3. Model vocabulary for resequencing: What happens if we start here? How does Change X affect the story?
4. Provide opportunities for creation of concrete representations of sequences
5. Provide opportunities for recommunication of sequence from difference reference points.
Using manipulatives, drama, or clip art, have students create a "story board" representing a simple story line that the teacher begins:
Mr. Lobster finds a mysterious box.
Develop a set of questions to answer in a collaboration exercise. Collaborate on storyboarding or enacting or telling the story itself.
Discuss where students took the story. Assess: Does it make sense? What is possible? What is funny? What is the ending?
Add a new element to the story line: Ms. Crab is looking for her lost box.
Recreate or redraw the story sequence. Ask about the changes. Ask: What was left out of the second story? What was added? Why?
What would happen if: The box is attached to a fishing line!
Life Cycle exercise: Share the lobster life cycle (see Resources) as a TimeLiner document - print it as a banner. Have students create the life cycle of each of the following, print, and connect their banners to the lobster cycle at the point of intersection (when the gull might eat the Stage II larva, for example): sea gull, clam, skate, sea urchin
Virtualizing/Visualizing
1. create from concrete construction a creative or virtual representation of literal meaning - story, film, slide show, multi-dimensional model, arithmetic expression (in words and numeration)
2. effectively communicate this virtual construction to another student
3. engage virtual construction with that of another in either a concrete or a virtual way, omitting events and details that do not belong.
4. communicate the outcome of this engagement
5. expand virtual representation in response to questions or additional events
1. Provide opportunities for creative expression of virtual understanding: enactment, writing, multimedia, storytelling, visual modeling
2. Model vocabulary for virtualizing: In this scene..., I imagine that..., I think that..., It appears that...
Have students create a timeline or "comic book" story that revolves around a lobster. It should have a beginning, a middle and an end. It must use the the plants and animals from the unit.
TimeLiner, KidPix, KidWorks or Kidspiration would be perfect for this.
Share the stories - encourage elaboration through story-telling.
Ask: What would happen if... What details of Robin Hood Cove are not in the story? Why were they not used? What is "made up" and what could really happen?
Have students, in groups, combine stories. Do this technically, if possible. Encourage them to discard story elements that do not work in the new story.
A group that has done a dissection exercise (middle school) would enjoy an exercise such as that provided at the Lobster Parts page - a clam's journey through a lobster digestive system
Asking Concrete Questions
1. generate knowledge-seeking questions based upon understanding
2. generate knowledge-seeking questions based upon observed details
3. generate knowledge-seeking questions based upon comparing and sequencing tasks.
4. generate predictive (What would happen if..? What will happen when...?) questions based upon visualization and sequencing
1. Display the knowledge statements.
2. Collect all questions. Have the class review them, filtering out those that have been answered, that are silly, or that do not relate to the topic, or that relate peripherally (What makes the ocean salty?) Provide appropriate resources and time for answering the final list of questions.
3. Structure simple hands-on experiences to help answer questions.
4. Structure create/reflective time for students to formulate their own answers to the questions asked.
5. Return to the unit's Essential Questions. Ask students to answer them.
A class "About Lobsters in Robin Hood Cove" book or presentation could be created to share the answers to the student questions.
Questions like: Can lobsters hear? Can lobsters smell? might arise. Using live lobsters, the class can structure, complete, communicate and evaluate simple "experience tests" to answer the questions. A more practical solution would be to study crayfish.
Extending Answers 1. demonstrate understanding of answers to questions by using the answers to create a new learning outcome that filters out learning that are not relevant to the new outcome
2. communicate understanding by explaining the learning outcome to others
3. adjust the learning outcome as a result of peer and teacher assessment
1. Assess learning and allow time for all students to achieve sufficient understanding - provide additional concrete information if necessary
2. Provide a simple, concrete assignment that requires students to use learning in a new way in collaborative groups
3. Provide a means of peer and self-assessment of the learning outcome (rubric, checklist)
4. Challenge students to communicate all aspects of the decision, design, creative process and to use assessments collaboratively.
Samples:
M. Lobster is going on a trip. What does she/he pack in the suitcase? (use a shoe box!)
Design the perfect "pet box" for a pet lobster.
