Endangered animals/ Biodiversity with full lesson plan

Updated: Great lesson that I completed in several schools. It can fit in 1 hour, or easily be 2 hours.

Starter - differences in words

Differentiated reading variety: less options from easy to hard (polar bear has missing information for higher ability to think of answers). Full options provide a range of animals if you wanted to provide more variety, have a longer lesson etc.

Images and maps included

Endangered > Extinct line with examples included for understanding (helps lower ability a lot)

Mind map - with examples

Definitions included - break down of words (included in the lesson plan for how to do this)

Reading information - highlighting (make sure those with polar bears know they don’t have the 2nd highlighter which is prompted on PPT but depending on your students’ ability you may need to tell them). The original reading can be changed to beginning if the school runs reading session routines, this will make them more familiar with the text and ready for the task.

Create a fact file. Success Criterion included. Challenge included.
Fact file works better as students focus on writing (e.g. Yr 8s mixed ability did half a page in 5 minutes). I used this class in the best schools in Basingstoke. If you have more time, you may want to do a poster but ensure they do not spend ages designing, writing a title or drawing pictures as this shows no application of knowledge.

Students present their work. Depending on time and resources, you may want a table (removed from PPT) for them to complete as students present. Otherwise just some simple notes for extra information, but their in depth information will be displayed in their animal/ work.

Plenary. If time pair discussions, then class. In PPT, I’ve set as class vote due to time.

Reading materials include pictures, graphs, maps, statistics etc. so they have to think about the information.
Check students’ reading ages before you give them an animal.
Easiest is turtle, then Panda. Majority of students like Panda level.
Orangutan has the heavy text which should be given to those who enjoy reading and have a higher than average reading age.
E.g. grammar stream students were given polar bear, elephants, orangutans (but kept some pandas for any students who may happen to struggle on this topic).