Teachers’ Guide for Tell Me Why, Tell Me How: Why Do
the Seasons Change?
Teachers’ Guide for
Tell Me Why, Tell Me How: How Do
Birds Fly?
Overview
Lesson
Focus
Students will understand these
concepts:
-
why the seasons on Earth change
-
how the Earth’s orbit and tilt affect seasonal
change
-
that different amounts and intensity of sun affect days and
nights as well as seasons
-
why seasons are opposite in Northern and Southern
Hemispheres
Skills
Objectives
-
make predictions
-
evaluate graphic features in nonfiction text
-
monitor reading and self-correct
-
clarify understandings
-
make text-to-self connections
-
visualize
-
respond to text in writing
-
conduct a thought experiment to better understand seasonal
change
Text
Supports
-
The title of the book presents a focusing question for
inquiry-based learning. Students can attempt to predict the answer to the
question before reading. They can then identify important information to help
them answer the question as they read.
-
Content vocabulary words are often directly explained in the
text. Tell students that they can often read ahead or reread to find such
context clues using the example of "orbit, or move around" from page
11. Explain that if there aren’t clues, or if they still don’t
understand boldfaced words like orbit after looking at context clues, they can
look at the glossary definitions at the back of the book. You may choose to
preview the glossary with students before reading and help them use the words in
sentences to develop content vocabulary.
-
The book uses numerous diagrams and labeled pictures to
visually represent the effects of the Earth’s rotation and spin on
seasonal change. Preview pages 10, 15, 16, 19, 20, and 23 with students before
reading. Tell them that these pictures show them pieces of information that are
difficult to describe with text alone. Say that the labels help make clear the
different things that are shown in pictures and diagrams. Encourage students to
think about how these graphic features help them as they read, supplying sticky
notes for them to record their thoughts. After reading, discuss students’
thoughts about the features and ask if they can think of any other pictures that
they would have added to help their understanding even more.
Text
Challenges
-
Several of the scientific concepts that are described in the
text are challenging to understand, especially on an initial reading, and
especially for visual learners. Make sure students have appropriate background
knowledge about seasons, planets, continents and hemispheres before reading
(addressed further in the section below). Encourage students to monitor their
reading. Give them strategies to clarify their understandings, such as
rereading, reading ahead, or flagging what they simply don’t understand
for later discussion (they might flag these difficult parts with sticky notes or
bookmarks). You might model self-correcting your own understanding by rereading
about the orbits of different planets on pages 11–13. Additional
challenging concepts include: how the Earth’s spinning affects night and
day (pages 15–17), the concept of a tilted axis (pages 19–21), the
distinction between the effects of rotation and orbit (various pages), and the
reasons for opposite seasons in different hemispheres (pages 19–25). After
they read, ask what students did to self-correct their own understandings of
difficult vocabulary and concepts. Help them with the concepts they could not
understand on their own. For other activities that may clarify understandings,
see the "After Reading" and "Extension Activities" sections
of this lesson, below.
-
ELLs and some other students may need help understanding
certain idioms, similes, and vocabulary that this book uses. Use direct
explanations, pictures, or gestures to explain challenging words and phrases
such as "ground begins to thaw" (page 7), "gives off heat and
light" (page 11), "crosses into shadow" and "lit up"
(page 17), and "thus" (page 21). When possible, share physical
examples of some of the objects used in similes, such as "spins, like a
top" (page 15) and "like a lollipop on a stick" (page 19).
Ask students what they know about the seasons. Encourage
them to make connections to their own experiences and observations. Ask what
different activities they like to do in the summer, winter, spring, and fall.
Ask what they have noticed about the weather in these seasons, the amounts of
daylight in each, and what different things plants and animals do in the
different seasons. Write down some of their thoughts on the board or on chart
paper.
-
To help students make connections, have them close their
eyes and visualize experiences they have had in the different seasons. Prompt
them if necessary with some of the questions mentioned above. You may choose to
have students draw what they visualized and share these drawings with
partners.
-
Encourage students to predict the answer to the title
question (as mentioned in the "Text Supports" section of this lesson,
above). Write students’ predictions on the board or on chart paper. Tell
students that this is a challenging question and reassure them that good
scientists often make corrections to their predictions—in fact, part of
what makes them good scientists is correcting their understanding based on new
knowledge or experiments.
-
You may choose to preview the pictures in the book before
reading to see if students want to revise their predictions about the main
factors in changing seasons (the many pictures of planets and movement around
the sun may influence predictions). Tell students that you will revisit the
predictions with them after they read the book.
After
reading
-
Review students’ predictions formulated before
reading. Based on their reading, did they need to correct their understanding of
why the seasons change?
-
Clarify any challenging vocabulary or concepts that students
could not figure out on their own. Make sure to discuss the central scientific
concepts, such as the different effects of orbits and rotations on days and
seasons. If necessary, help students understand why seasons are reversed in the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
-
Ask students to look at various sections of text to try to
imagine visualizing what is described without looking at a picture. Ask students
how the graphic features in the book contributed to their understandings of
difficult ideas.
-
Have students recreate activities described in the book
(such as the lightbulb demonstration on pages 15–17 and the flashlight
activity on pages 20–21) as well as the activities in the "Extension
Activities" section of this lesson (below). These activities will reinforce
students’ understandings of difficult concepts, and may particularly help
students who benefit from hands-on demonstrations and visual
representations.
Extension Activities
Reading/Language
Arts
-
Have students create written responses to the book that
demonstrate their knowledge about the seasons. These responses could be created
individually, in pairs, or in small groups, depending on the abilities of the
students. Also, the response might take different forms. Encourage creativity.
You can suggest a few possible approaches to the writing or let students devise
an approach that is entirely their own, so long as it relates to seasons and how
they change. Some possibilities include: retellings of experiences students have
had during one or more seasons; written comparisons of different seasons; a
story that tells about simultaneous experiences of one character in the Southern
Hemisphere and another in the Northern Hemisphere; a research report about one
of the seasons, and so on.
Science
-
Engage students in a creative thought experiment to
reinforce their understanding of how planetary motions cause seasonal changes.
Tell them to imagine that they are giant space aliens trying to heat
marshmallows on sticks around the sun. Tell them that they have to keep the
sticks tilted at an angle (just as the earth’s axis is tilted). Say that
the goal is to heat their marshmallows evenly from top to bottom. Ask how they
would try to do this. Tell them to create charts with text or pictures that
predict the outcomes of the following scenarios.
-
What would happen if they tilted their marshmallow sticks
and spun them just as the earth is tilted and spinning in the top picture on
page 20? (The top would heat more than the bottom.)
-
What would happen if they tilted their marshmallows and spun
their marshmallows as in the bottom picture? (The bottom would heat up
more.)
-
What would happen if they didn’t spin their
marshmallows at all? (One side would burn!)
-
What would happen if they positioned their marshmallows and
spun just as the Earth is shown spinning in the "Northern Spring" or
"Northern Autumn" on page 19? (The marshmallow would heat
evenly!)
-
Help students understand why the earth would heat more
evenly if neither the top nor bottom were tilted toward the sun. Finally, help
them to make a connection from this concept to the even heating across the
earth’s hemispheres in spring and fall. For additional diagrams and
explanations of the seasons, students might refer to:
See page 28 of the book for an activity that involves
heating a marshmallow using the sun’s energy during different seasons. As
noted before, students could also try the activities described on pages
15–17 and pages 20–21 of the book.
