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Reading Lesson with Rain Forests

Sara Broughton

Title: Reading About the Rain Forests

Content Area: Language arts (reading) and social studies

Objective: The students will obtain information about rain forests by reading different books.

Materials: Four to five books on rain forests: Rain Forest by: H. Cowcher, Tropical Rain Forest : Around the World by: E. Landau, What's in the Rain Forest by: S. Ross, Animals of the Rain Forest by: L. Stone, and Amazing Tropical Birds by: G. Legg.

Directions: Divide the class into groups of four to six. Set up the room in stations with a different book at each station. Assign the groups to their first station and then have them rotate clockwise until each group has read each book. The students should preview the books and discuss the illustrations first and then read. The members of the groups should have a turn to read from each book. Encourage the students to pay attention as they read because they will be discussing and writing in their journals later. After each group has read the books have them discuss as a class the different books and what they learned. Talk about the different animals and plants native to the rain forests. Discuss with the students what they liked or didn't like about each book and the illustrations. After the discussion the students will be writing in their journals what they learned new about rain forest and what they would like to learn.

Assessment/Evaluation: Use the journal writings as a way to assess the students knowledge about rain forests. Keep in mind that some students are going to have more previous knowledge of rain forests.

Adaptation/Assessment: As an extension to this activity or a different form of assessment, you could have the students make a poster advertising one of the books they just read. They would need to include information abut the book and rain forests and also illustrations.