1. ANIMALS Unit Portfolio Presentation Leslie Hadwin

2. Unit Summary Students will be collaborating in groups to complete this project. They will be using Kidspiration to classify animals, list their traits, and identify which animals go under which category. Students will also be completing a venn diagram that compares two categories of the animal kingdom.

3. Curriculum-Framing Questions Essential Question What makes you, you? Unit Question Can you categorize animals? What makes an organism an invertebrate or vertebrate? Content Questions What are the 5 categories of animals? What are the traits to each category? What animals go with each category?

4. Animals This project will help my students develop 21 st century skills by:  Collaborating with peers.  Articulating thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively through speaking and writing.  Setting and meeting high standards and goals for delivering quality work on time.

5. Gauging Student Needs Assessment Purpose of the Assessment To gather information about what students already know and what they wonder about animals. What I want to learn from my students? I want to find out what they already know about the Unit Questions and what they know about setting up charts and a venn diagram. How have I tried to promote higher- order thinking? I ask students to find relationships about animals through comparing and contrasting.

6. My Goals for the Course Find ways to get my students more interested in learning science Learn how technology can increase quality of presentations Share ideas with other teachers

7. Goals for My Students  To Learn how to classify and identify animals and their traits  To collaborate with fellow students  To use Kidspiration competently

8. Request for Feedback  Ideas for helping students to take more responsibility for their own learning  I would like help on incorporating more higher- order thinking questions.