Design a new house for M. Lobster (paper or construction)
Making Concrete Assessments
1. upon reviewing their own work, assess what they have learned about living things
2. differentiate between what they Think or Guess or Imagine and what they Know
3. listen to learning statements of others; apply new ideas or knowledge to products or learning outcomes
1. Provide opportunities for students to state what they KNOW.
2. Provide opportunities for students to state what they THINK OR GUESS OR IMAGINE. Validate these but separate them from the knowledge statement.
3. Identify the questions that were not answered or for which no answer can be found. Provide opportunities to discuss the value of each question and WHY it is not answered.
4. Allow students to adjust products before a final publication or archiving (or sending home)
Revisit the What Do You Want to Know? questions.
Student interviews, edited in iMovie, would be a good ending for this unit. This would be particularly important if some of the content of the unit made students uncomfortable.
Unanswered questions can provide a good springboard for further visualizing.
Analyzing at Upper Elementary/Middle School Level - all of the above and students strengthen filtering, collaboration and assessment skills in a less concrete learning environment Structure opportunities for collaboration.
Structure assessments (with student collaboration)
Set permissions:
- It is OK to assess the work of another student as long as you stick to the criteria.
- Everyone must participate in assessment (have and defend an opinion).
- Everyone must be assessed.
- You must respond to assessment by filtering your work.
- You must explain your changes.
Overreaching topic: The lobster in its habitat.
Essential Questions:
- What are the special features of the American lobster's habitat?
- How does the habitat affect or determine the lobster's life cycle?
- How does this habitat compare to other marine habitats?
- How does man interact with this habitat? What are the problems in this habitat caused by man and how can they be prevented?
Compare / Contrast 1. apply sorting and analyzing criteria to data or information, seeking relevant details and filtering out other details
2. draw concrete conclusions from comparisons following assessment and refinement of sorting
3. draw simple hypotheses or conclusions from the learning outcomes
4. define criteria for further comparison/contrast tasks based upon assessment of learning and the learning product
1. Provide a framework for structuring a compare/contrast learning experience (table, chart, paragraph syntax and structure)
2. Provide initial criteria for comparison
3. Provide models for conclusions
4. Provide opportunities for collaboration, sharing, peer assessment, and revision
5. Provide opportunities for many individual chartings to be combined into a larger whole
6. Ask: Why? What do you think this means? Do you think that...?
1. Compare sea life in a coastal bay or harbor (habitat) to life in a fresh water pond.
2. Compare lobster species found in different climate zones or geographical regions.
Draw conclusions about how habitat (details of) effects the nature and variety of sea life.
Identifying Cause and Effect 1. from a point on the event construction, identify cause (of this event) and effect (of this event or of an outside agent on this event).
2. communicate this understanding to another student (orally, print)
3. expand or redraw cause-effect relationship based upon feedback from other students
1. Model vocabulary for expanding virtualization: What is the cause of? What will happen/happened because of...
2. Provide a structure for analyzing cause and effect: Inspiration diagram, timeline, listing
3. Challenge students with an events sequence in which cause and effect are not immediately clear
4. Challenge students to filter out facts and data that do not help to determine cause and effect and to disregard opinion and unsupported inference.
Questions:
What causes the lobster to molt?
What is the effect of lobster molting on lobster prices?
What was the cause of the lobster shortage in Long Island in 2000? What was its effect on the lobstering industry?
Predicting Outcomes
1. construct responses to predictive questions, given an event construction
2. construct predictive questions and construct possible outcomes, given an event construction
3. communicate this understanding to another student (orally, print, visually)
4. expand or reconstruct questions and predictions based upon feedback from others
5. expand or reconstruct event construction or analysis based upon predictions
6. construct concrete tasks/experiments to test predictions
1. Model vocabulary for predictive questioning: What will happen when...
2. Provide opportunities for students to reflect/research/experiment/discuss to answer predictive questions.
3. Provide opportunities for students to communicate responses, and expand upon or redirect their questions.
4. Challenge students to generate predictive questions based upon their understanding.
5. Require that students defend/explain their questions and their responses.
Study or research the water temperature in a coastal NE lobster habitat. Record change in temperature over time. This can be simulated with crayfish in a school tank.
Ask: What will happen to the (lobster) population when the temperature rises? (this can be extended to Global Warming). What is the effect of temperature change on lobster mobility (do they slow down when they get hot?)
Study or research the use of GPS systems to log lobster catches.
Ask: What will be the effect on lobstering of the large-scale use of these systems?
