Lesson Plan #: AELP-SPA0025
Submitted by: Stacy Vincenti
Email: svincent@sjc.edu
Date: December 2, 1998

Grade Level(s): 3, 4, 5, 6

Subject(s):

• Science/Space Sciences
• Language Arts/Writing (composition)

Duration: Two weeks

Description:

The students will create a 14-to 20-page science fiction book about the solar system.

Goals:

To become more familiar with the solar system.

Objectives:

The students will create a 14- to 20-page science fiction book about the solar system with teacher and student aid. Using fiction and non-fiction books, the students will create a book of their own that has at least 3 facts about the solar system on each page. The students will create an accurate title page that includes title, author, publisher, and where it was published with teach aid.

Materials:

Pencil, Books about the solar system (fiction and non-fiction), Encyclopedias, Crayons and markers, Plain white paper, Construction paper, Magic School Bus Goes to the Solar System.

Procedure:

Preassessment:

The students have been learning about the solar system for two weeks. They have prior knowledge on the writing process, brainstorming, choosing a topic, and title pages. They are also familiar with the characteristics of a science fiction story. This lesson would take place during the Science period as well as the Language Arts period.

Set/Initiation:

We have been learning about the solar system for two weeks now. Who can tell me something that we have learned about it? Have about 5 or 6 students give you facts about the solar system and write them on the board. It looks to me like you know a lot about the solar system. What do you think? Now, we are going to learn how to apply that knowledge to write a science fiction story about the solar system. First, I am going to read you an example of a science fiction story about the solar system. Read The Magic School Bus Goes to the Solar System to the students.

Lesson:

Review the characteristics of science fiction stories with the students. Give them a handout that has each of the characteristics on it. Explain what a science fiction story is and what it does. The students need to brainstorm ideas about what they could include in their books. The teacher should write these ideas down on the board to help them organize their thoughts. Each individual student needs to come up with a topic for his or her story on the solar system. The teacher will go around and monitor and check what the topics being chosen are and offer suggestions if necessary. Once the student chooses a topic, they need to write down the facts that they already know about the topic. The students now has to go to other sources (books, encyclopedias, Internet, etc.) to get more information about their topic. Once the student gets that information, he or she must organize the information that they have found. When the information is organized, the students can then write a rough draft of their story. When the students has completed their rough draft and read it over themselves to make sure that it makes sense to them, give it to a peer to peer check, and then the teacher will check their rough draft for spelling and accuracy of the information. The teacher will also check to see if the objectives were met. If they were not, the students will be informed and given the chance to revise their work. After the teacher has checked the story, the students will rewrite the story and draw pictures to go along with it. When the story is completely written and the pictures a drawn, the cover (that has a title, author, and illustration) and
title page will be created. When the students are done with that, the teacher will check the title page for accuracy. She will also read through the book looking for spelling errors. When that is completed, the students will put it all together with their cover and bind it.

Closure:

For the past two weeks we have been working on science fiction books about the solar system. We have learned a lot about it by doing this. Who can tell me one thing that they have learned? Allow the students to share with you things that they have learned by writing their books. Allow each student to participate at least once but no more than two times. What I hear people saying is that everyone learned different things by writing these books. Is that true? That’s good. Can anyone tell me why? That means that you can now learn from each other. What I want you to do is switch books with the person sitting next to you. I want you to read their book and see what they included that you did not and what they may have learned that you did not. By doing this, you are getting smarter and learning that everyone picks up on different things but that does not make one person more right than another person. When you are done reading I want you and the person who reviewed your work to get together and discuss what you have learned.

Assessment:

All of the objectives will be evaluated at once. This will happen at the very end of the lesson at the completion of the book. When the book is completed, it will be evaluated for how long it is, if it has at least 3 facts on each page, and whether the title page has all of the correct information on it.

Internet Resources:

Views of the Solar System
http://www.solarviews.com/

Planetary Fact Sheets
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html