Phase I - Assessing Prior Knowledge

When assessing prior knowledge for this lesson I plan to implement a KWL chart that discusses animal adaptations. I will entertain answers and write them down on what we know, and what we want to know. I will refer to this chart through the end of the lesson and go back to complete the What I Learned section. My KWL chart will look like the following:

When moving past what the students already know we will revisit the different habitats that they were covering. This assesses their prior knowledge of a lesson that I already taught. I will show the students slides of different habitats and ask them what the habitat is. I will know that I do not need to cover this material again if the majority of the students are able to identify the slide. An example of a slide would be:

 The implications for instructional planning would be that if the students were unable to identify the particular habitats. As the teacher it would be my responsibility to go back and cover the material so that they would be able to fully understand the next lesson. This adaptation lesson builds on their prior knowledge of these habitats.

The other implication for the KWL chart is that I have to pay attention and try to cover what students want to know about adaptations. This is why the freedom to chose their animal for the actual lesson is so important. They get to self direct what they want to learn and share it with the other students.