Differentiating:
points of view
1. understand that an event construction contains many points of view
2. identify more than one point of view
3. reconstruct the virtualization of the event from a different point of view
4. communicate this construction to others
5. understand that the cause-effect relationships will vary depending upon the point of view
6. communicate this understanding to others
7. identify a point of view from which to visualize or represent the main idea
8. limit all further analysis to this point of view, disregarding other points of view
9. communicate the point of view and the construction to others
1. Define point of view. Differentiate between point of view, opinion and "stand."
2. Provide opportunities for students to experience, enact, read about, write about or perceive events from multiple points of view.
3. Provide opportunities for students to collaborate and share responses.
4. Require that students review/reconstruct understanding based upon different points of view, filtering out those perceptions and "facts" that are no longer relevant.
A simple exercise would be to explore the lobster (plastic) piecemeal and blindfolded, asking each student in a group to image a whole animal based upon the part. Collate and share responses.
Question: Should we eat lobster? Respond from various points of view (lobsterman, dietician, Five Islands tourist bureau, environmentalist, animal rights activist, biologist, the lobster). This could be a WebQuest.
Differentiating:
fact vs. opinion
1. understand that data and event constructions can be communicated as either fact or opinion
2. understand that fact and opinion are used for different purposes but that both can be used to manipulate the reader, viewer, listener, audience
3. understand that filtering out and/or identifying opinions is necessary for good research.
1. Provide students with a reading/listening/viewing vocabulary for the differentiation of fact and opinion.
2. Provide students with examples of each. Examples should cover several media: advertisements, commercials, essays & speeches, historical movies, historical fiction/non-fiction
3. Provide time for the study of the examples, paying attention to the language and structure of the work.
4. Provide opportunities for students to create examples of each, share, assess, and re-evaluate/refine.
Students might write editorials (opinions) and/or make speeches about the question of eating lobster.
Advertisements for a lobster product or for a lobstering village (tourism) would be fun.
The FACTS gathered in the points of view exercise should be reviewed, along with the opinions located in the research.
Classifying 1. use factual information and observation to place data in a comparative structure or system
2. articulate the criteria and the structure
3. filter out the information not relevant to the system
1. Provide students with sufficient real world data to make classification necessary and challenging
2. Provide opportunities for classification systems to be tested, shared, evaluated, and revised
3. Challenge students to explain and defend classification systems, criteria, and methods
4. Provide examples of familiar classification familiar to the students
5. Provide a concrete structure for representing a system: Inspiration, paper, etc. and for collecting and organizing data collected by students
6. Publish the student systems
How should lobsters be classified? Before introducing "the real way," teachers should:
1. provide students with "live" examples of sea fauna from a lobster habitat
2. challenge them to develop a classification scheme that will group like organisms and present relationships between classes, if any
3. provide time and opportunity for detailing, describing, and other tasks that students will require.
4. share, evaluate, revise and publish the results - then introduce "scientific" classification
Answering Key Questions
1. follow a strategy for answering questions that has been provided by the teacher
2. articulate "clarifying questions"
3. evaluate responses against a specific criteria
4. filter out information gathered that does not respond to the question.
5. generate documents or projects that assimilate information gathered with just restating it, filtering out information that is not necessary or useful in the product, or that interferes with its message or point. (McKenzie calls this step "Sorting and Sifting").
6. generate a strategy for answering key questions
1. Provide a strategy (worksheet, model, web page, resource list) for answering key questions. Answer "clarifying questions."
2. Set expectations for quality and depth of answers; challenge students to generate rather than restate; provide examples of excellent responses; provide a language (vocabulary) or skill set upon which to model answers/responses
3. Challenge students to evaluate their own responses
4. Create opportunities for students to evaluate each other's responses and to respond to the evaluations.
5. Create opportunities for students to collaborate in answering questions and in reviewing/assessing responses
6. Publish answers
A WebQuest is the perfect forum for this literacy skill. An alternate would be a unit based upon the ALPS curriculum model or research based upon a Big6 strategy or one of Jamie McKenzie's modules. See Activity Modules.
Students can also do research based upon concrete questions, such as lobster life cycle, the lobster's role in the tidal bay ecosystem, and how can lobsters be shipped live over long distances (the perfect system).
I remind you that your librarians are experts at Information Literacy.
