Animal Adaptations, CER Writing, and Zoomed-in Art

We have been working on animal adaptations in science.  This is one of those spots where the third and fourth grade NGSS standards are very similar, but there is an important difference in what we are asking students to do with their learning. Both grades are looking at how animals have structures and behaviors that help them survive, however in fourth grade, I wanted my students to go a little further with the evidence they were finding. Instead of just identifying an adaptation, we were focusing on using evidence to explain how that particular body part helps the animal survive in its environment. I wanted to find a way to get my students to do a little more with the information they were reading, so we turned our animal adaptations reading into some CER writing practice.

If you have used CER with elementary students, you probably know that the three little letters can seem pretty simple until you actually ask a fourth grader to do it. Claim. Evidence. Reasoning. The first two usually aren't too bad. That last one can be a different story.

My students are pretty good at finding evidence. They can go back into the passage, find a sentence that answers a question, and copy the information they need. Getting them to explain how that evidence supports their thinking is where I wanted to spend some time.  I decided that animal adaptations would be a good place to practice because the science itself gives them a pretty clear connection to make.

I started by asking, "How does one body part help an animal survive in its environment?"  I wanted my students to think beyond simply identifying an adaptation. We talked about the body part, what it does, and why that helps the animal survive. For example, a camel's wide, padded feet help it walk across hot, shifting sand. That is the connection I wanted my students to make.

From there, we used the passage (which I wrote for them) to find evidence. I reminded them that their evidence needed to come from the text, not just from something they already knew about the animal. Each student had a chart on which to record their information. The chart had guiding questions to help them narrow down their research from the text.

The reasoning was the harder part. I kept asking, "So what? Why does that help the animal?" We used the sentence frame, This helps the ______ survive because ______, to help students make that connection.

Would you like these forms to use with your students?  Click the picture.

Once we had practiced the three parts, students put them together into a CER response. Some students used the sentence frames, while others were ready to write their own responses. It gave everyone a way into the writing without making the assignment too complicated.

After doing the practice one together, I assigned each student a different animal.  Using the same chart as they did with the penguin/camel practice, the students researched how their given animal used its structures to survive.  They focused on individual external structures, trying to keep it to highly identifiable ones (ie: a giraffe's neck or a macaw's beak).

Once students filled in their chart, they began writing their CER paragraphs for each of the four animal structures they researched.  Then came the fun part.

Students drew "zoomed in" pictures of those structures they researched.  Using pictures they found on the internet, the students tried their hardest to draw that particular animal structure as recognizably as possible, while being sure to draw it as if they used the zoom feature on their camera.  The kids LOVED doing this.  They thought it was so much fun!

To display their work, the students used a little folded piece of paper.  On the inside was the writing.  On the outside was the picture. They then mounted their work in a 4-box grid, with the pictures all showing and flapped easily accessible for anyone to read.

All in all, this project was great for the students.  They researched, learned how to showcase evidence, and did a little art.  The projects look AWESOME hanging up in the room and really are a source of pride for the kids.  Would you like the charts, recording pages, and lessons I used with the students?  You can get them by clicking here.