Strategy Lesson Plan 2
Lawrence E. Hobdy
ED 572D
1.
Name and Purpose of Strategy
Strategy 2 – Vocabulary Self-Collection. The Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy helps
motivate students to learn new words by encouraging continuing “acquisition and development
of the vocabulary of academic disciplines” along with incorporating “new content words into
students’ “working vocabularies”. Many of the students in the class are either reading below
grade level or report they do not like reading, especially things school related. In addition many
of the students do not have a large word bank/vocabulary to draw from to use not only at school
but in family and social settings. Therefore this strategy provides students with an approach to
expand their word bank/vocabulary in a simple straightforward way and to take advantage of
their natural interest and curiosity.
2.
Description of Context of Lesson
Agriscience I provides students with basic knowledge of agriculture and its history and the
science applications in agriculture. This course includes units in animal science, soil science,
plant science, agricultural mechanics, basic carpentry, food science technology, and agricultural
leadership. Mathematics, science, English, biology, and human relations skills will be reinforced
in the course. Work-based learning strategies appropriate for this course are school-based
enterprises, field trips, Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) programs, and internships.
SAE programs and the FFA leadership activities are integral components of the course and
provide many opportunities for practical application of instructional competencies. The
Agriscience I class for this lesson include 9th through 11th grade students. The lesson plan and
strategy will be incorporated into the lesson on Plant Physiology.
3.
Lesson Standards
Agriscience I is considered a Career and Technical Education (CTE) course which counts toward
graduation requirements for both traditional diploma pathways as well as the Jump Start career
diploma. Agriscience I is considered an elective course as opposed to a required core course. As
such, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) provides school systems a list of
recommended content and learning objectives for Agriscience I that would meet LDE
requirements for course content and objectives as opposed to core course standards (although the
objectives listed for each unit are written in the form of standards). The relevant objectives for
this lesson are contained in Unit 5, Plant Science, Plant Growth. The relevant objective is
“g. Examine the processes of plant growth including photosynthesis and respiration”.
4.
Lesson objectives
As stated above in Lesson standards, Agriscience I is a CTE course, and being such, has
recommended course content categories and specific objectives versus standards that must be
addressed under each Unit and topic area heading. The aligning competencies to be developed
by students for this lesson are; Students can explain how plants make food and describe the roles
of air, water and nutrients in plants.
4.
Steps of the lesson
This lesson is broken down and scaffolded in three segments, with each segment building on the
previous segment and using verbal, visual and written delivery of material to the students to try
and reach students through different preferred learning styles. The three segments include a
power point presentation, a short video followed by a handout where each successive segment
reinforces some of the previous material and adds some new related information.

Power Point Presentation – This segment of the lesson has 15 slides including the title
slide which includes the purpose/objective of the lesson. The power point slides are
divided into 5 segments: History and Origin, Economic Impact, Types and Breeds, Care
of Dairy Cattle – Calves/Care of Dairy Cattle = Cows, and Dairy Production. The power
point presentation last 15 minutes. Students will be required to take written notes
focused on the most critical information students should take away from the lesson. The
presentation includes basic information, graphics and pictures illustrating the breeds of
dairy cattle covered in the lesson. In employing the Connect to it strategy, the teacher
will ask students questions such as “How close do you think you come to consuming that
amount of dairy products and what is your primary source of dairy?” when the teacher
presents the information on the fact that the average person consumes almost 500 pounds
of diary products a year. Another opportunity to deploy the strategy Connect to it is
when displaying the pictures of the top five breeds of dairy cows and a key piece of
distinguishing information about each would be to inquire about how many of the
students have either been around, seen in person or have seen in a book, publication or
online. Another opportunity would be when discussing the size of the different breeds
such as the largest and most popular dairy cow, the Holstein, that weighs on average
around 1500 pounds would be to ask students “What are those little two-seater cars
called?” which the students more likely will reply “Smart Cars” (or the teacher can
provide the name if the students get stuck trying to come up with the name) and point out
to them it would easier to try and pick up the front of a Smart Car than it would be to try
and lift up the front of a Holstein cow - that’s how big they are and reinforces they are
the largest dairy cattle breed. Students can be asked whether any of their

Short video –“Make Mine Milk” This video discusses the healthy benefits of milk and
other dairy products and also takes students step by step through the milk production
process and the adolescents in the video create a little eight word song identifying the
four steps to milk production that they repeat. One way to use the Connect to it strategy
with this portion of the video might be to stop and have the students sing the song with
the teacher as the teacher animatedly and with some humor intended leads the students in
the song and at the end tell them they are going to be hearing this song in their head for
the next three months.

Handout – Students will be provided a handout at the beginning of the lesson. After the
video, students will be asked to read the handout and discuss with those at their table
what information on the handout they were familiar with through the power point and the
video and what new information they encountered and if they were familiar with the new
information in any way where had they been exposed to it. In this exercise, students will
be able to use all three areas of the Connect to it strategy by relating the information to
themselves and their own experiences, to the text presented in the power point and/or the
notes they took and the opportunity to connect it to information they have seen online or
someone else has talked about.
There are other opportunities to use the Connect to it strategy in the power point and the video
that present themselves based on the students’ collective knowledge and experiences. For
example, when discussing the economic impact of the dairy cattle business, the teacher will walk
the students through the capital investment required to have a working dairy farm with 100 cows.
The teacher will intentionally leave out some of the capital needs such as hiring staff, feed for the
animals, veterinarian visits and herd insurance and ask the students “What else is missing?”
when the other major costs have been identified such as cows, land, barn and milking equipment.
This will allow students who have knowledge of working farms as well as other students who are
looking at what else does the business need.
5.
Assessment
Students will be given a short 7 question and answer assessment form which contains at least one
question from the five areas covered. Five of the seven questions come from the information
students were instructed to write down in their notes.
6.
Attachments

Power point

Handout

Questionnaire