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Standards:: Lesson Plan by Lynne Cherry Project Citizen and Literacy Integration

This lesson plan outlines activities for teaching students about environmental history and civic participation using the book A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry. The plan is designed to integrate social studies and language arts standards. Students will read about how the Nashua River in New England was impacted by the Industrial Revolution and later cleaned up through citizen action. Activities include conducting research, writing letters, and participating in a mock civic project to address the river's pollution problem. The goal is for students to understand environmental changes over time and the role of citizens in influencing policy.

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67 views2 pages

Standards:: Lesson Plan by Lynne Cherry Project Citizen and Literacy Integration

This lesson plan outlines activities for teaching students about environmental history and civic participation using the book A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry. The plan is designed to integrate social studies and language arts standards. Students will read about how the Nashua River in New England was impacted by the Industrial Revolution and later cleaned up through citizen action. Activities include conducting research, writing letters, and participating in a mock civic project to address the river's pollution problem. The goal is for students to understand environmental changes over time and the role of citizens in influencing policy.

Uploaded by

FlyEngineer
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lesson Plan

A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History


by Lynne Cherry
Project Citizen and Literacy Integration*

Standards:
National Council for the Social Studies:
II. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human
beings view themselves in and over time.
III. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and
environments.
V. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among
individuals, groups, and institutions.
VI. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create
and change structures of power, authority, and governance.
X. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals,
principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.
Note: Add your state or local social studies standards and benchmarks here.
National Council of Teachers of English:
1. Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of
themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to
respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among
these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts.
They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of
word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual
features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary)
to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements
appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing
problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print
texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer
networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for
learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Note: Add your state or local English language arts standards and benchmarks here.

Essential Questions:

How did the Native Americans treat the land and the Nashua River?
What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on the Nashua River?
Who were Marion Stoddard and Oweana and why are they important to the Nashua River?
What role did citizen participation play in the history of the Nashua River?

Activities:

Conduct a shared reading of A River Ran Wild. (Be sure to read the Authors Notes)
Develop a list of words from A River Ran Wild for word study and word wall. (quench, pulp,
grist, Industrial Revolution, etc.)
Conduct an author/illustrator study of Lynne Cherry.
Ask students to turn and talk about the main idea in the story.
Working in pairs, ask students to complete the NCTE Sequencing Graphic Organizer for A River
Ran Wild.
Workings in teams of 3 or 4 have students complete the NCTE Cause and Effect Graphic
Organizer.
Present a lesson on the branches and levels of government.
Conduct a class discussion on what is and what is not public policy.
Using the Library Media Center or computer have students conduct research on the Nashua
River, the Nashua River Watershed Association, and the Clean Water Act.
Working as whole group and teams have the class conduct a mini Project Citizen based on the
problems, events, and community activities in A River Ran Wild. (Use the Project Citizen book
as a guide through the process)
Identify the problem and write a problem statement.
Identify any existing policies that were in place to deal with the problem.
Did the citizens in the book propose a specific public policy to deal with the problem?
Identify the steps taken by the citizens to influence government-What was their action
plan?
Present a lesson on persuasive letter writing.
Students write letters to the paper mills explaining why they should stop dumping waste into the
Nashua River.
Students create posters and signs protesting pollution of the Nashua River.
Follow-up discussion: What would daily life be like along the Nashua River if concerned
citizens had not taken action to clean up the river?

Materials:

Classroom set of A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry.


Classroom set of Project Citizen books.
Classroom sets of graphic organizers.
Posters, rulers, crayons, construction papers, etc. for posters and signs.

Evaluation:

Sample persuasive letter writing rubric:


http://teacher.scholastic.com/LessonPlans/LtrWritg_Rubric.pdf
Sample research rubric for middle school students:
ftp://download.intel.com/education/Common/en/Resources/AP/library/research_process_middle.
pdf
Student reflection on the lesson and activities using pages 53-55 in the Project Citizen book.

*This lesson can be adapted and used with other trade books on the Project Citizen bibliography.
Lesson plan developed by Barbara Ashby, Center for Civic Education Rhode Island, July 2009

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