Interviewing Arachnologists Language Arts Lesson Plan, Thematic Unit, Activity, Worksheet, or Reading or Writing Teaching Idea

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Illinois State Goals: 1. Read with understanding and fluency
2. Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas
3. Write to communicate for a variety of purposes
5. Use the language arts to acquire, assess, and communicate information

Instructional Objective:
Students will pretend that they are journalists or arachnologists, writing questions and answers to a mock interview.

Anticipatory Set:
* I will ask the children if they have ever seen an interview on television. I will ask them what happens in an interview. Who asks the questions? Are the questions written down?
* I will ask them, if they could interview anyone in the world, who would they choose and why?

Activities:
1. I will ask the children what kinds of questions they might ask some of these favorite people, and I will write the questions on the blackboard. Why would they ask these questions?
2. I will ask them to pretend they are interviewing someone who just found a cure to a deadly disease. What would they ask them? What kinds of questions are important? What information do you need to find out?
3. I will write the categories: Who, Where, When, What Happened, and Why it is Noteworthy, on the board. I will explain what goes into these categories and why these pieces of information are important in an interview.
4. I will ask if anyone knows what an arachnologist is. I will explain that it is someone who knows very much about, and studies all about spiders.
5. I will split the class in half, calling one half, 'journalists,' and one half, 'arachnologists.' I will instruct each journalist to find an arachnologist to interview. They should bring their writer's notebooks to a quiet space in the classroom where they can work.
6. I will tell the arachnologists that they have just discovered a new spider whose venom can be used to cure cancer. The journalists and the arachnologists should work together to write out questions and answers that fulfill each of the important categories of information. They will have about thirty minutes to work.

Adaptations:
Cassie (LD)- Cassie will be my partner. I will help her to develop questions and answers. She can write down the questions, and I will write down the answers we come up with.

Closure:
* I will ask five groups to come up and write one of their questions next to the appropriate category. When all of the categories have a question next to them, I will allow the students to call on other groups to give answers to those questions.
* I will ask students to return to their desks and to put their notebooks away.

Evaluation:
Students will be evaluated on their written interviews. I will check to see that they have asked questions and given answers to fulfill the proper categories.

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