Generating Research Questions
1. generate questions from information learned; classify and group them
2. evaluate key questions and refine/redraw them as necessary, based upon research, responses
3. filter out questions that are open-ended, or that are not relevant to the main idea, throughline, or topic essential question
1. Model good questions (Jamie McKenzie's publications on questions are an invaluable resource) and model the revision of questions - Ask: How? Why? Which? So What?
2. Provide a good topic about which questions can be asked by the students you are teaching.
3. Provide the guidance to classify, group, and formulate them; provide feedback or arrange for it (locate a local or online expert)
4. Provide opportunities for students to assess their own questions and the questions of others.
5. Provide for Information Literacy lessons, including key word searching and Internet basics (use your librarian!)
6. Provide ample time for answering. Share, evaluate, redraw, publish.
7. Provide a variety of ways to "answer questions", including the concrete (list, draw), creative synthesis (You are There, newspaper, suitcase, story), extended concrete (lab report, report), creative response (poem, play, music, drawing, sculpture)
8. Challenge students to express and assess their understanding of learning during and after the answering/publishing process
A study of lobsters will generate many questions. Let students generate questions at the beginning of the unit, then revisit and redraw this list at several times in the unit.
Applying Higher Level Thinking Skills (Upper Middle/High School) - student begin to develop independent learning skills Structure collaborative assessment steps in independent learning tasks (dialogue, peer review).
Structure independent assessment steps in independent tasks (review of essential questions)
Set permissions:
- It is essential to redirect research after each assessment
- It is essential to filter out gathered information/data that is non-essential to the question or problem's solution.
- It is essential to communicate your assessments clearly and to explain them fully
- It is essential to express and defend your opinions.
- It is essential that you seek assessments
Main Idea: The lobster in its ecosystem.
Over-reaching questions:
How does research into lobsters and lobstering contribute to my understanding of marine ecology?
How does research into lobsters and lobstering contribute to my understanding of the culture and economics of the working class in America?
Inferring 1. construct events, motives, hypotheses from one's understanding of the literal and virtual events and motives
2. communicate understanding of learned or constructed knowledge by generating and defending inferential statements
3. understand when inferential statements are not relevant or can not be defended by the information provided and filter these out
1. Provide guiding questions to generate inference
2. Provide suitable literature, references, information, activities to generate inference
3. Challenge students to defend and explain
4. Provide opportunities for peer review and assessment
5. Challenge students to reassess and redraw inferences
1. Guided research of the lobster population, the lobster fishing fleet, and the organization (legal and illegal) of lobster fishermen. Teacher generated inference question about the relationships between trends and data.
2. Read a lobsterman's biography. Generate inferential statements - what can be inferred about lobstermen from this account? What can be inferred about "independent labor" jobs? Compare with others reading different accounts.
3. Create a tidal bay or ocean shore environment in a tank. After close study of the life, draw inferences about the interrelationship between the species and about the effect of habitat on the nature of life that it will sustain.
4. Do lobsters "feel pain"? Read studies and interview cooks. Is it safe to draw inferences from this data?
5. Use a dynamic modeling tool, such as Stella or Model-It, to explore the interrelationships in the lobster's environment (food, water temperature, lobster traps, etc.)
Synthesizing
1. construct and communicate understanding of multiple related events that support main idea, filtering out those that are not relevant
2. communicate the nature of the relationship to other students
3. construct one's own new idea from the related parts (thesis, artistic work)
1. Provide guided study that will allow students to synthesize meaningfully. Study data should come from several media: film, text, interview/live, observation
2. Provide leading questions
3. Provide opportunities for sharing, collaboration and peer assessment.
4. Challenge students to review, refocus, and rewrite
1. Using provided readings and research articles on the coastal NE fishing fleet, write an essay or prepare a presentation about its importance to the national economy.
2. WebQuest: Should lobster fishing be controlled by quotas? (What should they be and who should set them?)
Grasping Implications 1. understand that events do not occur in isolation and that the components of an event affect the components of other events
2. isolate, identify, and communicate the components of an event and the events they affect; redraw statements and understanding as a result of peer assessment
3. describe the implication (future) of the events described, filtering out implications that are not related to the components of focus
1. Provide guided study and key questions that will require students to seek and state implications
2. Challenge students to review and restate following peer assessment.
3. Provide models of well-communicated and poor implications (editorials, articles), TV talk show tapes, radio tapes
1. What are the implications for the NE economy of over fishing (over lobstering) coastal waters?
2. What are the implications for NE lobster industry of increased global warming?
3. What are the implications for other industries of a national "lobster catch quota" - regulation of lobstering?
4. What are the implications for lobstering of the unexplained 1998 lobster mutations and the 2000 Long Island lobster decline?
Classroom debate is a good format for sharing the construction of implications.
Developing Key Questions
1. construct key questions that focus upon the knowledge sought, filtering out a search for information irrelevant to the learning task
2. communicate understanding of the key question and of the knowledge constructed
3. revisit and revise the key question following assessment
1. Provide models for key questions
2. Provide interesting over-reaching questions that require students to generate key questions.
3. Provide or guide students to materials that will help them answer the questions
4. Provide instruction in research methods and sources (with librarian) so that students learn to focus upon key resources
5. Provide opportunities for sharing and peer assessment, followed by an opportunity to review and revise key questions (and research tasks)
Each of the questions above is an over-reaching question for which students must create key questions in order to complete meaningful research.
You are reminded that formulating key questions is essential to Information Literacy - and that this is the specialty of your librarian.
All About Lobsters - from the Gulf of Maine Aquarium - it is here that you will find Lobster Anatomy for elementary school, Lobster Parts which is appropriate for Middle School and curious adults, and good material for generating and answering essential questions. The Lobster Links are kept quite current. A very good timeline can be created from the Lobster Lifecycle page. This activity can inter-relate with other life cycle studies, such as that of the clam, the mussel, the oyster, the snail, the crab, the skate and seasonal residents, such as the sea bass and the blue fish
The Crustacean Society maintains a good list of resources, including links to list servs, forums and newsgroups and an extensive set of hyperlinks
Department of Marine Resources - State of Maine - there is a link in the menu to Lobster laws, policies, and information - be patient with the java script menu
Bishop's College Intertidal Zone Field Trip - from British Columbia - contains good images of smaller animal life and a lab activity based upon a "virtual beach"
Crustacea Glossary - extensive dictionary of terms
The Intertidal Zone - elementary and lower middle school - biome pictures and information (omits the lobster, but has lots of other life)
Introduction to the Arthopoda - The Real Rulers of the World - for middle school and higher, a colorful and easily navigated look into classification and interrelationships
The Littoral Zone - follows the story of one intertidal seaweed, the serrated wrack - The Challenge is a good model for independent question formation
The Lobster Conservancy - Ask Lobster Doc contains a huge amount of information for education - find a nice image of the life cycle on the Research page - through the Conservancy, you can adopt a lobster to promote research - Lobster Biology (Continued) discusses the antennae.
Lobster Facts from The Lobsterman's Page created by Alan M. Stewart - there is also information here about the life of the lobsterman - good explanation of Tides - the page entitled Some Other Items Brought Up in Traps provides information for a Robin Hood Cove study
Lobster Cam - live images from inside of a lobster trap
Lobster Facts - lobster FAQ from Rockport Lobster (good source of questions)
Lobster Fun - more fun facts
Lobster Vocabulary - from New Foundland, but most is like Maine
The Marine Biology Web - biology, tidal information, more - high school level
Maine Resources Aquarium - contact this educational branch of the Maine Department of Marine Resources to locate teaching materials - a Teacher's Guide may be available - sample pages are available online - Lobster pages include teaching suggestions (like studying crayfish in a freshwater tank).
Maine Seafood.org - nonprofit organization - the site has a wealth of information about the lobstering industry
The Ocean Ecosystem - contains a nice description of a sample marine food web
Purchase
Live Lobster online - if your local supermarket or fish market can not provide lobster, try a local restaurant. A last resort would be to purchase online:
- Acadia Lobster
- The Lobster Trap
- Maine Made Products
Bloodworms for study if you dare - Maine Bait
Crayfish (freshwater cousins of the American Lobster):
- Carolina Biological Supply - also available are dissection guides and other materials
- Ward's Natural Science supply
Biography and lobsterman culture:
- The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island by Linda Greenlaw - purchase from Amazon.com
- The Lobster Gangs of Maine by James M. Acheson - purchase from Amazon.com
Lobster Pots: a Game - from the BBC (it is in pounds, not dollars) - about the economics of lobstering
E. Sky-McIlvain 12/4/03
